Decision-making in a business environment is best
supported by facts, and analytical, thought-through
arguments. There are several specialized websites
and business databases that provide access to this
kind of information. They are gathered below under the following headings:
- Finding Factual Information about Companies
- Finding Articles on Business Topics
- Finding Factual Information about Countries
Finding Factual Information about Companies
Databases of business facts are typically used for
investment analysis; financial, estate and insurance
planning; contract bidding, and production control.
Three excellent databases follow.
Mergent Online
Mergent Online (formerly FIS Online, formerly
Moody's) provides facts on over 11,000 companies listed
on the NYSE, AMEX and Nasdaq, with exchanges updated
daily. It also provides information on over 17,000
international companies, over 100,000 global annual
reports, real time access to SEC filings, Moody debt
ratings and more. Mergent also enables you to create
reports on single companies as well as comparative
reports on multiple companies. Use data generated
by domestic or international companies to do any of
the following:
- Prepare
a report comparing the total assets, liabilities
and revenues of all the companies sharing the same
Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code as
Rock of Ages.
- Create
a report displaying quarterly earnings estimates
for the last three years for Rock of Ages.
- Create
a rank ordered list of the top publicly traded engineering
firms by number of employees.
- Read
Warren Buffet's letters to stockholders in the Berkshire
Hathaway annual reports.
Hoover's Pro
Unlike Mergent, this database includes privately owned
as well as publicly traded companies. Hoover's includes
company fact sheets, overviews, histories, executives,
products/operations, rankings, news, financials, SEC
filings, subsidiaries/affliliates and competitors.
Hoover's features powerful targeted searching.
Business
and Company Resource Center
Detailed company and industry news and information.
Finding Articles on Business Topics
The following databases enable you to search the contents
of the newspapers, newslines, and professional and
scholarly journals in business and management. These
databases typically allow searching by text word,
author, and concept. The three that are used most
often by our MBA students are ABI, the Wall Street
Journal, and LexisNexis.
ABI/Inform
Research
ABI/Inform Research provides access to
1,100 professional publications, academic journals
and trade magazines in all aspects of business, industry
and management, including competitive intelligence
and new product development. Half of the publications
are displayed in full text. Most of the remaining
half display short abstracts.
Wall
Street Journal
Full text of the Wall Street Journal back to 1987
(without images).
LexisNexis Academic
Includes articles from business newswires, newspapers,
magazines, journals, and transcripts; industry and
market news from over 25 industries; company financial
reports; company profiles including executives, revenue
and competitors; EDGAR filings, annual and quarterly
reports and proxy statements; contact and resource
information for companies and industries. LexisNexis
also enables you to identify companies meeting a variety
of criteria.
EconLit (1969 - current)
EconLit provides citations and selected abstracts
to the world's economic literature. Includes journal
articles, articles in books and proceedings, book
reviews, and dissertations.
Infotrac
(1980 - current)
Provides citations, abstracts, and full text to periodical
articles on a wide range of topics including business,
computers, current events, economics, education, environmental
issues, law, politics, social sciences and technology.
JSTOR
Provides full text access to a digital archive of
scholarly journals in 15 academic disciplines. Most
of the titles are in the social sciences and humanities
disciplines and include economics, finance, and statistics.
PAIS
International (1972-current)
Public Affairs Information Service provides selective
citations on to books, journal articles, government
documents and many other sources on the world’s
public affairs, public and social policies, international
relations, and world politics.
PsycINFO
(1887-current)
Citations and abstracts of journal articles, chapters,
books, technical reports, and dissertations in psychology
and related disciplines.
Finding Factual Information about Countries
Several websites are rich and reliable sources about
geographic areas. Understanding the culture, economy
and politics of a country is important to success
in business.
US Department of State http://www.state.gov/
This site features thumbnail sketches of each country's
population, geography, economy, labor force, history,
current political conditions, government, education,
and cultural contributions.
Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development http://www.oecd.org
This site is a good source for information on the
30 member countries of the OECD. These countries share
a commitment to democratic government and the market
economy. This is a good site for statistics, and information
on macroeconomics, trade, education, development and
innovation.
