Finding Secondary Research

Company-Provided Information

If the need is for information on a specific company, and if research seekers are willing to believe what a company provides in its own literature, then it may be worth the effort to spend time evaluating company-provided information.  While many materials published by organizations are promotional pieces (i.e., trumpets their successes), there may be a few gold nuggets of information found amongst the hype. 

Options for finding information include company websites, annual reports, press releases, white paper, and presentations.

Company Websites

The first step to uncovering company-provided information is to visit the company’s website.  For company websites that are densely packed with information, it may be more practical to search the site using an Internet search engine.  Search engines generally offer more robust search features than search options found on a company’s site.  Searching can be made easier by using a search engine’s Advanced Search feature where search results can be limited to just the company’s website (e.g., limit domain searched to the company’s domain).  In this way the only search results displayed are those located on the company’s site.  However, be warned that not all information available on a company website is indexed in a search engine especially information only accessible through a user login.

Since not all company websites have the same name as the company name, locating a corporate website can be time consuming.  Certainly if the company name is known using an Internet search engine will almost always locate the website address.  However, if the company name is not known then consider finding it by searching a business directory.

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