Welcome Cornerstone Students!

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BUSX 301:

Company & Industry Research

Shana Gass, MSLSsgass@towson.eduReference Librarian, Cook Library

September 2010

Your assignment

• What do you need to know?

• Which sources would you

consult to find out?

Company Web Site• Good first step

– Look at the Investors / Investor Relations Section.

– Due Dilligence:Consult Annual Report and/or 10-K.

• Additional sources– Sources that come from outside the company

– news & analysis– Sources about competitors & the industry as a

whole

Cook Library Business Subject Gateway

Company & Industry Info - Exercise

• Teams divide & conquer • All sources – link from Business

Subject Gateway• Ask questions!• Be ready to report on your source• 15 min.

Company Dossier, in the LexisNexis Academic • Blend of sources (like Yahoo Finance)

• Snapshot – background info

• Financials & ratios

• News

• Competitors

• Stock info, investment analysis

• Law cases & patents

• Custom reports!

LexisNexis is a Cook Library Database

Value Line• Industry & Company Information

• Investment perspective

• Financials & Stock performance

• Analysis

• Ranking of companies & industries Timeliness =

how well VL thinks stock will perform in next 6-12 mos. 1 is the best

Safety = VL’s measure of volatility1 is the least volatile

• Use the Investor Tools tab to learn about it!

Cook Library Database

Value Line – First Screen

Value Line – Lookup Company

Value Line – Searching for a Company

A Company Stock Report

The Value Line Investor Tools Section

Standard & Poor’s NetAdvantage – Industry Surveys• Environment

• Trends

• How the industry operates

• How to analyze the industry (using ratios, etc.)

• Financials for leading companies

• Sources of Industry info

Industry publications

Trade associations

Government agencies which regulate industry

Cook Library Database

Datamonitor Company SWOT Analyses

• In Business Source Complete• Steps:

Do a simple search for company name

• Under narrow by source…click on …SWOT Analyses

• CAUTION: Datamonitor reports embargoed for academic market – may be a bit old

In a Cook Library Database

Annotated Bibliography

• List of sources on a topic• APA Format• Summarize & evaluate each source

in turn• How does each source contribute to

your project?• How does each source relate to the

other sources?

Bibliography Entry for an Article (HTML)

from a Database (Business Source Complete)

in APA

Liao, D.M. (1999). Leader of the pack.

The China Business Review, 26(6),

28+. Retrieved from Business Source

Complete database.

Read…and Question!

• Author – who & how qualified?• Source – what is it?

What kind of publication? Who reads it? What is its reputation?

• Evidence – people or publications quoted? Statistics included? Context provided?

• Bias/Point of view? What does the author want readers to know, do, or believe?

Finding Articles - Exercise

• Teams collectively finding 3-4 types of articles

• 3 must be found using library databases• Use Big 4 handout• Be picky!• Ask questions• 10 minutes

Press Releases

• Mainly good news(New products, awards, expansion…)

• Publicizing unseen innovations (possibly HR related)

• Feel good stories! Social marketing…

• Quarterly financial announcements

• Bad news – occasionally (it’s gotta be pretty bad)

A Press Release about a Press Release

• General Mills Probes Fake Release – Wall Street Journal, 17 June 2010

Best source of news about the Toyota recall?

Press Releases Can Also Be Found…

• …In LexisNexis Academic• …In Factiva• Look for:

– Articles labeled as being from Business Wire or PRNewswire (there are others)

– At bottom of article: info about the organization who wrote the release, contact info for Media or Investor Relations personnel

Press Release from Factiva

End of Press Release from Factiva

Press releases in library databases will always end

with info about the organization(s) that put out

the release

The Wild Web…

Always consider: who is writing? What does s/he/they have at stake?

A blog – who is the author?

A web site – who is responsible for it?

Blogs are Important Enough in the Business World, that..• …selected blogs are now included in the

Factiva & LexisNexis databases!

Annotation Hints – Source Level

• Source as context• Clues in databases• Publication homepage• Also try publication directories

– Magazines for Libraries– SRDS Media (library database) > Magazine

Advertising Source (including Media Kit for readership)

More Hints – Author Level

• Journalists - not necessarily a lot of info• Try LinkedIn.com ?• Academic authors – credentials always

included in piece• What else has author published?• Awards?

More Hints – Document Level

• Reviews?• Links to?• Blog commentary?• Letters to the editor?• Has it been cited by other authors?

More Research Tips!

• http://pages.towson.edu/sgass/courses

• > BUSX

Questions?

…feel free to contact me!

Shana Gass (410) 704-2395 sgass@towson.edu *preferred

Or any reference librarian:

Cook Library Web Site > Ask a Librarian for options