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Citing Company & Industry Information

A guide to creating proper citations in APA style for some typical business resources.

Basic Format

In general, APA-style citations for business information found in an electronic database will appear in the Reference List with this format:

Information Provider.  (Date of report).  Report title.  Retrieved date from Database name.

See example citations on the various tabs of this guide.  For even more examples, you may wish to consult the Purdue OWL APA Formatting and Style Guide.

Why Are Citations Necessary?

An important part of academic honesty is giving proper credit to information sources that you use.  By including citations, you tell your reader where to find the original information.  Several conventions or citation styles exist, but business students are frequently asked to use APA style. 

This guide provides sample citations in APA format for several of the business information sources you are likely to encounter.

Company Profiles

Mergent. (2020). Apple Inc. Company Financials. Retrieved March 6, 2020, from Mergent Online database.

PrivCo LLC. (2019, September 15). St. Louis Cardinals Private Company Financial Report. Retrieved January 29, 2020 from PrivCo database.

Standard & Poor's. (2019, March 13). Google Inc. Company Profile. Retrieved August 30, 2019 from Standard & Poor's Global NetAdvantage database.

Industry Reports

Ulama, D. (2020, April). IBISWorld industry report 33411a: Computer Manufacturing in the US. Retrieved May 28, 2020 from IBISWorld database.

Articles from the Business Press

Futterman, M. (2019, Jul 17). The underdogs: Are these teams for real? - New MLB rules, data analysis and TV revenue are giving a boost to former losing teams - could the Twins, Astros, Cubs and Mets actually make it past September? Wall Street Journal, D2. Retrieved from ABI/Inform database.

Dennison, C., & Waring, L. A. (2019). Blending academic and experiential learning: Developing a career intervention for the millennial generation. Proceedings of the Marketing Management Association, 63-64. Retrieved from Business Source Premier database.

Stock Reports

Standard and Poor's. (2020, February 19). General Electric. Standard & Poor's Stock Reports. Retrieved from Standard & Poor's Global NetAdvantage database.

Value Line.  (2018, June 2).  Agilent Technologies Stock Report.  Retrieved June 16, 2019, from Value Line database.

SWOT Report

Global Markets Direct. (2020). Apple Inc. - financial and strategic analysis review. Retrieved May 28, 2020, from the Business Insights: Global database.

Information found on Company Website

Ford Motor Company. (2020). Ford report on the business impact of climate change. Retrieved May 23, 2020, from  http://www.ford.com/doc/fordReptBusImpClimChg.pdf

Microsoft. (2020). 2019 Annual Report. Retrieved February 16, 2020 from http://www.microsoft.com/msft/reports/default.mspx