Company & Industry resources

Getting started

For your research, you may need to find information regarding a specific company or industry. This may encompass financial information, trends and forecasts, SWOT analyses or information pertaining to directors and shareholders - kinds of information which is not typically found through Google searching or even in the bulk of the library’s databases. The purpose of this guide is to make you aware of the kind of company and industry information which is likely to be available and help you successfully find it.

Before embarking on this research, if you’re investigating a company, you should first ask yourself the questions listed below. You can then use the menu on the left to navigate to the information you need.

Image: Hand business plan by rawpixel CC0

What type of company?

Before starting your company research, it’s important to identify what type of company you’re investigating. This will affect the kind of information you can access. Most companies fall into one of the following categories:

• Public companies
• Private companies
• Not-for-profit organisations
• Subsidiaries
• Government organisations

This list isn’t exhaustive, but it covers the company types you’re most likely to encounter.

Public companies

Also known as listed or quoted companies, public companies are typically the easiest to research.They are legally required to:

• Provide detailed financial information
• Produce annual reports for shareholders and potential investors
• Report financial statements at least once a year

Private companies

Private (or proprietary) companies are usually:

• Owned by individuals or a small group of shareholders
• Not listed on a stock exchange
• Not legally required to publish financial information

Because of this, researching private companies can be more difficult. Information is often limited and less transparent than that of public companies.

Not-for-profit organisations

Not-for-profits do not operate to benefit members, owners, or associates. Their focus is often:

• Charitable
• Social
• Educational
• Professional
• Religious

Examples include schools, charities, churches, and sporting clubs.

If registered, these organisations are subject to government oversight, so you can usually find a fair amount of information about their operations.

Subsidiary

A subsidiary is a company owned or controlled by another company (the parent or holding company). These can be harder to research because:

• Parent companies aren’t required to produce separate reports for each subsidiary
• Most information available relates to the parent company
• Subsidiary-specific details may be limited or unavailable

Government organisations

Also known as:

• Statutory corporations
• Government-owned corporations (GOCs)
• State-owned enterprises

These are legal entities that operate commercially on behalf of a government.

The amount of information available depends on the country in which they operate. In Australia, financial performance and corporate governance details must be made public. In other countries, these rules may differ.

Where is my company located?

Company information by country [PDF, 110kB]

The country in which your company is headquartered may have a huge impact on the kind of information that will be available, especially when you’re researching private companies, not-for-profit and government organisations. Different countries will have different rules and regulations around what kind of information (if any) these organisations are required to make available to the general public.

See the Company information by country document for suggestions on researching non-public companies in Australia, China, Germany, India, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Image: World Map by Clker Free Vector Images CC0

Establish company type and location

You might think that you know what kind of company you are researching and in which country it is headquartered, but things aren’t always what they seem. Ikea for instance is a subsidiary of a not-for-profit and it’s based in the Netherlands.

You can check this information in a company directory. We recommend the database, Orbis.

Orbis - Bureau van Dijk