Company history, operations, and other internal factors
home, industry, economic & legal, company organization, ethics
history/culture change/outlook operations plants workforce strategies
There are several good print and online sources of company histories; they range from brief descriptions to book-length studies.
UNISTAR
Use UNISTAR, the library catalog, to identify books about individual companies in the Rod Library collection. Some of these
books are academic studies while others are more general. Books which focus on a specific firm are listed in the
subject heading index under the name of the company. However, it is a good idea to use the UNISTAR keyword index and
allow for changes in the name of the company over the years.
*Business and Company Resource Center
Entries for many companies include
corporate chronologies and histories: start-up date, ownership changes, etc.
Entries for many companies include a history tab that when clicked leads to
*Mergent
Online (formerly called FIS Online and Moody's Manuals)
Provides financial and narrative description and analysis of about 10,000 publicly held U.S. companies.
Can get up to 15 years of financial statements and ratios. In Advanced Search, can look up companies by SIC code and create customized
tables that show variables of interest for all companies or for a specific
company in comparison with other companies in the industry.
International Directory of Company Histories
UNI Reference HD2721 .D36
Also online in *Business & Company Resource Center.
Multivolume set with two to three page histories of leading companies; pages on
companies in particular industries such as Transport Services are grouped
together. See index to all volumes at back of latest edition.
Change and outlook top
*Business
& Company Resource Center (including Investext)
*ABI/INFORM
*LexisNexis Academic
*Wall Street Journal via *ABI/INFORM
Waterloo Courier
and other newspapers
The top four tools provide a way to search for articles on
different aspects of company operations by date in order to track the latest
developments. Business & Company Resource Center includes the text of company
investment reports written by various securities analysis firms; these often
discuss outlook and make forecasts.
Privately held companies and small public ones may not be covered
extensively by national journals and newspapers but may be written about in
newspapers in the area where the company operates and is a "big fish."
The Waterloo Courier, for example, publishes articles with information about local companies
that may not be available elsewhere.
Company Press Releases
Press releases report new developments on topics such as products, services,
and other activities. Many companies archive press releases on their web
sites. Other sources such as *Business
& Company Resource Center include press releases in addition to articles
from journals. PR Newswire and BusinessWire
distribute and archive press releases from participating companies. PR
Newswire groups press releases by industry.
Press releases, like other web sites, can be faked for fraudulent purposes. One example from a few years ago is that of Emulex Corp. as described by *Business Journal. Another case, involving a fake posting to an investment discussion group and a reference to a fake Bloomberg news service web page involved PairGain, as described in the *Financial Times.
BestCalls - the
Internet's Conference Call Directory
Many publicly held companies make their quarterly earnings reports conference
calls available live through the web or as a audio file on their web site. They are
a good chance to hear top executives speak about their
recent results, operations, and the outlook. They also answer questions from
analysts and other call participants. BestCalls is a directory of companies that
offer conference calls; it also lists upcoming live calls. Requires software
such as RealPlayer; many computers in the reference desk area at Rod Library are
so equipped.
*Value Line Investment Survey
Provides descriptive and evaluative information for about 2,200 firms. Entries include
up to 16 years of key financial data,
five-year forecasts for the same financial indicators, textual
description and evaluation of the company, and beta coefficients. Companies are
grouped by industry for easy comparisons.
Operations top
*Business
& Company Resource Center
Articles on companies are subdivided by topics such as operations &
technology. Articles on Nike under this subheading discuss, for example,
expanding retail operations into Paris and use of organic cotton in active wear
products.
*Dissertations
and Theses (Dissertations Abstracts)
Indexes doctoral dissertations and master's theses; provides abstracts for
dissertations since 1980 and the first 24 pages of dissertations since
1997. Operations of a particular company may have been studied by doctoral
students.
Manufacturing & Distribution USA
UNI Reference HD9721 .M3495
Provides statistical profile of industries, such as SIC 2434 Wood Kitchen
Cabinets, including materials consumed in manufacturing. Data compiled from
various government and private sources.
EDGAR Database of
Corporate Information
U.S. public companies meeting certain thresholds must file financial
disclosure documents with EDGAR, a database maintained by the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission. This tool's search form makes it possible
to specify the company and the type of filing desired; the 10-K report, Item 2,
describes properties. This report for Maytag,
for example indicates the location of major offices and manufacturing facilities.
Company Web Sites
Company web sites sometimes list plants, facilities, and dealer locations.
Workforce and hr issues top
Company Web Sites
Some company web sites provides details about their workforce and
recruitment strategies. The UPS web page, for example, includes a fact sheet that describes the
diversity of the company work force.
*Business
and Company Resource Center
Articles on companies are subdivided by topics such as Management and
People
*Health and Human Resources Total Connect Library
Large database covering the areas of human resources; payroll; pension/benefits; employment law; safety,
OSHA, and workers comp; health law; and food and drug law. The publication types include commentary
and advice from CCH editors and experts in the field, sample policies, case studies and surveys, checklists, and the
full text of related state and federal laws. Extensive coverage of human
resource strategy issues.
LaborNet's Directory of Unions on the Internet
Labor unions may publish information about companies with whom they have
contracts. The Teamsters, for example, provide extensive
information about their relations with UPS.
National
Industry Occupation Employment Matrix
U.S. government study that reports which occupations are employed in a
particular industry, such as local and long distance trucking services, giving
percentages of the total.
O*Net Online
For more than 1,100 occupations, explains characteristics of the worker
and requirements of the work. The record for delivery service truck drivers, for
example, describes the mental and physical demands of the job.
Manufacturing & Distribution USA
UNI Reference HD9721 .M3495
Provides statistical profile of industries, such as SIC 2434 Wood Kitchen
Cabinets, including occupations employed in the industry. Data compiled from
various government and private sources.
Monster.com
Job databases such as this one can be searched to find postings by
particular companies. Such ads can reveal kinds of work being done or planned at
a particular company.
*ABI/INFORM,
*Wall Street Journal via ABI/INFORM, *Business
and Company Resource Center
Combining the company name and strategy-related search terms will bring up
articles from academic journals and business magazines and newspapers.
Company Web Sites
Some company web sites summarize company strategy.
10-K Report
Item 1 of this annual report to the SEC provides an overview of the company
business and often discusses company strengths and strategies.
*Health and Human Resources Total Connect Library
The Personnel Practices Explanations section (under the Human Resources
tab) contains numerous strategy-related articles on topics such as hr planning,
recruiting, training, and employee communication.
BestCalls - the
Internet's Conference Call Directory
Many publicly held companies make their quarterly earnings reports conference
calls available live through the web or as a audio file on their web site.
Company executives sometimes address strategic issues in these calls.
Registration is sometimes required to listen to such calls.
BestCalls is a directory of companies that offer conference calls; it also lists upcoming live calls. Requires software such as RealPlayer; many computers in the reference desk area at Rod Library are so equipped.
home, industry, economic & legal, company organization, ethics
Stan Lyle
lyle@uni.edu
Rod Library
May 8, 2007