Science,
Industry and Business Library (SIBL)
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Introduction
The amount of information available both in print
and electronic format has grown exponentially over the last decade. With
the widespread popularity of online marketing in this new Internet economy,
more and more company information is becoming available. At an unprecedented
rate, companies of all flavors and sizes are putting up their own websites
and are being included in web-based directories and virtual lists.
Regardless of the abundance of data, there is still
no one definitive way for doing business research on a particular company.
As ever before, the approach that you take and the resources that you use
will depend on the type and amount of information that you have to start
with, as well as the type and amount of information that you wish to end
up with.
The Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL) can
assist you in navigating through this information efficiently and effectively.
Is the company U.S. or foreign-owned?
The importance of business location when you are trying
to find information on a company should not be underestimated since many
resources organize their information according to geographical criteria.
Coverage in these directories may range from national or regional to multi-
or international. As a rule of thumb, the more focused the
publication is on one location, the more likely it is that it will include
smaller-sized companies in that area.
Unfortunately, the more intricate the organizational structure of the company,
the more complex it usually is to uncover details about its individual parts.
For example, the company may operate in countries which differ from the place
where its headquarters is located. Alternatively, the business could be a
multinational or transnational with multiple main offices. Narrowing your
search by location will take away much of the guesswork.
(If you answer YES - follow the link to a suggested search strategy)
Is the company located in the US?
National directories focus on the companies of an individual
country. In general, these individual country directories tend to include
more listings for that particular country than do directories of international
scope.
To retrieve such directories from CATNYP (The Research Libraries' Online Catalog),
simply include the country name in your search query, along with such terms
as corporations, business enterprises, industries, etc. Browsing the list
of worldwide business directory sources
(alphabetically organized by country name) will also give you a good idea
of what is available onsite at SIBL.
Reference USA (EIC)
Includes addresses and sales information for over 10 million
U.S. companies. Very useful for locating smaller businesses as it includes
companies of all employee sizes and annual sales ranges.
D & B Million Dollar Directory
(near McGraw Desk; *R-HC102 .D8 or EIC)
Includes 160,000 alphabetically-arranged large ($500,000+ net worth, 250+
employees, or $25,000,000+ sales) public and private companies. Also available
in the EIC: Dun's
Business Locator)
Yahoo! Business and Economy: Companies: Directories: Regional:
U.S. States
http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/ Directories/Companies/
Provides links to business directories and yellow pages
that are subdivided by geographical location and which can
be searched by company name, business type, location.
Is it a local company?
Regional or local directories have a
more limited geographical scope, focusing on the state, city, county levels,
etc. These directories are often very useful for finding information on small
businesses and single location companies.
D & B regional Business Directory. New York Metropolitan
Area.
(McGraw Desk; *R-HG4058.N56.D86)
New York Metro Area companies listed alphabetically and by industry SIC code.
Hoover's Guide to the Top New York Companies
(McGraw Desk; *R-SIBL HG4955 .N7 .H66)
This alphabetical-arranged directory provides brief, one-page profiles of
the almost 1,4000 top private and public NYC companies it lists.
International Business in New York City : Directory
( McGraw Desk; *R-SIBL HG4264.3.Z65.I57)
Published annually by the Commission for International Business and United
Nation; and Weissman Center for International Business.
Is the company located abroad?
International directories are useful, particularly if
you are not certain about which country the company operates in. Moreover,
the company you are searching for may be a multi-national or trans-national
business with operations around the globe.
Principal International Businesses
(McGraw Desk; *R-HF54.U5P74 or EIC)
~50,000 public and private companies from ~145 countries are listed in this
Dun and Bradstreet directory, organized geographically.
America's Corporate Families and International Affiliates
(*R-HG4057.A146)
Another Dun and Bradstreet directory covering both private and public companies
worth over $500,000, 250+ employees, $25 million+ sales, and 2+ locations.
Over 10,000 parent US companies and over 76,000 subsidiaries, divisions,
and branches are included.
Directory of American Firms Operating in Foreign Countries
(McGraw Desk;*R-HF4538.A1 D5)
Includes information on 18,000+ affiliates and subsidiaries globally.
Europages, the European Business Directory
http://www.europages.com/
Contains information on 500,000 companies, from 30 European countries, from
all activity sectors. Includes: company address, telephone, fax and e-mail,
details on the company's products.
Teldir.com :Telephone Directories on the Web
http://www.teldir.com/eng/
This is the Internet's original and most complete index of online phone books,
with links to Yellow Pages, White Pages, Business Directories, Email Addresses
and Fax Listings from over 150 countries all around the world.
Is the company Private or Public?
Publicly-held companies (i.e. companies which sell stock to the general
public) are required to disclose certain financial information to their shareholders
and to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). For
this reason, it is often much easier to locate information on these companies
than on privately held (or closely held) companies.
Some directories may include information on public companies, some both
public and private companies, and a few may deal only with private companies.
Whichever the case may be, knowing which type of company you are looking
for will help you to avoid needlessly searching in inappropriate sources.
(If you answer YES - follow the link to a suggested search strategy)
Is it a private company?
A private or privately-held company is
one that is not raising capital by selling stock to the public. Only the
founders, employees, and possibly a few large investors (venture capitalists)
may own interest. Consequently no disclosure of information is required of
the company according to Federal Securities Laws. Whatever information a
private company makes available is completely up to the individual company.
Reference USA (EIC)
Includes addresses and sales information for over 10 million
U.S. companies. Very useful for locating smaller businesses (which tend
to also be private) as it includes companies of all employee sizes and
annual sales ranges.
Hoover's Handbook of Private Companies
(*R-HG4057.A28616)
Short company profiles of the largest US private companies are arranged alphabetically.
Ward's Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public Companies
(near McGraw Desk; *R-HF5035 .W37 or
Gale Business Resources (EIC)
Includes 90,000 US private (90%) and public companies.
Forbes 500 top private companies http://www.forbes.com/private500/
Forbes magazine makes available its list of top private
companies over the past three years.
Is it a public company?
A public or publicly-held company is one
that has shares outstanding that are available to be bought and sold by individual
investors from the public. Selling of these securities is done via trading
on the U.S. stock exchanges which identify a security for trading purposes
based on a unique letter ID called a ticker symbol.
"Going public" carries several burdens for a company
that was previously operating privately, the most important of which
is the burden of disclosure of information.Luckily
for researchers, this requirement to file detailed reports of the
company with the Securities Exchange
Comission (SEC) results in the availability of much data to the
general public.
Global Access/Disclosure (EIC)
Locate company financial information including SEC filings,
tear sheets, and earnings estimates about U.S. and international companies.
Wall Street Research Net
http://www.executivelibrary.com/Research.asp
Wall Street Research Net has over 500,000 links to company
information and 2,000 company home pages.
Wright Research Center
http://www.wrightinvestors.com/ramainnew.htm
Detailed analysis on over 18,000 companies worldwide. Categorizes the companies
by country and by industry sector.
Hoover's
http://www.hoovers.com/
Although much of the in-depth Company Profile information in Hoover's is
fee-based, company contact information is readily available for about 10000
companies. Most of these are publicly listed, US companies.
Is the company "going public" soon?
A company that is making the transition from a privately held company to
a publicly held one does so by issuing an Initial Public Offering of
stock and is referred to as an IPO company. Tracking these
companies is often tricky as they have not yet had the opportunity to establish
a paper trail.
IPO Express: Powered by EDGAR-Online
http://ipoportal.edgar-online.com/ipo/home.asp
Search the most comprehensive IPO database on the web with
over 4,000 IPO filings and information on over 1,500 underwriters.
IPO Central
http://premium.hoovers.com/global/ipoc/index.xhtml
From Hoover’s, comprehensive and reliable information on IPO filings, calendar, performance, scorecard, updates, and more.
The IPO reporter. (JBM 98-489)
Weekly publication covering the life cycles of IPOs
What type of business is it?
Generally, the type of business that the company is involved in determines
the kinds of directories in which the company gets itself listed. As most
business enterprises wish to be easily reached by their major customer pool,
it makes "good business sense" to target directories that will most likely
be used by the people in their field of business.
Such directories are valuable because they are generally created to cater
to the needs of people in that particular industry and organized in ways
that they find useful. For example, a manufacturers' directory may be searchable
by product name or brand name, while a directory of advertisers may have
a client index.
(Answer these questions and then follow the links to suggested search strategies)
In which industry is your company?
If you know which industry the company is a part of, you may decide to
use a directory which is more focused on that particular industry sector.
Industry sectors are more or less well-defined areas of the economy. Although
the North American Industry Classification
System (NAICS) is replacing the U.S. Standard Industrial Classification
(SIC) system, the categories have not changed too drastically.
It is a good idea to keep these industry classes in mind when looking for
company information. For additional guidance, use SIBL's list of industry-specific directories which
organizes selected resources by subject. Some sample sources are as follows:
Standard Directory of Advertisers
(*McGraw Desk)
Includes 6,600+ advertisers and agencies from around the world.
CorpTech Directory of Technology Companies
(*R-HG4057 .A16)
This resource provides descriptive information on over 50,000 U.S. manufacturers
and developers of high-tech products. 17 High Tech Industries are covered
and it can be searched by company name or ticker symbol.
ZDnet Company Finder
http://www.zdnet.com/
ZDNet's company finder database includes contact info on technology companies.
Just follow the links: ZDNet > Business & Tech > Enterprise > Company
Finder to get to an alphabetical listing of companies or a name searching
field.
In which activity sector is your company?
A company's involvement with a particular market or product may occur at
any of the various levels of busines activity. The company may be a producer
or manufacturer, supplier or wholesaler, retailer or service provider, etc.
Thomas Register of American Manufacturers
(near the McGraw Desk; *R-T12 .T6 and EIC)
Includes 151,000+ manufacturing companies. (Also available on the World Wide
Web: http://www.thomasregister.com).
D & B Directory of Service Companies
(*R-Econ. HD9981.3 .D86 or
Dun's Service Market Disc (EIC)
50,000+ US private and public companies listed alphabetically, geographically,
and by SIC code. Includes everything from accounting firms to advertising,
architecture, engineering, law, etc.
American Wholesalers and Distributors Directory
(McGraw Desk; *R-SIBL HF5421.G343 or
Gale Business Resources (EIC)
Covers more than 26,500 wholesalers and distributors of consumer products
in the U.S. Classified by subject, then alphabetical by company name. Indexed
by SIC, geographical, alphabetical.
Is it a minority or women-owned business?
If you know that your company is a minority or women-owned business enterprise,
chances are that it is also small. It may be a good idea to look in directories
dedicated solely to these types of companies.
D&B Minority-Owned Business Directory
(*R-HD2346.U5.D23x)
Includes listings of US companies classified as minority owned by the US
government. Covered are businesses owned by people of African American, Hispanic,
Native American, Asian, and Indian Subcontinent descent.
National Directory of Women-Owned Business Firms
(*R-HD2346.U5 N333)
This directory is organized numerically according to business type, using
the 4-digit SIC codes. Specific company names can be located by using the
alphabetically-arranged Company Index at the back of the volume.
Is it a "top-ranked" company?
The criteria for inclusion of some of the more popular general directories
are the net worth of the company, annual revenue, the number of employees,
or worse yet, paying as if for advertising. Not surprisingly, smaller-sized
companies or less established companies are often excluded from these resources
if they fail to make the cut.
Having an idea of the company's rank could therefore save you a lot of research
time since it will allow you to better judge which directories are the most
likely to contain the information you need. Consult the following business
sources which compile and rank company data:
Forbes International Company Rankings
http://www.forbes.com/companies/
Forbes Magazine makes available company lists and rankings which can be
ordered by name, country, industry, or rank. A short profile is provided
for each company on the list with links to the company's homepage.
Fortune Magazine's Fortune 500 list:http://www.pathfinder.com/fortune/fortune500/index.html
Fortune Global 500 list:
http://www.pathfinder.com/fortune/global500/index.html
Similar to Forbes, the Fortune 500 lists the largest 500 corporations
in the United States.
Hoover's Handbook of Emerging Companies
(near McGraw Desk; *R-SIBL HF5035 .E43)
Covers 500 companies thought by Hoover's editors as having demonstrated growth
and the potential for future gains based on sales growth. Includes a compendium
of lists (best small companies, fastest-growing companies, etc.)
Is it a non-profit organization?
When searching for a company, you should keep in mind that a "business" may
be operating for profit or not. As some directories may differentiate between
the two, you may have less trouble tracking a company that is not operating
for a profit by checking sources that are focused on this type of organization.
GuideStar: Non-Profit Organization Finder
http://www.guidestar.org/
GuideStar is a searchable database of more than 620,000 nonprofit organizations
in the United States.
The Foundation Directory
(*R-SIBL AS911 .A2.F65 or
Dialog@CARL (EIC)
Listing of American foundations and their fields.
Directory of Tax-Exempt Organizations
(*R-SIBL HJ2337.U6D57)
Annual publication which lists nonprofit organizations as defined by the
fact that they do not have to pay taxes as other businesses do.
The Foundation Center Library
http://fdncenter.org/newyork/index.html
79 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10003 Tel: (212) 620-4230
The Center's mission is to foster public understanding of the foundation
field by collecting, organizing, analyzing, and disseminating information
on foundations, corporate giving, and related subjects.
Why am I not finding my company?
Particularly with smaller, privately-owned companies, it is often difficult
to obtain contact information via traditional directory listings. In the
case that you do not find your company in directories organized by geographical
area, ownership, company size, or business type, you will have to begin to
troubleshoot and attempt to find an alternative route to the information.
For example, it may be that the company is too new or simply not seeking
much publicity for whatever reason and so cannot be found. In this situation,
you will have to accept that you will need to take a more creative approach
to finding the information you need. Following are some jumping-off questions
that may be helpful for you to ask.
(Follow the links to suggested search strategies for answering these questions.)
What is the company's full name?
Often, it is not because there is no information available on the company
that you cannot find any trace of it. More than likely, there is merely some
uncertainty about the correct spelling or form of the name under which the
organization is doing business.
For example, you may run into problems when searching for company names
that exist as acronyms or that include any of the following: and, &,
Co., Inc., Ltd., etc. It is also possible that the company name is a foreign
one that has been anglicized in a less than intuitive way.
Alternatively, you may have to figure out which company is behind a particular
website, patent, trademark, or brandname because the name familiar to you
may not be the company's official business name. The following resources
will help you do some of the "detective work" that may be required of you.
Brands and Their Companies / Companies and Their Brands
(*R-T223 .V4A25 / *R-T223 .V4A253 or
Gale Business Resources (EIC)
Useful if you know the name of a product the company is responsible for but
are not sure of the company's exact name. Covers trade names (product name,
trademark, brand names, etc.) and companies (alphabetically arranged separately)
which either manufacture products, distribute them (including import/export),
or market them.
Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS)
http://www.uspto.gov/web/menu/tm.html
The US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) now offers Web access to bibliographic
and full-text databases. Great for tracking companies whose product or service
is trademarked and known to you but whose official company name escapes you.
The registered trademark is not necessarily the name that the company uses
to "do business", particularly if the company has more than one product.
WHOIS database
http://www.whois.org/
This site is useful for obtaining information about or related to a domain
name registration record. A domain name is a way to identify and locate computers
and resources connected to the Internet. No two organizations can have the
same domain name, so if the business has a website registered, you will uncover
the company responsible for it.
What are the company's corporate affiliations?
Another reason the company may be evading you is that all of the information
appears under its parent/sister or subsidiary company--and not itself. Since
the quality of indexing does vary from publication to publication, it may
simply be that the directory you have been using lists all details on the
company under the entry for the holding company or larger corporate family
of which it is a part or is connected to. Use the following titles to help
you unravel the business links and organizational ties.
America's Corporate Families and International Affiliates
(*R-HG4057.A146)
Another Dun and Bradstreet directory covering both private and public companies
worth over $500,000, 250+ employees, $25 million+ sales, and 2+ locations.
Over 10,000 parent US companies and over 76,000 subsidiaries/divisions/branches
are included.
Directory of Corporate Affiliations
(near McGraw Desk; *R-HG4057 .A217)
This 5 volume set includes a separate volume for US public companies and
another for private ones. These are extremely useful for figuring out the "family
tree of every major corporation in America". Along with information on the
parent company is provided details about subsidiaries, divisions and affiliates.
It is very useful for figuring out who owns whom.
Global Access (EIC)
Locate company financial information including SEC filings, tear sheets,
and earnings estimates about U.S. and international companies. Because
it permits full-text searching, you can search for subsidiaries and affiliates
by name.
Who are the company's directors and officers?
Seeking information about a company that a particular person works for
but for which you do not know the name can be difficult using general directories.
Most do not necessarily index the names of chief officers or products even
though this is often the only clues that researchers have to work with.
Luckily, there are directories dedicated specifically to providing this
type of information. Deciding on which of these to use will be easier if
you are aware of the type of organizational structure that the company operates
under (ie. if there is a single owner or the types of managing executives).
Standard & Poor's Register of Corporations, Directors,
and Executives
(near McGraw Desk; *R-HG4057 .A4
or Standard & Poor's Net Advantage in EIC)
Vol. 1 includes entries for 55,000+ public and private US companies. Vol.
2 contains biographies of directors and executives. Geographical, SIC classification,
and Corporate family group indexes available.
Dun's Million Dollar Directory
(near McGraw; *R-HC102.D8 or EIC)
Great for finding information about a specific company or companies with
similar attributes. Contains over 1,300,000 U.S. leading public and private
business records which can be searched for executives by name, company, title
and/or biography.
Index to Marquis Who's Who publications
(McGraw Desk; *R-Z5301 .M37a .CT104)
Index which allows you to search by the name of the executive's name in order
to find out which Marquis publication has a biographical profile on that
person. Profiles usually include career histories where company names will
appear.
Is the company still in business?
Although you should not jump to this conclusion too early in your research,
there is always a possibility that the company you are looking for has ceased
to exist or has undergone some organizational changes. Consequently, it may
no longer be doing business under its former name. If the resources you are
using are fairly recent they may now only list the company under the new
name.
Instead, you should turn to resources that will let you determine if the
company has disappeared due to business failure, whether they have undergone
corporate change activities such as a merger, an acquisition, leveraged buyout,
or consolidation, etc., or if the company has been involved in bankruptcy
or liquidation. Try some of the following sources:
Capital Changes Reporter
(Financial Services)
For public companies, provides a chronological list of dividends, stock splits,
name changes, mergers, acquisitions, and other changes in corporate capital
and debt structure.
Troubled Company Reporter
http://www.bankrupt.com/news_archive/
Daily electronic newsletters distributed to paying subscribers. However,
this archive includes (for free) newsletters which are now older than 90
days.
Standard & Poor's Register of Corporations
(Financial Services) or
Standard and Poor's NetAdvantage (EIC)
Standard & Poor's corporation descriptions companies. The electronic
version includes Bond Guide, Corporation Records, Dividend
Record, Earnings Guide, Industry Surveys, Mutual
Fund Reports, The Outlook, Standard & Poor's Register, Stock
Guide, and Standard & Poor's Stock Reports.
Company Histories (or International
Directory of Company Histories)
(near McGraw Desk; *R-Econ. HD2721 .I58 1988)
Provides detailed information on the historical development of the world's
largest and most influential public, private and state-controlled companies.
Of which trade associations is the company a member?
Smaller or privately-owned companies depend heavily on trade associations
for help in looking after and promoting their industry's interests. Consequently,
these associations are a wealth of information as they collect a great deal
of information on their member companies. This information is usually made
available via association websites and publications since marketing is an
important role of these groups.
Using the directories of associations suggested below, you can identify
the trade associations that the company may be a member of and obtain company
contact information through these organizations. (Do note that some of the
information put out by associations may be restricted to their members only).
Encyclopedia of Associations
(McGraw Desk; *R-AS8 .E53)
This Gale Research, Inc. publication contains information on ~87,000 associations
across the globe, including contact information and their publications.
National Trade and Professional Associations of the United
States.
(McGraw Desk; *R-HD2425 .D53)
Alphabetically-arranged directory of ~76,000 trade & professional associations,
including labor unions. Can look up names in the Indexed by acronym, by subject,
and by geography, among other things.
Directory of Associations Online
(Gateway to Associations Online)
http://www.asaecenter.org/Directories/AssociationSearch.cfm?navItemNumber=16581
This website directory service is provided by the American Society of Association
Executives. The Gateway can be searched by keyword that the Association name
contains or by the business category/keyword provided in a drop-down menu.
