Curtin University Library

Need help?

Introduction

This guide will help you with your Company Marketing Analysis Project: finding information on a major company. It builds on InfoTrekk, which is a brief guide to finding information for assignments and referencing.

This guide will help you find information about a company by searching:

Reference sources - in print and online
Databases - for full text journal and newspaper articles

Reference Sources

Dictionaries and other items from the Library’s Reference Collection can provide you with background information on a company. Remember to check the date of any information given.

Business Who's Who of Australia [online]
This gives information on Australian companies such as their contact details, company directors and personnel, their subsidiaries, the number of employees and the company's revenue. It provides links to the company’s website for additional information on community involvement, environmental policies, annual reports etc.

Connect 4 [online]
This holds annual reports of companies which are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Choose‘Search Annual Reports’, then ‘Search for’ and type in the name of the company. Scroll down until you find your company listed.

Factiva [online]
Factiva is a newspaper database and is a great source of news and information on Australian and international companies. To find company information:

• Click the Companies/Markets tab and click ‘Company’.
• Type the name of your company in the ‘Company Name’ box.
• Click on the name for general information about the company.
• Click ‘News’ to find a list of recent newspaper articles on the company.
• In the ‘Reports’ section you can find a comparison with other companies in its industry.
• You can also use Factiva to search for current newspaper articles industries, services or products. This Factiva View-it tutorial shows you the basics of searching Factiva.
• [Note: There is a limit to six simultaneous users for Factiva, so try to login at different times of the day/evening]

Business Source Premier - Datamonitor Reports [online]
To find information on Australian and international companies click on the ‘Company Profiles’ section, then type in the name of your company and choose ‘Datamonitor Report’. Reports include an overview and company history, an analysis of its products and services and a list of that company’s top competitors.

International Directory of Company Histories Level 2 R338.7025 INT
Find the history of large international companies here. There are 12 volumes of this title in Robertson Library’s Reference Collection on Level 2. You can’t borrow Reference items but you can photocopy the information.

top

---

Databases for Journal and Newspaper Articles

Journal articles provide very up-to-date, detailed information. To find journal articles about a company, industry or aspect of an industry, you must search databases. They are generally not freely available on the Internet and libraries must buy them for their staff and students to use. You must login to Curtin Library's databases with your Curtin ID and OASIS Password.

Some databases to search for this assignment are:

• Business Source Premier
• ABI/Inform Global
• Factiva (for newspaper articles)

Before searching a database, you will need to identify the keywords of your topic and type ‘and’ between your keywords. For example:

[company name] and competit*
[company name] and pricing
[company name] and (market* or promot*)
[industry name] and trends and Australia

• * is a truncation symbol, standing for any number of letters at the end of a word e.g. competitor, competitors, competition).
• If you can think of alternative keywords (synonyms) for the same concept, put or between each one e.g. marketing or promotion. The author/s of a book or journal article won’t necessarily use the same words as in your assignment topic.
• ? is a wildcard and stands for 0 or 1 letter within a word. This finds alternative spellings of a word e.g. behavio?r finds behaviour and behavior, wom?n finds woman and women.

 

Tips:

• Some references may not have the full text of the article, but you can click on a Find-it arrow and follow links to see if the article is in another database or in the Library in print.
• In the ABI/Inform Global database results list, you can click tabs for Scholarly Journals, Magazines, Newspapers etc.
• If you want to find which databases are relevant for your area, you can check a Subject Guide.

More help?

• Use the database’s own Help information
• InfoTrekk Trek 6: Finding Journal Articles
• InfoTrekkPlus Trek 12: More About Databases
• Check our Referencing Resources page for a Chicago Author-Date style guide

top

---

Referencing your sources

Curtin Business School students must use the Chicago Author-Date referencing style. Check the Library's Referencing Resources page for a guide to this style.

 

Even more help!

• Have you checked the Reserve Collection for recommended readings for your unit?
• You can contact library staff in person or online. See the Contact Us link on each library web page.
• Sign up for a free database workshop in the Library.
• Check the Step-by-Step Guides to journal databases.
• Check a Subject Guide for your area for more useful sources of information.

Good luck with your assignment!

top