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MKTG 710: Consumer Behavior: Company Overviews

This guide is to be used to identify resources for Sandra Rathod's MKTG 710 Consumer Behavior class

Public companies & private companies: what's the difference?

Public companies have shares of stock or other registered securities that are bought and sold by the public on one of the stock exchanges. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires publicly traded companies to file extensive information with them, which is available online.

Private companies are not traded on any stock exhange. Generally, they do not have to file any documents with the SEC, so it can be more challenging to find information on them.

Analyst reports

Check our guide for analyst and stock reports.

Competitors

Here is a separate guide for sources that identify major competitors within industries.

Company Profiles & Directories

Company News Feed (CNN)

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Screencasts & Tutorials

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