Company: Products and Services, Internal Environment
SOURCES FOR COMPANY RESEARCH: SECONDARY SOURCES (INFORMATION COMPILED BY OTHERS):
Company's web site: Start with the company’s web site; look for Investor Relations, About the Company, etc. There may be a CEO message, or you can also find mission statements, values, financial information, and other information to help you analyze the company’s strategies.
TOP PICKS
- ProQuest One Business
A comprehensive business database containing millions of full-text items across scholarly and popular periodicals, newspapers, market research reports, dissertations, books, videos and more. Includes the full text of the Wall Street Journal. Formerly called ABI/INFORM Collection - Mergent Online
Detailed company information including 15 years of financial statements. Note: This database will be retired June 30, 2025 and replaced by Mergent Market Atlas. We will offer links to both resources until that date.
- Statista
A database of statistics and data on industries, companies, market share, consumers, and much, much more. Data is viewable in different graph forms, and there are industry reports for certain industries. - Nexis Uni
Use Get Company Info to search for company reports that include financials, news, analysts' reports, and other company information. - PrivCo
Private company information! PrivCo.com is the premiere source for business and financial research on non-publicly traded corporations, including family-owned, private equity-owned, venture-backed and international unlisted companies.
Registration Required! The first time you access PrivCo, you will be asked to create an account. Register with your academic email address (@usfca.edu). With your own account, you will be able to save your searches and track companies in your personalized watchlist. Your account provides 1,000 profile views, 1,000 exported records, and 500 deal views per year.
EDGAR the web site of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In the US, public companies must file information with the SEC. A 10-K is the annual filing a company must make. Click "Search for company filings" then "Company or fund name" and enter the company name. If you find reports in EDGAR, that means the company is public.
Don't forget books, you can sometimes get great overviews of a company in a book. Search your company in our library catalog.
SOURCES FOR COMPANY RESEARCH: PRIMARY SOURCES (INFORMATION COMPILED BY YOU AND YOUR TEAM):
Interviews
Opinion Polls
Surveys
Observations
If you need help creating a survey or poll, see this guide on using Google Forms. It shows how to create, send, and view results from surveys you create.
Company: External Environment, Competitors, Pricing
SOURCES FOR INDUSTRY DESCRIPTIONS AND OVERVIEWS: SECONDARY SOURCES (INFORMATION COMPILED BY OTHERS):
TOP PICKS:
- IBISWorld
Great information on US Industries in the US and global economy. Each Industry Report includes overviews, data and statistics, market share, competitive landscape, major companies, outlooks and more!
SOURCES FOR INDUSTRY NEWS: THESE SOURCES CAN BE USED FOR COMPANY, PRODUCT, AND BRAND NEWS TOO!
- ProQuest One BusinessIncludes citations and summaries and full text from about 1000 business periodicals that contain company and industry information, as well as articles on many other business topics. Includes the full text of the Wall Street Journal.
- Business Source Complete
Focuses on facts, figures, events and market information about companies, industries, products and markets. It covers all industries and is international in scope. Also provides SWOT analyses for companies and industries. Includes the full text of the Harvard Business Review. - Nexis UniUse the Search the News section for business news from national and international sources.
More Information on Companies and Industries!
SOURCES FOR INDUSTRY RESEARCH: PRIMARY SOURCES (INFORMATION COMPILED BY YOU AND YOUR TEAM):
Interviews
Opinion Polls
Surveys
Observations
Target Market and Channel Relations, Promotional Strategy
SOURCES FOR CONSUMER/TARGET MARKET DEMOGRAPHICS, BEHAVIORS AND TRENDS RESEARCH:
TOP PICKS:
- StatistaEasy to use statistics search engine with access to more than a million statistics and facts.
- Data.census.gov
Data.census.gov is the new platform to access data and digital content from the U.S. Census Bureau. It replaces the American FactFinder website, which was retired in 2020.
This web site groups consumers into general categories, with brief descriptions and demographic information. Use the Zip Code Look-Up to get information about consumers in a particular area in both descriptions and graphs. There are three categories of information for consumers; PRIZM, P$YCLE, which describes the financial status of consumers, and ConneXions, which describes the level of technology use and connectivity of consumers. Use Segment Explorer to view descriptions of all of the consumer segments on the web site. Use the links on the left side of the screen to search for consumer groups by age, income, and other categories.
OTHER GOOD SOURCES:
Consumer Expenditure Survey: Bureau of Labor Statistics: US Labor Department
Statistics and reports on consumer expenditures, unemployment rates, and much more.
Experian Marketing Forward Blog: Freely available data, infographics, and reports on consumer behavior and trends.
Pew Research Center
A non-partisan research group that collects and presents data, opinions, and reports on American attitudes, activities, and trends.
Time Use Survey: Bureau of Labor Statistics: US Labor Department
Data on how American consumers use their time.
Citing Your Sources
Whenever you do research, you will need to cite the information sources that you use. Most business scholars use APA style. Here are some tools that can help you with this task:
Gleeson Library's guide to citations: How? Why? When?
- APA 7th Edition Citations for Business SourcesAn excellent guide to using APA 7th edition style for popular business sources. Scroll through the guide to find an example for the business source you are using in your research. Compiled by librarians Naomi Schemm, Marcia Dellenbach, Zachary Grisham, Marianne Hageman, Natalia Tingle, Matt Trowbridge, and Amanda Wheatley
- Citing Business Databases in APA: Michigan State University GuideThis guide was created to help with citing some common business databases
- Citing Business Databases from the University of North Carolina at GreensboroThis guide has some additional business database examples in APA style.
- MLA Business Citations: Youngstown State UniversityScroll down the page to see citations for specific business web sites, reports, and databases cited in MLA style.
- Purdue OWLOur favorite style guide web site is the OWL from Purdue University.
- RefWorks
RefWorks allows users to create personal databases to manage, store, and share the information citations/references. Users can automatically insert references from their database into their papers and generate formatted bibliographies and manuscripts in seconds. See our RefWorks Guide for information about creating accounts, adding references, and using add-ons.
Getting Help!
There are several ways to obtain assistance with your research. Read on!
The School of Management has a library liaison named Penny Scott, and you can contact her for help.
Her contact information is: email: plscott@usfca.edu * phone: 415-422-5389
It is best to call or email ahead, or make an appointment, to make sure she is available! Appointments are available virtually via Zoom, or in-person, and are great for groups or individuals.
If Penny is not available, or any time you need help, you can always get help, just Ask a Librarian!
You can also take a look at our Research Guides on many topics!