Subject/Research Guides: Business Guide: Company Research

Databases for Company Research

For company research, you will want to use databases such as Business Source Ultimate, Company Profiles or Mergent Intellect. For product or brand research you can use Business Source Complete, Academic Search Premier or MasterFile Premier.

In addition, you can also use Google Scholar, which is accessible from the library list of databases.

Open the file below to view some screen captures on how to create a search using the Company Profiles and Business Source Complete Database to locate company information and also specific product information. We have used Apple and the iPad as examples. You can simply replace the terms with your topic to get relevant results.

Business Source Ultimate Business Source Ultimate offers access to 3,655 active full-text journals, including many peer-reviewed publications. It spans various business topics, from current trends to historical information and global perspectives. It provides researchers with essential business journals Harvard Business Review, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Management Science, Marketing Science, MIS Quarterly, Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes, Fortune, and many others, plus business videos from top providers.
Company Profiles (from Business Source Ultimate) EBSCO host's company profiles are part of the MarketLine database, which provides comprehensive overviews of companies, including information on competitors, products, and SWOT analyses.
Mergent Intellect Mergent Intellect is a web-based business intelligence platform that provides access to a vast collection of global business data. It combines Mergent’s expertise with Dun & Bradstreet’s private company database, offering users insights into public and private businesses, industry trends, executive contacts, demographic data, and more.
Mergent Archives Mergent Archives is an online database featuring a vast, indexed collection of corporate and industry related documents. The database contains hundreds of thousands of reports covering over 100 countries and industries. Mergent Archives uses a reliable and easy to navigate system designed to meet your historical research needs.
Academic Search Premier The EBSCOhost User Interface has been upgraded to an all new user experience! Use this guide to get acquainted with the new interface.This academic multi-disciplinary database provides full text for more than 4,600 serials, including more than 3,900 peer-reviewed titles. PDF backfiles to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals, and searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 titles. This scholarly collection offers information in nearly every area of academic study including: computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, ethnic studies, and many more.
MasterFILE Premier The EBSCOhost User Interface has been upgraded to an all new user experience! Use this guide to get acquainted with the new interface.This multidisciplinary database provides full text for more than 1,700 general reference publications with full text information dating as far back as 1975. Covering virtually every subject area of general interest, MasterFILE Premier also includes nearly 500 full text reference books, 84,774 biographies, 164,400 primary source documents, and an Image Collection of 592,000 photos, maps and flags.
Business Searching Interface The EBSCOhost User Interface has been upgraded to an all new user experience! Use this guide to get acquainted with the new interface.The Business Searching Interface (BSI) is EBSCO's highly focused user interface created especially for the business searcher. Business Searching Interface provides an easy way to both browse and search for country economic data, company profiles, industry information and market research.The BSI was designed to take full advantage of all of the diverse content available in Business Source databases.
Google Scholar Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.

Company Profiles in Business Source Ultimate

Company Profiles (from Business Source Ultimate)

Search Company Profiles database through Business Source Ultimate. Enter the company name and then use the Source time and date limiter to locate recent reports. Click on Marketline Report PDF to view Company details.

Business Source Ultimate

Business Source Ultimate

Search Business Source Ultimate database – enter company title, product or brand. Options can be checked off to refine results to:

full text - to return articles you can read immediately
publication date - to limit your results to articles written in recent years
scholarly peer reviewed articles - to return articles published in academic journals rather than popular or trade publications.

From your search results, select HTML or PDF full text to view the complete article.

Mergent Intellect

Mergent Intellect

Search Mergent Intellect database for Company Research.

Enter the name of the company and click on the magnifying glass.
Use the tabs in the results screen to view company information.

Help and Videos are available in Mergent Intellect after logging into the database

Various ways to cite Mergent Intellect: (NOTE: Citations will differ based on the data/reports being cited.)

Mergent, Inc. (n.d.). McDonald's Corp [Company profile]. Retrieved July 27, 2020 from Mergent Intellect database.

Mergent, Inc. (2016). Stryker Corporation: Financial details - income statement. Retrieved October 25, 2016 from Mergent Intellect database.

McDonald's Corporation. (2019, February 22). Form 10-K annual report for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018. Retrieved from Mergent Intellect database.

SWOT Analyses

A SWOT analysis is conducted to assess a company's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

SWOT Analysis
Link to article and video on basics of SWOT analysis.

Find a SWOT analysis for a company:

1. Go to the library database, Business Source Ultimate (link listed on this page)

2. Enter company's name in first search box and "Swot analysis" in the second search box.(Note: A SWOT analysis will be available for most companies. If there are no results for your company, consult additional library databases, such as Mergent Intellect , Company Profiles, and external sources, such as the company's official website to gather more information.)

Business Guide