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Company Research

This guide is a collection of resources that will help you with your company research. You can look for ready made profiles or you can compile information from a variety of sources to get a clear picture of your potential competitors, clients or partners.

Key resources for company directories

You can use company directories to either consult individual company profiles or build company lists you can use for various purposes, such as finding clients, partners, competitors.

Company directories can be found in the following databases in our library collection. Below you will also find some strategies you can use to easily find directories in our databases. 

  • icon of a building Users listed next to this icon have access on campus. (This will often say ALL indicating all users have access on campus. There are a few exceptions.) 
  • icon of a house Users listed next to this icon have access off campus.

Gale Business: Insights

Search tips:

  • Companies – Company finder. You can download lists as CSV.

Gale Directory Library

Search tips:

  • Click on Ward's Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public Companies (at the bottom) – select the 64th edition from 2022 – perform a keyword search or filter results from the menu on the right to come up with a list. Use Company type to select private companies only.

Mergent Online

Search tips:

  • Use D&B 20m plus private company search tab.

Nexis Uni

Search tips:

  • Go to Discover topics – Business – find a company or Create a company list. Same for executives.