Business Research Guide
You'll find suggestions for locating books, articles, topical overviews, research tools, and factual information. If further assistance is needed, please contact the subject librarian for Business to arrange an appointment: Laurie Bridges, 737-8821, Laurie.Bridges@oregonstate.edu
Contents
Finding articles in journals and newspapers
Business Source Premier -- indexes 3,048 full text scholarly journals, including nearly 1,000 peer-reviewed journals Contains some regional business materials.
Lexis/Nexis Academic (Formerly Academic Universe) -- Comprehensive index to newspaper and magazine articles, radio and TV news program transcripts, legal material and other reference sources. LNA is almost entirely full-text and focused on news, business and legal topics.
Wall Street Journal -- Full text coverage is from 1984-present; however, this electronic access is only for articles and does not include stock quote pages or classified ads.
EconLit
-- Index only: 1969-present
Index to research materials in economics from over 400 journals, over 500 collective
volumes per year, plus books, dissertations, and working papers.
MasterFILE
Premier -- Full-text: 1990-present, Abstracts &
Index: 1984-present
Indexes articles from over 2,800 journals since 1984, with 1,800 in full
text. Not primarily a business or academic index. Included here for wide
range of popular magazines and World Almanac and Book of
Facts.
ArticleFirst
-- Index only: 1990-present
Indexes articles from over 12,500 journals in all fields. Use ArticleFirst to
search by author, title and keyword. Also contains table of contents and holdings
information for the ArticleFirst journals; search by journal name, journal subject
or year.
Dissertation Abstracts -- Abstracts and index: 1861-present
Index to doctoral dissertations and masters theses in all academic disciplines
completed at U.S. institutions. Abstracts only since 1980.
ProceedingsFirst
-- Index only: 1993-present
Index to conferences and the papers presented at them. Search by subjject or
conference name.
Social Sciences Citation Index
-- Index only: 1997-present
Index of cited articles from over 5000 journals in all areas of social science.
Search by cited author, original author, title keywords or journal name.
CCH Omnitax Database -- The CCH OmniTax database contains the entire library of CCH tax publications, notably the Standard Federal Tax Reporter, the Federal Estate and Gift Tax Reporter, all 50 State Law Reporters, tax law, cases, IRS code and letter rulings, the U.S. Master Tax Guide, and in-depth analysis of tax issues.
Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage -- A collection of business, industry and investment databases published by Standard & Poors, including such publications as Industry Surveys, Corporation Record, S&P Register, the Bond Guide, Stock Guide, Dividend Record and the Outlook.
tableBase
-- 1997-present
Database comprised of tabular information of a strategic nature. The tables
provide information such as: market share, market size, capacity, production,
imports, exports, sales, products and brand rankings, forecasts, health
care statistics and demographics.
Finding Books
Summit: the Orbis/Cascade Alliance Catalog
WorldCat -- Index to over 30 million records cataloged by most North American and European libraries. Materials indexed include books, journals, conferences, films, videos, recordings, musical scores, computer software, maps and manuscripts. Materials date back to the 11th century.
Selected Internet Resources
Reference Books in Print
Business Information Sources
Ref HF 5351 .D31
1993
A basic guide to business books and periodicals. Annotated list arranged
by subject.
Encyclopedia of Business Information Sources
Ref HF 5353 .E32
Listing of information sources on detailed subjects and industries.
How to Read the Financial Pages of Your Newspaper
Ref PN 4784 .F5
H6
Includes definitions along with information on reading stock market pages.
North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS)
Ref HF 1042 .S721
1997 Industrial classification numbers used since 1997 to compile
government statistics by industry in the North American Free Trade Area
(Canada, Mexico and the U.S.) Replaces SIC code. tables correlate NAICS
to SIC classification numbers.
online access:
http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html
Standard Industrial Classification Manual
Ref HA 40 .I6 S71
1987
The Standard Industrial Classification was used to compile government
statistics by industry. SIC numbers are still found in indexes.
Company Information
Directory of Corporate Affiliations at Ref HD2791 .D5. Some information about subsidiaries may be found in the Annual Reports or SEC filings of the parent organization.
http://www.hoovers.com/free/ Hoover's Corporate Directory provides information on public corporations and more than 1,200 private corporations. There are links to current journal articles and other useful internet sites. While this free site is useful, it has less information than the book; see Hoover's Handbook of American Business in the main floor reference collection at Ref HG4057 .A2861.
http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm
The Securities and Exchange Commission's EDGAR is the database for public companies'
required information filings. It usually includes the last several years of
annual reports, proxy statements and forms 10 K, 10 Q, and 8 K, to name the
major filings. Note that it is sometimes possible to find a few pages of current
industry, market or product projections in 10 Ks.
http://finance.yahoo.com/l Find stock or ticker symbol using any part of the company name, mutual fund or corporate bond name.
http://www.thomasnet.com Thomas Net's searchable list of American manufacturer and products. Registration required, access is free.
http://www.reportgallery.com Company information includes annual reports, home pages, broker recommendations, industry rank, and some market commentary.
http://www.corporateinformation.com Corporate Information has reports on over 15,000 companies and you can research industries by country.
Not all company information is available electronically. Some is available only in print:
Standard Directory of Advertisers
Ref HF 5805 .S8
Lists companies that advertise, arranged by industry grouping, with alphabetical index.
Thomas Register of American Manufacturers
Ref HD 9723 .T5
More here than on the free web version. A subject list of products and their manufacturers. Separate index by company and brand name. Thomcat section contains catalogs for some companies.
Trade Names Dictionary
T 223 .V4 A28
Guide to trade names, brand names, product names, etc., with addresses of manufacturers, marketers, or distributors.
Public Companies
Public companies are companies such as Microsoft or Weyerhaeuser that sell stock and are legally required to meet public disclosure requirements of the federal government's Securities and Exchange Commission. Companies now file the required financial data electronically with SEC's EDGAR database (EDGAR stands for Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval). These filings can be seen at www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html.
The EDGAR files will have the last several years of annual reports, proxy statements, and forms 10K, 10Q and 8K to name major filings. The most useful filing is call a 10K, which is something like an annual report with additional financial statistics. They are called 10Ks, because they are required by section 10, paragraph K of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The purpose of this depression era legislation was to inform stockholders or potential investors of the financial status and activities of the company and to prevent the kinds of stock abuses that led to the crash of the stock market in 1929.
It is important to know that the source of almost all real, honest and verified information about companies comes from these SEC filings such as the form 10K and its quarterly supplement the form 8K.
Stockbrokers' public announcements are usually derived from the broker's analysis of the SEC filings and by company presentations at brokerages or to visiting brokers. Usually corporate executives are very cooperative (and positive) since what they say can affect the price of their shares. It is very hard to get bad news about business and industry.
Note that it is sometimes possible to find a few pages of current industry, market or product projections in 10K filings. Some 10Ks are seventy pages long; check length before printing.
Private Companies
Private companies are by definition privately owned companies that do not sell stock publicly. They are not legally required to provide any information about their activities and usually don't, fearing that they might inform their competition about their activities and that this might be to their detriment. Here, when trying to get statistics about a product, you find that most private companies think that any useful information is proprietary, that it is valuable property not to be shared. Available information is often sparse. Both private and public companies put information out as press releases. As information sources, press releases, news wires, MSM, whatever they are called, are usually partial in both senses of the word. Much of popular business news, perhaps as much as 90% of popular business news, is of necessity written from press releases. While very little information is available on large private companies,even less is to be found on small or local businesses. You can look in local and state newspapers to see if they made the news, go online and purchase a Dun & Bradstreet Report on the web, or look to see if they have a web site and check Google's "Groups" to see what the chat is on the news nets.
Historical Stock Prices
Note the following definitions. Adjusted price is the price adjusted for stock splits and other capital changes. This is the figure most people need to calculate cost basis for tax reporting purposes. Unadjusted price is the actual closing price on that day.
Bigcharts http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/ Click on Historical Quotes. Both adjusted and unadjusted prices with date coverage back to 1985.
Yahoo http://chart.yahoo.com/d Both adjusted ("Adj. close") and unadjusted ("Close") prices with Date coverage 10-30 years depending on stock.
Silicon Investor (formerly IQC) http://www.siliconinvestor.com Adjusted prices only with date coverage back to 1968.
To obtain stock prices in print, go to the Wall Street Journal or New York Times. Remember printed stock prices are posted at the end of the day and are so are to be found in the newspaper of the following market day.
Industry Surveys
OSU's primary collection of industry surveys is online in S&P NetAdvantage database. Go to the article databases and select S&P Netadvantage. On the NetAdvantage homepage, select "Industry Surveys": from the left column and then use the "Look Up" button to see what industries are available. Select an industry and hit the "Go" button which is usually below the screen. To see how the website is organized, it is easier to go to the last year's three-volume print version (Ref HG4921 .S8), where among other things there is a listing of mentioned companies.
The Department of Commerce's U.S. Global Trade Outlook, 1995-2000, highlights U.S.export growth and trade trends in key countries and sectors. This publication succeeds the U.S. Industrial Outlook and continues its data collection. http://www.ita.doc.gov/td/industry/otea/usio/usio95.html
It is possible to get information on selected industries from Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe. Go to the article databases and select Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe. In Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, select "Business", then "Industry and Market" and open the "Industry" pull down-box and choose one of the 25 industries. Try using "industry survey" or "industry trends" in your search query. Remember to pay attention to the "Date field"; the default field is 6 months which is usually not helpful.
Financial or Business Ratios
Almanac of Business and Financial Ratios
Ref HD 2791 .A45
Compiled by Leo Troy, this covers financial and operating ratios for
a variety of industries retrospectively.
Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios
Ref HF 5681 .R25
S41
From Dun and Bradstreet. Useful financial ratios for business.
Annual Statement Studies
Ref HF 5681 .B2
R6
Robert Morris Associates. Financial and operating ratios for over 300
industries with historical statistics.
Marketing Reports, Market Surveys and Product Statistics
Finding marketing reports, surveys or product statistics is often difficult. Marketing reports do exist and are sometimes excerpted in the press, but they customarily cost several hundred to several thousand dollars and are not found in libraries. Answers to these kind of questions can be pieced together by database searching in Business Source Elite and the Wall Street Journal article database.
Most class assignments looking for market surveys or business statistics can be satisfactorily answered by searching the business databases using the word "sales", which appears in any compilation of business statistics. A sample search query could be: "deodorants and sales."
It is often necessary to use the "w" (within) connector to search effectively. I use "w20" for within a sentence (20 words) in Business Search Elite or Academic Search Premiere and "w80" for within the same paragraph. Lexis/Nexis also allows the use of the "w" connector but requires a slash, e.g., "W/20". Note that Lexis/Nexis provides "w/s" and "w/p" for terms within the same sentence and paragraph. Here are some examples from Lexis/Nexis:
- deodorants and sales = 33 hits
- deodorants w/20 sales =16 hits
- "orange county" and bonds = 145 hits
- "orange county" w/20 bonds = 62 hits
- "orange county" w/5 bonds = 25 hits
Another way to restrict the size of searches is to limit the search to one source. For example, if you were researching the Orange County bond scandal, you could limit your search by looking only in the Los Angeles Times. This, however, still brings up 150 hits. Limiting the search by searching only in USA Today brings up a dozen hits. If a short report of a news event is sought, searching only in USA Today is a quick way to find it.
Statistics
Business statistics of the United States
Ref HC101 .B891
Biennial summary of basic business time series published currently in
Survey of Current Business (HC 1 .A3)
Statistical Service
Ref HG 4921 .S82
From Standard and Poor's. Current and historical statistics on basic areas of business.
Statistical Abstract of the United States
Ref HA 202
Primary source of statistics on all aspects of American life.
Predicasts Basebook
Ref HA 214 .P71
Comprehensive compilations of time series on industries and products.
International Business
Questions of business culture, of "doing business in..." are common. There are books both in the reference collection and in the stacks. Search in OASIS using the subject phrase "business etiquette -- country." For example, books on the cultural aspects of doing business in Korea can be found by searching "business etiquette -- Korea."
Note that "Business Etiquette -- country" doesn't get everything. You can also find useful books by searching "business etiquette -- Asia" and "Business Etiquette -- Pacific Rim." It isn't a bad idea to just search Business Etiquette without your country's name. The broadest search is "Country -- Commerce." "Country -- handbooks and manuals" may find a travel guidebook of which we have a few. The Corvallis Public Library is a better source for travel guidebooks, which often have a section on business customs.
We don't have information on Kuwait's business culture and practices; however, you can take useful examples from other Muslim countries. We have books on Saudi Arabia.
Use the class assignment sheet to find additional search words. On some assignments, you can combine the name of a country with terms from the class assignment sheet such as innovation, risk taking, people orientation, team orientation and aggressiveness.
Search electronic databases, Business Source Elite and Academic Search Premiere, select "keywords" and combine the name of the country using the connector "and" with "manners," or "etiquette," or "customs," or "social relations," or "social life" or "business practices," or "commerce" or "doing business".
Requests for information about the influence of the Internet on Japanese or French management practices are met using Business Source Elite, Academic Search Premiere and Lexis-Nexis Academic. When there is not a lot of information available it is important to keep the search query simple and broad: "(internet or web) AND (japan or japanese) AND management." Always remember to search both synonyms and alternative names, e.g., Japan and Japanese, France and French.
Three good internet sites for reports on foreign countries are:
http://www.usatrade.gov/website/ccg.nsf -- U.S. Department of State Country Commercial Guides. Information on the commercial environment of foreign countries.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/ -- U.S. Department of State Country Background Notes. Short reports describing foreign countries' resources and politics.
http://www.windowontheworldinc.com/countryprofile/index.html -- Window on the World has useful information on the customs and manners of many countries. More detailed and comprehensive than other sites.
Information on Oregon
Also see the Oregon Statistics page
Oregon: A Statistical Overview
Ref HC 107 .O7 O7771
Statistical information on key economic elements of population, employment, industries, and trade.
Doing Business in Oregon
Ref HD 38 .O66
Information on requirements for starting a business in Oregon with addresses and phone numbers.
Latest edition available online: http://www.econ.state.or.us/dbiotext.htm
Oregon Industrial Outlook
HC 107 .O7 O7441
Survey of industries in Oregon, emphasizing employment.
Oregon Manufacturers Register
Ref HD9727.O7 A3
Company profiles including directory information, annual sales, number of employees, etc.
Oregon Blue Book
JK9031
Connect to most recent issue of this title online.
Includes Oregon's economic strategy as well as descriptions of important segments such as agriculture and tourism. Click on "Facts" tab, then on "economy"
Oregon Economic and Community Development Department
http://www.econ.state.or.us/index.htm
There are a variety of economic data available from the Web site of this state agency, including county level data. Publications are listed under "News & People."
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