Research Guides: Research Preparation for BBA Honours Project: Find Company Information

Public Companies

For a public listed company, one of the best places to find its company information is its company website. Try to look for headings such as "Investor Relations" and "Investors". They often provide very detailed information on the background of the company, financial statements (e.g. annual report), company announcement, and many others.

I have also compiled a mixed list of library resources and free online resources below that can help you locate company information:

Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive scholarly business database that provides full-text content covering all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, accounting, banking, finance and more.
Dates covered: 1886 - Current
Concurrent users: Unlimited
Provider: EBSCOhost
Full text: Yes
ABI/INFORM Collection This link opens in a new window
To find historical annual reports of companies.
Click here for User Guide

Dates covered: 1971 - Current
Concurrent users: Unlimited
Provider: ProQuest
Full text: Some
Factiva This link opens in a new window
Factiva is a research and current awareness platform that provides access to a large archive of news (including The Wall Street Journal) and business information such as company and industry snapshots.
Click here for User Guide

Dates covered: Varied
Concurrent users: 5
Provider: Dow Jones
Full text: Yes
Statista This link opens in a new window
This statistics portal integrates data on over 80,000 topics from more than 18,000 sources on to a single platform.
Dates covered: Various
Concurrent users: Unlimited
Provider: Statista GmbH
Full-text: Yes
中國上市公司文獻庫 China Listed Company Documents This link opens in a new window
中國上市公司 (包括A股, B股及H股）的資料，內容包括在深圳和上海證券市場的上市公司發佈的各類招股書、上市公告、中期報告、年終報告、重要決議等文獻資料。
Reports and corporate documents of companies listed in China.
Dates covered: 1993 - Current
Concurrent users: 5 user limit
Provider: China Infobank
Full-text: Yes
CSMAR 數據庫 This link opens in a new window
提供中國金融及經濟數據，包括股票、基金、債券、公司研究等不同系列。
Economic and financial data on China, including various subsets such as stock market, funds, bonds, and company research.
Dates covered: Varied
Concurrent users: Unlimited
Provider: 囯泰安數據服務中心
Full text: Yes

EDGAR - U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission
Provides free access of corporate information to public companies in the U.S., allowing you to search a company’s financial information and operations by reviewing registration statements, prospectuses and periodic reports filed on Forms 10-K and 10-Q. You can also find information about recent corporate events reported on Form 8-K but that a company does not have to disclose to investors.
HKExnews 香港交易所披露易
HKEx has established a dedicated issuer website solely for the dissemination of issuer information. The HKExnews website covers two main areas: Issuer-generated Information (e.g. company financial statements) & HKEx-generated Regulatory Issuer Information (e.g. status reports on delisting proceedings and suspensions).
上海證券交易所 - 披露
提供上交所上市公司信息。
深圳證券交易所 - 信息披露
提供深交所上市公司信息。

Private Companies

Unlike public companies, private companies are not legally required to release information about themselves to the public. Therefore, information about private companies could be much harder to find. Here are just some suggestions for searching:

Company website: Depending on the company, some company websites are mainly used for selling products and services, whereas others may contain more information about the company itself.

News: Searching for news of a particular company could help identify key developments. Other than free online search engines, you can also make good use of Library databases such as:

Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive scholarly business database that provides full-text content covering all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, accounting, banking, finance and more.
Dates covered: 1886 - Current
Concurrent users: Unlimited
Provider: EBSCOhost
Full text: Yes
Factiva This link opens in a new window
Factiva is a research and current awareness platform that provides access to a large archive of news (including The Wall Street Journal) and business information such as company and industry snapshots.
Click here for User Guide

Dates covered: Varied
Concurrent users: 5
Provider: Dow Jones
Full text: Yes
WisersOne 慧眼輿情 This link opens in a new window
提供自1998年以來包括香港、澳門、及臺灣等華語地區的中文報章、雜誌、學報及通訊社新聞內容。

Provides text-based content from newspapers, magazines, journals and newswires in the Greater China region, including Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Click here for the Library's guide to using WisersOne
Dates covered: 1998 - Current
Concurrent users: Unlimited
Provider: Wisers Information Limited
Full-text: Yes

Industry/Professional Organizations: These are organizations dedicated to a specific field, and members are usually professionals who are currently working in that field. They may organize events/activities for its members, and issue trade publications (e.g. magazines, newsletters, journals) that contain the latest news and trends within the field. Other than free online search engines, the following Library database also helps you find trade publications:

ABI/INFORM Collection This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive business research database with coverage of thousands of full-text journals, dissertations, working papers, key business and economics periodicals, and trade publications.
Click here for User Guide

Dates covered: 1971 - Current
Concurrent users: Unlimited
Provider: ProQuest
Full text: Some