CORPORATE SEARCH: AN ONLINE GUIDE
Relevant
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Directories
Financial Data
News Online
Business Magazines Online
Legal Resources
Corporate Citizenship
Globalization and Business
Nonprofits
A Select Guide to Other
Corporate Research Tools
Author: Terence K. Huwe
In recent years, ever-increasing amounts of business
information have made the World Wide Web a serious
contender with print libraries for corporate research.
Many business libraries publish full-service Web
guides for corporate research, with links to licensed
content that can be searched by on-site patrons
or authorized Web visitors. This guide provides
our "top picks" of starting points, assuming the
researcher wishes to conduct most or all of the
research online.
Because business touches all aspects of our
lives and the research tools can be quite specialized
(e.g., for investors, for consumers, for attorneys,
etc) it is often helpful to approach corporate
research from a variety of perspectives. While
the problem at hand will dictate the best approach,
we can recommend three very useful strategies
points:
- Profiling Firms by Financial Performance. There is a great deal of Information on publicly
traded companies, which must report on their
activities. Not surprisingly, there is far less
information on privately held firms. However,
the Web now offers quite thorough coverage,
and the challenge of finding information on
private firms is receiving wider attention from
non-profit information providers. This guide
offers the best selection of starting points
to profile a firm by financial performance.
- The Firm as Corporate Citizen. Many
labor researchers explore corporate roles in
society, in local communities, and national
policy formation. This is a more complex research
issue, but several services offer top-notch
guidance. It should be noted that to capture
a thorough perspective on corporate citizenship,
the researcher must consider the media, financial
records, and government records on such diverse
issues as occupational safety and health, environmental
issues, and political activity.
- Legal Information on Corporations. Much can be learned about a firm by researching
the legal actions it is party to. Litigation
on employment, environmental and other issues
frequently play a key role in corporate research.
In historical matters, legal records are often
the most reliable sources of information about
business. This guide does not seek to offer
a complete map of legal information; we recommend
that researchers consult law library resources
in supplement to this guide.
Top
Relevant Library of Congress Subject
Headings
Business
Business-bibliography
Business-information services
Business-terminology
Business Law
Business and Politics
Management
Top
Corporate Directories
DMOZ
http://www.dmoz.org
DMOZ offers a tip-of-the-iceberg approach to many
different topics, and its directory of general
business information on the Web is topnotch An
open-ended Web search should begin with a look
at this directory, and a review of the links offered.
Navigation is no-frills but very easy to use and
pragmatically laid-out. The site emphasizes career-related
matters.
Corporate Information
http://www.corporateinformation.com/
International in scope, this service has been
vastly improved recently, and now has extensive
searchable database of company profiles, reports,
industry profiles, etc. It is divided into U.S.
public companies, US private companies, state
business links, and industrial sector links.
The Corporate Library
http://www.thecorporatelibrary.com
The Corporate Library is a central repository
for research and study about the global corporation.
It focuses on corporate governance and the relationship
between management, boards and shareholders. Much
of the content on the site is freely available.
Subscribers have access to
advanced research.
Hoovers Online
http://www.hoovers.com/
Hoovers is a fee-based service that covers over
2,500 companies. It provides both company and
industry profiles for a monthly subscription.
It also provides a brief description of the company's
activities, its address, phone numbers, Web sites,
annual, CEO, number of employees, and ticker symbol.
Subscribers may obtain a profile with a history
of the company and its subsidiaries, major competitors,
brand names, and historical data on sales.
Search-sec.com
http://www.search-sec.com
Search-sec.com is a straightforward retrival service
for searching SEC filings. The site also offers
a Reports Menu and e-mail alerts.
Standard & Poor's
http://www.standardandpoors.com
Standard and Poor's is a major publisher of business
information. Its Web site offers a wide variety
of free content about industries and companies,
and also provides information of fee-based services
and products.
Thomas Register Online
http://www.thomasregister.com/
ThomasRegister.com is a leading resource for information
on industrial products and services. Its Web site
offers information about more than 170,000 manufacturers
with extensive company and product information,
downloadable CAD drawings, online catalogs and
links to company Web sites. It also allows searches
by product, company or brand name.
Top
Financial Data
US Securities Exchange Commission (EDGAR)
http://www.sec.gov
The EDGAR database is the primary source for all
government filings for public companies. Filings
are available within 24 hours on this site. There
are many EDGAR spinoffs, the best of which are listed
below.
EdgarScan
http://bamboo.tc.pw.com/
EdgarScan presents financial data from SEC filings
in a fashion that allows comparisons between firms.
It links directly to specific sections of the filing
and utilizes a "Benchmarking Assistant" to produce
interactive benchmarking. Tables can be downloaded
as MS Excel charts and registered users can store
company portfolios for future benchmarking.
FreeEDGAR.com
http://www.freeedgar.com
This site offers summary financial data (income
statements and balance sheets), and SEC filings
for public companies. It also provides reference
information on the SEC and the Financial Accounting
Standards Board.
Wall Street Research
Net
http://www.wsrn.com/
For public companies, WSRN provides links to SEC
filings, stock quotes and charts, Web sites, and
news via the PR Newswire and Business Wire databases.
Subscribers to the Wall Street Journal Online Interactive
Edition may also obtain a Wall Street Journal Briefing
Report on the firm in question.
InvestQuest
http://www.investquest.com/
InvestQuest provides financial information on over
10,000 public companies. The site also maintains
a limited number of corporate annual reports and
prospectuses. These are separately indexed.
Stock Smart
http://www.stocksmart.com/
Stock Smart provides detailed stock information,
linking the performance of the company relative
to its industry. It provides the basic contact information
(address, phone, fax), chief officers, a short company
profile and current news. This site provides the
top 50 institutional shareholders in the firm, as
well as the top mutual fund holders.
NASDAQ
Newsroom
http://www.nasdaqnews.com
This site contains press releases, statistics, stock
quotes, and other market information for companies
traded on the NASDAQ exchange. Researchers doing
research on high technology firms should search
NASDAQ data in conjunction with other sources stock
performance data to develop a comprehensive company
profile.
Daily Stocks
http://www.dailystocks.com/
This site allows searches by ticker symbol or company
name. It enables the viewer to link directly to
company information on the company requested without
reentering the search. It also provides links to
business humor like the online edition of the Dilbert
comic strip.
Online Annual Reports
Service
http://www.annualreportservice.com/
The Public Register's Annual Report Service offers
links to online annual reports provides an order
from for free company annual reports via the US
mail. It also maintains brief financial profiles
and press releases on a limited number of companies
and links to other sources of company news and financial
information.
The American Banking Association
http://www.aba.com
The ABA's Web site has extensive free offerings,
including many industry studies that are directed
at both consumer and lenders.
US Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Home Page
http://www.fdic.gov
The FDIC has made online summary financial reports
on its members via its Web site. The reports Include
detailed balance sheet information and loan portfolio/asset
quality data.
National Information Center of Banking Information
http://www.ffiec.gov/nic/default.htm
This site contains extensive information about banks
and other financial institutions regulated by the
Federal Reserve. It includes balance sheets, income
statements and details on types of loans for the
most recent five quarters. The site also maps the
corporate structure and branch locations of the
institutions.
Top
News Online
News-oriented "enterprise information portals" and
alert services enable researchers to set their own
research parameters and follow company news on the
Web. Many include advantageous pricing for reading
the full text of articles.
News Alert,
Inc.
http://www.newsalert.com
News Alert's free service offers stock quotes and
news stories for unlimited ticker symbols and up
to two news topic alerts. This provider offers access
to Factiva's Dow Publications Library. There is
a charge for reading the full text of articles.
AJR News Link (American Journalism
Review)
http://www.newslink.org/news.html
This site offers "full" and "partial" service that
is primarily tailored to the researcher on the run.
News Central
http://www.all-links.com/newscentral/northamerica/unitedstates.html
News Central is an exhaustive listing of online
newspapers, and covers the local and regional papers
quite thoroughly.
Top
Business Magazines Online
Fortune
http://www.pathfinder.com/fortune
This site includes archives of news articles going
back to September 1995 as well as the Fortune 500
companies, and Fortune's 1996 survey of the corporations
with the best reputations.
Forbes
http://www.forbes.com
The Forbes Web site is very popular with business
librarians. It offers the Forbes 500 Annual Directory,
the 200 Best Small Companies, and, especially, the
500 Largest Private Companies. Information on these
companies is abbreviated, but includes revenues,
profits, number of employees, address, phone, and
name and educational background of CEO.
Inc. Magazine
http://www.inc.com
This site includes the Inc. 500 (http://www.inc.com/500/home.html,
a database of America's 500 fastest growing firms.
The site also offers email alerts and discussion
lists.
Business Week Online
http://www.businessweek.com
This site offers an archive of 20,000 articles going
back to 1994. Searching is free, but the full text
is available on a fee basis only.
Mother
Jones 400
http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/special_reports/mojo_400/
Mother Jones provides a useful Web site for tracking
the relationship between political donations and
industry lobbying. Although these pages focus on
the 400 top funding entities, there are several
related services (like industry profiles) that are
also very useful, not least for out-of-the-mainstream
journalistic perspective.
Bloomberg
Online
http://www.bloomberg.com
This site provides the latest financial news and
data. Bloomberg provides a full array of information
services for investors, but this site's best values
are available to Bloomberg Personal Magazine subscribers.
Financial Times
http://www.ft.com/
This site contains articles from the Financial Times
newspaper, including a 30-day archive. It most useful
for locating information on firms traded on the
London stock exchange.
Top
Legal Resources
Environmental Protection Agency
http://www.epa.gov/
EPA's Envirofacts Warehouse
http://www.epa.gov/enviro/index.html
The Environmental Protection Agency's Envirofacts
Warehouse allows the user to search five main databases:
Superfund Data, Hazardous Waste Data, Toxic Release
Inventory, Water Discharge Permits, and AIRS Facility
Subsystem. It includes a Facility Index also includes
the criminal and enforcement dockets. Users can
search by facility name, geographical location,
or industry SIC code.
R T K Net (The Right to Know Network)
http://www.rtk.net
R T K Net provides online access to many environmental
databases, as well as to the Center for Responsive
Politics Campaign Contribution Database.
Incorporation
http://www.afscme.org/wrkplace/incorp.htm
The American Federation of State, Country and Municipal
Employees (AFSCME) has developed a very useful page
that gathers together the contact information needed
to request documents of incorporation from the 50
secretaries of state. We haven't found another site
that does this as well as AFSCME has.
Court
decisions (FindLaw.com)
http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/
FindLaw.com is a comprehensive index source for
legal information on the Internet. While the site
offers links to all known issuers of court decisions,
many are maintained third parties (e.g., law schools)
and vary greatly.
SEC Enforcement Division
Actions
http://www.sec.gov/enforce.htm
This site includes the SEC's administrative proceedings,
investor alerts, and releases describing civil and
selected criminal proceedings filed in federal court.
National Labor Relations Board rulings
http://www.nlrb.gov/
The National Labor Relations Board is increasing
access to its records online. This site also gives
instructions on how to obtain historical rulings.
OSHA Statistics and Data
http://www.osha.gov/cgi-bin/est/est1
This page on the US Occupational Safety and Health
Administration Web site allows searching of OSHA
inspection data and citations by establishment.
Federal Election Commission
http://www.fec.gov
The FEC is the best source of information on "political
action committees", or PACs.
Center
for Immigration Studies
http://www.cis.org/
This site hosts a database of US Immigration and
Naturalization Service employer sanctions, enabling
the researcher to cross-reference whether a firm
has a history of violations.
Top
Corporate Citizenship
Executive PayWatch
http://www.paywatch.org
Published by the AFL-CIO, this site offers the salary
and compensation figures for the chief executive
officers of the Standard & Poor's 500 corporations.
AFL-CIO Do Buy/Don't Buy
http://www.unionlabel.org/
The AFL-CIO Union Label & Service Trades Department
posts lists of which companies and products are
supported and which ones are being boycotted by
affiliated labor unions.
Better Business
Bureau
http://www.bbb.org/reports/
The Better Business Bureau has integrated the business
reports from most of its regional branches into
one searchable Internet database. It provides a
list of affiliates that maintain separate databases.
Best Companies for Working Mothers
http://www.workingmother.com/oct_2001/100_best.shtml
Working Mother magazine publishes an annual list
of the 100 most woman-friendly companies based on
a variety of criteria such as salary rates and provision
of day care.
Domestic Partner Benefits
http://www.buddybuddy.com/d-p-1.html
This site is managed by the Partners Task Force
for Gay & Lesbian Couples. It offers links to lists
of firms that employee benefits to unmarried domestic
partners.
The Labor Project for Working
Families
http://laborproject.berkeley.edu
The Labor Project for Working Families publishes
newsletters and maintains a database of best practices
for work and family issues.
Top
Globalization and
Business
CorpWatch.org
http://www.corpwatch.org/
Transnationale.org
http://www.transnationale.org/anglais/default.htm
Public Information Network
http://www.endgame.org/
Public Services International Research Unit
http://www.psiru.org
Multinational Monitor
http://www.essential.org/monitor
Council on Economic Priorities
http://www.cepnyc.org/
GreenMoney Public Company Web
http://www.greenmoney.com/gmg/wpubco.htm
Top
Nonprofits
GuideStar
http://www.guidestar.org/
This website hosts a database of tax exempt organizations.
GuideStar derives its information from the IRS 990
form and from information submitted directly to
GuideStar by non-profits.
National
Center for Charitable Statistics
http://nccs.urban.org
This site is the national repository of data on
the nonprofit sector in the United States. Its mission
is to develop and disseminate high quality data
on nonprofit organizations and their activities
for use in research on the relationships between
the nonprofit sector, government, the commercial
sector, and the broader civil society.
Top
A Select Guide to
Other Corporate Research Tools
Berkeley
Business Guides
http://lib.berkeley.edu/BUSI/bbg.html
Published by the Thomas J. Long Library at the Haas
School of Business, University of California, Berkeley,
this series is succinct, practical and easy to use.
The Internet Public Library
http://www.ipl.org/ref/RR/static/bus00.00.00.html
IPL provides a common-sense reference guide to business
research that is well laid out for subject and topic
driven research.
Ohiolink: Company
Research
http://iws.ohiolink.edu/companies/
Ohiolink's guide to company research is one of the
best, and will be helpful both to the lay researcher
and the professional in pursuit of quick links to
quality content.
New York Public Library:
Searching for Company Information http://www.nypl.org/research/sibl/company/c2index.htm
NYPL's topnotch business library publishes a question-driven
research guide which will help researchers formulate
their search strategies. Be sure to review the other
business-oriented listings at this site; they're
all very good.
Top
|
