Introducing the Dirt Diggers Digest Guide to Strategic Corporate Research

Goodjobsdetective What is the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions coming from Duke Energy’s Hanging Rock power plant in Ironton, Ohio?

What are the terms of a typical agreement between McDonald’s and one of its franchisees?

Which insurance companies hold the most bonds issued by Monsanto?

Is BP on the list of companies excluded from doing business with the federal government?

How much are members of Verizon’s board paid and how many shares of stock does each director own?

Which watchdog groups monitor the paper industry?

If you deal with questions such as these, you are probably a corporate researcher for a union, environmental group or other progressive organization, and you will be interested to know about the new Dirt Diggers Digest Guide to Strategic Corporate Research.

This is an updated and greatly expanded version of a guide that I began publishing under the auspices of the Corporate Research Project more than ten years ago. Until now it has had three main parts covering sources of general company information, sources for analyzing a company’s key relationships (institutional investors, creditors, major customers, etc.), and sources for reconstructing a company’s accountability record (legal entanglements, labor relations, environment compliance, political influence, etc.).

Designed to be a resource for a wide variety of activist researchers, the guide focused on sources that applied to a broad range of businesses. Along with dozens of additional entries in the existing parts, the new version of the guide contains a section which for the first time provides detailed lists of industry-specific sources in the following categories:

Specialized directories and data compilations
Trade associations
Trade publications
Unions representing workers in the industry
Watchdog groups monitoring the industry
Regulatory agencies and disclosure documents

The guide provides hundreds of such sources for all major industries, among them aerospace, chemicals, electric utilities, mining, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, steel, telecommunications, and trucking. The directories, trade publications and data compilations include many resources known mainly to industry insiders. The lists of unions include both those representing workers in each sector in the United States as well as international labor federations bringing together unions from around the world dealing with the industry. The lists of watchdog groups include diverse organizations working to get companies in the sector to act in a more responsible manner.

Below is the full table of contents for the guide with links to the individual sections. Happy hunting!

PART I. GETTING STARTED: THE KEY SOURCES OF COMPANY INFORMATION

A. Sources for basic corporate profiles

B. Company websites

C. State corporation filings and property records

D. Securities and Exchange Commission filings

E. D&B and other sources on privately held firms

F. Media coverage

PART II. EXPLORING A COMPANY’S ESSENTIAL RELATIONSHIPS

A. Parent company/subsidiaries

B. Outside directors (plus various sources on individuals)

C. Institutional shareholders