STCM 10300: Introduction to Strategic Communication
Learning Objectives
Today I'll introduce some databases that are used for company and industry research. You'll learn:
- Companies are part of industries. You can identify that industry with a NAICS code and search on the whole industry. A company can be part of multiple industries and have more than one industry code.
- Business databases such as ABI Inform and Business Source Premiere are excellent sources for business news and scholarship. If you know the ticker symbol, business databases typically allow you to search using it.
- Nexis Uni and Business Insights include company profiles for background. They provide NAICS industry codes that can be used for searching industry information. Nexis Uni includes Hoover's directory that can offer an overview of a company.
- When you are researching a publicly traded company you can look at the 10K reports. Be sure to find the Investor Relations website.
- Statista is an easy to use resource for finding statistics on companies.
- NetAdvantage is an online business source that can provide an overview of an industry.
- Trade Associations may also provide industry news. Some information may be for members only, however.
Best Bets: Databases
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Business Insights (Gale) (Formerly known as Business Insights: Essentials)If you need company, industry or association information, this is a good start. Compare it to Nexis Uni's Company Dossier. Note that information from trade association websites can be helpful.
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Nexis Uni (LexisNexis)In addition to news and legal information, find the Company Dossier under the search box & Find a Company. Try searching for company news: company(Uber Technologies). Includes Hoover's directory.
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Business Source Premier (EBSCO)Try search by company or industry. I use this database for scholarly articles.
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ABI/INFORM Collection (ProQuest)Try searching by company name or industry code. This database has fulltext access to the Wall Street Journal.
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StatistaA statistics portal that provides data on over 80,000 topics from more than 10,000 different sources. The content is purely aggregated statistics, geared towards business and marketing statistical needs, with a focus on current awareness. Easy-to-use infographics and tables are available for download as images to insert into presentations.
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NetAdvantage (S&P)From Standard & Poor's, Click on the Markets tab. > Market Research > Industry Survey. Browse the Headlines column for surveys and then open the most recent one.
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EBSCO Research LibraryThis searches across all the indexes on the EBSCO platform including Communication Source and Business Source Premier.
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Communication Source (EBSCO)
Contains content from communications journals, magazines and other publications, covering related disciplines including linguistics, rhetoric and discourse, speech-language pathology, and media studies.
Contents: Indexing, abstracts, and full-text articles. 1900-present.
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ScienceDirectThis is a "journal collection" rather than an aggregated database. All the content is by one publisher: Elsevier. It has a lot of good public relations journals, however.
Keep Informed
Sign up for alerts through trade journal site or professional organizations; you can also follow them in Twitter, Google+ or Facebook. Library databases offer alerts but require you to create accounts first; library databases may offer full text holdings whereas the online journal's site may offer partial full-text to non-subscribers (this is called a paywall to help generate memeberships or subscriptions).
Some trade sites to follow:
- Advertising Try AdAge, AAF, or MediaPost (free membership)
- Public Relations: Try Ragan's PR Daily News or PR News
- Communications Strategy: Try SmartBrief on Leadership or Ragan Communications
