Library Guides: MBA Research Guide: Industry Research

Industry

Industry reports can give you an idea of what is going on in an industry. Some of the things you can do with the information you get from them is determine trends and identify the type of competition in the industry. Below is a list of University Libraries' subscription databases that provide profiles and overviews for a wide range of industries.

IBISWorld (IBIS)
Provides thoroughly researched, accurate and current business information with expert analysis about economic, demographic and government data.
First Research (Mergent)
Provides industry profiles within the wide range of industries that fall under Construction and Real Estate; Public Services, Education, Recreation; Retail, Food and Agriculture; Services; Manufacturing; Technology and Communications; Transportation, Energy, Storage; and Wholesale. Note: Subscription allows five simultaneous users.
Business Source Complete
Contains premium content of peer-reviewed, business related journals. Provides detailed company information for more than 1.1 million of the world's largest public and private companies.
Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage (S&P)
Provides company information and industry surveys on 52 major U.S. industries, and After Market Reports (AMR) (formerly available via Thomson One).
To access After Market Reports, click the Research tab. To access the last 12 months of reports in our subscription, go to all contributors and then under Product Type, Select Aftermarket Research – Standard and then click on the Search button. When you retrieve the results, you can click on the PDF icon for a report you want, and then you’ll see an option to Download. When you click on that, you will get the report.
Plunkett Research Online
Industry-specific research portals for the most important business sectors, from energy to e-commerce and retailing to financial services.
ABI/INFORM Collection This link opens in a new window
Includes important full‐text journals and much sought‐after titles from the business press as well as key trade publications, dissertations, conference proceedings, and market reports
Passport
Provides business intelligence for countries, consumers, and industries worldwide.

Statista
Features data on over 60,000 topics from over 18,000 sources, including market research reports, trade publications, scientific journals, and government databases.
Note: For University of Denver faculty, students and staff only. Users of the Statista websites and subpages are granted a nonexclusive, non-transferable, limited right to access and use for research purposes the Online Service and Materials made available. Commercial use is strictly prohibited. No library walk-ins are allowed to use this database.

MarketLine Industry Profiles include an analysis of the five forces that affect an industry. These reports can be found in Business Source Complete.

Business Source Complete
Contains premium content of peer-reviewed, business related journals. Provides detailed company information for more than 1.1 million of the world's largest public and private companies.

Porter's 5 forces analysis - Duration: 00:04:23
This tutorial demonstrates how to find industry reports from a publisher called MarketLine that include Porter's five-forces analysis in them.

BizMiner
Offers industry financial analysis benchmarks for over 5,000 lines of business and industry market trends on thousands more.
Please visit this tutorial about searching Bizminer.
Key Business Ratios (Mergent)
This tool lets researchers examine industry benchmarks compiled from D&B®’s database of public and private companies.

Business Expenses Survey
This database from the Census provides operating expenses for selected industries in the U.S. The most current data is for 2017.

When doing business research, it is useful to obtain the NAICS codes and SIC codes.

NAICS (North American Industry Classification System): This "is the standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy."
SIC (Standard Industrial Classification): The industry classification system in which all Federal economic statistics were based on up to 1996. The NAICS system replaced this in 1997.

The links below will help you find the codes for specific types of industries. You can also find NAICS and SIC codes by looking at the industry information for a company in a database like Mergent Intellect.

It is important to know these codes in order to retrieve statistical information produced by the Census as well as search certain databases by these codes. For instance you can use it to find industry overviews in databases like First Research and IBISWorld, and identify companies in an industry with a database like Reference Solutions or Mergent Intellect.

NAICS
NAICS is the North American Industry Classification System, a standard implemented in 1997 for classifying industry, product, and establishment. Use this site to find your industry NAICS code. Click on the relevant code to read its description and to ensure that you have the right code.
SIC System Search
Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) is an industry classification system in which all Federal economic statistics are based on up to 1996. Use this site to do a keyword search to find an SIC code for an industry.

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