Research and Course Guides: ENTR 100 and 260: Company Overviews

Competitor Information

Identifying and learning about competitors for small and local businesses can be challenging, and may require primary research, such as talking directly to people in the industry or local business community. The secondary sources listed here are good places to start.

Reference Solutions from Data Axle (Formerly ReferenceUSA) This link opens in a new window
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Contains information for millions of U.S. businesses nationwide. Search by company name, size, revenue or business costs (often these figures are estimated), location, industry, or many other characteristics. Choose US Businesses or US Standard White Pages, then Advanced Search. Exporting of data is limited to 100 items on-campus or 50 off-campus.
Business Journals (including Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal) This link opens in a new window
Contains full-text articles from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal which provides in-depth news about Minnesota companies, the local business environment, and the Annual Book of Lists. It also contains additional business journals from other cities that covers regional news from across the United States. Users must sign up for a free account using their UST email with a separate password. Available only to current UST students, faculty, and staff. Works best with Chrome.

Additional Sources

Better Business Bureau
Look up a business rating, basic information or complaints. Use to determine if a company is a good business to compare.

Company Profiles & Directories

To find profiles and other information about a company, such as its history, product lines, customer base, key suppliers, management team, strategy, and competitors, use the following resources. ReferenceUSA is the best resource for researching smaller, private companies.

Reference Solutions from Data Axle (Formerly ReferenceUSA) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Contains information for millions of U.S. businesses nationwide. Search by company name, size, revenue or business costs (often these figures are estimated), location, industry, or many other characteristics. Choose US Businesses or US Standard White Pages, then Advanced Search. Exporting of data is limited to 100 items on-campus or 50 off-campus.
PrivCo This link opens in a new window
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PrivCo database is UST Library’s premier source for finding information on privately-held companies. Company profiles include an overview of the firm, its leadership team/owners, and company financials. The profiles also contain, when available, detailed information on VC and private equity funding, private M&A deals, patent and copyright litigation, and IPO activities. Register for a free personal account or use the Direct Access button.
D&B Hoovers This link opens in a new window
D&B Hoovers provides company information from about 18 million global companies, detailed industry reports, analyst reports, SEC filings, and market research. Limited to 50 simultaneous users. Tip: try clearing your browser cache, cookies, and history if you encounter errors.

Ward's Business Directory Of U.S. Private & Public Companies
Covers more than 100,000 U.S. companies, 90% of which are private. Includes company assets and operating revenue, employee figures, and SIC and NAICS industry codes.

S&P Global NetAdvantage This link opens in a new window
An excellent source for company and industry research, including financial and ratio analysis. Contains the former Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys and Stock Reports (now produced by CFRA Equity Research). Also includes mutual fund/ETF and bond information, investment research reports, stock screening and charting tools.
Business Source Premier This link opens in a new window
Business Source Premier provides the full text of more than 2 thousand business publications, including more than 1,000 peer reviewed journals. It is a comprehensive database that covers all disciplines of business including management, finance, marketing and international trade. It also contains company, industry and country reports, SWOTs and market research reports.
Mergent Online This link opens in a new window
Company information, company history, and SEC filings. Limited to 8 simultaneous users.
Use of the Mergent data and service are intended for non-commercial academic purposes only.
Factiva This link opens in a new window
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Company profiles, financials, and articles. Choose the Companies/Markets tab, then choose Company. Limited to 6 simultaneous users.
If you use Factiva's Share>Within My Account feature to find links for emailing or to use in Canvas, that URL needs to be adjusted with a special code to connect it with our subscription. Copy that URL and paste it into our ProxyMe! widget to create the adjusted URL.

ReferenceUSA Help

Reference Solutions (formerly ReferenceUSA)
by Marianne Hageman Last Updated Aug 14, 2023 81 views this year

Company Websites

A company or organization website can be an excellent source of information for locations, products and services, pricing, and product specifications. For public companies, they can include the company's mission statement as well as links to annual reports and 10-K's. SEC filings, especially 10-K reports, may include products, markets, distribution channels, research and development, patent, and environmental safety information.

Note: Websites are not objective information sources, do not depend on them to tell the entire story about a company or organization.

Business Librarians

Marianne Hageman
mdhageman@stthomas.edu
651-962-5404

Jim Kelly
kell5174@stthomas.edu
651-962-5012

Andrea Koeppe
andrea.koeppe@stthomas.edu
651-962-4647