Industry Analysis Research Guide
compiled by Wendy Diamond, Business Librarian wdiamond@csuchico.edu

Industry overviews, web sites & associations
Industry Statistics

Demographics

Economics, Regulations & Legislation
Industry Classification Codes
Citation Formats & Help
 

Industry Overviews
Industry overviews combine narrative description and statistics about trends, market size, competition, technological developments, demographics, legal and regulatory challenges, macro-economic environment, and sometimes cost and pricing data. 

Start here:
NetAdvantage Industry Surveys ReSEARCH Station/ Articles & Databases
Library Research Station > Articles and Database > NetAdvantage-Standard & Poors.


Other sources:

  1. Business Source Premier ReSEARCH Station /Articles & Databases
    a) Articles: "pets and trends"
    b) Industry profiles
    c) Market Research Reports
  2. ABI/Inform ReSEARCH Station /Articles & Databases
    a) Articles: "pet care and trends".
    b) Market research: Select Snapshots North America" from the 'multiple databases' menu. Click Browse and select By Indusry.
  3. Investopedia's Industry Handbooks www.investopedia.com/features/industryhandbook/
  4. Encyclopedia of American Industries (2005) Business Services Table 2B #3;also an ebook via Research Station Articles & Databases > Gale Virtual Reference Library > Business

Industry and professional associations
Associations can be an excellent source for industry data. To locate an association, try Google or these sources.

  1. NetAdvantage - Standard & Poors. Industry Surveys. ReSEARCH Station/ Articles & Databases
    Use the "industry references" section
  2. Encyclopedia of Business Information Sources (Ready Reference, HF5353 E9)
  3. Valuation Resources.com www.valuationresources.com/IndustryReport.htm
    (Caution: This site will suggest some expensive commercially-available market research. Look for free data from associations.)

Industry web sites
These are examples of web sites devoted to a single industry.  Note that many originate from industry associations.

  1. Beverage Industry www.bevindustry.com/
  2. Supermarket Facts www.fmi.org/facts_figs/
  3. Household and Personal Products Industry   www.happi.com
  4. Hospitality Net: News, Trends, & Facts www.hospitalitynet.org/
  5. National Restaurant Association Industry Research  www.restaurant.org
  6. National Sporting Goods Association nsga.org/public/pages/index.cfm?pageid=328
  7. Outdoor Industry Association www.outdoorindustry.org/index.php
  8. Travel Industry Association of America www.tia.org

Industry Statistics:
Market Share, Market Size, Production, Sales, Profitability etc.

  1. Economic Census www.census.gov/econ/census02/
    Look up the NAICS code for your industry at www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html
  2. TableBase ReSEARCH Station /Articles & Databases
    Search example -- "market share and bottled water" or "market size and bottled water"
  3. Current Industrial Reports www.census.gov/cir/www/index.html
 Demographics
Target Markets & Consumer Spending
  1. American Factfinder factfinder.census.gov
  2. Commercial Atlas & Marketing Guide (Rand McNally) (Reference Atlas, G109 R22)
  3. Consumer Expenditure Survey.U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    Organized by product, cross-tabulates expenditures with demographics.
  4. Consumer USA (Business Services Table 2B #22)
  5. Generation X: The Young Adult Market (BST 2B #36)
  6. Lifestyle Market Analyst (BST 2B #23) Consumer demographics, lifestyles, and psychographics.
  7. Millenials: Americans Born 1977 to 1994 (BST 2B #35)
  8. Rand California ReSEARCH Station /Articles & Databases (Select Statistics > Population & Demographics)
  9. Retail Trade Survey (U.S. Census Bureau) www.census.gov/econ/www/re0200.html. (Has retail data by NAICs codes)
  10. TableBase ReSEARCH Station /Articles & Databases
    Contains statistical tables on many marketing topics, including demographics
  11. Who's Buying: Executive Summary of Household Spending (BST 2B #29)
  12. Zip Code Business Patterns (County Business Patterns) http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/zbp_base.html
    Provides business data by NAICS (industry) codes for local areas like counties, cities,& zip codes    .

Economic, regulatory & legislative climate
 You will find information on the regulatory climate from trade associations and in trade journal articles. For macro-economic information, try these sources:

  1. Beige Book - Federal Reserve Board http://federalreserve.gov/FOMC/BeigeBook/2007/
  2. Bureau of Economic Analysis www.bea.gov/newsreleases/glance.htm
  3. Economic Statistics Briefing Room www.whitehouse.gov/fsbr/esbr.html
Industry classification codes
Industry classification codes are used to find government data oon businesses and industries.
  1. NAICS - North American Industry Classification System www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html. Also in print on BST 2B #10.
  2. SIC - Standard Industrial Classification System. In print on BST 2B#9. Superceded by NAICS.
APA citation format
-- Business database subscription examples from University of Massachusetts library www.library.umass.edu/subject/business/citationstyle.html
-- Citation Builder tool from North Carolina State University http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/lobo2/citationbuilder/citationbuilder.php?

Help
-- Ask Wendy!   wdiamond@csuchico.edu or 530-898-6139
-- Ask-a-Librarian www.csuchico.edu/library/ask.htm
-- Remote access to subscription databases is a portal account and password (See Off-Campus Access www.csuchico.edu/lcmt/newer/connect.html.)
-- For computing support and portal account problems, contact Student Computing at 530-898-HELP

This document is maintained by Wendy Diamond
Last Updated: 9/25//2007