When researching a company, it is important to know whether it is:
- public
- private
- or a subsidiary of a larger company
Public companies are the easiest to research because they are generally required to provide detailed information on a quarterly basis and must also issue annual reports.
Subsidiaries of public companies can be difficult to research because the parent company is not required to report on each of them individually.
Private companies are not required to release any information about themselves and are therefore more challenging to research.
USQ Library provides access to a number of databases that you will find helpful for finding company and industry information. This guide provides help for using four key databases you can use:
- IBISWorld
- MarketLine Advantage
- Factiva
- Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
In the Finding and Using USQ Library Databases tutorial, you will have learned how to access these databases in order to search for information. The guides that follow this will explain the purpose of each of these databases and how they work.