Selected Company and/or Industry Sources

Infomart: A suite of databases from Financial Post Datagroup. Includes a wealth of information on Canadian publicly traded companies organized by key product category including Company Snapshots; Companies by Industry; Corporate Surveys; Predecessor & Defunct; Analyzer Search; Investor Reports (formerly blue sheets); Historical Reports (formerly yellow cards); Dividends; and New Issues. Use the Glossary to understand how beta is calculated

The Industry Reports section provides comparative data on the key Canadian public companies in each industry and provides general industry statistics and financial ratios. Also look at Companies by Industry for a list of companies within selected industries.

The Additional Databases link will lead you to Profile Canada for directory information on private companies. No financials are included.

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. Industry reports include information on both the U.S. and Canadian sectors.

Mergent Horizon: Provides information on US and a few Canadian public companies. It highlights the relationships between a company’s major customers, suppliers and partners and maps companies from the bottom up, based on actual products and services. Includes institutional shareholders (see link on left side of screen when company report is displayed).

Maketline Advantage : The Marketline Advantage database is divided into Industry, Country, and Company. It covers SWOT company profiles for over 2500 public and private enterprises worldwide, accessing fast and reliable insights on thousands of industry sectors including Porter’s Five Forces analysis, accessing a top-level view of the business landscape in over 110 countries.

Click the camera to watch a video about finding a SWOT analysis using Datamonitor360

Factiva: In addition to news and magazine articles, a good source for financial data and information on competitors as well as ratio comparison reports. Click on the Companies/Market link at the top of the web page and do a company search. Click on ‘Reports’ and select the type of report you want, e.g. Ratio comparison report provides data on the company, its industry and sector and also the S&P 500 Index companies. Use the Glossary to understand how beta is calculated. To access the Glossary, display the company record, click on Financial Reports and the Glossary will appear on the right hand side of the screen.

NetAdvantage: Standard & Poor’s database provides comprehensive information on business and investment information, offering on-line access to popular Standard & Poor’s research products such as Industry Surveys, Stock Reports and Corporation Records. Use the Corporate Bond Reports for company bond information. Use the Glossary to understand how the beta is calculated. There are industry reports for about 50 US industries.

Investext Plus : A database providing global company and industry research and forecasts, reports from key brokerage firms and SDC merger and acquisition reports. Use Screening and Analysis tab to search for industry information.

Hoovers: A Dun and Bradstreet database with coverage of 40,000 companies worldwide including some private companies. Includes an overview, competitors, financial information, company and industry ratios, industry reports, SIC and NAICS codes, and links to the SEC filings.

Business Monitor: contains quarterly surveys and forecasts on Canadian and U.S. industries. Available on the network but restricted to the York University community.

Bloomberg : is a real-time financial service that provides current and historical data, news and financial analysis of companies, stocks, bonds, and indices.Economic statistics are also available. Use Bloomberg to find BETA, WACC, Bond, Equity data, bankruptcy info, leveraged buyouts and more. To search for U.S. industry information type IBQ for a list of industries available. Restricted to the York University Community and available in the Bronfman Library only.

Damodaran Online: website of Aswath Damodaran, Professor of Finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University. Contains updated tables of data related to the courses he teaches on valuation, portfolio management and applied corporate finance. Includes historical industry beta, along with a wealth of other data. To understand how beta is calculated, click on Research and Papers and then ctrl F type – beta – to find document that explains this.

Plunkett Research: provides research and trends analysis on a variety of industries, including energy, e-commerce, retailing and finance. In addition to the industry reports, it includes statistics, charts and profiles of leading companies. Primarily US information but some Canadian information is available.

Finance Yahoo In addition to news and general business information, this Web site contains US company profiles, charts, historical data and analysis. Canadian company information is available but not as detailed as for US companies. See the Glossary to understand how the beta is calculated. The formula is included in this glossary definition.

SEDAR: This website provides access to documents filed by public companies and mutual fund groups with Canadian securities regulatory authorities . Filings from 1997 to present are available.

EDGAR : The US Security and Exchange Commission’s database of public company information including 10k reports for public traded companies.

Industrial Classification Codes

The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) is a useful tool for identifying key companies within an industry and conceptualizing the industry as a whole. SIC codes group together companies based on the goods and services produced.

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is an industrial classification system common to Canada, United States and Mexico. Gradually, the SIC system will be phased out in favour of the NAIC system. There are some differences however so if questions arise you will need to refer to:

Canada – NAICS 2007

SIC codes are still used in a number of databases and print reference resources. In some cases, the SIC codes used in Canada differ from those used in the U.S. A print version of the SIC table of codes is found in the Canadian Key Business Directory available in the Bronfman Business Library Reference Room. The Line of Business section groups Canadian businesses by SIC code. SIC codes for Canada are also available on Statistics Canada’s web site .

U.S. Census Bureau: NAICS

Industry Trends and Analysis

In addition to the industry reports mentioned in the databases above, government websites and print resources are also useful tools for finding information about industries.

Industry Canada for business and industry includes industry surveys, company directories, and patent and trademark databases. Much of the information on individual industries is found under Information by Industrial Sector and also via Canadian Industry Statistics . These are good sources for information on manufacturing industries and the high technology sector. This site has limited information on service industries.

Statistics Canada Publications . This is an index of all Statistics Canada publications available on the Internet as part of the York University Libraries depository library status. Divided into key subject categories including Primary Industries, Commerce and Manufacturing which all include publications of relevance to different industry sectors in Canada.

ESTAT and CANSIM : provide two different interfaces for access to Statistics Canada’s computerized database which containing over 730,000 time series. It is a detailed source of Canadian economic data collected by Statistics Canada and other agencies, including the Bank of Canada. Examples of the data available include the System of National Accounts, Labour, Manufacturing, Finance, and Agriculture. Available in the libraries to members of the York University community only.

Market Share Reporter: HF 5410 M33. A print 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. Latest edition in Bronfman Reference.

Value Line Investment Survey : Provides short introductory reports on each industry and detailed 1-2 page reports on the key companies in each industry. Located in the Bronfman Business Library Reference Room and the call number is HG 4501 V26.

Standard & Poors Analysts’ Handbook . Provides industry statistics and financial ratios for over 100 industries in the US. Includes income accounts and balance sheet items, as well as sales, profit margins, earnings, dividends, capital expenditures, etc… Available in the Bronfman Business Library Reference room and the call number is HG 4519 S772.

Statistics Canada Publications

SME Benchmarking Tool (formerly Performance Plus) :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. This tool will assist you in making sound operational decisions.”

Factiva : You can find ratio comparisons using Factiva. Select Company from the buttons at the top of the screen. Search for a company and then click on Reports and select Ratio Comparison Report for a data on the company compared with the sector, industry and S&P 500 companies.

Financial Performance Indicators: A Statistics Canada datafile containing key financial ratios by industry including the net profit margin, pretax profit margin, return on equity and liabilities to assets. Available on a stand-alone workstation in the Bronfman Business Library.

RMA Annual Statement Studies: financial ratio benchmarks . HF 5681 B2 R6 . Arranged by NAICS. Available in the Bronfman Business Library Reference Room.

Articles about Companies and Industries

Information on companies and industries may be found by searching the following databases for newspaper, journal, trade and magazine articles.

Click the camera to watch a video about using articles databases for research. This video focuses on two articles databases (ABI Inform Global and Business Source Premier), but the concepts and tools are largely the same across most articles databases. (note this video is in the process of being revised)

ProQuest Business : This link allows you to access the 6 preselected ProQuest business databases. The 6 databases are ABI/Inform Global, ABI/Inform Trade and Industry, CBCA Business, CBCA Current Events, ProQuest Asian Business and Reference, ProQuest European Business. These databases contain citations and abstracts for business and management publications, many of which are available in full-text or full-image. This resource incorporates management, industry and company-specific information of both a practical and theoretical nature. Subjects covered include: finance, public administration, marketing, management, economics, taxation, telecommunications, corporate strategies, competitive and product information.

Business Source Premier : contains full text for 7,792 periodicals and other sources, including scholarly journals, trade and general business magazines, monographs, country economic and industry reports, industry yearbooks, and market research reports.

Factiva : includes nearly 9,000 sources from 118 countries in 22 languages, including more than 120 continuously updated newswires. For newspapers, the service provides same-day and archival coverage of The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Washington Post, The Globe and Mail, National Post, Toronto Star, Financial Times, Les Echos, South China Morning Post, Australian Financial Review, Sydney Morning Herald, Straits Times, Yomiuri Shimbun, and local newspapers from every corner of the globe. General business and industry publications like The Economist, Forbes, Fortune, Time, Newsweek, Finanz & Wirtschaft, Satellite News, BusinessWeek, and more are also covered.

Lexis-Nexis Academic: Lexis-Nexis service makes available over 30,000 news, business, and legal information sources. Included are current international newspapers, as well as comprehensive company and industry reports.Information available includes trade and marketing reports, patent details, merger and acquisition analysis, country reports and industry and legal publications. Lexis-Nexis also provides access to numerous reference tools, including biographical information, company directories, quotations and Who’s Who titles.

Citing Sources

Once you have selected relevant business books, articles, web sites or other items for your research, one important final step involves compiling an accurate list of references or citations to incorporate within your marketing plan assignment. There is a section on the Bronfman Business Library web site at http://www.library.yorku.ca/ccm/BG/index.htm under Starting Your Research entitled Citation and Writing Guides at http://www.library.yorku.ca/ccm/BG/guides/citation-guides.htm. This link leads you to the information you need. These guides tell you how to cite many types of resources and illustrate how to cite both print and electronic resources including web sites.

On that page you will find Michigan State University’s Gast Library guide to citing business sources using APA style that includes many of the resources that are available to York University students, faculty and staff. Also you will find examples of MLA citations to business resources that we have in the Bronfman Business Library by using the How to Cite Business Sources in MLA.

For citing unusual resources such as blogs, personal emails, multimedia etc., see net.Tutor Quick Guide:Citing Net Resources.

An online tutorial on Academic Integrity is also available on the York Libraries web site. This explores the issues of plagiarism and related matters. York’s policy and procedures on academic honesty are outlined. The tutorial also offers the opportunity for you to do a self-test allowing you to assess your own understanding of issues relating to academic integrity.

Created by Elizabeth Watson and Toni Olshen YUL/BBL January 2011 Revised by Elizabeth Watson January 2012