Individual records in the Directory of American Firms Operating in Foreign Countries include name and headquarters address of the firm, key executive personnel, phone numbers and Web address, number of employees, sales revenues, and a brief business description, followed by location and contact information for the company’s foreign subsidiary locations. Individual records in the Directory of Foreign Firms Operating in the United States contain the same data points but are organized by foreign firm, with location and contact information for the company’s United States subsidiary locations. The user can search individual companies or generate a list based on various criteria. Results may be exported to Microsoft Excel.
The advantages of the online directories over the printed counterparts are currency (updated continuously rather than biennially) and the variety and flexibility of search functions. Users can search (individually or in combination) by country, region, state, company name, zip code, industry code (NAICS), postal code, and revenues. Potential improvements noted by our committee include a little friendlier searching of the company index (for example, found Wal-mart but not Walmart); a larger results screen to be able to see more without scrolling; searchable and browseable indexes for industry code, zip code, and so on; and wider displays on a few of the drop-down menus to avoid truncated search option labels. These suggestions aside, the committee found these directories quite functional, with the online format providing much improved capability over the static print directories.
The directories have a multitude of business applications for marketing, job search, supply chain management, and business development. Recommended for larger public and all academic business library collections.–John P. Heintz, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis and St. Paul