Locating Information on Foreign Companies

International Directories

including information on public and/or private companies

Hoover's Online NU Community access to Pro version
Excellent source for all kinds of public and private company information. The Kellogg School subscribes to the Pro version for the NU community. Free version at www.hoovers.com (outside of NU domains) provides access brief profiles rather than full profiles of US public and private companies and some foreign companies.

Lexis Nexis Academic NU Community
Click on Business, then on Company Profiles, then select International Company Reports. Searchable only by company name or SIC code.

Standard & Poor's Netadvantage NU Community
Includes the Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives and Corporation Records both of which includes some foreign company records. Mainly publicly-traded foreign companies.

Corporate Information Unrestricted
Information on public, private, foreign or domestic companies. Some content is free but much is fee-based. Especially useful under the "free content" are the research links, which lead to quality web sources, country-by-country, and industry-by-industry.

Global Market Share Planner--Major Market Share Companies
L658.8305G562 Reference Mgmt/ Schaffner

Hoover's Handbook of World Business 338.74025H7893 Reference Mgmt/ Schaffner

Moody's International Manual 332.05M8168 Reference Mgmt/ Schaffner

Principal International Businesses 016.658D897p Reference Mgmt

World Business Directory 4 volumes 338.88205W927 Reference Mgmt

Company Reports, SEC Filings, Financials and other Background

NU Library has a large collection of company annual reports and SEC filings for public companies. For more information go to Locating Annual Reports on Public Companies.

Mergent Online NU Community
Financial and background information on 30,000 US and foreign public companies, including annual reports back to 1997. Company information comprises that of all of the Mergent/Moody's Manuals except for the Municipal & Government Manual. Covers current information only. However, spreadsheet financials date back 15 years, annual reports date back to 1996 or 1997, and SEC filings date back to 1993.

Datamonitor Reports NU Community
Datamonitor reports on over 10,000 US and foreign companies, can be found in Business Source Premier. Enter site and click on Company Profiles. Reports include company overview, history, key employees, major products and services, top competitors, locations and subsidiaries.

Thomson Research NU Community
Annual reports and other SEC filings available for some foreign public companies. Most available from the mid-1990s. Click on "Databases" to search Worldscope for Disclosure Reports on foreign public companies.

ISI Emerging Markets NU Community
Multilingual database of emerging market country / business information. Click on "Companies" tab for company analyst reports, financials and news for companies in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Canadian Directories

Blue Book of Canadian Business 332.67 B658 Reference

Standard & Poor's Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives, United States and Canada
L 332.05 P827 Reference Mgmt / Schaffner
also available in Standard & Poor's Netadvantage NU Community

Canadian Trade Index NU Community
Canadian manufacturers directory.

Europe / United Kingdom Directories

Major Companies of Europe 6 volumes 338.094 M234 Reference Mgmt

Europe's 15,000 Largest Companies 338.09402 E89 Reference Mgmt

Germany's Top 500 338.74 G373 Reference Mgmt

Major companies of Central & Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States
L 338.74029 M3432 Reference Mgmt

Europages.com Unrestricted
Business information on over 500,000 companies from 30 countries.

UK Company Researcher Unrestricted

Kompass Unrestricted

Asia / Oceania Directories

Major Companies of the Far East and Australasia 3 volumes L338.74025 M234 Reference Mgmt

Major Companies of South West Asia
L 338.74025 M2342 Reference Mgmt

Japan Trade Directory
L 382.0952 J353 Reference Mgmt

Japan Company Handbook 380.05 J351 Reference Mgmt

Directory of Japanese-Affiliated Companies in the USA and Canada 338.88952 D598 Reference Mgmt

Latin American Directories

Major Companies of Latin America and the Caribbean L338.74 M234 Reference Mgmt

Brazil Company Handbook 338.74098 B827 Reference Mgmt

Middle Eastern Directories

Major Companies of the Arab World 382.0953 M234 Reference Mgmt

Major Companies of South West Asia
L 338.74025 M2342 Reference Mgmt

Specialized Directories

Directory of Multinationals 338.88025S883w Reference Mgmt

Directory of American Firms Operating in Foreign Countries 381.002D598 Reference Mgmt

Directory of Foreign Firms Operating in the United States 338.74A581d Reference Mgmt

Thomson World Bank Directory L 332.1 P769a Reference Mgmt / Schaffner

Green Book: International Directory of Marketing Research Companies and Services
L 658.83 A512i Reference Mgmt / Schaffner

GreenBook: Worldwide directory of focus group companies and services
L 658.83 A512ia Reference Mgmt / Schaffner

News and Articles

ABI/Inform (ProQuest version) NU Community
Indexes and abstracts of more than 1,800 business and management titles. The full text of the articles are included for nearly half of the citations in the database in a variety of formats, including text, text and graphics, and PDF. Under Search Methods, choose Guided and then choose a search by company under the drop-down menu.

Business Source Premier NU Community
Full text and abstracts from regional, national and international business and trade journals. Search options include searching/browsing by company under the subject search.

Lexis Nexis Academic NU Community
Full text general, business, financial and legal news information service for several thousand publications. Go under the News segment and choose Business News. The Guided Search option then allows for search by company name.

Business & Industry Database NU Community
Indexes and abstracts and from nearly 1,000 major U.S. and international trade journals, general business publications, and national & regional newspapers and newsletters. The full text is included for 75% of the articles. Limit search by company name.

Factiva NU Community
Full text of U.S. and international research and news articles from newspapers, newswires, magazines, trade journals, and company and industry financial reports. Factiva contains over 6000 full-text sources.

Market Share / Rankings

Business & Industry Database NU Community
Select ranking from document type menu to retrieve business articles with company rankings information. Limit to geographic region. You may also select market share under concept terms menu.

World Market Share Reporter L 658.8305 W927 Reference Mgmt / Schaffner

Business Rankings Annual L 016.33874 B9792 Reference Mgmt / Schaffner

Company Histories

Historical summaries of public companies may be found in filings such as Annual Reports.

Notable Corporate Chronologies L338.7 N899 Reference Mgmt / Schaffner
Includes chronologies of 1,500 companies worldwide.

International Directory of Company Histories L338.88025 I61 Reference Mgmt

Mergent Online NU Community
The history section for each public company report includes a chronology.

ABI/Inform (ProQuest version) NU Community
Searches back to early 20th century, for some journals.

Business Periodicals Index 016.381 B9795 Reference Stacks / Schaffner
Index of business publications back to 1958.

Industrial Arts Index 016.6 I38 Reference Stacks
Includes indexing of business publications from 1913 to 1957.

Parent vs. Subsidiary Companies

If a company is a subsidiary or division of another company, it will not be listed in most directories or have a separate annual report. When researching a subsidiary, look both under the parent company and the subsidiary, as subsidiaries are treated differently in different sources. To determine whether a company is a subsidiary or not, check these sources:

Lexis Nexis Corporate Affiliations. Vol. 6: International Public and Private Co. 338.74 D598
Reference Mgmt/ Schaffner

Who Owns Whom. Continental Europe 338.74 W628 Reference Mgmt

For further assistance, contact:

Jami Xu
Reference Librarian and Liaison to the
Kellogg School of Management
Northwestern University Library
Reference Department
(847) 491-8961
jamixu@northwestern.edu

Jeannette Moss
Reference and Instruction Librarian
Northwestern University Library
Reference Department
(847) 491-2169
j-moss@northwestern.edu

refdept@northwestern.edu