Company Research

The amount of information available about a company depends on whether the company is public or private. For public companies (companies whose stock is available for sale to the public), a large amount of information may be found in books, annual reports, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, and in newspaper and periodical articles. For private companies, much less information is available than for public companies. For private companies, there are no SEC reporting requirements; there may be no annual reports; there may be little or no information in books or in newspaper or journal articles.

Foster Business Library research guides are aimed at University of Washington students, faculty, and staff, highlighting resources available to them; users not currently affiliated with the university may be unable to access some of these resources.

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Foster Business Library Databases:

The Foster Business Library offers an extensive collection of over fifty databases on its

homepage

List of All Business Databases

EBSCO Business Source Complete: On the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under Databases. Full text of over 8,800 magazines, newspapers and journals, including more than 1,100 peer-reviewed journals. Also includes some market research reports, SWOT analyses, and country reports. Datamonitor and other company profiles are accessible via this database.
Hoovers Online: Under Business Databases on the Foster Business Library homepage. Hoovers Online offers information about 40,000 public and private companies worldwide, with links to company homepages and annual reports, charts, company capsule, competitors, divisions, earnings, financials, etc.
Investext: On the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under Business Databases. Investext contains indexing and the full text of company and industry research reports prepared by leading Wall Street firms, as well as regional and international brokerage and financial firms. All reports are in PDF format.
Kompass: On the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under Business Databases. Directory information for 1.6 million companies in 72 countries, with indexes for company products and services, containing 23 million product and service references, and 500,000 trademarks and brand names.
LexisNexis Academic: To find company information, go to Business where you can obtain financial data for companies, Securities and Exchange Commission reports and filings, annual reports from 1984 to 1995, information about public, private and foreign companies, mergers, and bankruptcies. Information is available from twenty different sources (each of which must be searched separately). S.E.C. filings, particularly the 10K annual reports, are a particularly rich source of company information. Use your browser's Find command (or Control-F) to locate references to particular terms of interest in 10K filings such as trends, strategy, competitors, industry, etc.
Mergent Online: On the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under Business Databases. Online access to the print edition of the Mergent Manuals, with extensive information on 11,000 U.S. and 17,000 international companies, including financials, stock, properties, joint ventures, annual reports, subsidiaries, S.E.C. filings, etc. For search tips, see About Mergent Online.
ReferenceUSA: On the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under Business Databases. Directory information for 12 million companies in the U.S. Companies can be searched for by name, business activity, size and location; for instance, it is possible to identify all businesses in a particular line of business in a specific zip code or city and within sizes of business.
Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage: On the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under Databases. Full text for the following S&P publications: Bond Guide; Corporation Records; Dividend Record; Earnings Guide; Industry Surveys; Mutual Fund Reports; The Outlook; Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives; Security Dealers of North America; Stock Guide; and Stock Reports.

Web Resources:

Unlike library databases, Web resources are available wherever you have web access; they do not require that you access them via the

Off-Campus Access

evaluate

Business Resources on the Web

homepage

Business Filings Databases: This directory provides access, by state, to state offices that record business information and offer it online. The information is largely directory information only but is useful for research small private companies, along with Reference USA (listed above, in Databases).
Company Research (Business Week): Business Week offers information on 4,000 companies in its Careers section (so some of the information is aimed at job-seekers), with a Corporate Snapshot, a Vault.Com Scoop, a Wetfeet.Com profile, as well as Business Week articles about the companies (some of which are available only for subscribers but are also available in the Foster Business Library database ABI/Inform Global).
MSN Money/CNBC Investing: This site is another good source for information about U.S. companies, with links to company reports, news, earnings estimates, financials, insider trading, and, in particular, ownership.
Seattle Times Northwest 100: Each year, the Seattle Times profiles the top public companies in the Northwest, with profiles of each company listed. The site also offers a listing by industry of the companies. Click here for an A to Z list of the companies and profiles of each of them. The site also offers the ability to compare companies via spreadsheet.
World's Most Respected Companies: This annual list is compiled by PriceWaterHouseCoopers, by surveying "around 1,000 CEOs from 25 countries were surveyed, along with fund managers, media commentators and non-governmental organizations." See also their list of the Most Respected Business Leaders.
Yahoo! Finance: This site is excellent for company and investment information as well as an excellent source for financial ratio comparisons with industry, sector and S&P 500.

Foster Business Library Reference Collection:

The Foster Business Library

Reference Collection

Standard & Poor's industry surveys.
This three-volume set provides 30-page profiles on 52 industries with a focus on the current economic environment, trends, regulation and outlook for each industry. Major companies in each industry are profiled, with references to sources of additional industry information.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC106.6 .S74 (Quarterly)
Puget Sound major employers directory pinpointer.
Published by the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, this unique reference work to companies in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties covers almost 1,900 major employers in the region (employers with more than 100 employees), pinpointing them by map location and providing company addresses, number of employees, telephone numbers, principal products or services, and four names of contact persons. There is also an SIC code index.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC107 .W22 .P864 (Annual)
Puget Sound Business Journal book of lists.
This annual publication is an invaluable source of information about public and private companies in the Puget Sound area, culled from lists that appeared weekly in the Puget Sound Business Journal. Besides lists of the largest and fastest growing public and private companies in the area, this reference work includes commercial real estate deals, banks and securities firms, contractors, education and employment, health care, title companies, marketing firms, nonprofits, professional services, executive compensation, real estate, retailers, software developers, biotech and travel and recreation. There is an index to companies and topics in the back of this volume.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC108 .S77 .P83 (Annual)
Organization charts: structures of 200 business and nonprofit organizations.
Actual organization charts for active companies and organizations worldwide, public and private, profit and nonprofit, global and local, large and small. See the index in the back of the 1996 2nd edition to find out what companies and organizations are included in each edition.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD 58.65 O74 1992 (1st ed)
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD 58.65 O74 1996 (2nd ed)
International directory of company histories.
This set of over 50 volumes offers histories of more than 4,000 companies, worldwide, with each history running just two to four pages; check the company index in the most recently published volume to locate a specific company history or update as well as any other references to that company in other company histories.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD2721 .I57 (Regularly updated)
The Conference Board chart collection.
Organization charts for about 500 companies in a range of industries in a looseleaf format for regular updating; arranged alphabetically within industries. There is an index in the front of volume one with an index by industry and by company name to the entire set. Volume 1 includes Retail and wholesale, Banks and other finance, Insurance; volume 2 includes Food, Manufacturing: transportation equipment; Manufacturing: machinery and metals; volume 3 includes Chemicals and pharmaceuticals; Petroleum and gas; Communications; Transportation; volume 4 includes Utilities; Services: consultants and executive search; Services: other; volume 5 includes Non-durables; Diversified operations; Manufacturing: miscellaneous.)
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD2741 .C645 1997.
Plunkett's almanacs.
These almanacs offer information about major industry trends, industry statistics, industry information, major companies in the industry, with indexes by state, country, region, etc. The major part of each almanac provides one-page profiles of companies in the industry, with directory information, growth plans and special features, contacts, brief financials, brief salary and benefits data, and women officer-director and advancement information. Click here for the current list of Plunkett's almanacs.
Washington state international trade directory.
This annual directory provides brief profiles of Washington state companies involved in importing and exporting. There are indexes by product, by industry code and a geographic index by country, as well as support service listings for attorneys, consultants, translators, and transportation.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5065 .W2 .W37 (Annual)
Market share reporter.
Annual two-volume compilation of U.S. and world market share data for companies, products and services, arranged by SIC code, and with indexes by product, company and topic.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5410 .M35 2005.
LexisNexis corporate affiliations: who owns whom.
This set of eight volumes covers over fifty thousand U.S. and international companies and their subsidiaries, with a master index in volumes one and two; U.S. public companies in volumes three and four; U.S. private companies in volumes five and six; and international public and private companies in volumes seven and eight.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4057 .A219 2005.
Standard & Poor's standard corporate descriptions.
This semi-monthly service provides descriptions of thousands of public companies, including information about outstanding shares, long term debt, corporate background, subsidiaries, capital expenditures, research and development expenditures, number of employees, company founding and name changes, directors, recent dividend information, contact information, ADR information, annual report financial data, and a consolidated balance sheet.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4501 .S76636 (Annual)
Capital changes reporter.
This CCH publication is a seven-volume looseleaf set in a black ring binder that provides a detailed chronology of company capital changes, from incorporation, to name changes, to merger or bankruptcy. This constantly updated source covers changes in corporate capital or debt and the effects of such changes on the income taxes of share holders. See the Alphabetical Listing of Companies in this set.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: KF1428 .A6 .C65. (Updated regularly)

Foster Business Library Books:

The Foster Business Library maintains a collection of over 70,000 books on all business topics. To search for materials on all three campuses of the University of Washington, go to the

UW Libraries Catalog

homepage

To limit the results of your search just to materials in the Foster Business Library collection, use the Modify or Limit options at the top of the search results and change the library location to Foster Business Library. Availablity is indicated on the right of each online catalog record. First, note in which collection, within Foster, your materials are in, since the library has ten different Collections, each in a different location and often with differing arrangements. "Available" indicates that the book should be on the shelves under that call number and available for you to check out. "Due" and a date indicates that the book is already checked out to someone and is due back on the date indicated; you can have the "Request/Place Hold" feature to recall the book for your use.

If the material you want is not in the collections of the University of Washington, you can use the "Search Summit" feature to repeat your search in the combined holdings of over thirty cooperating libraries in Washington and Oregon. Use the "Request This Item" feature in Summit to have books in those library sent here to Foster for you to check out.

The Foster general stacks collection is located south of the main part of the Foster Business Library, through the two pass-throughs into the basement of Balmer. The arrangement is by call number, from A (at the east end, near the Copy Center) to Z (at the far west end).

Keyword searches for company names will retrieve not only books about companies but chapters about companies in books about many companies. Examples of books about companies or books with chapters on companies, in the Foster Business Library, include:

Bill and Dave: how Hewlett and Packard built the world's greatest company (2007)
The last tycoons: the secret history of Lazard Fr�res & Co. (2007)
How Dell does it (2006)
The Pentium chronicles: the people, passion, and politics behind Intel's landmark chips (2006)
Kellogg on strategy: concepts, tools, and frameworks for practitioners (2005) (See the chapter on Boeing and Airbus)
Communication best practices at Dell, General Electric, Microsoft, and Monsanto (2003)
Birds of prey: Boeing vs. Airbus: a battle for the skies (1997)
21st century jet: the making and marketing of the Boeing 777 (1996)
Flying high: the story of Boeing and the rise of the jetliner industry (1996)

It's also possible to search for companies as subjects. A subject search for the Boeing Company produced over sixty records in the UW Libraries, including nine records in the Foster Business Library's collections (none newer than 1997).

Foster Business Library Corporate Annual Reports:

The Foster Business Library maintains a collection of several thousand annual reports for hundreds of U.S. and foreign companies. These reports are filed in lateral filing cabinets near the Foster Reference desk under the sign Corporate Annual Reports. Annual reports for companies in an industry can be a valuable source of information about the industry itself. For a list of all the companies in the collection, see the library's Corporate Annual Reports Collection. For an index to corporate annual reports in the collection by industry sector, see the Annual Reports Industry Sector Index. For an index to companies in the collection with headquarters outside the U.S., see Corporate Annual Reports Headquarters Index.

Foster Business Library Articles:

In addition to the 800 journals in the Foster Business Library

Periodicals Collection

EBSCO Business Source Premier

All four of these databases are available from any computer on the campus network as well as from home (via the UW Connectivity Kit or the Libraries' Off-Campus Access link, using your UW Net ID and password). The easiest of these databases to use is ProQuest Databases. For more information about accessing Foster Business Library databases from off campus, see Database Access. For more information about business databases, see the research guide entitled Databases, A to Z.

ProQuest Databases:
This database--actually, a family of over two dozen databases--offers full text articles for over 10,000 publications, including scholarly journals, magazines, trade and industry periodicals, newspapers, and reports on a very wide range of topics. To find articles on specific topics, search by word or phrase by keying your search phrase into the search box--or search for your topic in the Topic Guide. Article full text is often available in several formats, including text, text plus graphics, and PDF. This database also offers a very useful subject structure, to narrow search results, as well as article citation information.
Your search terms will be highlighted in red in each article. For tips on searching this database, see About ProQuest Databases.

While it's possible to do a basic search in this database, by company name, a company search usually produces more relevant results. As an example, a search for CO(Boeing Co) produced over 70,000 articles, including over 200 articles in scholarly journals, over 1,400 magazine articles, over 12,000 articles in trade and industry periodicals, and over 45,000 newspaper articles.
Examples of articles, from the searches above, include:

Help:

The Foster Business Library Reference Desk is staffed nearly all of the hours that the library is open. The staff at the desk will be happy to help you find business research tools and resources, exploit business databases to the fullest or advise on research strategies.

See also the Foster Business Library's Business & Economics FAQ, and, in particular, the section for Company and Industry.

For research guides on a wide variety of industries, products, companies, issues and topics, see the Team Librarian Consultation archives.

9 September 2003; updated 4 March 2008. Peter Stevens, Business Librarian, stevens@u.washington.edu.