Skip to Main Content

College of Business

This guide will assist students and researchers in the COB in using the library's resources to locate information and conduct research.

Company Information

Private Company Information

Create a Company List

SWOT / SOAR / NOISE / SCORE / PEST / PESTLE / GAP Analysis

 

Search for the company name and add the analysis.

For example:

line 1: Amazon (select Company from the drop-down menu)

AND

line 2: Swot OR Soar OR Nosie OR Score OR Pest OR Pestle 

 

 

What is a SWOT Analysis?  SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  A SWOT Analysis is used to evaluate a company's competitive position in the market.  A SWOT Analysis should assessing the performance, competition, risk, and potential of a business, product line, division, or industry.

 

Strengths

For example:

What is the company's competitive advantage?

What resources are available?

What products, division, etc. is performing well?

Weaknesses

For example:

What can be improved?

What divisions or products are underperforming?

What resources are missing or lacking?

Opportunities

For example:

What new trends can be used to improve operations, sales, etc.?

Can core or auxiliary services be expanded?

What new trends or new market segments can the company explore?

Threats

For example:

 

How does new legislation impact the product, company, etc.?

What does the competition do well?

What new trends threaten the company?

 

NAICS and SIC codes are numeric codes used to classify companies into specific industries. NAICS started replacing SIC in 1997 because of the need for expanded classifications.

 

NAICS - North American Industry Classification System. Utilized by a large number of business and economic resources, knowing your NAICS code can help you streamline your search and pinpoint the resources that will be the most useful for your research.  NAICS codes are searchable on-line through the US Census Bureau's site.

 

SIC - Standard Industrial Classification.  It was created by the US government as a way to put different business activities into categories.  SIC codes were replaced by NAICS codes but many resources still refer to and use them.

SITC: SITC stands for Standard International Trade Classification. If you are looking for information and data related to trade (exports and imports) on a global scale, you may want to identify the SITC code for the trade to improve your ability to make comparisons and locate specific information.  

Database Thesauri: While you search make sure you pay attention to the subject terms and keywords assigned to the resources you find the most useful.  Also check the resource you are using to see if it offers a thesaurus.  If you are having trouble finding your search terms by using your own keywords, check the thesaurus to see how the resource has classified the topic you are interested in.

More Company Info. Resources