Finding company profiles and SWOT analyses
13/02/2025
If you are researching a company for a project or job interview, a company profile will be really helpful, as will a SWOT analysis.
A profile will give you the basic information you need about the firm and its activities, including a company overview and key facts, information on structure and strategy, details of top competitors, major products and services, prospects etc. A SWOT analysis will highlight the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and you can use this as a basis for further investigation about the company and/or its competitors. Profiles and SWOTs can be found in Factiva, Passport and our journal databases – both EBSCO Business Source Complete and ProQuest One Business. Read on to find out more.
Factiva
Factiva’s Company Snapshots provide a general company overview. You also have access to company performance and segment information including financial results, a peer-group analysis which ranks competitors and links to latest news items. Standard reports can be downloaded to pdf or you can create a report customised to your requirements. To access these, select ‘Companies / Markets’ > ‘Company’ from the tabs at the top left of the Factiva homepage.
EBSCO Business Source Complete
To source profiles and SWOTs from Business Source Complete:
- Open the Advanced search interface on the database.
- Type the name of the company into the search box and select the option for Title in the dropdown menu.
Searching in EBSCO Business Source Complete
- Then click to Search. That’s it.
Searching for company information in EBSCO Business Source Complete
- If you specifically want a SWOT analysis, add the acronym SWOT into the search box with the company name. It’s that simple!
Searching for a SWOT analysis in EBSCO Business Source Complete
ProQuest One Business
Like Business Source Complete, ProQuest also includes company profiles within its collections from sources such as D&B Hoovers and GlobalData. It also includes some brokers and analysts’ reports which have a more financial focus. Some of these publications will have additional terms and conditions that you need to agree to.
Again, simply enter your company name into the search box and click on the ‘Company Reports’ button before you click to Search.
Passport
Passport includes short country-specific profiles for companies within individual industries so if you’re interested in Nestlé’s role in the UK snacks market or similar, these give a more focused view. They will often be presented as a datagraphic. Related reports and data are available to download.
If you have any questions about any aspect of company research, please contact the Library.
Feature image from Pixabay. Available at: https://pixabay.com/photos/financial-analytics-blur-business-2860753/
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