Business Research

MarketLine Advantage is a database that provides extensive industry and company information. This resource is an excellent option when viewing SWOT Analyses, finding company financial information, and evaluating industry statistics and data. For more detailed information on using MarketLine Advantage, visit this guide.

From the menu on the left-hand side of the screen, you can view:

• Detailed company Financials, including revenue, profit, and assets
• Current company News, indexed from newspapers, magazines, and trade publications
• Information about company Peers and competitors
• Research Reports, including industry profiles, case studies, value & supply chain analysis, and analyst insights.
• Information on Deals, including M&A, corporate venturing, and partnerships.
• Detailed company SWOT Analysis

To view Industry information in MarketLine, go to the "Analysis" tab at the top of the screen and choose "Industry Analysis."

Here, you can choose to view Industry Profiles and Archived Industry Profiles, Industry Chartbooks, Industry Case Studies, and Value & Supply Chain Analysis.

Passport Express provides both statistics and analysis of industries, economies, and consumers. This database is especially helpful if you are interested in viewing market shares and industry growth.

From the industry overview page, you can also choose to look at industry Statistics, or view interactive data Dashboards.

In Statistics, you can view Market Sizes, Company Shares, Brand Shares, and Retail Channels. In Dashboards, you can view Consumers, Forecast Models, Industry Overviews, and more.

For statistics on Brand Shares, choose this option in the dropdown menu in "Explore Statistics." 

Here, you can view the market share of different brands by retail volume within your chosen sector. Filter by Geography, Year, Category, or GBO by clicking the filter icons for each category. 

If the company you would like to evaluate is privately owned or traded, you will need to use the PrivCo database to locate company information.

At the top of the company's web page, there are several options on what information to view:

• The Overview will tell you basic information, included when the company was founded, a company description, and the primary company contacts.
• The Financials section provides key information about the valuation of the company, its income, balance sheet, and cash flow.
• The Funding section details information about investors and investor type.
• Deals lists the company's deals by date, buyer, target, type, and price.
• The Signals tab assigns a database-specific growth score to the company and information about the Employee & Revenue Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR).

Reference USA is a database that can be especially useful if you are interested in evaluating small business and local businesses.

Inside of the report, you'll find useful information such as:

• Industry Profiles that will list the company's SIC and NAICS codes
• Business Demographics that will provide information on the number of employees, sales, etc.
• A Management Directory that provides information on company officials
• A Nearby Businesses tab to find other businesses located close by
• A Competitors Report that will list competitors within close geographical range