How to look for company information with Business Source Elite (BSE)?
Last Updated: Sep. 8th, 2025
If you want to find the company information, you can use the Business Source Elite (BSE) database on the EBSCOhost platform. BSE provides over 21,000 company profiles.
When entering EBSCOhost, please confirm that you are searching the “Business Source Elite (BSE)” database. In the Advanced Search mode, enter the keywords in the first search box, taking Nvidia as an example.
Next, scroll down to the “Filters” area below the search boxes until you see the “Publication Type” drop-down and choose “Company Profile.”
In the search results page, you can find the “MarketLine Company Profile” and select the “Access options” to download the full-text PDF.
The complete Market Line Report includes Company overview, Key facts, Business description, History, Key employees, Major products and services, SWOT analysis, Top competitors, Company view, Location and Subsidiaries.
[Q&A]
Q1: Are there any requirement for companies to be collected in BSE Company Profiles, for example, being listed, or reaching certain amount of revenue, etc?
A1: According to the list provided on the EBSCO official website, company profiles in the BSE Database are provided by 2 companies: Informa Business Intelligence and MarketLine. Regarding the criteria of selection, please refer to the official instruction: What criteria does MarketLine use to select the companies that are included in the Company Profiles?
Q2: How many company profiles are collected in BSE Company Profiles?
A2: About 21,000 companies are collected, in which about 10,000 companies have a corresponding report. Only a few Company Profiles provided by MartketLine are not accompanied by full text report (please refer to official response), whereas Informa Business Intelligence do not provide full report.
Q3: Which regions/countries are included in the collection of BSE Company Profiles?
A3: Countries including the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, China, India, France, Australia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, etc.
Q4: How many Taiwanese companies are collected?
A4: About 1,700 profiles of Taiwanese companies are collected, e.g. TSMC, ChungHwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile, Acer, Fubon, Cathay Life Insurance, Bank of Taiwan, etc.
Q5: Aside from searching by the name of company, is searching and browsing by location or by industry possible?
A5: The BSE database does not support such functions.
Q6: Are there any precautions to be taken when referring to and citing MarketLine reports?
A6: According to the statement on the front page of the PDF file: “COPYRIGHT MARKETLINE. THIS CONTENT IS A LICENSED PRODUCT AND IS NOT TO BE PHOTOCOPIED OR DISTRIBUTED”, one may not photocopy and disperse contents of the report. If students are using certain content of reports for homework or term paper, make sure to do proper citation.
Reference:
How do I find Company Profiles in Business Source? EBSCO Connect.
by Yu-Hung Kao
Updated by Chih-Lo Chen 2025/9/8