LIBR 539GBusiness Reference, February 2007

Categories of business research• Company • Industry• Business and economic statistics• Marketing research• Financial analysis and accounting• Etc.

Company Research – Reasons• Develop business/ sales/ marketing prospects• Research suppliers/ vendors/customers• Search for jobs• Identify venture capital funding sources• Benchmark competitors• Study stocks, investments• Research potential merger, stock offering

Company Research Types

• Specific company (news, financials, products, services, etc.)

• Companies in an industry

• Directory information, lists

Industry Research – Reasons• Benchmark information• Prepare a business plan• Promote regional economic development• Search for a job• Invest• Research trade issues• Learn about industry innovations, news• Study specific issues such as logistics, finance

Industry Research Types

• Overview of a single industry

• Comparison of industries

• Companies within industry

• Industry economics

Business Economics Research- Reasons

• Carry out local government planning• Prepare business forecast• Prepare business plan• Assess market, consumers, market trends• Research labour issues• Plan production levels, strategies

Economic Statistics - Sources• Government statistics• NGO statistics• Industry association statistics• Financial statistics from banks, investment banks• Commercial vendor data• Data about consumers and market research

Business Economic Statistics

Other kinds of business reference

• Finance • Organizational Behaviour• Human Resources/ Industrial Relations• Operations and logistics• Marketing• Strategy

Finance

• Corporate accounts (balance sheet, etc.)

• Financial ratios

• Corporate securities

• Venture capital finance

• Corporate valuation

OBHR (Organizational behaviour and human resources)

• OB issues – behaviour of people in organizations, intercultural communication, etc.

• HR issues – staffing, compensation, absenteeism, recruiting, motivation, etc.

• IR issues – wages and salaries, benefits, strikes and lockouts, union agreements, etc.

Marketing

• Market research (primary and secondary)– Consumer behaviour– Consumer demographics

• Marketing techniques, trends

• Competitive environment (production, sales, competition)

Operations & Logistics• Corporate logistics strategies• Manufacturing production operations • Efficiency measures and quality control• Inventory management• Distribution channels, warehousing• Transportation

Company Research

Company Research - Directories• Lam Library Company Subject Guide• Business in Vancouver’s Book of Lists• BC Manufacturer’s Directory• Strategis Canadian Company Capabilities• Hoover’s Company Records• Mergent Online

Lam Library Company Research Guide

BIV Book of Lists

• Top companies by industry in Vancouver

• Includes private companies

• Lists key executives, revenues

• Ranks companies by revenues

• Lists key products

BC Manufacturers Directory

• http://www.made-in-bc.ca/

Strategis

• http://www.strategis.ic.gc.ca/

Strategis, cntd.

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Time for a 5-minute break

Company Financials (more next week)

• Mergent Online• US & international public company database with

features that allow comparing companies and exporting data into Excel. Also contains data on companies that were acquired, went bankrupt, liquidated or merged out of existence from 1995 forward.

Corporate financial statements

• To gain a basic understanding of corporate financial statements, Google “how to read a balance sheet”

• See, for example:

• http://www.investopedia.com/articles/04/031004.asp

Corporate filings

• Public companies are required to file public documents to allow investors, shareholders to research the stock

• Canada – www.sedar.com

• US – www.sec.gov

Investment analysts’ opinions

• Investext Plus– database of reports by financial analysts– CFA’s work at investment banks, eg, Morgan

Stanley– generally only a bank’s investment clients

have access to its analysts’ reports

Free company resources

• biz.yahoo.com

• zacks.com (partially free)

• hoovers.com (partially free)

• etc.

Corporate news

• Many free sources are easily available

• Corporate websites ist press releases and some news items

• Licensed sources still very useful

• Eg, ABI/Inform, Business Source Premier EBSCO), Factiva, Lexis Nexis

Industry research• Market value (industry revenues)• Employees• Market segments• Market share (by company)• Competitive landscape• Companies• Outlook

Industry research sources

• Governments and NGO’s

• Industry associations

• Private vendors (eg, Datamonitor, Standard & Poor’s, Mergent, Freedonia, Frost & Sullivan)

Industry research - Datamonitor

• Datamonitor industry reports are available directly from Datamonitor or through aggregators such as Business Source Premier

• Basic industry profile

• How would you expand this?

Industry Research - Factiva

• Dow Jones/Reuters database

• Business news, company news and profiles

• Multilingual

• Global

Specialized database - FOMAD• Bibliographic database; abstracts often offer data

• Detailed analyses of international food and drink markets

• Key market players, new product launches, consumer attitudes, retail trends, company news

• Key market and company information, sales, market share, consumer trends, advertising spends, production and trade statistics, industry developments worldwide

Industry research - OECD

• OECD is an NGO statistical agency

• UBC database: Source OECD

• books, journals, statistical series and databases originating from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Industry research - PerformancePlus

• interactive on-line financial performance tool to firms determine how they measure up to the competition

• allows users to enter company's financial data and compare it to industry averages

• assists business owners in making sound operational decisions

Industry research – Library Guides

• David Lam Library – Food Manufacturing Subject Guide

• Will lead user to sources such as US Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service

Your industry project• Create an online subject guide to an industry

(choose from list on handout)• Use some or all of the categories we’ve

discussed (also listed on handout)• Can include UBC-licensed resources and freely

available sources• Goal: quality not quantity