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International Business: Home

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Purpose of Research Guide

This guide curates research and information sources for business. Use the side menu to navigate to relevant sources.

Email the University Libraries for guidance: Researchassistance@unc.edu

Data & Statistics (International)

World DataBank
Offers an analysis and visualization tool of economic, social and environmental indicators. Contains collections of time series data on a variety of topics. Users can create queries, generate tables, charts, and maps, and easily save, embed, and share them.

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Compilation of several World Bank data sources: World Development Indicators, Global Development Finance, Gender Statistics, Education Statistics, Africa Development Indicators, and more.
Penn World Tables
PWT version 10.0 is a database with information on relative levels of income, output, input and productivity, covering 183 countries between 1950 and 2019.

UNdata
Provides simultaneous access to 14 statistical databases from the United Nations and other international organizations through one interface. Areas of coverage include agriculture, education, energy, industry, labor, national accounts, population, tourism and trade. Includes Millennium Development Goals indicators, and UN Key Global Indicators.

Access: No restrictions.

International Monetary Fund Data
Provides IMF data from International Financial Statistics, World Economic Outlook, and many other datasets. The IMF provides technical assistance and training on critical economic issues to central banks, finance ministries, tax authorities, and other economic institutions.

Euromonitor Passport
Provides detailed data and reports for international and consumer industries, including historic data from 1997 and market forecasts. Reports include market size, company and brand profiles and market share. Consumer information includes population trends, lifestyles, buying behavior. Export data into Excel. Great for international business.

Note: You will be asked to login. UNC affiliates only – no walk in access allowed.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: Varies. Most data for past few years, some back to 1977.
Statista
Contains statistics, infographics, industry and market research reports and publicly-available data for over 25 countries on all topics. Download statistics and charts in Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF.

Note: UNC Chapel Hill currently has full access to Statista with the exception of the Global Consumer Survey and Market Studies.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Sage Data
Access data on economics, crime, health, population, energy, the environment, and more in a single interface. Manipulate data; create charts, graphs, tables, maps. Data come from U.S. and international sources. For help, see the user guide.

Access:Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
ABI/INFORM Collection
Includes spreadsheets from Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Country Data, which provides up to 370 variables for G20 countries, 1982-present, updated monthly. Use the Browse option to find these, and then change the sort to "Most recent".

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: Coverage varies. Some academic journals start in the 1800s, and some newspapers start in the early 1900s.
Language: Primarily English. Over 20 languages total.

Country Profiles

Euromonitor Passport
For most countries, provides these detailed reports:
- Country profile
- Business dynamics
- Economy, finance and trade
- Environmental sustainability
- HouseholdsIncome and expenditures
- 2040: The future demographic
- Consumer values and behavior
- Megatrends
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: Varies. Most data for past few years, some back to 1977.
Statista
Contains statistics, infographics, industry and market research reports and publicly-available data for over 25 countries on all topics. Download statistics and charts in Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF.

Note: UNC Chapel Hill currently has full access to Statista with the exception of the Global Consumer Survey and Market Studies.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.

MarketLine Country Profiles via Business Source Premier
Covers 150 countries, providing political analysis, economic analysis, and key economic data. Profiles of key industries in those countries are also available.
To access: In the search box type "marketline country profile" and country of interest. Click Search button.
globalEDGE
Aggregates international business and trade data as well as economic trends and other information resources. Organized by Country, Trade Bloc, Economic Classification, Industry or State, this is a great place to start your hunt for international information. From Michigan State University.

Doing Business in Countries

World Bank "Business Enabling Environment"
Includes country reports, rankings, and sometimes city/regional analysis.

Euromonitor Passport
Provides detailed data and reports for international and consumer industries, including historic data from 1997 and market forecasts. Reports include market size, company and brand profiles and market share. Consumer information includes population trends, lifestyles, buying behavior. Export data into Excel. Great for international business.

Note: You will be asked to login. UNC affiliates only – no walk in access allowed.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: Varies. Most data for past few years, some back to 1977.

Country Commercial Guides (U.S. Dept. of Commerce)
Covers economic trends, political environment, how to market U.S. products, leading sectors for exports, trade regulations, investment climate, business travel, and more. From the International Trade Administration, U.S. Dept. of Commerce.
Political Risk Yearbook via Business Source Premier
Provides political, economic, and financial risk ratings and analysis for 100 countries important to international business.
To access: type "political risk yearbook" in the search box along with your country of interest.
CIA World Factbook
This website, using information from the CIA and other U.S. government entities, provides basic information and statistics about countries throughout the world.

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A frequently updated resource that "provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities." Prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency with data from various United States government departments.

Business News

Factiva
Contains major global newspapers, business newspapers and magazines, trade and industry journals, prominent newswires, and network broadcast transcripts. In the Companies/Markets tab, there are global company reports, limited industry reports, and market data. The results pages allow robust filtering, and there is live chat help.

Note: 5 Concurrent User Limit

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: Varies. 9,000 sources are updated on the day of publication.
Language: Primarily English. Over 20 languages total.
Wall Street Journal
Access full-text articles from The Wall Street Journal: Eastern Edition, published 6 days a week.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users. North Carolina residents with a borrower's card may access from off campus by visiting NCLive directly. Contact the Davis Library Service Desk for the NCLive password (instructions).
Coverage: 1984-present.

The Business Journals
Instructions for access here. Kenan-Flagler affiliates ONLY.
Full digital access to all 46 regional Business Journals including Raleigh/Durham, Charlotte, Austin, Silicon Valley and 42 more.

Regional Business News
Indexes of regional business publications across the United States, with full text for most titles.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: Varies. Full text begins in early 1990s.
Nexis Uni
Covers general, regional, and international news, company and financial information, legal information (including law reviews, case law and legal rulings), and other topics such as biographical information. Many files are full-text.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Financial Times
Access to the Financial Times.
Note: User must "set up account" with their UNC email to gain access to this resource.
- Click on resource.
- Click on “Sign In” in upper right corner.
- Enter UNC email. Click on "Next" box.
- Click on "SSO Sign In" box.
- Sign in with UNC credentials (onyen and password).
- Click on "Set up Account" box.
- Fill out form/s.
- User will see a confirmation page if they have set up account correctly.
Note: Once user has account, sign in will take user to their “My Account” landing page with access to Financial Times.
- Click on resource.
- Click on “Sign In” in upper right corner.
- Enter UNC email. Click on "Next" box.
- Click on "SSO Sign In" box.
- Sign in with UNC credentials (onyen and password), if asked. This step may not be needed.
Note: With account, Financial Times apps are available for iOS and Android.Note: User must follow Financial Times Copyright Policy.
Access:Onyen log in is always required for UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; and UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users. On Campus Access Available on Davis Library public guest computers. Ask at Service Desk for assistance.

International News

Canadian Newsstream
Over 300 Canadian newspapers from Canada's leading publishers, including the complete available electronic back file for most newspapers, providing full access to the articles, columns, editorials and features.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
African Newspapers
Contains the full text of newspapers published in Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Languages include English, German, French, Portuguese, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Sotho, and others.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Language: Various
Latin American Newsstream
Latin American Newsstream provides over 100 full text newspapers in Spanish and Portuguese from across Latin America.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Language: English, Spanish, Portuguese
Newspaper Source Plus
Provides complete full-text coverage of 149 national and international newspapers, such as Christian Science Monitor, New York Times, Times (London), Toronto Star, Washington Post, and Washington Times. Additionally offered is selective full text from over 400 regional U. S. newspapers and transcripts from CBS News, CNN, Fox News, NPR, etc.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1995-present
U.S. Newsstream
News content from many national and international newspapers, newswires and selected news magazines.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
America's News
America's News is the most comprehensive U.S.newspaper resource available. It provides information on people, issues, and events in the local area or around the country. Updated daily, America's Newspapers offers tens of millions of current and archived full-text articles from newspapers nationwide in a single, fully searchable online database. It includes the complete electronic editions of 827 newspapers - with 75% of these sources not available in any other library database.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.

Public Companies

Orbis
Covers millions of publicly traded and privately held companies from around the world. Company records include directory facts, financial and ownership details, subsidiaries, names and titles for executives and directors, M&A deals, etc. Privately held companies do not have financial information.
Note: This resource does not currently work with Chrome browser.
Note: Disable pop-up blockers to use this resource.
Note: Instructions for access here.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Data Axle Reference Solutions
Contains directory information for millions of U.S. and Canadian businesses and consumers (white pages). Use Consumers/Lifestyles data for market research and customer discovery. Search by company name, geographic area, industry codes (NAICS/SIC), sales volume, etc. Create custom lists of up to 250 records that you can download to Excel.

Note: Users are not permitted access from IP addresses outside of the United States. Download limit is 250 records.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users. North Carolina residents with a borrower's card may access from off campus by visiting NCLive directly. Contact the Davis Library Service Desk for the NCLive password (instructions).
Coverage: Current information only
Osiris
Contains information on over 110,000 publicly traded companies, banks, and insurance companies from around the world, including financial statement data. Provides ownership, subsidiaries, earnings estimates, stock data. Report formats reflect accounting procedures in the major world regions.
Note: This resource does not currently work with Chrome browser.
Note: Disable pop-up blockers to use this resource.
Note: Instructions for access here.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1996 - present
IBISWorld Industry Reports
The US Company Benchmarking Profiles analyze thousands of public and private companies. Profiles consist of a company overview and breakdown of performance within industries of operation. Includes company financials, an industry market share breakdown, an industry competitor matrix, SWOT analysis, Products and Services, and Key Company Benchmarks.
Access by clicking "Company Research" in top navigation menu.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
CB Insights
Provides information and independent analysis of private companies in a wide range of industries. A special focus on the financing, and mergers and acquisitions of these companies through private investors and venture capital and private equity firms.

Note:Users must register an account with a UNC email address. Contact Kenan Flagler Library Research Services at Researchtools@kenan-flagler.unc.edu with questions.

Access: Students, faculty, and staff or AHEC users affiliated with UNC-CH with an AHEC Digital Library account may access from on- or off-campus, but must ALWAYS authenticate, EVEN when on-campus.

Capital IQ (Kenan-Flagler ONLY)
Capital IQ allows users to search for and screen for information on companies including in-depth financial information on publicly traded companies, information on investment firms, biographical information on corporate professionals, and transactions in both the public and private capital markets by a very wide range of company identification data, financial statement data, executive’s biographical characteristics, and deal or transaction specifics. (Source Vendor Web site)

Information can be exported to Excel.

SPECIAL NOTE: Because of licensing restrictions: Access to Capital IQ is restricted to current faculty, staff, and students of UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.

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Users MUST use their @kenan-flagler.unc.edu email address when requesting an account.

Users MUST access through UNC Kenan-Flagler Research Tools & Library Resources web page. DO NOT bookmark the S&P Capital IQ login page.

Users will be required to enter their UNC onyen from both on-campus and off-campus. Then users will be able to enter their Capital IQ user id and password.

If you have any questions please contact David Ernsthausen.
Europages
Find information on some 3 million companies in 35 European countries. Search by company name, industry, country, or region of country. Each entry includes addresses, phone numbers, maybe an email contact, maybe a map of the location. You must select one of 26 languages before searching.

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Open Access

https://www.europages.com/
EDGAR
From the Securities & Exchange Commission. This site provides access to the full-text of 10-K, Proxies and other reports publicly traded companies are required to file with the SEC.

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Open Access

https://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm
SEDAR
Official site that provides access to most public securities documents and information filed by Canadian public companies and investment funds with the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) in the SEDAR filing system. SEDAR is a rough equivalent to the SEC’s EDGAR files but it is for Canadian companies.

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Open Access

https://www.sedar.com/

Private Companies

Orbis
Covers millions of publicly traded and privately held companies from around the world. Company records include directory facts, financial and ownership details, subsidiaries, names and titles for executives and directors, M&A deals, etc. Privately held companies do not have financial information.

Note: This resource does not currently work with Chrome browser
Note: Disable pop-up blockers to use this resource.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
CB Insights
Provides information and independent analysis of private companies in a wide range of industries. A special focus on the financing, and mergers and acquisitions of these companies through private investors and venture capital and private equity firms.

Note:Users must register an account with a UNC email address. Contact Kenan Flagler Library Research Services at Researchtools@kenan-flagler.unc.edu with questions.

Access: Students, faculty, and staff or AHEC users affiliated with UNC-CH with an AHEC Digital Library account may access from on- or off-campus, but must ALWAYS authenticate, EVEN when on-campus.
Data Axle Reference Solutions
Contains directory information for millions of U.S. and Canadian businesses and consumers (white pages). Use Consumers/Lifestyles data for market research and customer discovery. Search by company name, geographic area, industry codes (NAICS/SIC), sales volume, etc. Create custom lists of up to 250 records that you can download to Excel.

Note: Users are not permitted access from IP addresses outside of the United States. Download limit is 250 records.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users. North Carolina residents with a borrower's card may access from off campus by visiting NCLive directly. Contact the Davis Library Service Desk for the NCLive password (instructions).
Coverage: Current information only
IBISWorld Industry Reports
The US Company Benchmarking Profiles analyze thousands of public and private companies. Profiles consist of a company overview and breakdown of performance within industries of operation. Includes company financials, an industry market share breakdown, an industry competitor matrix, SWOT analysis, Products and Services, and Key Company Benchmarks.
Access by clicking "Company Research" in top navigation menu.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.

Hoover's Company Records (in Business Market Research Collection)
Provides profiles of 19,000 large private companies from around the world.

Nexis Uni
Covers international companies through its Company Dossier.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.

Roster of Secretaries of State/Lieutenant Governors
All 50 states make some level of corporate and business filings available online. In a few instances only limited information (such as name availability) is retrievable. The majority of the states, however, use their Web presence to disseminate a range of public business records -- and most of them offer access at no charge. This roster is from the National Association of Secretaries of State and includes the 50 states, DC and U.S. territories.

Market Research Reports

Mintel Academic
Contains market research data and reports on consumer markets and products, demographics, consumer buying behavior and motivations, trends in global consumer markets. Many reports include Databooks with downloadable consumer survey data. U.S.-focused with some global coverage.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 2001 -
Euromonitor Passport
Provides detailed data and reports for international and consumer industries, including historic data from 1997 and market forecasts. Reports include market size, company and brand profiles and market share. Consumer information includes population trends, lifestyles, buying behavior. Export data into Excel. Great for international business.

Note: You will be asked to login. UNC affiliates only – no walk in access allowed.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: Varies. Most data for past few years, some back to 1977.
IBISWorld Industry Reports
Each IBIS industry report includes a detailed chapter on "Products & Markets".

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Statista
Contains statistics, infographics, industry and market research reports and publicly-available data for over 25 countries on all topics. Download statistics and charts in Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF.

Note: UNC Chapel Hill currently has full access to Statista with the exception of the Global Consumer Survey and Market Studies.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
BCC Research
Industry and market research reports on major economic, scientific, and technological developments in industrial, pharmaceutical, and high technology organizations

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.

Industry Databases

IBISWorld Industry Reports
Covers the entire U.S. economy, providing in-depth and concise business intelligence and industry analysis. Global and China industry reports provide market information for many industries and business sectors.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Euromonitor Passport
Provides detailed data and reports for international and consumer industries, including historic data from 1997 and market forecasts. Reports include market size, company and brand profiles and market share. Consumer information includes population trends, lifestyles, buying behavior. Export data into Excel. Great for international business.

Note: You will be asked to login. UNC affiliates only – no walk in access allowed.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: Varies. Most data for past few years, some back to 1977.
ABI/INFORM Collection
Provides international industry reports from Fitch, Plunkett, First/D&B, and GlobalData. Add pub(Fitch) to your search to limit results to Fitch reports.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: Coverage varies. Some academic journals start in the 1800s, and some newspapers start in the early 1900s.
Language: Primarily English. Over 20 languages total.
GlobalData Intelligence
Reports provide analysis, forecasts, news, and data for consumer industries such as suppliers, manufacturers and distribution channels, consumer insights and trends, company market share, pricing, and more. Search the Product Launch Analytics database by brand and product name, manufacturer, product category, health claim, flavor, ingredient and more.

Note: From login screen, select “IP Access” to access database. Then select “Consumer” in the “Access Your Subscriptions” menu.

Access: Students, faculty, and staff or AHEC users affiliated with UNC-CH with an AHEC Digital Library account may access from on- or off-campus, but must ALWAYS authenticate, EVEN when on-campus.
Business Source Premier
Includes MarketLine industry reports, which cover many countries. Include "marketline" in your search, such as: marketline AND oil AND russia

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: Varies widely.
Statista
Provides statistics and survey results targeting business customers, faculty, and researchers. Includes statistics on economies, markets, and industries. Contains over one million statistics on more than 80,000 topics, covering 170 industries.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Sage Data
Access data on economics, crime, health, population, energy, the environment, and more in a single interface. Manipulate data; create charts, graphs, tables, maps. Data come from U.S. and international sources. For help, see the user guide.

Access:Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.

Contact Us

Need help? Contact the Libraries using the form on our Contact Us page.