Public vs. Private
Public companies (companies authorized to sell stock to the general public) are legally required to file financial statements with the SEC and share information with their shareholders. Private companies do not publish much information about themselves as a key competitive strategy.
Public vs. Private Companies: How Do They Differ? (Yahoo! Small Business Advisor)
What's the difference between publicly- and privately-held companies? (Investopedia.com)
Tips for Searching Databases
Use keywords.
Combine keywords with boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT).
If your research involves a company, search by the ticker symbol of that company, if available.
If you are doing industry research, search by industry code when possible.
Not sure where to start? Here are some databases organized by research need...
- ABI/INFORM Global This link opens in a new windowProvides indexing and abstracting for 1000 periodicals with full text for more than 600 publications.
- Regional Business News This link opens in a new windowProvides comprehensive full text for regional business publications (including titles from Crain Communications). This database has full text for more than 60 sources.
Business-specific databases that provide articles and some non-journal content.
- ABI/INFORM Global This link opens in a new windowProvides indexing and abstracting for 1000 periodicals with full text for more than 600 publications.
- EconLit This link opens in a new windowProvides a reliable source of citations and abstracts to economic research in peer-reviewed journals, working papers, PhD dissertations, books, and book reviews.
- Statista This link opens in a new windowProvides data and infographics on over 60,000 topics from over 18,000 sources, categorized into 21 market sectors with quantitative data on media, business, finance, politics, and a wide variety of other areas.
- Historical Wall Street Journal This link opens in a new windowProvides full-text and full-image articles from 1889-2010.
- Morningstar This link opens in a new windowProvides up-to-date stock and fund information to research current or prospective holdings and see how investments work together. Data reports cover more than 20,000 securities.
- Wall Street Journal This link opens in a new windowIndexes, abstracts, and provides online full text for the Wall Street Journal newspaper 1984-present.
- Value Line Investment Survey This link opens in a new windowProvides year-ahead and three-to-five-year probable relative price performance, projections of key financial measures, and concise, objective commentary on current operations and future prospects, as well as full-page individual stock reports and industry reviews.
- ABI/INFORM Global This link opens in a new windowProvides indexing and abstracting for 1000 periodicals with full text for more than 600 publications.
- Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new windowOffers access to an unprecedented collection of resources including journals, magazines, reports, books, and videos. Many are peer-reviewed and full-text. Subjects range from astronomy to zoology.
- JSTOR (including ARTSTOR) This link opens in a new windowProvides full-text access to a broad range of resources about the humanities, sciences, and social sciences, including primary sources, images, articles, and books. Does not contain the most recent journal articles.
- ScienceDirect This link opens in a new windowProvides extensive full-text journal coverage of the physical and biological sciences, as well as some coverage of the social sciences and humanities.
- Web of Science This link opens in a new windowEnables users to search current and retrospective multidisciplinary information from thousands of the most prestigious, high impact research journals in the world. It also provides cited reference searching.
- Statista This link opens in a new windowProvides data and infographics on over 60,000 topics from over 18,000 sources, categorized into 21 market sectors with quantitative data on media, business, finance, politics, and a wide variety of other areas.
- Historical Statistics of the United States This link opens in a new windowProvides data from the Millennial edition, 2006.
- Baltimore Sun This link opens in a new windowIndexes, abstracts, and provides online full text for The Sun, Baltimore (Baltimore Sun) newspaper 1990-present.
- Historical Baltimore Sun This link opens in a new windowIncludes complete issues of The Baltimore Sun from 1837 to 1996.
- Historical New York Times This link opens in a new windowProvides full-text and full-image articles from the New York Times from 1851-2018.
- Historical Wall Street Journal This link opens in a new windowProvides full-text and full-image articles from 1889-2010.
- New York Times This link opens in a new windowIndexes, abstracts, and provides online full text for the New York Times newspaper (1980-present), the New York Times Book Review (1988-present), and the New York Times Magazine (1997-present).
- Regional Business News This link opens in a new windowProvides comprehensive full text for regional business publications (including titles from Crain Communications). This database has full text for more than 60 sources.
- Wall Street Journal This link opens in a new windowIndexes, abstracts, and provides online full text for the Wall Street Journal newspaper 1984-present.
- Washington Post This link opens in a new windowIndexes, abstracts, and provides online full text for the Washington Post newspaper 1987-present.
- Checkpoint Edge This link opens in a new windowProvides information to tax and accounting professionals including expert research, guidance, technology, tools, learning and news.
Analyzing Competition in a Local Market
Many small businesses are either family owned or owned by one or a few partners. They are usually private companies who do not sell stock. Only the companies that are traded on the stock market make information about their organizations available to the public. Private businesses do not share financial, personnel, or sales data information.
There are other ways to analyze your competition and get the information you need--or at least come up with viable estimates.
How to find your competitors in a local market
Search yellow pages and directories
- Whitepages (.com)Click on Business near the search fields to search the Yellow Pages by category of business in a city/state.
- Superpages (.com)Search by category and cite/state for businesses in the Yellow Pages.
- ThomasNetSearch for suppliers, whitepapers, and more. Limited content before requiring a free account.
Search the local Chamber of Commerce and/or Economic Development websites for business directories. These resources also contain an abundance of information and data on the local industries.
- Maryland State Data CenterThe Maryland State Data Center (SDC) is an official partner with the U.S. Census Bureau.
- Salisbury, MD Area Chamber of CommerceFor information relating to commerce in Salisbury and Wicomico County, MD. For a list of companies, browse the Member Directory under Membership.
- Maryland Business ExpressTools for planning, starting, managing, and growing your business.
Search Census information as a map, report, or data tables.
- Census Business Builder - Small Business EditionMap companies in a particular region operating in a particular industry or sector. You can create map layers for additional variables (consumer spending, population, etc.) as well as generate a report on that industry.
+eBooks
There are over 100,000 Ebooks in Library's collection. Ebooks can be used 24/7 from any computer with an internet connection.
+Search Company Webpages
Companies sometimes provide a lot of information via their virtual storefront or webpage including financial statements, product information, company history, and news releases. Aspects of the corporate culture may also be ascertained by website design, and the way the company and its products are advertised.
Along with the company name, add search terms such as "investor relations" or "annual report."