Business Research Guides 

Getting Started  Competitors Marketing Journal Articles Patents/technology  Business Plans    Regulations, Laws and Policy

 Getting Started 

US Census Bureau Contains 2000 NAICS and 1987 SIC industry codes and explanations of why and where these codes are used. When searching for your industry's code it is easier to browse the NAICS list than find a particular industry using a keyword search. Try typing in the best one keyword description of the industry you are looking for and then browse through the results for the best match. When you click on the NAICS number you will get to a page with the corresponding SIC. Sometimes searching for an industry can be tricky so try to think of synonyms. For example: if you are looking for the NAICS/SIC for used car dealers and type "car" into the search box the resulting list will include car manufacturers and car detailers but no car dealers. However, if you type in "automobile" the results list will include automobile dealerships, used.

US Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy   Includes State Economic Profiles with the number of firms, industry composition, small business income, banking, women & minority ownership and employment.

Wall Street Journal's Startup Journal features articles of interest to small business start-ups and owners; check out the 'How-To', 'Ideas', 'Franchising', 'Financing', 'E-Commerce', and 'Running A Business' tabs.

Internal Revenue Service: Small Business/Self-Employed calls itself a "one-stop resource" broad range of resources and forms across federal and state agencies; includes the small business tax calendar and tax topics for businesses.

 Books: Use Yale University Library catalogs to find books on topics such as small business and entrepreneurship: Orbis: Yale Library Catalog Yufind (Yale web2.0 catalog)  Morris Yale Law Library catalog)

Competitors

Thomson One   is the primary source for documents on companies traded on the major U.S. stock exchanges, such as annual reports filed with the SEC; also includes international annual reports and Worldscope data. Main features: 1. Analysis and custom reports on venture deals and IPOs. From the left-handside navigatin panel, Slect Private Equity for VC or PE deals; select Deals Analysis >Equity for IPO data. 2. Ability to create custom sets of both public and private companies based on your selected criteria or use "Peer companies" group and create a side-by-side performance reports basec on criteria such as financials, market data, etc. 3. Anaylsts reports (IE Browser only): Select Research link int the  left-hand side navigation column to find analysts' research on  companies and industries.

Standard & Poor’s NetAdvantage Click on the Industries tab in the blue bar at the top of the on the main page. Look for your industry in the list in the drop down menus in Industry Surveys or Sub-Industry Reviews. If you are not sure which of the which of S&P's industries best matches the one you are researching and you know the name of a public company industry you are interested in, try searching for that company in the Search by Company section. Example: if you are interested in the Wine Industry entering the company name Robert Mondavi Corp in Industry Surveys will result in a Survey of the Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco Industry. Entering the same name in Sub-Industry Reviews will result in a shorter report on Distillers & Vintners.

ISI Emerging Markets Delivers hard-to-get information on more than 70 emerging markets in Asia, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe. It provides access to full-text news, articles, financial statements, company information, industry analyses, equity quotes etc.

Reference USA is an online database that provides information on over ten million US businesses. Companies can be searched by name, location, type of business, business size, or any combination of these features. Hint: Scroll to the bottom of the screen to search for similar or complementary companies located nearby.

Value Line Research Center and Value Line Historical Provide a comprehensive source of information and advice on approximately 1,700 stocks, more than 90 industries, the stock market, and the economy.

Factiva  click on 'Companies/Markets and Company and enter ticker or company name--includes a Competition List from Reuters Research.

Lexis-Nexis Click on Business, Search by company name, Key Competitors from Hoovers Company Records appear on the bottom of the right hand column.

Plunkett Research Online Provides business intelligence, industry trends, statistics, market research, sales leads & corporate profiles and in depth analysis of top companies. Includes hard to track industries such as biotechnology, nanotechnology and e-commerce.

 Marketing    

Business Insights contains a series of management reports which are produced in association with Datamonitor, a leading international market research company with a reputation for independent analysis of market and industrial sectors. Sectors covered include: ENERGY | CONSUMER GOODS | FINANCE | HEALTHCARE | TECHNOLOGY

 eMarketer  Provides market research and trend analysis on Internet, e-business, online marketing, media and emerging technologies. Aggregates and analyzes information from over 3,000 sources, and brings it together in analyst reports, daily research articles and the eStat Database (a compilation of e-business and online marketing statistics.

Euromonitor GMID Consumer market size for over 330 products including meat, fish, dairy products, confectionery, beverages, tobacco, household cleaning, etc. and demographic trends, economic trends, banking and finance, import/export, labor force indicators, industrial production, environmental data, consumer expenditure patterns, retail sales, literacy and more.

Mintel Market research reports covering US and International marketplaces. Combines data & analysis of the competitive landscape, market-share analysis, trending data and consumer profiles. Complex demographic issues are broken into easy-to-understand sections, explaining consumer behavior and demonstrating the structure of the market.

SimplyMap   (Includes data from the U.S. Census, EASI Analytics, and Mediamark MRI.)  SimplyMap is a Web-based mapping application that lets users quickly create professional-quality thematic maps and reports using powerful demographic, business, and marketing data. SimplyMap turns complex data into valuable information that is easily accessed through an innovative and user-friendly interface.

 Journal Articles

Business Source Complete and ABI Inform have the same feature. To find Trade Journals first enter your search terms (i.e. premium wine industry) and click the search button. When the list of results appears, click on the "Trade Journals" tab at the top of the page. The resulting list will be only those articles found in Trade Journals. Scroll through the list for names of trade journals publishing material on your industry.

OneSource To find Industry information in OneSource it is handy to know your industry’s SIC. (See US Census Bureau above) To find the industry reports in OneSource first logon then click on the “industry” link. Next, choose the industry group that best describes the one you are interested in (It is here that the SIC come in handy, click on the 1987 US SIC button in the right frame then scroll down the list that comes up in the left frame). Click on the industry code to get to the main industry page. Use Articles Search to find trade journal articles.

Lexis Nexis Academic A full-text news and information service that provides access to newspapers, magazines, transcripts, business and legal information.

Factiva Publications Library contains more than 80 million articles from newspapers, magazines, trade journals etc. and is the exclusive archive of the Wall Street Journal. HINT: Use Factiva Intelligent indexing to search by subject, company, region, subject, and publication.

Patents and Technology

Finding Patents and Standards  (Yale Science Libraries)

Access Science: The Online Encyclopedia of Science Use for topics such as an introduction to simulation modeling.

Kirk Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology A comprehensive reference work on applied chemical science. Articles in this encyclopedia cover methods and materials, as well as the latest scientific advances in a wide range of chemical subject areas. Excellent source for topics such as manufacturing plastics.

 Business Plans

SBA Business Plans Basics

Sample Business Plans from Moot Corp Competition

Business Plans and Proflies Index A truly amazing assortment of business plans compiled by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Caveat: books are books held at that library, check ORBIS to determine if a book is here at Yale.

Regulations, Law and Policy
Lexis-Nexis Congressional is an online legislative and regulatory service that provides full text access to the Federal Register (from 1980), the Congressional Record (from 1985) and the National Journal (from 1977) and more! For example, one can use this resource to find references in the Federal Register to retirees.

CQ Weekly and CQ Researcher provide web access to Congressional Quarterly's (CQ) print publications, including access to the full text of all articles published since 1983.

GPO Access provides online access to full text congressional and executive agency documentation, including the Congressional Record, the Federal Register, congressional bills and resolutions, congressional documents and reports, the General Accounting Office "blue books", and the Economic Indicators (Joint Economic Committee). It also provides access to the Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications and a connection to the Federal Bulletin Board files.

PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service covers the literature of public affairs including political, economic and social issues. It contains references to articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, research reports, conference reports and publications of international agencies. Publications from more than 60 countries are included. Materials indexed are in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

Lexis-Nexis State Capital , our flagship product for state-level information, contains state statutes, full text of state regulations, information about state legislators and their staffs, and news sources for information on state issues for all 50 states. Searching under topics like "state employees and evaluation" works well in this database.

Policy Central (National Journal) includes the National Journal, a leading journal on politics, policy and government; a full text searchable story archive back to 1977, AdSpotlight, an online guide to political and issue ads from across the country, and Technology Daily, a twice daily resource which examines information technology politics and policy at the state, national and international levels. Technology Daily is the major source of information for students interested in an IT career in the public sector.