Guides: BA 497: Business Policy, Strategy, and Ethics (James): Company Research

Business Source Complete (Articles & SWOT Analyses)

Business Source Complete
Articles from peer-reviewed journals in all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, MIS, POM, accounting, finance and economics, including SWOT analyses and articles from Harvard Business Review.

This is a good resource for articles on your company.

Example: I need articles that describe how Disney is run.

Type disney into the first box
Type organizational or culture or employees or personnel management into the second box and click Search

Example: I need some articles on Disney's strategies.

Type disney into the first box
Type business planning or strateg* into the second box and select SU Subject with the pulldown menu and click Search
If you need to limit your search to newer articles, go to the publication date section on the left, enter the range you need and click Update

Example: I need articles on Disney and their customers.

Type disney in the first box
Type customers or consumers into the second box and click search

Example: I want some articles on lawsuits involving Disney.

Type litigation or lawsuits or regulations or FTC into the first box
Type disney into the second box and click search

DemographicsNow

DemographicsNow (Gale Business)
Demographic data mapping tool for custom reports, plus directory data of U.S. businesses and consumers.

Mergent Online

Mergent Online
Business and financial information for U.S. and international companies. SEC filings (real-time and archived to 1993) for NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ exchange companies. Select private company reports available.

Example: I need income statement, balance sheet and cash flow data for Disney.

Type in either disney or the ticker symbol (DIS) into the box
Click Go
Click Company Financials
Use the pull-down menu to select the type of financial data (Balance Sheet, Income Statement or Cash Flow)
Use the pull-down menu to select the number of years of financial data (3, 5, 7, 10 or 15)
Use the pull-down menu for As Reported Currency to change the currency from Euros to US Dollars
Click Refresh
Click the link for Ratios. The ratios will include the effective tax rate which is needed for calculating the cost of capital.
Select the Years you need with the pull-down menu
Click Refresh

Example: I need ratio data for Disney.

Type in either Disney or the ticker symbol (DIS) into the box
Click Go
Click the tab for Company Financials
Click the link for Ratios
Click the arrow icon by the ratios to obtain information about the ratios were calculated

Example: I want to compare Tesla with some of its peers.

Type Disney or the ticker (DIS) into the search box and click Go
Click the tab for Competitors
Click the "X" for companies you want to remove
Search for companies such as Ford or General Motors
Click +To Company Analysis List at the top of the screen
Click the link for "My Mergent Tools"
Click the link for Company Comparison Report
Select your companies by clicking >>
Click the plus signs + for Financials and Ratios
Click the types of financials and ratios that you need
Click > to add the financials and ratios
Click the box for Include Average
Select the years you want
Use the pull-down menu to select Microsoft Excel format
Click Create Report

Example: I need a 10-K report for Disney.

Type Disney or the ticker symbol (DIS) into the search box
Click Go
Click the link for Reports
The beginning section on risk factors will be helpful for the SWOT analysis.
Search the document for terms such as competition, suppliers, segment, etc.

If you don't locate a company's bond rate in S&P Net Advantage, check the 10-K reports for "Senior Notes."

Nexis Uni (Articles and SWOT Analyses)

Nexis Uni
Features news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis®—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790. For help on how to use Nexis Uni, visit the research guide.This database is only available to current Pepperdine students, faculty, and staff.

Example: I need a SWOT analysis for Disney.

Click the box for "A Publication"
Type globaldata into the "Find Publication" box and select GlobalData Company Profiles
Type disney swot analysis into the "Search for Something Specific?" box
Click search

Example: I want Consumer Reports articles that discuss the quality of Tesla cars.

Click the box for "A Publication"
Type consumer reports in the "Find a Publication" box and select "Consumer Reports"
Type tesla into the "Search for Something Specific?" box
Click the link on the left-hand side for Timeline and limit the date to 2021-2022

Example: I need a Hoover's profile for Disney

Click the box for "A Publication"
Type Hoover into the "Find a Publication" box and select Hoover's Company Records - In-depth Records
Type disney into the "Search for Something Specific?" Box
Click search

Example: I need articles about Disney and lawsuits.

Click the box for News
Type disney lawsuits into the "Search in All News for" box
Use the pull-down menu to change the date range to the last few years (e.g. September 23, 2020 to the present day)

PrivCo (Good for private companies and venture capital funding)

PrivCo This link opens in a new window
Source for business and financial research on private companies, including family-owned, private equity-owned, venture-backed and international unlisted companies.

Refinitiv

Refinitiv Workspace
Financial news, financials, global pricing data and analytics, analyst research reports, bank investment reports and forecasts for publicly-traded companies.
This database is only available to Pepperdine students, faculty, and staff for non-commercial, academic research, and requires registration.

Types of information available from Refinitiv:

In-depth research reports from companies like Morningstar, UBS, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Trefis, RBC, Barclay's, etc. Avoid the reports from BuySellsSignal Research and Minkabu.
Environmental Social Governance (ESG) indicators
SWOT Analyses
Supply Chain (referred to as a "Value Chain"
Peer Analysis (available for diversity & inclusion, profitability, fundamental ratios, peer comparison (data like P/E ratios, beta)

S&P Net Advantage

S & P NetAdvantage (Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage)
Access to research products including Industry Surveys, Stock Reports, Mutual Fund Reports, Bond Reports, Corporation Records, The Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives.

***If you are searching S&P Net Advantage and receive an error message, try clearing your cache and possibly restarting your browser***

Example: I need balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement data for Disney.

Type either Disney or the the ticker symbol (DIS) into the search box and select The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS)
On the left-hand side, scroll to the Financials/Valuation section and select either income statement, balance sheet or cash flow statement
Data can be downloaded into Excel

Example: I need ratio data for Disney.

Type either Disney or the the ticker symbol (DIS) into the search box and select The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS)
On the left-hand side, scroll to the Financials/Valuation section and select "Ratios"

Example: I need SEC Filings for Disney.

Type either Tesla or the the ticker symbol (DIS) into the search box and select The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS)
Scroll down the left-hand side of the screen and click the link for SEC Filings
Select the latest 10-K file. You can consult the 10-Q's for more updated information
The "Risk Factors" section will be useful for your SWOT analysis
Search the document for terms such as competition, suppliers, segment, etc.

Example: I need the bond rate for DIS.

Type Disney into the search box and select The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS)
On the left-hand column, scroll down to Fixed Income and select Securities Summary
Go to the line titled Current YTW to obtain the current yield