• CorpWatch
(http://www.corpwatch.org)
Online magazine about transnational companies and various
efforts to counter their abuses worldwide. The theme is
on social, environmental and economic impact of corporate
globalization in communities around the world. Issue or
campaign focused. Searchable archives.
Corporate
Accountability Project (http://www.corporations.org)
Features "Corporate Dirt Archives" and substantial
links to good sites on corporate accountability issues (including
‘Corporate Welfare’ among other sections). While
abundant, data about specific companies is NOT database-run,
so go to each relevant page, then use the ”Find”
feature to locate the target company’s name (and its
variants) for a quick scan for the information you’re
looking for.
The
Corporate Library (http://www.thecorporatelibrary.com/)
An independent research firm that provides corporate governance
data, analysis and risk assessment tools. It doesn’t
accept consulting or other special fees from the companies
they rate. They aim to serve as a central repository for
research, study and critical thinking about the nature of
the modern public corporation, with a special focus on corporate
governance and the relationship between company management,
boards and shareholders. Most general content on our public
site is open to visitors at no cost. Impressive access to
companies’ shareholder action campaigns, company board
of directors, CEO contracts and corporate policies and legislations
around governance in great detail. The links section is
recommended for corporate governance related research. The
site was started by the folks who wrote “Power &
Accountability” – great study tool on the larger
topic of corporate governance - available online at http://www.thecorporatelibrary.com/power/cover.html.
Corporate
Research Project (http://www.corp-research.org/)
The "How to do Basic Corporate Research on the Internet"
(http://www.corp-research.org/howto.htm)
is not extensive but is an excellent reference to reliable
search sources available online. Annotated links inform
the researcher not just about links, but ways in which they
can be useful in your campaign. The Corporate Research Project,
a project of Good Jobs First, is a non-profit center that
assists community, environmental and labor organizations
in researching and analyzing companies and industries. The
Project is designed to be a resource to aid activism; hence
the focus is on strategic research, i.e., identifying the
information activists can use as leverage to get the company
to behave in a socially responsible manner.
• Endgame
(http://www.endgame.org)
Endgame, a project of the Public Information Network, has
extensive information on multinational corporations as well
as information on the larger issue of corporate power and
world regimes that protect private interests. Features the
Directory of Transnational Corporations, searchable by geographical
location (global) or alphabetical index. The site includes
corporate information and profiles by issue and sector (ranging
from forests & timber industry to the oil moguls to
free trade and corporate welfare), augmented by excellent
guides and primers on corporate research and training (go
to http://www.endgame.org/arm.html
to see extensive research manual). Endgame also offers low-cost
research assistance and training to citizens & public
interest organizations. Their link section at http://www.endgame.org/links.html
lists online resources on corporate research and a plethora
of progressive efforts to counter corporate globalization.
Federal
Procurement Data Center (http://www.fpdc.gov/fpdc/fpdc_home.htm)
Formerly run by the U.S. General Service Administration
and now outsourced, this site is a searchable online database
of federal contracts - specially, between approximately
60 Executive Branch agencies (the Legislative and Judicial
branches do not report to the FPDC) and businesses. The
FPDC collects as much as $200 billion worth of contract
information each year, and enters about 50 data elements
(i.e., dollar values of the contracts, products produced
and other information, including an indication of whether
the contract was awarded under competitive bidding, and
whether the contract is subject to labor laws such as the
Service Contract Act) for each contract into the database.
Note: it used to contain only contracts worth over $25,000,
but starting FY2004, those worth $2,500 or higher is listed.
FPDC sells the same data on CD for fiscal years 1994 through
2001 and regularly updated CDs of recent years at http://www.fpdc.gov/fpdc/otherprod.htm.
• Kinder
Lydenberg Domini (KLD) Domini Social Equity Fund
(http://www.domini.com)
Fund of 400 companies that pass detailed social screens.
Web site lists profiles of the 400 companies; just click
into the Domini 400 Social Index from the Quick Links menu,
and you can search by company name, sector, or industry.
The website also explains the criteria for each social screen.
• Recalls.gov
(http://www.recalls.gov)
Find out if your target company is involved in any recalls,
which in itself may be leverage for your campaign, or give
you potential leads for identifying more leverage. This
government-run site is not likely to give you all the facts
useful to you, but through identifying a specific recall
incident and researching it further, you may be able to
get a better sense of the company’s track record in
fulfilling a commitment to consumer protection.
• Responsible
Shopper (http://www.responsibleshopper.org)
Though the database is designed to help you “ Discover
the good, the bad and the ugly behind the products you buy
everyday — from clothing to shoes to toothpaste.”
It's searchable by company, brand or category, and provides
an overview for each company with specific problems, praise,
ratings and industry comparisons. A program of Co-op America,
at http://www.coopamerica.org.
The data in Responsible Shopper is compiled by the Council
on Economic Priorities. Also, check out the accessibly formatted
and comprehensive "Co-op America's Guide to Researching
Corporations," with useful appendix items such as the
"Resource Sources by Type of Information /Issue"
chart, at http://www.boycotts.org/pdf/Guide_to_Researching_Corporations.pdf.
Though some listings are dated, still a very useful reference
tool.
Top
100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990s (http://www.corporatepredators.org/top100.html)
The Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990s is a compilation
of corporations that were criminally fined in the 1990s
for a variety of categories of crimes, including environmental,
antitrust, fraud, and campaign finance. The ranking is done
by the amount of criminal fine. The list is all on one html
page – so you can do a Find, enter your corporate target’s
name and see if it’s “made it” to this list.
The longer version of the same list that includes criminal
offense summaries follows on the lower part of the page.
See also: Company
Information section, and listings below
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Non-U.S.-based/International
sources (tend to focus on transnational corporation data
and the corporations based in the country of the website
owner organization.)
The
Aurora Institute http://www.aurora.ca
The Aurora Institute is a Vancouver, Canada-based not-for-profit,
citizens-based organization, which conducts research and
public education illuminating the role and structure of
the corporation. Educational resources include descriptions
around corporate structures, history of corporations, and
revoking the corporate charter and links. Research tools
feature extensive Canadian links to help researching specific
corporations, as well as some US and international references.
From the homepage, click on "Resources" and then
select from the menu the resource topic. Aurora institute
has also published a guide that deals specifically with
researching information on corporations (.pdf format), at
http://aurora.ca/docs/research.pdf.
Corporate
Watch (http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/)
Corporate Watch is a radical research and publishing group
that supports grassroots and direct activism against large
corporations, particularly multinationals (incidentally,
is unaffiliated with CorpWatch in the US). The site tends
to feature more UK companies but non-UK prominent multinationals
have their a good share of the site. In addition to their
directory of multinationals and hot corporate news and profiles,
their extensive section on how to research corporations,
though targeting the UK audience, contains universally applicable
links and tips: http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/publications/diy_research_2002.htm
Transnationale.org
http://www.transnationale.org
The fee-free sections of this online searchable database
run out of France (but covers three countries specifically:
the US, United Kingdom, and Canada) may be a good place
to start for a general overview of a specific consumer brand,
especially if you are just getting started with getting
data on your target and its competitors in the industry.
The free-access section includes the "Brands"
section - wherein a comparison chart listing social, financial,
environmental and political performance records for top
brand products appears for the selected industry/sector.
Created in France, run by a non-profit Transnational Corporations
Observatory, this fee-for-subscription site (NGOs are eligible
for discounts via direct negotiation) provides comprehensive
information on more than 10,000 companies around the world.
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Investor/Shareholder
Activism
Confronting
Companies Using Shareholder Power: A Handbook on Socially-Oriented
Shareholder Activism (http://www.foe.org/international/shareholder)
A useful guide with links on the process of shareholder
activism by Friends of the Earth, an international environmental
organization dedicated to preserving the health and diversity
of the planet for future generations. Published by Friends
of the Earth (http://www.foe.org).
SocialFunds.com
(http://www.socialfunds.com)
SocialFunds.com has over 1000 pages of strategic content
to help make informed investment decisions regarding socially
responsible investing. Especially helpful are the ‘corporate
research’ section at http://www.socialfunds.com/csr/index.cgi
featuring company reports and news, and ‘shareholder
activism’ section at http://www.socialfunds.com/sa/index.cgi
where you can search for corporate social responsibility-related
shareowner resolutions by sector/issue.
What
Is A Shareholder Resolution? Step-by-Step (http://www.scn.org/earth/wum/2Whatsr.htm)
A very helpful online guide by the Northwest Corporate Accountability
Project (http://www.scn.org/earth/wum/1Corpact.htm),
the Shareholder Resolution guide includes the following
topics: What is a Shareholder Resolution?; What are the
regulations that govern Shareholder Resolutions?; What are
the basic Shareholder Resolution steps?; What are the thirteen
reasons Corporations can use to ignore your Shareholder
Resolution?; and the very handy SEC Shareholder Resolution
Checklist.
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Corporate
Accountability Activism
Essential
Information (http://www.essential.org)
Watchdog group of Ralph Nader. This site has many excellent
resources on corporations, including the Multinational Monitor
and various listservs on corporate accountability (including
corporate welfare). Home page has a simple keyword search
engine (which does not search the listserv archives). Click
on the Search button to do a more selective search of sections/publications
of the website. Click on "lists.essential.org"
to get to and search various listservs.
United
for a Fair Economy (http://faireconomy.org/research/index.html)
The "Economic Research Sources" of UFE's website
features online data and analysis around CEO Pay, Taxes,
Union demographics, Poverty, Wealth Gap, etc. associated
with corporate profiles and corporate power. Most sections
are accompanied by UFE's analysis on corporate wealth and
the economy, often presented in viewer-friendly formats
such as charts and diagrams. Homepage: http://www.faireconomy.org
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See also: Labor
- Money & Politics - Environment
- Company Information
