Penn State University Libraries - BA 422W Strategic Business Planning

NAICS Association Search page: [External resource: new window] North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)  look-up. Use NAICS codes to research your line of business in government sites and databases.

Hoover's Online Full-text company and industry information, company news, information on initial public offerings, and career and personal finance information

Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage Full-text source of company, industry, and investment data

IBISWorld provides over 700 full-text industry reports and information on over 8000 publicly traded U.S. companies as well as hundreds of economic and demographic profiles.

Plunkett Research Online Full-text industry analysis and research

Value Line (only 6 simultaneous users) This popular full-text investment service provides company and industry analyses

Thomson ONE Banker (Investext) Real-time full-text investment research resports from more than 750 contributing firms such as Merrill Lynch, Salomon Smith Barney and RS Investment Management
(NOTE: Thomson ONE Banker ONLY works with the Internet Explorer browser).

Mergent Online Full-text information on U.S. and international public companies, including detailed, standardized financial statements, comparative analysis among companits, and industry reports

Trade Associations: Trade associations often have information on their industry. If you know of a trade association pertinent to your industry, go to their Web site. If you need to locate one, see (a) individual reports in Plunkett Research Online, under "Industry Associations," select "View all associations"; or (b) individual IBISWorld industry reports, under "Additional Resources" are some associations. You can also do a Google search of key terms and "association."

Use these sources to find information for setting up a business or to search for articles on business and industry in Berks County, PA.

To find articles on businesses or industries in Berks County, use ProQuest and Access World News.

ProQuest (multiple databases) Includes McClatchy-Tribune Business News in full text, which has selected Reading Eagle articles. Sample search: Viva AND (restaurant OR bistro) AND Wyomissing (Be sure to search ALL DATES)

Access World News (NewsBank)  Full-text newspapers from around the country and the world. Use to find competitive, political-legal, economic, technological, and sociocultural information, especially in a specific area of the country/world.

Select Pennsylvania Newspapers on the left (Notice Reading Eagle is included from 12/2006 to present)

Add any needed rows to the search boxes. See this sample search:

All text: reading pa
AND All text: restaurant
AND Section: financial or business
AND Date: last 5 years (select this from drop-down menu)

Note: Access World News automatically searches both singular and plural forms of words.

To find demographic information and/or resources for setting up a business in Berks county, see these additional links:

NewPA.com  by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Community and Economic Development (DCED)

Center for Workforce Information and Analysis  Pennsylvania's Workforce Statistics. Includes long term industry employment projections, PA work stats, and occupational wages.

State & County QuickFacts: Berks County, PA from the U.S. Census Bureau. Example: Select Berks County or Reading (city) (or other towns/boroughs) and click Go. On right side of the results page, click "Browse data sets for[Berks county] or [Reading (city)]."

American FactFinder from the U.S. Census Bureau. Search Berks County by selecting from the Geographies at left side. You can also search specific zip codes, towns, etc.

Economic Census from the U.S. Census Bureau. The Economic Census profiles American business every 5 years, from the national to the local level. Also includes more frequent data, such as County Business Patterns. Search desired NAICS code(s) with desired county, by selecting from Geographies and Industry Codes at left side (once the site has linked into American FactFinder).

Selected sources of full-text statistics and other information useful for SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis.

United States Statistics & Data research guide Helpful links to government data

Economic Indicators Monthly updates on how the U.S. is doing

Survey of Current Business online From Bureau of Economic Analysis

Securities and Exchange Commission filings and forms (EDGAR)   Where corporate reports are filed with the SEC. EDGAR stands for the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system.