Research Guides: Economics: Company Info

NEW! Blue Chip Financials

VitalLaw (formerly Cheetah) This link opens in a new window
NEW! Provides access to Blue Chip Financials (which is of particular interest to ECON) as well as legal and financial research including employment and environmental law, software patents, etc.

Some Tips on Choosing a Company to Research

As always, your professor is the authority - and approves your choice of topic. This is just some advice to help this project go more smoothly:

Consider only public companies - they have tax and other business filings that make a lot of their operational data available. Private companies are under no such obligation and thus, it is often difficult to find information on them.
Choose a company with some longevity - if they are too recently incorporated, there may not be enough data collected on them to be useful.
Verify that the company you are considering has international activity - browse through one of the business databases or look at the companies with data in fDI Markets. If your potential company does not have any information in those places, you may need to consider another one (consult your professor first).
Don't forget to look at the company's information, on their web site or in their annual reports - they are great sources of strategy and future plans.

Company Data

Orbis This link opens in a new window
ORBIS provides company, industry, and market research. It includes profiles on international companies, as well as companies' financials and operations information.
BizMiner Industry Report Center This link opens in a new window
Small business and entrepreneurial database of business ratios, pro forma financial statements, industry overviews.
Passport This link opens in a new window
Intelligence on industries (consumer, industrial, service), countries (200+), and consumers (lifestyle, expenditures) from Euromonitor. Includes online analysis tools which enable users to manipulate statistics and create new datasets.
Mergent Intellect This link opens in a new window
Provides access to private and public U.S and international business data, industry news, facts and figures, executive contact information, the ability to access industry profiles and much more. Includes Hoover's data.
Statista This link opens in a new window
Statista is a database that contains international statistics, facts, and market data taken from free and proprietary sources.

International Company Data - courtesy of J. Wilhelm

The resources below provide information on international companies.

Best Bets

Mergent Online This link opens in a new window
Provides information on company history and highlights, executives, ownership, financial, filings and more.
PrivCo This link opens in a new window
Contains business and financial data on major, non-publicly traded corporations.
Uniworld Directories This link opens in a new window
Provides online access to firms' information in various countries.
American Firms Operating in Foreign Countries - this directory lists wholly or partially owned subsidiaries, affiliates or branches of American companies with substantial investments in overseas operations. Results include locations and in many cases contacts, ownership and type of business operation, which are viewable and downloadable to Excel.
Foreign Firms Operating in the United States - this directory lists wholly or partially owned subsidiaries, affiliates or branches of foreign companies with substantial investments in the United States. Results include locations and in many cases contacts, ownership and type of business operation, which are viewable and downloadable to Excel.
Published by: Uniworld Business Publications, Inc.

Additional Resources

Need to Know: Industry Code Information

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is the standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy.

NAICS Codes

NAICS was adopted in1 997; prior to that, businesses were classified by SIC Code. For historical research, it may be necessary to make conversions between the systems:

SIC Code