Penny's Tips:
* Be flexible about your keywords in searching. If you are researching human resources procedures, be general, but also be specific. Example: General: human resources, employment, organizational structure. Specific: onboarding, or other specific procedures. Same with technology that will impact HR; be general and also search for specific tools.
*Read between the lines. The articles and company information you read MIGHT be very specific about your company's problems, but sometimes you will have to read carefully and make your own conclusions about what the author is saying.
*Gather many voices. You will want to look at your company from many perspectives so that you have a more complete picture: (The company web site itself, analyst reports, journalists), as well as different types of materials (financial reports, news, charts of data).
Company Overviews
Start with your company's web site: Press releases, media, products, company history, and other information.
Then try:
- 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 - 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. - Nexis Uni
Use the Menu pull down in the upper left corner to select Company Dossier, which allows you to search for company reports that include financials, news, analysts' reports, and other company information. Public companies: lots of information. Private companies: Very limited.
- EDGAR Company FilingsThis is 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. Search by company name (or part of a name), ticker symbol, or search by industry to create a list of companies. If you find reports in EDGAR, that means the company is public.
- Statista
Easy to use statistics search engine with access to more than a million statistics and facts. - Business Source Complete
You can use Business Source Complete to find company profiles and company SWOT analyses. When you are on the main search page, look to the right of the screen for Company Profiles and SWOT Analyses. Click on the one that you want, then search for your company by name or with the alphabetical list. - Ignacio: Library Catalog
There may be a book about your company that can give great overviews. Give it a try!
Company News and Articles
- Fusion
Fusion allows you to search, in one place, the majority of the library’s books, articles, videos, etc. It includes all the materials in our library catalog Ignacio, as well as the content of the majority of our many databases. - 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 CompleteFocuses 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.
- Access World News
Through nearly 7000 news sources, find diverse global, local, regional, and national perspectives on topics related to controversial issues, the environment, health, education, science, the arts, literature, business, economics, criminal justice, and more. - Nexis UniUnder Guided Search select News, and then put your company or topic in the search box to find business news from national and international sources.
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!
You have your very own librarian! She is 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 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 you don't see a time that works for you, email Penny.
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!