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BUSA 1110 : Library Resources for Research

Business in a Global Society

Corporate Overview

Finding historical information on your company should not be difficult. Most large companies have been established for decades. Some companies even have entire books written about their history or founders.

Two good sources for company histories can be found in the series International Directory of Company Histories (IDCH) and from Mergent Online. The IDCH provides comprehensive histories of many large companies. However, this resource is not updated very often. The Delta Air Lines entry is in volume 92, published in 2008. For current information try Mergent Online, which provides a timeline of key events.

Some companies also provide a history of events on their own website. Here is a timeline from Delta Air Lines' website.

You may have already found the company’s Mission Statement for the PowerPoint Project at the beginning of the semester. If not, search within the company’s website and annual reports.

In some cases, your company may not have a mission statement. Instead, they may have other documents that contain elements of a mission statement. In the case of Delta Air Lines the company does not have a formal Mission Statement. The closest document with this information is their annual Corporate Responsibility Report. This document includes information on Delta’s Core Values: honesty, integrity, respect, perseverance, and servant leadership.

List of References

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (2014). Corporate responsibility report. Retrieved from http://www.delta.com/content/dam/delta-www/about-delta/corporate-responsibility/2014_DeltaCRR_FINAL_WEB.pdf.

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (2015, July 24). Timeline of airline. Retrieved from http://news.delta.com/timeline-airline.

Mergent. (n.d.). Delta Air Lines, Inc. [History] Retrieved February 20, 2015 from Mergent Online database.

Simley, J., Poniewozik, J., Meyer, S., & Wernick, E. (2008). Delta Air Lines, Inc. In T. Grant (Ed.), International directory of company histories (Vol. 92, pp. 82-87). Detroit: St. James Press. Retrieved from http://libezp.nmsu.edu:2249/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX2690800028&v=2.1&u=nm_a_nmlascr&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=dafc1c49a00d52b845cb9e56623b8efc