Management Library - Question of the Week

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Question of the Week I want to learn how to use Bloomberg, but the library workshops don't start until the fall. What can I do? Request a consultation with a librarian. In about an hour we will help familiarize you with the Bloomberg terminal and the Excel API. Bloomberg also has training videos and guides on the terminal itself so that you can learn more about how to use the terminal for specific information needs. Can I check out library books for the summer? Depending upon the loan period for the book you are welcome to check out library books for the summer, but be aware that books can be recalled either by another student or a faculty member. If a book is recalled it is your responsibility to return the book within the recall period (usually 2 weeks). We strongly urge patrons not to keep books for the summer unless they know that they can easily return them should a situation like this arise. If you have any questions or concerns regarding checking out books, please contact us. Do you have any market information on social networking platforms? Mintel recently published Social Networking and Connectivity in the Digital Age (US) which includes data on the users of social networking applications, the top players in the market, adspending trends and more. The Facebook Application Platform (Ready Reference TK5108.888.O74) report from O'Reilly Radar examines the trends, best practices and strategies of the third party widgets and applications used in Facebook. How can I find a list of the various Heinz Co. brands? Global Market Information Database has profiles on more that 4,600 companies that include listings of national and international brands as well as statistics on market share. You can also find out who makes a specific brand by consulting Brands and Their Companies (Ready Reference T223.V4 A2). How can I find a list of all M&A activity for a particular year? There are several ways Cornell students can find mergers and acquisitions data. One of the most straightforward ways is to use the Bloomberg terminal. Use MA<GO> to get to the main mergers and acquisition screen. From here you can select Mergers & Acquisitions Search and create a custom search. You can screen M&A deals by criteria such as date, status, country, et cetera. How can I find a list of all the companies presently part of the Dow Jones Industrials Index? Using the Indices tab of Thomson One Banker, you can easily find the constituents list of most global indices. See how. Thomson One Banker also provides pricing information, weighting, and valuation ratios for each constituent, as well as performance data for the index as a whole. Click on the Excel icon to download the data into a spreadsheet. How can I find a list of US importers of porcelain and fine china? The Directory of United States Importers (HF 3012.D595 Ready Reference) and its companion volume, Directory of United States Exporters (HF 3011.D59 Ready Reference), allow you to refine a list of importers and exporters by state and by product. What is an export credit agency? Export credit agencies (ECA) and export credit guarantees are organizations that help companies export goods to foreign countries by giving credit to foreign buyers and/or providing insurance against non-payment to the exporting companies at a rate lower than the market and taking credit risks where private sector lenders fear to tread. This allows the exporting company to be more competitive in foreign markets. For more information on ECAs including statistics, country risk ratings, reports, and a list of official ECAs see the OECD website Do you have any technology-related market research reports? Gartner Intraweb supplies market research reports on Information Technology industries including the semiconductor industry. Mintel has reports on consumer electronics such as home computers or portable media devices (You will be required to set up an account with your Cornell email address to access Mintel). Also, Forrester Research makes some shorter articles available on its website for free (registration is required). See our FAQs for more information on market research or, if you would like, request a consultation with a librarian. Where can I find a SWOT analysis for Procter & Gamble? Business Source Premier contains more than 10,000 Datamonitor company profiles and of these more than 2,000 have a SWOT (Stregnths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis. From the database's main page click the Company Profiles link. From here you can type in a company name in the Browse for box and then click the Browse button. These Datamonitor reports contain an overview of a company and often include information on its products, competitors, and revenue. Where can I find an up-to-date list of key economic indicators? In Thomson One Banker, click the Markets tab and then the Economics Data tab. You will have a choice of viewing the data by type of indicator or calendar listing. Bloomberg also has several functions that provide current data on economic indicators. Consult our Bloomberg Shortcuts web page to find the shortcuts listed under Economic Statistics. How do I know which business database to use? The Management Library has prepared a web page that organizes business databases by topic - article research, market research, international data, etc. You can also find more information about each database on our Top Business Databases page. If you still need more assistance, send us a note using our Ask A Librarian form. Which beverage has the highest brand recognition? According to the annual brand report published by Retailing Today, Coke has the highest brand recognition at 28%, followed by Pepsi at 23%. The 2006 annual brand report was published in the October 23, 2006 edition of Retailing Today, which is available electronically to the Cornell community from Find e-Journals. Where can I find handouts from this semester's library workshops? Handouts and slides from all of this semester's library workshops are available on the workshops page of our web site. If you have a suggestion for a future workshop topic, please send an email to the library instruction team. What's the difference between an S corporation and a C corporation? The C corporation is the standard corporation. The S corporation is a standard corporation that has elected a special tax status with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). C corporations file a corporate tax return reporting profits or losses, and any profits are taxed at the corporate level, while S Corporations do not pay taxes at the corporate level. In addition, C corporations can have an unlimited number of shareholders, while S corporations are restricted to no more than 100 shareholders. More details about the differences between corporation types can be found at the BizFilings web site. Who is the best CEO in the biotechnology industry? According to the annual survey conducted by Institutional Investor, Arthur Levinson of Genentech is tops among biotech CEOs. Portfolio managers and analysts were surveyed to choose the top-performing CEOs in their domain. This year's results are in the January, 2007 edition of the magazine, which is available in print in the Management Library or electronically through Find e-Journals. What are industry codes and how do I find them? Industry codes have been developed to provide a way to classify industries into categories. There are two main types of industry codes: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The U.S. Department of Labor has a web site that allows you to search for SIC codes by keyword. The Census Bureau has recently introduced the new 2007 NAICS codes on their web site, which includes significant additions to service industries and the computer, wireless, and electronic industries. Using the Classification Search feature of Mergent Online, you can create a set of companies, based on SIC or NAICS codes. How can I access business articles online? Cornell students can search for electronic journals using Find e-Journals. Search for one of thousands of ejournals by journal title, subject or keyword. The results will display the database(s) that provide access to this journal and for what time periods. Select a database and search for the articles that you need. Watch this 2 minute tutorial to see an example of how to use Find e-Journals. What's the difference between a 10K and an annual report? A 10K is a legal document that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires of every publicly-held company in the United States. The 10-K contains detailed financial statements and financial footnotes. The annual report is the document that companies distribute to their shareholders. It also serves as promotional material for prospective shareholders. Annual reports include financial highlights and a management discussion of the previous year. Companies often also add in some graphs and photos to give the document a more polished appearance. The annual report is briefer and easier to read and understand than the 10-K. For a full list of financial filings required by the SEC, visit their forms list web page. Where can I find a list of banks in Boston with assets of more than $5 billion? The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) provides an online Institution Directory. You can limit your searches geographically as well as by selected financial criteria. You can also retrieve historical data, going back to 1992. What type of workshops does the library offer? The Management Library offers a full range of business information workshops each semester. You can find a list of this semester's classes on our workshop page. If you would like to suggest a topic for a workshop, please use our Ask A Librarian form. How do I find full-text anaylst reports for companies or industries? Investext Plus delivers full-text analyst reports in their original published formats, complete with charts, photographs and graphics. You can limit your search to specific firms (such as Credit Suisse or Morgan Stanley), or to a specified date range. Which business databases can be accessed from off-campus? Most library databases can be accessed from off-campus by any currently registered Cornell student. However, some databases, such as Bloomberg or Datastream, can only be used in the library. Consult our Database Information page for a list of top business databases and their access restrictions. If you experience trouble logging into one of our databases, please refer to our Off-Campus Access page for more information. Where can I find information about patents and trademarks? Google Patents and MicroPatent are two good sources for patent research. The web site of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office allows free searching for patent and trademark information and includes a wide collection of How To Guides and Frequently Asked Questions. Cornell's Engineering Library has put together a Resource Guide for detailed information about patent searching. How do I read an issue of my favorite newspaper, magazine, or journal online? The Cornell library subscribes to thousands of publications, including popular magazines, newspapers, academic journals, trade journals, and more. Several article databases, such as Factiva, Business Source Premier, or ProQuest, provide full-text access to articles from all types of publications. Find e-Journals is a quick way to determine which of these databases contains the specific publication you are seeking. How do I find full-text market research reports? Full-text market research reports are available through Mintel, which provides reports on a wide variety of industries in the U.S., the U.K., and a handful of other countries. Gartner Intraweb supplies market research reports on the Information Technology industries. Sports Business Research Network contains data on sport participants, spectators, and consumers of sporting goods and apparel. Global Market Information Database provides six-year historic market size data for more than 330 consumer products in 52 countries, plus five-year forecasts. For a more complete list of market research sources available at the Management Library, check out our Market Research Resource List. Where can I find financial statement data for companies in Saudi Arabia? Using Mergent Online, you can produce a list of public companies for countries from all over the world. Mergent updates and maintains data on 20,000 non-U.S. based corporations and provides immediate access to companies representing 95% of the non-U.S. global market capitalization. From the Mergent basic search page, simply use the Country drop-down list to select the desired country. Where can I find handouts from this semester's library workshops? You can find material from our library workshops on the Workshops page of our web site. Who was the highest-paid female executive in 2006? According to Fortune magazine, Safra Catz, president and CFO of Oracle, took home $26.1 million in total compensation last year. More information can be found in Fortune's annual ranking of America's top businesswomen. Where can I find financial ratios for an industry? Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys, available electronically through Market Insight, contain a section titled Key Industry Ratios and Statistics. Bloomberg also provides an extensive list of ratios using the Relative Value (RV) function. Ratio data is provided for the industry average as well as for companies within the industry. Cost of Capital (HC110 C3 C83 in Ready Reference), published annually by Ibbotson Associates, provides detailed ratios and statistics for more than 300 industries. Additional print publications that provide industry financial ratios include: Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios (HF5681 R25 T861 in Ready Reference) Annual Statement Studies (HF5681 B2 R63 in Ready Reference) Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios (HF5681 R25 D89 in Ready Reference) How much ice cream does the typical U.S. household consume per month? According to the latest research from the Simmons' National Consumer Survey, households surveyed reported eating an average of 2.8 quarts of ice cream per month. More detailed market research information about ice cream (and many other consumer products) can be found with Mintel. Also, direct access to the Simmons research data can be found with Choices 3. Where can I find a list of the world's most respected companies? Finanical Times produces an annual survey of the world's most respected companies, compiling CEO opinion from more than 1,000 respondents across 25 countries. After seven straight years as the runner-up, Microsoft broke through in 2005 as the top company. View the entire 2005 list. How do I know which business databases to use for my research? Start by consulting our Database Information web page. Here you'll find a listing of the core electronic business resources available to members of the Cornell Community, including information about which databases are available from off campus. We have also developed a web page for databases arranged by subject (company research, international business, market research, etc.) that will help you refine your research. Reference assistance is also available, either by email, phone (255-3389), or in person during reference desk hours. Where can I find daily LIBOR rates for the last 10 years? Current and historical LIBOR rates are available from Thomson One Banker. From the Thomson One Banker home page, click the Markets tab at the top of the screen and then click the LIBOR tab. Use the drop-down menus to adjust the variables and click Update. Click the Excel symbol to download the data into a spreadsheet. Bloomberg and Datastream are additional sources of LIBOR data. What are the leading industries in Tompkins County, in terms of number of employees? Not surprisingly, Educational Services is the number one industry in Tompkins County. The complete list of industries is available from the American Community Survey (2005 is the most recent data). American Community Survey is a product of the U.S. Census Bureau. The easiest way to access Census data, including the American Community Survey, is through a databases called American FactFinder. Where can I find a list of the top 100 hedge funds by assets under management? Bloomberg provides extensive research on hedge funds. Use the shortcut HFCH <GO> to view a list of hedge fund company holdings, including the fund name, location, and assets under mangement. For a list of popular Bloomberg shortcuts, including additional hedge fund information, consult our Bloomberg Shortcuts guide. For additional hedge fund research, the Lipper HedgeWorld Annual Guide (HG 4530 H434 in Ready Reference) provides "funds of funds" data and individual funds performance data, as well as information on manager trends and investor trends. What is the average monthly electricity bill for a family of four in Jakarta? According to the EIU Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, a family of four in Jakarta paid an average of $435 per month for electricity in 2005. Data from the EIU Worldwide Cost of Living Survey is available from EIU City Data, a product of the Economist Intelligence Unit that provides pricing information on over 160 products and services in 123 cities worldwide. Does the library provide access to e-books? The Cornell library partners with several e-book vendors to provide access to members of the Cornell community. The easiest way to find a list of available e-books is to browse or search the collections of each vendor. NetLibrary and Books24x7 are two of the most popular e-book providers. How can I obtain a list of companies that have gone public this month? The IPO Central section of Hoover's Online contains extensive IPO data, including recent filings, performance, and a calendar of upcoming filings. The IPO Performance area offers monthly and quarterly listings going back to 1996, and includes the number of shares offered, the offer price, and the last close price. Additional IPO information is available in Bloomberg and Thomson One Banker. Where can I find data on the percentage of internet use in Latin America? Mintel provides a market research report on Search Engines and Portals, which includes data about internet penetration for global regions. This information is included in the Market Drivers section of the Mintel report. The web site Internet Usage World Stats contains free statistics on worldwide internet usage for more than 233 countries and world regions. How can I find a list of IBM's subsidiaries? The Company Details area of Mergent Online contains a link for Subsidiaries. A list of subsidiaries, both wholly-owned and partially-owned, will be displayed, along with the geographic location. The Related Securities function of Bloomberg will also retrieve a list of subsidiaries. Type IBM <EQUITY> RELS and then click the Major Subsidiaries link. Where can I find trade associations for the wireless telecommunications industry? Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys, available electronically through Market Insight, contain a section titled Industry References. The Industry References section lists relevant trade associations for that industry. Business & Company Resource Center also provides lists of trade associations for industries. The Cornell Library subscribes to a searchable database of associations titled Associations Unlimited. Associations Unlimited provides an easily searchable interface to more than 460,000 international, national, regional, state, and local organizations, including non-profits. The Encyclopedia of Associations (HS61 G15 in Ready Reference) lists more than 22,000 national and international organizations, including trade, business, and commercial associations. Which company is the leading information technology innovator in the pharmaceutical industry? According to InformationWeek, Wyeth was the leading pharmaceutical company for IT innovation (2004), followed by Eli Lilly and Amgen. Companies were ranked on technological, procedural, and organizational innovation. These rankings are part of the InformationWeek 500, an annual ranking of the most innovative companies employing information technology in their businesses. Current issues of InformationWeek can be found in the Hotel School library, or full-text electronic access is available from Factiva, going back to 1988. How can I find the weighting of the current constituents of the Hang Seng Index? Using the Indices tab of Thomson One Banker, you can easily determine the weighting for each member of most global indices. For example, Esprit Holdings currently represents 1.5% of the Hang Seng Index. In addition to a list of constituents, Thomson One Banker also provides pricing information and valuation ratios for each constituent, as well as performance data for the index as a whole. What are industry codes and where do I find them? Industry codes have been developed to provide a way to classify industries into categories. There are two main types of industry codes: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The U.S. Department of Labor has a web site that allows you to search for SIC codes by keyword. The Census Bureau has a web site that allows you to search for NAICS codes by keyword. Using the Classification Search feature of Mergent Online, you can look up SIC codes or NAICS codes, based on a hierarchical system of industry descriptions. Where can I find copies of sample business plans? The Management Library keeps student business plans from Cornell’s Entrepreneurship Courses (NBA 300 and NBA 564) for three years. They are shelved in filing cabinets on the second floor of the library. These business plans are indexed by industry description and can only be used in the library. Business plans for NBA 507 are on course reserve; please ask for them at the circulation desk. They can be checked out for two hours. These business plans are for educational use only. The Management Library also has a copy of Business Plans Handbook: A Compilation of Actual Business Plans Developed by Small Businesses Throughout North America (HD62.7 B865 in Ready Reference). Where can I find a list of venture capital firms in San Diego that invest in biotechnology companies? CareerSearch is a database that will allow you to create a list of companies by industry, geographic location, size, or keyword. CareerSearch is a powerful employment tool that can be used to identify potential employers and businesses, including contact information at mulitple locations for a company. CareerSearch contains extensive international data, and also includes other useful components, such as Salary Wizard and Top-Rated Cities. How does JP Morgan feel about the recent partnership between Google and Fox? Using Investext Plus, you can read the comments by Imran Khan, the Internet and Media analyst for JP Morgan, from the analyst report released on August 6, 2006. Investext Plus delivers full-text analyst reports in their original published formats, complete with charts, photographs and graphics. You can limit your search to specific firms (such as Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, or JP Morgan), or to a specified date range. What is the largest nonprofit organization in the United States? The YMCA is the largest nonproft organization in the United States, with $4,831,582,000 in reported income in 2004. This information is available from the web site of The NonProfit Times, where you can find detailed information about the top 100 nonprofits in the U.S. What was the average cost of a 26-inch television in Beijing for each of the last 15 years? The average cost of a 26-inch television in Beijing was $802.80 in 2005, down from a high of $926.80 in 2001. EIU City Data, produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit, provides pricing information on over 160 products and services in 123 cities worldwide How can I find Microsoft's credit rating? Market Insight has Standard & Poor's Issuer Credit Ratings which rate the overall credit worthiness of a company. Mergent Online has long term debt information for publicly traded companies which include descriptions of the corporate bonds and their credit ratings. Bloomberg also has credit ratings for individual bonds put out by corporations, using the shortcuts <CORP><GO> and <GOVT><GO>. Where can I find information on the consumer electronics market for Europe? Two great places to start for market information are Mintel and Global Market Information Database (GMID). Mintel produces detailed, full-text market research reports for the UK, US, and parts of Western Europe. These reports cover various sectors including consumer goods, travel and tourism, financial industry, internet industry, retail, and food & drink. GMID covers countries from around the world and it includes market research reports as well as statistics. How can I find country risk ratings and related information for Turkey? The Handbook of Country Risk (HG453 R57 in Ready Reference) assigns letter grades to countries based on short-term and medium-term risk. The Bloomberg database has EIU country risk ratings (EIU <GO>), a Country Risk Premiums Table (CRP <GO>), and Cumulative Analyst Recommendations (CNSH <GO>) for the stocks in a country. To find more in-depth information on a country and its risk, look at the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Country Reports, and the Political Risk Yearbook (HD2755.5 P6552 in Reference). The EIU Country Reports contain information on a country's political and economic outlook, trends, and forecasts. Political Risk Yearbook has in-depth reports divided into two sections: country forecasts and country conditions. How can I find what percentage of Palm Beach's population is made up of people 65 and older? The Bureau of the Census is one of the best sources for US demographic data and American Factfinder is a Census product that makes it easy to extract demographic data. You can get a Fact Sheet about any region in the US down to the zip code level. You can also use the American Community Survey to get more up-to-date information about States and larger population centers. Where can I find information about Google's intangible value (strategic governance, human capital, environmental policies, etc.)? Innovest I-Ratings is a social responsibility investment portal that provides ratings and analysis of a company's intangible values. By assessing variables typically not identified by traditional securities analysis, Innovest uncovers hidden risks and value potential. Innovest also contains industry sector overviews and in-depth reports. Socrates is another social responsibility database that provides data on the involvement of corporations in areas such as: military contracting, charitable contributions, women and minority directors and managers, union representation, superfund or hazardous waste sites, and more. Socrates is only available on public computers in the Management and ILR libraries. How do I find full-text anaylst reports for companies or industries? Investext Plus delivers full-text analyst reports in their original published formats, complete with charts, photographs and graphics. You can limit your search to specific firms (such as Credit Suisse or Morgan Stanley), or to a specified date range. How do I find information about patents? The Engineering Library has put together an informative web page that contains tutorials explaining how to perform a patent search as well as descriptions of patent searching tools such as the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). One of the easiest ways to search for patents, including newer and non-U.S. patents, is to use a database called Micropatent. Micropatent allows you to limit your search by country, keywords, dates, etc. You can sort search results, export them, and set up periodic search alerts. How do I read an issue of my favorite newspaper, magazine, or journal online? The Cornell library subscribes to thousands of publications, including popular magazines, newspapers, academic journals, trade journals, and more. Several article databases, such as Factiva, Business Source Premier, or ProQuest, provide full-text access to articles from all types of publications. Find e-Journals is a quick way to determine which of these databases contains the specific publication you are seeking. Do I need to return all of my library books before I leave for the summer? You are allowed to keep library material over the summer; however, all library books are subject to being recalled. A recall will alter the book's due date, making it due back sooner. You will be required to send the book back to the library if it is recalled. If you have any additional questions about library policies, please contact our circulation staff. Where can I find a ranking of the top supermarkets, by sales? An excellent source for rankings information is Business Rankings Annual. This publication compiles data from a variety of sources to create lists of companies, products, services, and activities. Business Rankings Annual is located in the Ready Reference collection in the Management Library (call number Z7164 T87 B97) as well as the Hotel and Mann libraries. Data from Business Rankings Annual is available electronically through Business & Company Resource Center. Click the Rankings tab at the top of the screen following a company or industry search. Where can I find a list of insurance companies in France? An easy way to find a list of companies in a specific industry and a specific country is to use Mergent Online. On the Mergent Online home page, you can select an industry code using the Code Lookup function (NAICS 524 is the industry code for insurance companies). You can then use the drop-down menu to select a country. A list of public companies will be generated. How can I create a list of companies in a specific industry, in a specific location? Using a database called CareerSearch, you can build a list of companies based on your criteria, including industry type, geographic location, size, and keywords. For example, you can create a list of commoditites brokers that have offices in Manhattan. A powerful employment tool, CareerSearch can be used to identify potential employers and businesses, including contact information at mulitple locations for a company. Where can I find Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) for specific companies or industries? For individual companies, Bloomberg is a good source for WACC. For example, to find WACC for Microsoft, type the following command: msft <EQUITY> wacc <GO> (<EQUITY> represents the yellow Equity key and <GO> represents the green Go key). For industry WACC, Cost of Capital Yearbook by Ibbotson Associates compiles data from Standard & Poor's Compustat Data, organized by industries based on Standard Industry Classification (SIC) codes. The latest edition of Cost of Capital Yearbook can be found in the Ready Reference collection behind the reference desk on the first floor of the library (call number HC110 C3 C83). The examples on this page represent some of the questions answered by staff of the Management Library. For a more complete list of Frequently Asked Questions, visit our Research FAQ page.