Business Guide

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.

Search Company Profiles database by entering the company name and then click on Browse. Click on Marketline Report PDF to view Company details.

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.

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

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

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.)