Research Guides at CSU Pueblo Library: *Business Research: Research by Topic

Select Your Research Topic

Step One: Career Information

Data USA: The definitive place to explore US public data
Data USA puts public US Government data in your hands. Instead of searching through multiple data sources that are often incomplete and difficult to access, our platform provides an open, easy-to-use platform that turns data into knowledge.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Outlook Handbook
The government's premier source of career guidance featuring hundreds of occupations from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Learn all about the occupations you find interesting. You can read about the nature of the work, education and training requirements, advancement opportunities, employment, salary, and ten-year job outlook for hundreds of occupations.
O*Net Online
The Occupational Information Network is a free online database that contains hundreds of occupational definitions to help students, job seekers, businesses and workforce development professionals to understand today's world of work in the United States.
CareerOneStop
Find career, training, job search resources, and news.
My Next Move
My Next Move is an interactive tool to learn more about the tasks, skills, salary information, and more for over 900 different careers.

Step Two: Find News and Scholarly Articles

Business Source Premier
Articles from regional, national and international business and trade journals on all aspects of business and finance. Also includes industry and company profiles, case studies, market research reports, SWOT analyses, and country reports.
News (Gale OneFile)
Gale OneFile: News provides access to more than 2,300 major U.S. regional, national, and local newspapers, as well as leading titles from around the world. It also includes thousands of images, radio and TV broadcasts and transcripts.

Step Three: Find Company and Industry Information

Business: Insights (Gale)
Detailed company and industry profiles including SWOT reports, market share reports, and financial reports.
Value Line
Independent investment information service that covers some 1,700 equity issues on a weekly basis, along with three- to five-year probable relative price performance, projections of key financial measures, and concise, objective commentary on current operations and future prospects for each stock covered.

Step One: Profile the Company

When researching a company, it is important to know whether it is public, private, or a subsidiary of a larger company (see key terms tab). A company could also provide information on its products, services, business operations, as well as financial reports.

To get started with company research, click on one of the databases listed below:

Business: Insights (Gale)
Detailed company and industry profiles including SWOT reports, market share reports, and financial reports.
EDGAR (Securities and Exchange Commission)
EDGAR is a public, searchable database of SEC filings. Publicly-owned companies in the U.S. are required by law to submit annual reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Market Share Reporter (Gale)
Comparative business statistics and an immediate overview of companies, products, and services. Cites original sources.

Data USA: The definitive place to explore US public data
Data USA puts public US Government data in your hands. Instead of searching through multiple data sources that are often incomplete and difficult to access, our platform provides an open, easy-to-use platform that turns data into knowledge.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Outlook Handbook
The Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) provides information on what workers do; the work environment; education, training, and other qualifications; pay; the job outlook; information on state and area data; similar occupations; and sources of additional information for more than 300 occupational profiles covering about 4 out of 5 jobs in the economy.

Step Two: Find Current News and Scholarly Articles

Business magazines and journals provide added depth and insight into a company's operations, strategies, and competition. Find articles, industry profiles, SWOT analyses, and other in-depth reporting in these databases:

Business Source Premier
Articles from regional, national and international business and trade journals on all aspects of business and finance. Also includes industry and company profiles, case studies, market research reports, SWOT analyses, and country reports.
Economic News Releases
Updated Major Economic Indicators including the detailed Consumer Price Index (CPI) reports.
Newspaper Source Plus
More than 860 full-text newspapers, and more than 857,000 television and radio news transcripts. Searches Pueblo Chieftain, Colorado Springs Gazette, and The Denver Post.
News (Gale OneFile)
Gale OneFile: News provides access to more than 2,300 major U.S. regional, national, and local newspapers, as well as leading titles from around the world. It also includes thousands of images, radio and TV broadcasts and transcripts.

Step Three: Analyze Financials, Market, Competitors, and Industry

Find information on competitors, industry trends, and market behavior to analyze the company's strategy and potential growth.

Value Line
Independent investment information service that covers some 1,700 equity issues on a weekly basis, along with three- to five-year probable relative price performance, projections of key financial measures, and concise, objective commentary on current operations and future prospects for each stock covered.

Step One: Consumer Demographics

Consumer Research is the process of gathering and analyzing data on individuals and their relations to a specific market. This includes combining secondary and primary sources using information about your current and potential customers, industry, and competitors.

Explore Census Data
Free access to the U.S. Census data from 2000, including data on housing, economics, demographics, and education.
Statistical Abstracts of the United States (ProQuest)
Important primary source of statistical information for the United States.
United Nations Demographic Yearbook
Official statistics on population size and composition, births, deaths, marriage and divorce rates, as well as economic activity, educational attainment, household characteristics, housing, ethnicity, and language.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Source for economic and employment data.

Step Two: Finding Statistics

Gallup Polls
Research-based, global performance management consulting company that frequently conducts public opinion polls in several countries. Has data on employee engagement, customer engagement, talent management, and well-being.
Data and Statistics of the United States
Find policy & standards, references, data sets and tools using a filterable list of Federal data.
Pew Research Center
Open access, nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research.
Consumer Expenditure Survey
Information on the buying habits of American consumers, including data on their expenditures, income, and consumer unit (families and single consumers) characteristics.

Step Three: Finding Articles & News

Communications & Mass Media
Articles from scholarly journals and trade publications focused on mass communications.
Communication & Mass Media Complete
A communication studies database. It provides full-text, indexing and abstracts for many top communication journals covering all related disciplines, including media studies, linguistics, rhetoric and discourse.
WARC: World Advertising Research Center
Largest single source of intelligence for the marketing, advertising, media and research communities worldwide, drawn from more than 40 international sources.
Business Source Premier
Articles from regional, national and international business and trade journals on all aspects of business and finance. Also includes industry and company profiles, case studies, market research reports, SWOT analyses, and country reports.
MasterFILE Premier
A general interest database, including full text from 86,019 biographies. Curriculum resource.
JSTOR
Digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources. Contains current and past issues of 2,300+ journals.

Step Four: Finding Competitors & Industry Reports

Business: Insights (Gale)
Detailed company and industry profiles including SWOT reports, market share reports, and financial reports.

Financial data is qualitative and quantitative information (sales reports, SEC filings, stock values). By reviewing financial data, managers can make strategic decisions about staffing, locations, and production.
Consumer feedback is gathered through case studies, focus groups, surveys, and questionnaires. It provides valuable insight into whether products or services match consumer needs.
Trade publications are magazines, journals, or newspapers geared to professionals in a specific industry and are not typically considered as peer-reviewed resources. They report news and trends, but not original research. They may provide product or service reviews, job and training listings, and advertisements.
SWOT analysis is a process undertaken by a single company or organization to identify its internal strengths and weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats.
Reports and profiles on companies or industries are conducted by third-party research consultants. They incorporate SWOT analysis, sales reports, market values, and five forces analysis to produce a comparative report on the company or industry's potential for growth, leading competitors, and predicted trends.
Public companies sell shares of the company (stocks) to the general public, and are required to submit financial information and annual reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Public companies are usually easier to research.
Private companies do not sell publicly traded stocks and, as a result, are not required to release as much information to the government or the general public. Which could make it more challenging to research those companies.
Subsidiaries of public companies can be difficult to research because the parent company is not required to report on each of them individually. When researching a subsidiary, you often have to read carefully through reports about the parent company and look for references to the subsidiary.