InfoGuides: BUS 200: Home

Welcome!

Welcome, BUS 200 students! I'm Kayla, your librarian for Business. I've designed this guide to help you with your course assignment. Below, you'll find instructions and tips on how to find:

Company information, which you will need to complete your company overview and do your PESTLE analysis
Country information, which you will need to help determine if and how your assigned US company should enter one, none, or both of the assigned foreign markets

As Mason students, your tuition helps to fund the acquisition of important business resources via the Libraries. Many of our databases are used by major companies for commercial purposes; they are strong and contain lots of helpful information, but if you run into any difficulty along the way, please email me at kmorrow7@gmu.edu or schedule an appointment on the left-hand side of this guide.

Finding What You Need for BUS 200

The following databases are going to give you thorough, reliable reports on your assigned countries. Depending on the database, these reports include basic information about the country's history, infrastructure, economy and finances, trade, politics, and sociocultural trends. Getting a complete picture of a country's market conditions is crucial for determining whether or not your business/product should enter that market, so I recommend using a few of the different databases listed below:

Mergent Online This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Click "Advanced Search" from the top menu, then click on "Country Profile" and select your country. You'll be taken to a formal Mergent Country Profile report with market, economic, political, historical, and sociocultural data and trends for the country.
Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Search for your country's name. On the results page, on the left-hand side, limit "Source Types" to "Country Reports." If you aren't sure which country report to view, I recommend Marketline (on the results page, filter by "publisher").
globalEDGE This link opens in a new window
At the top of the page, under the "Global Insights" tab, click "By Country." Select a country, then choose from topics on the left-side (e.g. Risk, Trade Statistics, etc.). You can use the "Country Comparator" tool above the map to select and compare up to five categories (e.g. economy, education, infrastructure, etc.).
Statista This link opens in a new window
Select "Reports," then "Country Reports" and search for your assigned country.
Passport GMID (Euromonitor International) This link opens in a new window
Click on "Economies" from the top menu, then click on the subtab "Business Dynamics." On the left-hand side of the page, under "Explore Analysis," click on the first drop-down menu for "Choose Analysis" and select "Country Report." For the "Category" dropdown, select "Business Dynamics." Under the "Choose Geography" dropdown, choose your country. Press "Go" to get your report. On the left-side of your Country Report, you'll see a heading for "More Related Items," under which you can click on the "PEST Analysis" for your country!
You can also find economic and trade information in Passport. Click on the "Economies" tab, then click on the "Economy, Finance, and Trade" subtab. Under "Choose Analysis," select "Country Report," then "Economy, Finance, and Trade." Choose your country under "Select Geography" to get a report on your country's economic situation.
OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new window
When you enter the database, search for "International Direct Investment Statistics." Click on the first result, for "OECD International Direct Investment Statistics; Periodical;English." Select your country and year, then click on the PDF report for tables and charts showing foreign direct investment by partner countries as well as industrial sector.

You may be tempted to just Google your company for your assignment. Since public companies are subject to strict reporting guidelines per the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a lot of their information is freely available on the web or on their own website. The problem with just using a company's website is that the website is part of its brand and its marketing. Some of what you'll find, like corporate structure or store locations, might be reliable and straightforward, but you want to make sure to balance your research with independent information sources that aren't created by or affiliated with that company, including the Company Reports offered through the library's databases.

Before you start researching your company, you'll want to determine whether it's public or private. Public companies are publicly traded on a stock exchange, whereas private companies are not. Because they are publicly traded and have an obligation to their investors and the public, public companies are required to file regular reports with the SEC, which include lots of detailed information, such as financials. Keep in mind that private companies don't have these same standards, so it is usually much more difficult to find information about them.

Mergent Online This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Mergent Online is a great database for finding public company information. Just search for your company and click on the company's report page to find information about your company's finances, corporate structure, competitors, and more.
NetAdvantage This link opens in a new window
NetAdvantage is another helpful company information database. It includes data, analysis, and news.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
To find company information, Choose "Companies" on the right side of the page. Get a snapshot of a company with links to more detailed information, including news, SEC filings, legal information, etc.
Factiva This link opens in a new window
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Factiva contains Company Reports as well as news from thousands of different newspapers across the world. News is an often underrated source of company information. Because it's so current, recent news can give you an idea of how the public is receiving a company's actions, products, or services in real time. It can also provide different perspectives on a company.

For your project, you'll need to decide who your target buyer is. Is it B2B? Are you targeting specific consumers? Below, you'll find databases with information about potential consumers for your product:

Mintel Reports Academic This link opens in a new window
Mintel reports for top business-to-consumer categories, tracking consumer attitudes and behaviors. These reports cover market sizing and segmentation as well as trends. You can filter by region and major countries within each region, though you may not be able to find your exact country since smaller countries might not be listed. When you click into the database, you can perform a keyword search or you can filter by "Category," then "Region" (additionally, you can sort by "Trend Drivers" and "Demographics").
Passport GMID (Euromonitor International) This link opens in a new window
Passport has a tab called "Consumers," where you can find information about Households, Income and Expenditure, and Population for any country! There are hundreds of different data points for these categories, broken down by expenditure types, age, income and disposable income, gender, size and type and education of household, and much more. To find this, go to the top "Consumers" tab, then locate the left-hand blue box for "Explore Statistics" and choose the data you want along with your assigned location.
Statista This link opens in a new window
Statista includes lots of helpful data about companies, industries, markets, consumers, and business trends. You can search for anything in the main search bar. Try searching for "consumers of {your product or service name here}." You can also search for a particular geographic region. You can find market reports, company reports, and consumer reports in this database.
IBISWorld This link opens in a new window
IBISWorld is primarily an industry database with industry reports for US industries (identified by North American Industry Classification System codes, or NAICS codes). Some of these reports are global, or even for specific countries. For example, there is a report for "Global Car & Automobile Manufacturing" that you could use if this is the primary focus of your assigned company. Each report contains industry performance and outlook information, as well as products and markets, major companies, operating conditions, financials and key statistics, etc.

Comparing Data Between Countries

When looking at financial data for multiple countries, you want to avoid making unequal comparisons. For example, if you're looking at GDP rates for different countries, you may run into a few issues:

A country's GDP is measured by its own currency and currencies differ across the world. In order to compare the GDP of countries with differing currencies, you would need to first convert them to a common denominator using an exchange rate, which states the value of one currency in the same terms as another currency. There are two exchange rates you can use here: Market Exchange Rates and Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). Because market exchange rates fluctuate, I recommend PPP exchange rates for cross-country comparisons of GDP (learn more here).

Luckily, our Passport database has already done the math for you. Watch the video below to see how to get GDP measured at PPP, as well as real GDP growth, for your assigned countries in Passport: