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The following are tools for researching industries, starting with the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and North American Industrial Classification (NAICs) codes developed the Census Bureau. Other resources provide trends and industry profiles.
Industry Profiles answer the following:
These government tools can help you label products and industries:
Enter industry or product type (not brand name). You may have to follow the broader categories, especially for industry overviews. NAICS is a new system meant to replace the SIC codes. Conversion between SIC and NAICS is available here.
A catalog will list the names of businesses/establishments and often by the type of business and/or products. (similar to a phone directory). BIS does not have subscriptions to these websites, but they provide enough to develop lists of companies.
Two major digital directories/websites pertinent for this class assignment:
ThomasNet--American suppliers only. You can search by product, category, company name. Prices for the products are not provided, but you will get company name, location, and types of products the company supplies.
Alibaba--a catalog that provides names of suppliers worldwide and by region. The searching is a bit different and pay attention to the left side bar in order to narrow your results (See Related Category). Screenshot below provides a simple way to search.
Price ranges are provided for the products.
Provides objective, unbiased measurement and assessment of market opportunities with detailed market research reports. Offers analysis of growth opportunities, market sizing, technologies, applications, supply chains and companies.
To search for a topic, use the Advanced Search page and enter your search terms, using the drop-down menus to specify where those terms should appear inside each item in the results list. To explore topics in relation to each other, click on the Visual Search tab. Enter a keyword, such as strategy or employment, into the Find box and hit the Search button
One of the more popular sources to search in BSU is Harvard Business Review. Here are some easy steps to search from the digital shelf. See screenshot below to give you an idea how this works, example is an article entitled "Eager Sellers & Stony Buyers" which was published in June 2006:
The search result should look like this (see screenshot below).
The first one is the article itself, including a link to the PDF to download. The second result (and there may be more, but not for this particular article) is a Letter to the Editor. Sometimes there is a follow-up editorial note as well, also in PDF.
You can search for other journal articles replicating these steps. If you have trouble finding the article, feel free to e-mail the Business Information Services library team at bis@library.illinois.edu.
To find information: first select a country or multiple countries; then click on company analysis, industry analysis, or country analysis tab; and type the name within search box.
At the main screen choose between logging into the industry reports or procurement reports databases by clicking its corresponding 'Login' button
Within Industry Reports, the simplest way to find industry information is to enter an industry name or NAICS code in the search box and click the magnifying glass just to the right of it.
Procurement reports can be searched by keywords or company name
Gartner Research is one of the foremost authorities on high tech trends. Most of the reports are to give you a snapshot about a company or technology trend.
Includes U.S. Company Data and International Company Data. Rich textual descriptions offer a wealth of detail on items including business description, history, property, subsidiaries, officers and directors, long-term debt and capital stock.
(Annual reports for most companies are available back to 1996.)
To find specific industry reports, go to Mergent Online and search Investext (located in the red box).
While in Investext, select the date and in the box below the dates, select any criteria. You can select different criteria and in this example, a region and keyword are searched. Once the criteria has been selected, click on view on the right hand side.
The search results showed a research report on the sensor market. To view this research report, click on the PDF file on the right hand side. In this report, there is a PESTLE analysis, which could be beneficial to your research.
Provides access to statistics and studies gathered by market researchers, trade organizations, scientific publications, and government sources on over 600 industries.
