Industry Research - MGMT 303 - Survey of Management

Six Steps for Industry Research

1. Understand the structure of the industry. Suggested resources IBISWorld, Mergent Online, Industries at a Glance.

2. Build a base of understanding about trends, competitive environment, market forces, and hot-button issues. Suggested resources IBISWorld and Mergent Online.

3. Identify professional associations and mine their web sites for regulatory issues, legal matters, and (sometimes) marketing data. Potentially one of the richest sources of insider understanding. Suggested Resources Google, IbisWorld

4. Skim, scan, absorb issues using articles from scholarly journals, trade journals, and news articles in Business Source Premier, ABI/Inform, or Library's "OneSearch" box

5. Research government regulatory agencies and statistics using NAICS codes.

6. Research "major players" in the industry: Read SWOT analyses in Business Source Premier and IBIS World to find strengths and weaknesses about a model company in your industry.

Industry Research Business Databases

IBISWorld This link opens in a new window
Research about US markets in over 100 industries, and almost 750 NAICS codes, including descriptive data on over 8000 US companies and data and analysis for over 500 economic and demographic series.
MarketResearch.com Academic This link opens in a new window
Offers reports covering consumer goods, business & financial services, travel & leisure, food service, agriculture, manufacturing & construction, materials & chemicals, healthcare & diagnostics, biotechnology, e-commerce & information technology, and education & other public sectors. The reports come from varied publishers and contain balanced quantitative and qualitative analysis with competitive analysis, market trends, demographics, product innovation, buyer behavior and market share.

Industry & Market Research in ABI/Inform
Use First Research for U.S. industries.

Industry Research Article Databases

ABI Inform
Use BROWSE tab for Industry & Market Research- try FIRST RESEARCH. For articles, search by company name combined with "retailing,"customers", "market segments", or names of products and companies.
Wall Street Journal
Business Source Premiere
Search by keyword or NAICS Code. Also find SWOT analyses for many companies by selecting SWOT analyses from the right hand BROWSE menu.

Industry Research Public Websites

Industries at a Glance
The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides employment data by industry at this web site. Coverage includes: workforce statistics, employment projections, price indexes, and worker productivity.
California Employment Development Department Data Library
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
O*NET OnLine
O*NET Online has detailed descriptions of the the world of work for use by job seekers, workforce development and HR professionals, students, and researchers.
NAICS Codes
Find a NAICS Code by keyword or industry title