Company Research

This guide provides an overview of how to conduct detailed company research

SWOT and Five Forces Analysis Reports

Business Source Complete is a great place to find SWOT reports, which provide additional insight into a company.

SWOT : Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats

"...A framework for identifying the internal strengths (S) and weaknesses (W) of a firm, and the external opportunities (O) open to it and the threats (T) it faces, which can be used by corporate planners in formulating the firm's competitive strategy and marketing strategy in individual product markets and its overall business strategy." - Collins Dictionary of Business

Use the information found in SWOT reports to search for additional articles that might go into more depth.

  1. Enter the name of the company in the search box and click on the search button. 
  2. On the left side of the results page, under Source Types, select SWOT Analyses and update your search.  (You may have to click on Show More under Source Types to see the SWOT option.)

Michael Porter claims that "the state of competition in an industry depends on five basic competitive forces" (1980, p.3). The five forces are: threat of new entry, threat of substitution, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, and competitive rivarly.

*Porter, Michael E. 1980. Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors. The Free Press. New York.

While you will often need to conduct your own Five Forces Analysis, you can find some pre-made reports in the following databases.

You can sometimes find Five Force Analysis Reports in journal and magazine articles.

1. Type your industry in the first search box, and "five forces" in the second.