Library Guides: Industry Research: Home

Industry Research

Define your industry as best as you can

Dig for data in articles when looking for industry information look through business databases, but don't forget news articles and other industry sources

As you search look for terms and synonyms and be on the lookout for terminology, names of major companies that participate in the industry, sources of data and other clues you can use as the search evolves

Identify specialized trade journals and associations in the industry

consider SIC and NAICS codes as tools

Industry Research Resources

Sources for industry data, news and analysis:

Reuters
Select the Business sections to find related news.
Yahoo! Finance
Stock market information and company financials for publicaly traded companies.

Industry Information

GlobalEdge: Insights by Industry
GlobalEdge is a project by Michigan State University dedicated to international business research. The Insights by Industry section includes overviews of a number of industries that link to related online resources, such as industry associations, top companies in each industry, and statistical data.
Fortune Business Insights
Fortune Business Insights is a market research company. Although the download of the reports and case studies is limited to paying customers, certain content is available for online reading.

Industry Codes

SIC and NAICS codes can be useful tools when doing research on an industry or looking into a company's competitors.They are American standard codes and they essentially classify the industry areas in which companies operate.

When looking up an Industry, find the right NAICS Code!

The quickest way to look up SIC and NAICS classifications is to use the US Census correspondence tables:

https://www.census.gov/naics/

There are still some official documents using the SIC codes, but these were superseded by the NAICS (north American Industrial Classification System) codes in 1997, and in 2020 the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) asked for permission to kill the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC).

SIC code lookup

To explore SIC and NAICS codes, you can also use the lookup function available in Nexis Uni Company Dossier.

Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window

Finding Industry Information

Business Source Premier This link opens in a new window
Business Source Premier is the industry’s most used business research database, providing full text for more than 2,300 journals, including full text for more than 1,100 peer-reviewed titles. This database provides full text back to 1886, and searchable cited references back to 1998. Business Source Premier is superior to the competition in full text coverage in all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, MIS, POM, accounting, finance and economics. This database is updated daily on EBSCOhost.

Search tips

Type the name of the selected industry
Narrow down your search by using the limit Document type
Select Industry overview

ABI/INFORM Global This link opens in a new window
ABI/INFORM Global offers business and financial information for researchers at all levels. It includes in-depth coverage from thousands of publications, most of them in full-text.
Coverage includes business conditions, management techniques, business trends, management practice and theory, corporate strategy and tactics, and competitive landscape.
The platform includes access to:
- The Economist (full text available in PDF)
- The Financial Times (with a 30 days delay)
- The Wall Street Journal, Eastern Edition (full text available in HTML)
- The Wall Street Journal Online (full text available in HTML)
MarketLine Advantage This link opens in a new window
MarketLine publishes business information about industries, companies, and geographies. The content is produced by an internal team of analysts, drawing on primary and secondary research, and great emphasis is given to the accuracy and validity of data.
Statista This link opens in a new window
Statista provides users with an innovative and intuitive tool for researching quantitative data, statistics, and related information.
It covers a wide variety of industries and consumer demographics. Country coverage focuses on Europe and other developed countries, but data related to emerging countries can be found too.