Researching a Company
Find Company | Company Lists | Australian Search | International | Tutorials | Rankings | Dirty Deeds | News | Activities |

Introduction

Company web sites are a rich source of authentic information for economics students. They publish details of company performance, profits and sales, investment plans and proposals. Secondly company annual reports often carry useful analysis of both macro economic and micro economc factors that have influenced company performance over the last twelve months. These are extremely useful for getting down to the nitty gritty of current economic conditions. Annual reports and their associated financial statements provide a window on the supply side of the economy. Some students find some of these materials too difficult. Company press releases and power point presentations are also usually available and these contain the same information presented for the general rather than the investing public. The following resources allow students to find company web sites and also to read a limited selection of reports on company performance. Some resources for international companies are inlcuded however the main focus is Australia.

Finding your Company
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  • ASX list of Australia's top companies. This provides details of share performance and links to company web pages. A great place to inspect if you wish to find an Australian company.
  • Yahoo Finance Australia This site offers an overveiw of the company its activities, selected broker recommendations, its share price and links to teh company's web page. Yahoo also allows you to read the company's latest ASX releases and collects a current selection of relevnat news articles. Yahoo also maintains its own database of Australian companies at Australian Companies.
  • Looksmart Australia Industries If this link does not work access Looksmart work and Industries through the home page. This directory classifies companies and their associations by industry. It is an extremely useful place for finding information about Australian companies from a range of sources rather than just the company itself. Student can access the same material by searching for Australian companies at GoEureka
  • Connect4 maintains an alphabetical listing of Australian companies that some students may find easier to use than the above.
  • Web Wombat | Business: Companies An Australian search engine that maintains a list of Australian companies.
  • Infogate: Australian Listed Companies A list of Australian companies maintained by librarians at Swinburne University.
  • Australian Securities and Industry Commission offers limited legal information about Australian Companies in a serchable database. A great place to find out if your company has been or is involved in murky activities.
  • IndustrySearch - Company Listings This site offers a databse of Australian companies that contains many small and medium sized businesses. There is no guarrantee that the companies listed here will have web sites.
  • InfoLink This is a business to business database of companies that allows users to search for suppliers by industry. It is a good example of modern e commerce but there is no guarrantee the companies listed here will have web sites.
  • The Yellow Pages A greatly underestimated resource. Do you need to know how many competitors your local fish and chop shop has? Search the yellow pages for a rough estimate?

Company Lists and Comment
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The following sites maintain lists of Australian companies and provide related comment an analysis. They inlcude analysis of the share price and often company profiles.

Australian Search Guides
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Finding International Companies
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Tutorials for International Companies

International Company Lists and Rankings
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Company Dirty Deeds Progressive
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  • CorpWatch.org This site provides current critical comment on the operations of large companies across the globe.
  • Multinational Monitor On-Line This site offers regular updates on multi national crimes and atrocities. The Magazine both current and back issues can be downloaded and read. Is your company in the top ten global atrocity list for 2003? Multinational Resource Center is the companion activist site.
  • Corporate Crime Reporter This website keeps current reports of corporate crimes mainly in the US.
  • Sweatshopwatch.org/ This is the website of a coalition of orgnisations dedicated to elminating the exploitation of labour everwhere.
  • Welcome to the Clean Clothes Campaign website This website offer details and news of the exploitation of clothing workers across the globe.
  • NikeWatch: Are Nike factories sweatshops whic... The name says it all
  • Labour Behind The Label Homepage This site is part of the clean clothes campaign and contains short case studies that teachers may find useful when teaching issues related to this topic.
  • M c S P O T L I G H T This website keeps track of the activities of Mc Donald's from a critical point of view.
  • Ethical Consumer This UK site looks at the social and environmental record of the companies behind the brand name! It contains an industry Buyers' guides that offers extensive analysis and case studies of various products and industries. A great resource. It also contains a Corporate watch section.
  • Endgame Research - George Draffan - Public Offers dated selected profiles of International Companies including history and notes on their dirty deeds. The material does not appear to be kept up to date however some copmany dirty deeds are verily immortal.
  • Transnational Institute This site offers progressive comment on a wide range of issues. Many of the articles here document the activities of rogue transnationals.
  • AlterNet.org is a project of the Independent Media Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening and supporting independent and alternative journalism. alterNet often carries articles on te activities of large coporations. See AlterNet: The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003 or AlterNet: The 100 Top Corporate Criminal
  • The Fairtrade Foundation,UK Website of an organisation devoted to offering fair and stable prices to producers in the developing world. Many of the news releases at Fairtrade contain material relevant evalutating the activities of large organisations.
  • The journalism and films of John Pilger John Pilger maintians this site and it contains much material relevant to the activities of global corporations including a section on globalisation and his book the new rulers of the world.
  • Global Exchange - Building People-to-People Ties Global Exchange is an international human rights organization dedicated to promoting environmental, political and social justice. Since our founding in 1988, we have increased the US public's global awareness while building partnerships worldwide.
  • New Internationalist magazine on-line Teachers will be familiar with the contents of this magazine and will find similar material in the online version. NI often carries reports of the activities of large companies in developing economies.
  • Common Dreams Progressive site that keeps some records of corporate crimes. Corporate Crime Reporter
  • Corporate Predators by Mokhiber and Weissman web site to promote the book of the same name and inlcudes Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990'
  • www.aflcio.org - America's labor Movement This web site offers current comment on their campaigns and a section called Executive Paywatch that documents the salaries received by US Executives.
  • ACCC Details activities of Australian companies that attempt to breach competition law.
  • U.S. Department of Justice: Antitrust Division Record cases of companies before the US courts for anti competitive behaviour.
  • Focus on the Global South This is a progressive site that is designed to raise awareness of the failure of free market policies in the developing world and to present critiques of the operation of global insitutions in the developing world. Global South adopts a global perspective on these issues but does from time to time report on corporate atrocities. This is a useful site however teachers may find the material more useful than students.
  • ICTSD - The International Centre for Trade an... The International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) was established in Geneva in September 1996 to contribute to a better understanding of development and environment concerns in the context of international trade. 
  • Christian Aid homepage Christian Aid contains details of Christian Aid programs abroad, comment on global issues as well as reports describing the activities of socially responsible and irresponsible companies.
  • Friends of the Earth: England FOE is an environmental action group that supports and encourages local action to protect the environment across the globe. This site frequently carries reports on the activities of large coporations from around the world.
  • CAFOD : Home Catholic Agency for overseas development. This site presents interesting reports on economic development in developing economies often written by people actually running programs in those countries. These reports often contain useful information about the activities of some of the world's larger companies.
  • Save the Children - home  The website of the UK charity of the same name. This site has much material teachers will find useful for the classroom inlcuding short descriptions of child poverty and related crisises from across the globe. From time to time large companies may figure in these reports.Teachers may find the material comparing breafasts for kids from a range of countries a useful lead in on child poverty at Beat Poverty.
  • Welcome to Third World Network (TWN) This is a progressive activist site that keeps news and reports on gobal poverty and trade issues. The activities of large corporations often figure in these reports.
  • Oxfam This site documents the activities and campaigns of OxFam and carries reports and news articles on the nature and causes of poverty. Useful for global poverty and related issues.
  • Human Rights Watch / Defending Human Rights W... At first glance teachers may wonder why this site is here however HRW is a fantastic site for pursuing human rights abuses and material on significant global campaigns such as body snatching. Various companies who have sanctioned or been complicit in a range of abuses are reported in the news articles on the site. Students will need to scan through these carefully as this is not the main focus of HRW.
  • International Forum on Globalization The website of an organisation the highlights the negative consequences of trade deals. This site is useful for scholars of the subject but not so useful for students.
  • Public Citizen | Global Trade Watch
  • This site carries articles and comment on global trade and a wide range of other issues including US politcal donations always a juicy subject when investigating large companies. Public citiczen links into a range of US progressive sites that frequently carry artilces on the activities of large companies.
  • Global Policy Forum This site comments on and analyses global plicy making at the UN. It covers global issues of all descriptions and possesses and excellent directory of online resources for teachers and students who want a great deal of detail on this topics. GPF does mention the activities of large coporations however global policy issues are the main focus of the site.
  • The World Bunk - definitely not the World Bank This website is a mock up of the world bank site and offers comment and critiscism of the banks activities.
  • Anti-Friedman A set of articles, comments and resources devoted to debunking the work of the Friedman of Lexs and Olive Tree Fame

Selected News Sources
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  • Reuters global news Bloomberg | Yahoo news | CNN These site provide typical comment on global markets and issues. More of these kinds of news sites can be found in the country news section.
  • Oneworld.Net | New Internationalist | These sites offer current news on global issues. Many of the sites in the preeding section also have current issues sections that are regularly updated.
  • globalEDGE (TM) | international business resource desk. This is a business portal for global businesses and carries links to a wide range of sites dealing with the needs of large businesses.
  • Global Insight a global business portal for global business people. A range of articles and resources from this perspective.