FINA 5801 - Investment Banking: Home

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Subjects: Accounting, Advertising, Business, Career Research, Economics, Finance, Management, Marketing, Public Relations, Social Innovation/Entrepreneurship, Strategic Communication

About this guide

This guide was written for Jeff Germanotta's spring 2021 course, Investment Banking (FINA 4801-5801).

How to use the guide:

Use the guide table of contents in the left margin to get to pages with instructions for the sections of your project.

Below are:

Off-campus access to resources information: You must use the VPN for some of the resources!
A resources list: Here is the list of the databases/resources referred to throughout the guide.

Off campus access methods (authentication)

Library Off-Campus Access webpage
Information (comprehensive) about all 3 authentication methods; has screenshots.
  –  Authentication is required for off-campus use of library databases by the database vendors.
  –  A few databases only work with the VPN.
  –  Includes FAQs about OpenAthens.

Brief description of 3 authentication methods:

New Library Login (OpenAthens): Many library resources use this method for logging in; requires no setup. When prompted, select "Marquette University Libraries (AZURE)" and then sign in using your Marquette email/password.
Library Login (legacy version): This method is quick and requires no setup. Just login before clicking on library database links or when prompted to do so. A few library databases will not work with it.
VPN (virtual private network): The VPN requires you to download an app on both your mobile device and your computer. A few library databases require it for off-campus access. Outline of the steps required for the VPN:
1. Follow these setup instructions for the free Microsoft Authenticator app.
2. Download the free FortiClient VPN on your computer using instructions for Windows setup or macOS setup.

Resource List

Below is a simple list of the resources you can use -- no instructions here, just a list! See the following sections/pages for notes and recommendations for specific projects ... That said, they are organized by type of resource, and in general, I recommend starting with the first one in each section.

Articles and News:

ABI/Inform Collection from ProQuest
Provides in-depth coverage of business conditions, trends, corporate strategies & tactics, management techniques, competitive and product information, plus a variety of other topics. Full text provided for 7,000+ publications. Mostly 1971 to present.
Includes: ABI/Inform Dateline, ABI/Inform Global, and ABI/Inform Trade & Industry.
Gale Business Insights from Gale
Formerly: Business Insights: Essentials
Searches business journals and magazines, industry reports and encyclopedia articles focusing on company and business information. Indexing 1980-present. Full-text mostly 1990-present.
Formerly: Business Company Resource Center.

Company financials:

Workspace from LSEG (formerly Refinitiv Workspace)
Individual account registration required. More information on linked page.
Chrome and Safari are the recommended browsers. Intro training videos available here.
For public companies provides: financial data; annual & other reports/filings; analyst & market research reports; M&A, new issues & syndicated loans data. Coverage: ~12,000 US companies & ~41,000 non-US companies.
Download limit of 150 pages / 24-hour period for After Market Research module (aka AMR or Investext).
Formerly called Thomson ONE.
Mergent Online from Mergent
Provides information and data on U.S. and international companies, including annual reports and SEC filings, institutional holdings, FactSheets, Supply Chain reports, etc.
Supply Chain reports cover US public companies primarily in the tech, biotech, and financial sectors. They include information on competitors (by product), customers, market structure, and more. The information is drawn from SEC filings, trade articles, and more. Formerly called Horizon Reports.

EDGAR
From the SEC. Freely accessible to all, but with an interface that is less sophisticated than those developed by some of the commercial vendors.

Industry profiles:

For these two resources, the order is alphabetical because they are both important to use!

IBISWorld from IBISWorld
If on campus and on MU-Secure wifi, use this link.
Collection of industry market research. Modules available: US Industry Reports (organized by NAICS codes), US Industry iExpert Summaries, and US Business Environment Profiles.
Keyword searching doesn't always work well; try browsing the NAICS menu tree also.