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Entrepreneurship

A guide to databases, books, journals, and websites recommended for researching entrepreneurship.

Why are financial ratios important?

A company's financial ratios can be found on its income statement or balance sheet. Financial ratios quantify a company's operating efficiency and profitabililty. Aggregated financial ratios enable you to find out how a company's financials compare to similar companies in an industry classification. Industries are classified by specific numeric codes, SIC and NAICS. The SIC (Standard Industrial Classification Code) codes and NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) codes are used by the government to classify businesses for the purpose of collecting and distributing aggregate economic data.

Benchmark industry financial ratios are available in the Library's Mergent Key Business Ratios  database.

More information on business statistics

Search OneSearch for more information on business statistics. The following subject headings are recommended:

  • financial statements
  • industrial statistics