This guide is an introduction to sources for industry, customer, competitor, and market research analysis to create business plans. It highlights some of the key research tools available but it is not intended as a comprehensive list of sources. The sources listed below are mostly available electronically via York University Libraries Web site or the Internet. Some are available in print at the Bronfman Business Library, S237, Schulich School of Business.

This guide has the following sections:

• General library information
• Business plan guides/resources
• Company profiles/competitor analysis
• Industry analysis
• Finding articles to gather company and industry intelligence
• Financial resources
• Market research resources
  • Market research reports
  • Demographics
• Advertising and branding resources
• Citing sources

General Library Information

Library Homepage The Library’s homepage is your portal to the library catalogue, where you will find our extensive collection of print and electronic materials (Books and eBooks, journals and eJournals, databases, videos, maps, etc.), as well as to information about the libraries, research issues such as citation and finding the materials you need, and practical tasks like booking study rooms, or renewing library books.

Undergraduate Library Guide Includes basic libraries’ information including getting a library card, hours, locations, borrowing/renewing materials, library eResources links and information, connecting to eResources from home and more.

Bronfman Business Library web site

Help with Research Bronfman Business Library’s Help with Research page includes contact information for research help at the library, and access to a variety of research guides that are helpful for conducting business research.

Business Plan Guides/Resources

Guidelines  on how to prepare a business plan including templates:

• The Canada Business Network website offers help on how to write a sound business plan, how to conduct market research and access templates and sample business plans. Check out the section of their web site titled Business Planning.
• The Toronto Public Library’s SmallBizXpress has links to a number of valuable business resources related to planning a business.
• Books 24 X 7 – This database has full-text books that provide both practical advice on preparing and creating business and marketing plans and also gives examples of both.
• Search the catalogue to find the print books on these topics. Generally they are located in the following call number ranges:
  • Business Plans – HD 30.28 and HD 62
  • Marketing Plans – HF 5415.13
• Business Librarians’ Bookmarks – Business Plans under Company/Industries Heading.

Sample Business Plans

• Business Plans Handbook . HD 62.7 B865 1995. Bronfman Reference.
• For free sample business plans visit Bplans.com

Company Profiles/Competitor Analysis

Publicly-Traded Companies

All companies that report to the Canadian Securities Administrator, e.g. those listed on the TSX, must file annual reports, quarterly statements, management discussion and more on SEDAR . Similarly companies traded on U.S. stock exchanges must file their documents on the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) EDGAR database. Please note annual reports on EDGAR are actually 10-K documents and not the traditional annual report.

Mergent Online: Provides information for over 10,000 U.S. public companies and almost 20,000 non-U.S. public companies. Company records include detailed business descriptions, corporate histories and financial statements

Infomart: From the Financial Post Datagroup and infomart.ca, this database features expanded news, financial, and business information. Includes a wealth of information on Canadian publicly traded companies (Corporate Reports, Corporate Surveys, Analyzer search etc.)

Marketline Advantage: Includes company profiles, SWOT analysis for larger companies, and company case studies. Provides coverage of companies in Canada, the United States and beyond.

Private Companies

It is more difficult to find information on private companies. Company websites, if they exist, are a good starting point. Hoovers provides limited information on private companies. Note the extremely useful “Build a List” option which is very useful for competitor analysis.

Infomart is a database entitled Profile Canada (click on Additional Databases on the left-hand menu) which also have limited information on private Canadian companies.

Canadian Company Capabilities: This database produced by Industry Canada provides information on about 50,000 Canadian businesses and includes hundreds of specialized manufacturing, service and product specific business directories.

There are print directories which you will find in the Bronfman Business Library Reference Room, e.g. Canadian Key Business Directory – HG 4090 Z5 C3 and Scott’s Business Directories – T 12.5 C22.

NetAdvantage. This database from Standard and Poor’s contains information about U.S. private companies. Click on the Directories tab and then scroll down to Register of Corporations, Executives and Directors. Note the option to search by private companies under Advanced Search Screeners.

Industry Analysis

Since students’ business plans in this course should focus on the development of a new technology venture, the databases below are ones that provide good coverage of technology industries.

Gartner Intraweb: Specialized e-resource for IT industry research IT issues/areas: Application development and integration, Business intelligence, Business processing management, Consumer technologies, CRM, Data management and integration, Emerging trends and technologies, Enterprise architecture, ERP and supply chain management, High-performance workplaces, IT asset management, IT management, IT operations, IT services, Mobile and wireless, Networking and communications equipment, Networking and communications services, Open source, Outsourcing, PCs, laptops and handheld services, Regulatory compliance, Security and privacy, Servers and storage, Web services. IT reports for the following industry sectors: Banking and investment services, Education, Energy and utilities, Government, Healthcare providers, Insurance, Manufacturing, Media and Retail.
Note that a York e-mail address (not a Schulich one) is needed to access this e-resource. To obtain a York e-mail address, if you don’t have one, go to http://mms.yorku.ca and sign in with Passport York. Activate your e-mail service.

Marketline Advantage: Offers industry analysis (includes five forces analysis) for Canada, United States and other countries. Includes Communications, Technology and services. Also offers many sub-industries.

MergentOnline: Offers industry reports covering current environment, sector performance, market trends, outlook, etc. for 20 industries with coverage of both Canada, the United States and beyond. Includes IT & High Technology, Telecommunications.To access industry reports select “Report Search” and then “Industry Reports” which appears beside “Equity Reports” under the series of blue tabs at the top of the screen. Select the industry and region of interest.

Industry Canada: Includes coverage of some technology-based industries including Hydrogen and fuel cells, Nanotechnologies, Ocean technologies, Life sciences.

Plunkett Research: Primarily US information but some Canadian information is available. Includes coverage of quite a few technology-based industries including: Computer software and infotech, Games, apps and social media, Green technology, Nanotechnology and MEMS, Telecommunications, Wireless, Wi-Fi, RFID and Cellular.

Netadvantage (Standard and Poors): Offers industry analysis for over 50 industries. Features U.S. coverage. Provides coverage of the following tehcnology-based industries: Communications Equipment, Computers: commercial services, Computers: consumer services and the internet, Computers: hardware, Computers: networking, Computers: software, Computers: storage and peripherals, Semiconductor equipment, Semiconductors, Telecommunications: wireless, Telecommunications: wireline.

First Research Reports via Investext Plus: Provides industry reports for the United States. Including at broadest industrial category level the following relevant categories: Technology and communications. Also offers many sub-industries. Only works with Internet Explorer. To access these reports select “Screening and Analysis” from the left-hand menu of the Investext Plus database interface. Then enter First Research in the analyst search box option. Under “Report Type” make sure that “Industry’ is checked off. If you run the search you will see all industry reports offered by First Research.

IBISWorld USA: Including at broad industry level the following industry types related to technology: Information, Professional, scientific and technical services. Also offers many sub-industries of relevance. Indeed, many of the industry reports are for smaller industries not included in Mergent, MarketLine etc.

Financial Resources

SME Benchmarking: Developed by Industry Canada, “is an interactive on-line financial performance tool to help new and established firms determine how your business measures up to the competition”. It allows you to enter your company’s financial data confidentially and compare it to industry averages. Arranged by NAICS. This tool will assist you in making sound operational decisions.

For a guide to all key library databases and tools for financial research please consult the Finance Research Guide.

Finding Articles to Gather Company and Industry Intelligence

Trade articles can be especially useful when researching specific companies or industries. Articles give practical information to people in an industry or profession including industry trends, new products or techniques and organizational news. Many different trade journals cover technology-based industries and they can be tracked using the two databases below:

Proquest Business: Simultaneously search all business & industry periodicals available through Proquest Central, including the ABI/Inform databases, concentrated publications on the pharmaceutical, banking, computing and telecommunications industries and Canadian, Asian and European business news.

Business Source Premier: Searches business periodicals and other sources, including scholarly journals, trade and general business magazines, monographs, country economic and industry reports, industry yearbooks, and market research reports.

News articles are another way of doing research on companies and industries.

Factiva: Includes news in different languages from thousands of news, business, and trade publications, newswires, and transcripts worldwide. Includes major business news sources such as the Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times,The Economist, Forbes, Fortune, Time, Newsweek, and BusinessWeek. Canadian newspaper coverage includes The Globe and Mail, The National Post, The Toronto Star and the Winnipeg Free Press.

Market Research Resources

Market Research Reports

Marketline Advantage : This database includes industry analysis and market profiles including market segmentation data for many Canadian industries. Most industry reports from MarketLine have a Porter or Five Forces analysis.

Global Market Information Database (GMID): Produced by Euromonitor, GMID provides information on countries, industries, and consumers. Demographic, economic and marketing statistics for 205 countries; historic and forecast consumer lifestyle statistics; analysis of consumer lifetsyles in 71 countries; market size and segmentation data including 4500 market research reports; profiles and rankings of 3000 leading consumer goods companies.

A ready-reference tool for marketing research and economic analysis. The information is a compilation of market share reports from marketing literature. Over 2000 corporate, brand, product, service and commodity market and SIC code information is provided for North America with especially strong coverage of the United States.

Demographics

Guide on Canada’s cities,towns, census divisions, provinces, and territories containing demographic information on markets.

Census Profile. Statistics Canada. These profiles present community-level demographic information from the 2006 and 2011 Census of Population for provinces and cities across Canada.

Toronto Neighbourhoods. Demographic information for the City of Toronto neigbourhoods based on the 2006 and 2011 Census.

SimplyMap : A web-based mapping database that lets users easily create professional looking thematic maps and reports using demographic (Statistics Canada), business and marketing data (Environics) for Canadian geographic areas. You will need to create your own login the first time you use this database.

Advertising and Branding

World Advertising Research Database (WARC): WARC provides information for the marketing, advertising, media and research communities worldwide, drawn from more than 40 international sources. It includes materials on all areas of marketing communications that spans over 45,000 papers, case studies, research reports, news items and summaries, augmented with best practice guides and statistical data.

CARD (Canadian Advertising Rates and Data) is designed for professionals involved in buying and selling advertising. Advertising rates and related data are available on every significant medium in Canada and on selected international media. It also includes statistics inluding Canadian marketing stats. CARDonline is updated daily.

Citing Sources

You should always cite the source of the information regardless of whether it is from an article, a company database, a company website or wherever. Click here if you would like to learn more about Academic Integrity and Plagiarism.

The Bronfman Business Library has prepared a How To Cite Business Sources In MLA that is based on the resources available to York University students. Here is a guide to Citing Business Sources in APA style.

Note that RefWorks, a citation management software supported by York University Libraries, may also be used free of charge to build a personal database of references and to create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA style. More information about RefWorks is available on the York University Libraries’ Web site.

Zotero is a freely available software (Firefox plug-in) which can help you import citations from your favourite databases and websites, build and format bibliographies, format citations for papers, take notes about articles and save them in your collection of citations, and save and organize pdfs, screenshots and more. Please consult York University Libraries’ Zotero web guide for detailed information on how to use Zotero. This includes a recorded Adobe Connect webinar led by three York librarians.

Course guide created by Sophie Bury. January 2013