Library Guides: BUS 470: Marketing Research: Industry Characteristics

Industry Research

Do you know the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS, pronounced "nakes") code for the industry you are researching?

The federal government assigns these codes to business establishments for data collection and reporting purposes. Many research resources, such as databases, utilize NAICS codes for searching purposes, to provide a uniform name for industries.

For example: does a particular database call your industry "shoes" or "footwear"? "Apparel" or "clothing"? If you have the NAICS code in hand, you don't have to worry about the words the database uses.

Find NAICS codes for a specific industry using one of the resources below.

North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)

Reports

Gale Business: Insights This link opens in a new window
Business journals and magazines, company profiles, market research reports, and more. Includes content from reference books such as Market Share Reporter, Business Rankings Annual, and Encyclopedia of Emerging Industries. Some full text.
Business Source Premier This link opens in a new window
Business journals and magazines, as well as company, industry, country, and market research reports. Some full text. 1922-
IBISWorld This link opens in a new window
The United States' most comprehensive collection of Industry Market Research.
Mergent Online This link opens in a new window
U.S. and international company data, including financials, equity pricing, insider trading, and institutional holdings. Includes some private companies. Sustainability module evaluates companies on Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria. Get to know the new Mergent Market Atlas interface! Restricted to UP students, faculty and staff, for research purposes only.

Statista Consumer Market Reports
Presents the key performance indicators – sales, revenues and prices – of the most important consumer markets worldwide.
Statista Industry Reports
Select a category to see charts and sub-category reports, for worldwide markets as well as US and other countries.

Trade Associations

Encyclopedia of Associations
Covers more than 23,000 organizations in categories such as trade, business, and commercial; legal, governmental, public administration, and military; cultural; educational; veterans, hereditary, and patriotic; athletic and sports; fan clubs, and many more.

Industry associations can be a gold mine of information about trends, market share, consumer behavior, and more! Follow these steps to locate associations within your industry: