BRASS Selected Core Resources - COMPANY AND INDUSTRY RESEARCH  

Seeking company information is the most common form of business research. It may involve obtaining a telephone number to make a consumer purchase or complaint, retrieving financial data to decide whether or not to invest in or do business with a company, or preparing for a job interview.

The amount of information that you will be able to find will vary greatly. A wealth of information is available on public companies. (See also Core Competencies in Finance/Investment for additional sources of information on public companies, particularly if you are seeking investment information.) Conversely, it will be more difficult to find much data on private companies, especially very small private companies.

Once you find the company information you need, you may want to put the information into a larger perspective by obtaining information on the industry in which your company is involved. Seeking industry information, whether as part of company research or a research project on its own, is perhaps the second most common form of business research.

See the BRASS Best of the Best Business Web Sites (Free Resources) LibGuide on American Corporations for quick links of selected, highly-useful resources on this topic.