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Marketing 4530 - Fast Casual Restaurants

Company Research

These are some databases to use when conducting company research. 

Be sure to use article databases like ABI/Inform Collection or Business Source Complete, located under the  "Sources for Articles" tab of this guide, to find out if anything has been written about these companies in magazines, trade periodicals, or newspapers.

If you have determined that a company is publicly traded, you will be able to find many sources that provide financial summaries, investment analyst reports (such as those provided via Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage), as well as their 10-Ks or 20-Fs.  The sources in this section will help you find this type of information. 

10-Ks are the annual reports that U.S. public companies must submit to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).  20-Fs are the annual reports that foreign companies trading in the U.S. file to the SEC.  Another good source for the 10-Ks or other annual reports is the company's website.   These reports are usually located in the "Investor Relations" section of a company's website. 

Since you are researching a mental health app, it might be a good idea to start with PrivCo since most of the competitors wlll likely be small startups. But there could also be big players like Apple and Google, so using Mergent Intellect could be helpful.

Reference Solutions is a strong source for identifying competitors on a local level.

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

The database in this section provides company reports with SWOTS for selected public and private companies.  If your company is not in the database, or if a report doesn't have a SWOT analysis, you should use articles, annual reports (if it is a public company), and/or the company's website to find information.

In general you will not be able to find detailed financials for the majority of subsidiaries or private companies that exist in the U.S. However, PrivCo does have information for over 850,000 privately-held U.S. companies, and there are some subsidiaries that may be trading independently of the parent.  Here are some tips for private company and subsidiaries research:

  • Search PrivCo.
  • Use a database like Reference Solutions that will provide estimated sales figures for these types of companies.
  • The Book of Lists is a good source when looking for top companies for an industry in Denver.
  • Most companies have websites, so you should comb through them for information.
  • If the company is a subsidiary, identify the parent.  Then determine whether the parent is publicly traded or not. If the parent is trading publicly, information about the subsidiary may be provided in the 10-K, including revenue figures for two or three years.
  • Use databases like ABI/Inform Collection, or others that are identified in the Articles section of this guide, to find out if anything has been written about these companies in magazines, trade periodicals, or newspapers.
  • Another strategy would be to look at credit reports for these types of companies. Experian Powered Business reports provide the most recent credit information for companies and can be found in Nexis Uni.
  • Information about a private company or subsidiaries may be included in market research or industry reports, so be alert when looking at these types of sources. In addition, an annual report for a publicly-traded company may provide some information about privately-held competitors.
  • Use industry financial benchmarks as a proxy for financial data.
  • If your company is from Europe, regardless of whether it is public, private, or subsidiary, use Orbis.

Company Research Tip

When doing company research one should determine whether a company is public, privately held, or a subsidiary.  The databases below can help you determine this. If you are doing research on a local level where there are many small businesses, use a database like Reference Solutions to ascertain this.