LibGuides: PCOM5100: Integrated Communications: Researching Companies and Organizations

Searching for information on Companies

In general more information will be availalbe on public companies or larger organizations.
Check out the company/organization webpages, documents. Are there corporate responsibility, ethics, sustainability or similar plans? What is the mission?
What can you determine about the companies image? How does the company/org currently promote its products/services?
Find out as much as you can about the product. brand or service that will be the topic of your PR plan

SEC Documents

Securities & Exchange Commission

Most companies will post their primary SEC filings, such as the 10-K reports, in the investor's section of their company webpage.

Edgar
Direct link to SEC filings. Key reports are 10-K, 10-Q, DEF (proxy statements) and 424 (prospectuses)

Profiling a Company, Organization, or industry

Business Market Research Collection
This database contains company, industry, economic and geopolitical market research from three sources: Hoover's Company Profiles - covering 40,000 global public and non-public companies including financials, competitors, officers, and more; OxResearch - succinct articles covering regional economic and political developments of significance; US and Worldwide Industry and Market Reports from Barnes Reports - covering global industries in depth; and Snapshots - market research overviews on 40+ industries and 40 countries.
Company Dossier in Nexis Uni
Nexis Uni's Company Dossier is a search and reporting tool that allows you to get comprehensive information on a company. Nexis Dossier mines data from numerous company and financial sources for more than 240,000,000 public and private companies worldwide. You can use this database to find a company, create a company list, and compare companies based on various data points.
Company Profiles in Business Source Premier
Company Profiles are a segment of the Business Source Premier database. Provided by MarketLine (formerly Datamonitor), there are currently over 14,000 profiles available for a wide variety of companies. The profile reports typically include a company overview, key facts, a business description and history, information about key employees, major products and services, top competitors, perspectives from the company, and details about locations and subsidiaries.
Geographic Information (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
This section of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) site provides a substantial amount of economic, labor force, and industry data organized by states and regions in the U.S.
GuideStar [Free personal account required]
The GuideStar database provides information on nonprofit organizations. It lists information on every nonprofit registered with the IRS as tax exempt, as well as data on former nonprofits. GuideStar obtains the information from the nonprofits themselves, the federal government, and partners in the nonprofit sector. Individuals who create a free personal account with GuideStar can obtain a nonprofit organization's full address and contact information; mission, programs, goals, and results; up to three years of Forms 990; revenue and expense data for the current fiscal year; and CEO, Board Chair, and Board of Directors information.
Industries at a Glance (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
This section of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) site provides data for over 100 different industries, featuring a current "snapshot" of national data obtained from different BLS surveys and programs.
Yahoo Finance
Many of the financial sites such as Yahoo Finance also provide access to investor comments.

Other Perspectives

How can you investigate the perspectives of various stakeholders on a specific company? First, search for articles on the company in the key business databases. Second, look for webpages from various stakeholders or groups monitoring companies. Explore social media sites as well.