Appendix A

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DATA-GATHERING

RESOURCES

Finding information about company, industry, or business topics

can be a trying, even exasperating experience.* One reason

for this is that no one source covers every aspect of every

company, industry, or topic. You will likely have to look several

places to find the information you want. Another reason for frustration

is that some information is impossible or nearly impossible

to find. This is particularly true for financial and structural

information, as well as information about private companies and

subsidiaries or divisions of larger companies.

While planning your research, you will want to ask yourself

some questions:

• What is the correct corporate name?

• Is the company publicly held or privately held?

• Is the company a subsidiary or division of another

company?

• What information do I need to answer my questions?

• What indexes, databases, or other sources will contain this

information?

Thousands of Internet sites, both free and fee-based, provide

information about companies, industries, or business news. Choosing

the sites that will work best for you will probably take some

time and experimentation. No one site is always best for every

information need. Also, remember that sometimes the best

resource is not on the Internet at all but in printed form.

This Appendix offers a selected list of Internet sites and print

resources that businesspeople may find useful for answering questions

related to industries and companies. Your company library or

information center may subscribe to some or all of these resources.

You may also want to visit your local college, university, or public

library to see what resources it has available to the general public.

JOURNAL AND NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

Articles from journals and newspapers can be a wonderful source

of information about a company, an industry, business concepts, or

the economy in general. You can use articles to gather information

about a company or industry’s history, its current activities,

and sometimes its prospects for the future. Journal and newspaper

articles can also be a good source of information about the

economy in general, including worker shortages, credit availability,

regulation, and other business-related issues. However, not every

company and industry will generate much coverage in these

periodicals.

The main way to find articles that have been published in

newspapers and journals is to use an index. Table 3-1 in Chapter

3 lists several indexes that are particularly good for finding this

kind of information. The most notable include ABI/Inform Global

and Dow Jones Interactive. To use these indexes, you enter a word

or phrase, and the search engine produces a list of citations and in

many cases the full text of articles on the company, industry, or

other subject.

If you are looking for stories about a smaller, perhaps regional

company, you may want to start with the newspaper from the

region or city where the company is located. American Journalism

Review’s AJR NewsLink website has a very good collection of

links to more than 3,300 U.S. newspapers and business newspapers

and more than 2,000 more from around the world. The dates

covered vary from paper to paper; some go back to the mid-1990s.

INDUSTRY RESEARCH

The following lists identify selected Internet and print resources

that may be helpful in researching particular industries.

ANALYST REPORTS

• Investext—This subscription service contains the full text

of investment reports and forecasts for more than 11,000

U.S. and international companies and for 53 industries.

The reports come from more than 520 brokerages, investment

banks, and consulting firms around the world. For

subscription information, go to

FINANCIAL AND PERFORMANCE RATIOS

(INDUSTRY AVERAGES)

• Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios—This

source contains tables of selected financial and operating

ratios for more than 160 industries. There are 22 financial

categories in 12 asset group sizes. Not all SIC codes are

included in this work, so you may have to find an SIC code

that is close to the one you are looking for. Annual Statement

Studies and Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios

are similar print resources from other publishers. You can

find them in many university and public libraries.

• Corporation Tax Statistics (www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/tax

_stats/soi/corp_id.php)—This free site contains links to

industry averages of information from corporate tax

returns filed with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Data

are drawn from corporate balance sheets, income statements,

and other sources. Much of the most current data

here are several years old.

• Standard and Poor’s Industry Surveys—This print source

is great for current descriptions of industries. Most industries

are defined fairly broadly. Each description is around

30 pages long and includes some of the major current

trends, a list of the major companies, and selected performance

measures: financial statement information,

financial and performance ratios for selected companies

in the industry, and industry averages. This source also

includes a useful section titled “How to Analyze a Company

in this Industry.” Another useful item is a short

list of additional sources of industry information. This

reference is available in many university and large public

libraries.

INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATION CODES

(SIC AND NAICS)

• North American Industry Classification System (www

.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.php)—From the Census

Department, the North American Industry Classification

System (NAICS) provides common industry definitions for

Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The NAICS is a

joint effort of the U.S. Economic Classification Policy

Committee, Statistics Canada, and Mexico’s Instituto

Nacional de Estadistica, Geografia e Informatica. With the

goals of better comparing economic and financial statistics

and ensuring that such statistics keep pace with the changing

economy, the NAICS has begun to replace the countries’

separate classification systems—including SIC codes

in the United States—with one uniform system for classifying

industries. This site does a good job of explaining the

new system and provides information from government

sources. One great feature of this site is the NAICS and SIC

comparability table.

There is also an unofficial NAICS site that pulls

together information on NAICS, this time from government

as well as nongovernment sources.

• Standard Industrial Classification Search (www.osha.gov

/oshstats/sicser.php)—This resource allows the user to

search the 1987 version of the SIC manual by keyword(s)

to find a four-digit SIC code and to access descriptive information

for a known four-digit SIC code.

• North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)—

This printed resource contains detailed descriptions of

what NAICS codes mean. It describes what types of companies

are to be assigned which NAICS code.

INDUSTRY DESCRIPTIONS, OVERVIEWS,

AND STATISTICS

• Business.com (www.business.com)—This site at first glance

looks and feels very much like Yahoo, but it is totally dedicated

to business information. It is organized by industry,

and there is a directory of links to companies that provide

products or services for the industry or subsections of the

industry. After selecting an industry, if you scroll down to

the “Industry Resources” section, you will find links called

“Industry Basics” and “Industry Profile.” Both of these

links provide wonderful summary information for the

industry selected.

• Corporate Information (www.corporateinformation

.com)—Pull-down menus let you select from 30 industries

and 65 countries to get a list of relevant links and a short

write-up about the industry. You can also retrieve a list of

companies that the site covers in that particular industry

and reports on some (but not all) of the companies in the

industry.

• Current Industrial Reports (www.census.gov/ftp/pub

/cir/www)—These annual and quarterly reports from the

U.S. Census Bureau contain a variety of statistics on industries

in the United States, including lists of companies in an

industry.

• Encyclopedia of American Industries—This set contains

brief (three- to four-page) descriptions of industries, organized

by SIC codes. Each entry includes a brief description

of the industry, the workforce, the organization and structure,

the current conditions, the industry leaders, and—

perhaps most important—a list of selected additional

readings. This encyclopedia is available at many university

libraries and large public libraries.

• Industry Reference Handbooks—This seven-volume set

contains overviews, descriptions, and statistics for a wide

variety of industries. The seven volumes are titled Computers

& Software, Pharmaceuticals, Telecommunications,

Chemicals, Health & Medical Services, Hospitality, and

Entertainment. This set is available in many university

libraries and large public libraries.

• Office of Trade and Economic Analysis (www.ita.doc.gov

/td/industry/otea)—As the website says, this office of the

Department of Commerce conducts a “comprehensive program

of data development, dissemination, and research

and analysis on international and domestic trade and

investment issues to support trade promotion and trade

policy responsibilities of Trade Development, International

Trade Administration Department of Commerce, and

United States Government organizations and officials. The

office also coordinates the trade policy implementation

activities of the Trade Development unit.” The website

provides links to a variety of foreign trade, investment, and

industry statistics.

• Standard and Poor’s Industry Surveys—This print source is

great for current descriptions of industries. Most industries

are defined rather broadly. Each description is around 30

pages long and includes some major current trends, a list of

the major companies, and selected financial information

(data from financial statements, financial and performance

ratios for selected companies in the industry, and industry

averages). This source also includes a useful section titled

“How to Analyze a Company in this Industry.” Another

useful item is a short list of additional sources of industry

information. This source is available in many university

libraries and large public libraries.

• TableBase (www.galegroup.com/welcome.php)—This

subscription service allows you to search for information

that appeared in tables and charts of journal articles. Information

found may include summary statistics about companies,

industries, products, markets, and consumer

behavior, including rankings, forecasts, market shares,

and product sales.

• U.S. Industry & Trade Outlook—This source contains

short (two- to five-page) synopses of broad trends and

forecasts for various industries in the United States. For

each industry, there is also a short reading list for those

who would like more information on the industry.

MAJOR COMPETITORS

• Business Rankings Annual—This source is a collection of

tables and charts ranking companies within various industries

by measures that have appeared in articles in several

journals. There is not necessarily a chart or table for every

industry. Most of the data in the current volume are at

least a year or two old.

• Current Industrial Reports (www.census.gov/ftp/pub

/cir/www)—These annual and quarterly reports from the

U.S. Census Bureau contain a variety of statistics on industries

in the United States, including lists of companies in an

industry.

• Hoover’s Online (www.hoovers.com)—This service provides

some free and some subscription information. Basic

directory and financial information on more than 13,500

public and private companies is available for free. If you

subscribe, you can get in-depth profiles of some 3,400 public

and private companies in the United States and around the world. Hoover’s also publishes several print resources.

Two of the more interesting are Hoover’s Handbook of

Emerging Companies and Hoover’s Handbook of Private

Companies.

• Standard & Poor’s Register of Corporations—This is a

wonderful four-volume print resource for finding

addresses, telephone numbers, and names of executives for

corporations. For some of the executives, there is a short

biographical sketch. These books are available in many

university libraries and large public libraries.

• Thomas Register of American Manufacturers (www

.thomasregister.com)—This free Internet resource lets you

look up a product, service, or brand name and find directory-

style listings for companies that manufacture or supply

it. You can also look up a company name to find lists

of the products or services that company can provide.

However, this is not an exhaustive listing of companies or

products. Company listings typically include addresses and

phone numbers as well as products available. This resource

is free, but you must register to use it.

RANKINGS AND RATINGS

• American Tally Statistics & Rankings for 3,165 U.S.

Cities—This reference provides demographic, sociological,

and economic statistics on a large cross-section of American

cities. Not every city is included in every table or chart.

This source is available at many public and university

libraries.

• Business Rankings Annual—This source is a collection of

tables and charts ranking companies within various industries

by measures that have appeared in journal articles. There is not necessarily a chart or table for every industry.

Most of the data in the current volume are at least a year

or two old.

• Gale State Rankings Reporter—This resource allows you

to check how the states stack up on a variety of demographic,

sociological, and economic measures. This source

is available at many public and university libraries.

• Market Share Reporter—This source is a collection of

tables and charts that depict market share for all kinds of

products and services that have appeared in articles in various

journals. There is not necessarily a chart or table for

every product or service. Most of the data in the current

volume are at least a year or two old.

• Price’s List of Lists (gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/listof

.php)—This site has links to a wide range of lists and rankings.

Here is a description in the designers’ own words:

“The Internet contains numerous lists of information.

Many of these lists present information in the form of

rankings of different people, organizations, companies, etc.

This collection is designed to be a clearinghouse for these

types of resources. Hopefully, it will allow these useful

tools to be located and accessed in a timely and efficient

manner. Many of these lists have been designed to be interactive/

searchable and provide greater utility than the

printed versions.”

• World Market Share Reporter—This source, much like

Market Share Reporter, is a collection of tables and charts

that depict market share for all kinds of products and services

mentioned in various journals, except the focus is on

worldwide or non-U.S. rankings and shares. There is not

necessarily a chart or table for every product or service.

Most of the data in the current volume are at least a year

or two old.

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Материалы для учебы и работы

Appendix A