MBA Ignite Library Resources and Research Using Business Source Complete for business research – Part 1 Module 2 – Researching companies Olivia Olivares, Associate Professor University Library, SCSU Spring 2018

Business Source Complete vs Business Source Premier: a note for former SCSU undergraduates If you were an undergraduate business major at SCSU before commencing your MBA adventure, you may have noticed that Business Source Premier is now called Business Source Complete, and that the menus are slightly different As of August 2017, the SCSU Library has upgraded to BSComplete, which gives us access to many more business journals and many more peripheral resources like industry surveys and market reports While the initial interface is identical to BSPremier, BSComplete features a number of new elements, like a directory with basic company information (the old MarketLine profiles are available in a separate directory), an index of images and videos on business-related topics, and more.

To access Business Source Complete, click the Articles and Databases link …

Remember: if you’re off-campus, you’ll be asked to log in to access any library database, including BSComplete. Then choose Business Source Complete from the list of most frequently used databases. BSComplete is the most popular business database at SCSU.

Let’s start with a basic search for company information Let’s start with a basic search for company information. Say we’re looking for information on Microsoft. We can start by choosing “Company Information” from the blue menu bar at the top of the screen … … or we can go to “Company Profiles,” available by clicking on “More” in the blue menu bar.

We’ll start with “Company Information We’ll start with “Company Information.” This is a quick way to find basic information like headquarters locations, board members, annual revenues, and so forth. Let’s say we want information about Pepsi, the soft drink manufacturer. Enter “pepsi” in the search box. The search isn’t case-sensitive, so you don’t have to capitalize.

Unless you enter the exact name of the company (in this case, PepsiCo), you’ll usually retrieve a number of companies with the name you entered somewhere in their title. You can usually tell which company is the main company and not a subsidiary by looking for the ticker tape symbol (in this case, PEP) and/or the revenue on the right. Click on the company’s name to go to the company information page.

The initial company page gives you basic information like headquarters location, phone number, webpage URL, revenue, and so forth.

Additional, more detailed information is available in the menu on the right: subsidiaries, executives, and information about the industry within which the company operates.

On the right are links to articles about the company On the right are links to articles about the company. “Academic journals” will take you to in-depth, scholarly research articles published in peer-reviewed academic journals. “Trade journals” will take you to articles about the company published in industry and trade magazines.

Additional resources include detailed SWOT analyses, in-depth industry profiles, market research reports, and product reviews. All of these are from MarketLine, a very reputable business intelligence company. Their reports are updated yearly on a staggered schedule, so they may not be entirely current. Check the publication date carefully.

See part 2 for more about Business Source Complete