Guides by type

Table of Contents

  1. Research by product name
  2. Research by ingredient
  3. Research by company
  4. Research by corporate tree
  5. Research by specific concern
  6. Research by industry

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Research by product name

-- add descriptions here!!! example: Nestle Crunch Bar

  • Research the company as a whole briefly (see "search by company")
  • You may want to start by researching the product cycle for the product in question. Then, you can use this to think about what kinds of corporate issues might be relevant. For example, for chocolate, what are the ingredients, where do they come from, how are they harvested, shipped, and manufactured into candy bars. Each of these steps may involve environmental, labor, or other issues of interest to consumers.
  • It may help to email or call the company to ask for specific information pertaining to the particular product.

Research by ingredient

In some cases, a search by product name will turn into searches by ingredient.

Research by company

  • Many sources say to start with Hoover. This is a paid resource, but apparently has a lot of basic information about companies (see above)
  • Look at the company website to get an idea of what will be useful
  • Hands-On Corporate Research Guide This is an extremely useful guide from CorpWatch?, a corporate watchdog organization.
  • Another really useful guide. Tells you how to research a corporation, resources, hints, etc. Gives even more detail about specific sources, and tells you exactly what you can find from looking in financial forms that you can request. http://www.corp-research.org/howto.htm
  • Responsible Shopper Information about corporate practices of many large companies. Also a list of tips for greener consuming.

Research by corporate tree

example: Nestle

  • Large companies usually have subsidiaries and/or are themselves subsidiaries of larger corporations. Find out who owns, ships, or manufactures everything. Research and make nodes for those players as well. Example: One of Nestle's subsidiaries is Carnation, which has been criticized for promoting infant formula. A search by corporate tree should include looking into these companies as well.
  • You can also look at who lends money. Banks that lend money to unethical corporations are often secondary targets of boycotts. (See http://www.corp-research.org/howto.htm)
  • "An indication of where a particular company fits into a corporate hierarchy may be obtained from sources such as Hoover's or Dun & Bradstreet (see above for both); public companies must provide a list of subsidiaries in their 10-K. [...] Keep in mind that the fact that a company is publicly traded does not mean that it is an ultimate parent company. It is not uncommon for large companies to make a public offering of stock in a subsidiary while retaining a majority of the shares. The most complete data on corporate family trees can be found in a publication called the Directory of Corporate Affiliations, which covers public and larger private companies. It is published in print form by the Lexis-Nexis Group, which also makes the information available on its online service or via subscription or credit card on the web. Dun & Bradstreet publishes a similar work called America's Corporate Families, which is available online as Who Owns Whom on the Dialog database service."-- http://corp-research.org/hotwto.htm

Research by specific concern

You may want to look for watchdog agencies that pertain to that specific concern. For example, for environmental concerns, see Greenpeace. Some resources by concern. Please add to this list! (Started with corpwatch's list.)

  1. Environmental
    • Environmental Working Group
    • League of Conservation Voters
    • Union of Concerned Scientists
    • Environmental Defense's Scorecard
    • Environmental Working Group
    • Pesticide Action Network North America
    • RTK Net
  2. Labor
    • Afl-cio website is particularly comprehensive with regard to corporate research resources
    • seiu, unite here, and other union websites
    • labornet labornet.org
    • Sweatshop Watch
  3. Human Rights
    • Global Exchange
  4. Fair Trade
    • Oxfam
  5. Women
    • Institute for Women's Policy Research Many, many papers about the place of women in the workplace and society.
  6. minorities
  7. lgbt
  8. corporate responsibility
  9. Health and safety
  1. Poverty, wages, inequality
    • Paywatch -- Webpage devoted to the income of executives. Numerous articles and data.
    • United for a Fair Economy -- Has information on ceo pay, corporate crime, etc.
  2. Military/supporting brutal regimes
    • GSA's Federal Procurement Data System Reports company contracts with the government
    • Union of Concerned Scientists
    • Center for Defense Information Search by corporation for information on military contracts.
  3. animal welfare
  4. other

Research by industry

  1. Pharmaceutical
    • The pharmaceutical lobby website
    • Lots of pharma research resources from a pharma watchdog group
    • Pharmed Out, a nonprofit that "empowers physicians to identify and counter inappropriate pharmaceutical promotion practices"
  2. Telecomm/computers
  3. Agriculture/animals
  4. Apparel/sports wear industry
  5. Banks, insurance, economic firms
  6. Chemicals, Cosmetics, Pharmaceuticals, Pesticides & Biotech
  7. Computer / Telecommunications Industry
  8. Education
  9. Energy
  1. Food and Water Industry
  2. Health / Health Care
  3. Hotels and Restaurants
  4. Logging / Paper / Rainforests
  5. Media
  6. Military
  7. Mining
  8. Oil
  9. Retail
  10. Tobacco
  11. Transportation
  12. Waste Industry