The Best Bets tab above will give you top choices for a quick research start, while the Industry Overview tab will lead you through a five-step methodology for rapidly researching industries. For more detail, use the Advanced Topics section on the left.

IBISWorld Industry Market Research This link opens in a new window
A collection of Industry Market Research and Industry Risk Ratings. Coverage includes over 700 U.S. industries in over 1100 industry-specific reports. Research reports contain trends, statistics and analysis on market size, market share of competitors, forecasting, and industry growth rates. Performance analysis includes emerging trends, recent production performance and 5-year forecasts. The US Specialized Industry Reports series covers niche industries such as pawn shops, boat insurance companies, air gun manufacturers and circus operators.
Abbreviation: ibisworld
Vendor: IBISWorld
Subjects: Business, Communication, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Hospitality, Marketing
Type: Reports
NetAdvantage (Standard & Poor's) This link opens in a new window
Find business, company and financial reports, plus investment, stock and mutual fund research. Provides financial content for public companies globally as well as hard-to-find private company information. Contains Company Stock Reports, Industry Surveys, Funds Reports, Stock Screener, Corporations, Executives and Directors Screener, Mutual Fund Screener, Corporate Bond Screener, and Compustat Excel Analytics.
Abbreviation: nasp
Vendor: Standard & Poor's
Subjects: Business, Communication, Economics, Finance, Hospitality
Type: E-Book Collections
Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
Business Source Complete is the world's definitive scholarly business database, providing the leading collection of bibliographic and full-text content. As part of the comprehensive coverage offered by this database, indexing and abstracts for the most important scholarly business journals back as far as 1886 are included. In addition to the searchable cited references provided for more than 1,200 journals, Business Source Complete contains detailed author profiles for the 20,000 most-cited authors in the database. Journal ranking studies reveal that Business Source Complete is the overwhelmingly superior database for full-text journals in all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, MIS, POM, accounting, finance and economics. Additional full-text, non-journal content includes financial data, books, monographs, major reference works, book digests, conference proceedings, case studies, investment research reports, industry reports, market research reports, country reports, company profiles, SWOT analyses and more.
Abbreviation: bscomp
Vendor: EBSCO
Coverage: 1886–Current
Subjects: Business, Business Legal Studies, Communication, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Hospitality, Insurance, Management & Strategy, Marketing, Real Estate, Retail Entrepreneurship, Sport Management, Urban and Regional Planning
Type: Datasets / Statistics, E-Book Collections, E-Journal Collections, Encyclopedias & Dictionaries, Proceedings, Reports

Step 1. Identify Your Industry

Many industries don’t have NAICS codes so use databases like Hoovers Academic, Business Source Complete and ABI/Inform Compete. Think "Companies", "Businesses", "Competitors". An industry is a group of enterprises primarily engaged in the same kind of economic activity regardless of their types of ownership.

IBISWorld Industry Market Research This link opens in a new window
A collection of Industry Market Research and Industry Risk Ratings. Coverage includes over 700 U.S. industries in over 1100 industry-specific reports. Research reports contain trends, statistics and analysis on market size, market share of competitors, forecasting, and industry growth rates. Performance analysis includes emerging trends, recent production performance and 5-year forecasts. The US Specialized Industry Reports series covers niche industries such as pawn shops, boat insurance companies, air gun manufacturers and circus operators.
Abbreviation: ibisworld
Vendor: IBISWorld
Subjects: Business, Communication, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Hospitality, Marketing
Type: Reports
NetAdvantage (Standard & Poor's) This link opens in a new window
Find business, company and financial reports, plus investment, stock and mutual fund research. Provides financial content for public companies globally as well as hard-to-find private company information. Contains Company Stock Reports, Industry Surveys, Funds Reports, Stock Screener, Corporations, Executives and Directors Screener, Mutual Fund Screener, Corporate Bond Screener, and Compustat Excel Analytics.
Abbreviation: nasp
Vendor: Standard & Poor's
Subjects: Business, Communication, Economics, Finance, Hospitality
Type: E-Book Collections
Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
Business Source Complete is the world's definitive scholarly business database, providing the leading collection of bibliographic and full-text content. As part of the comprehensive coverage offered by this database, indexing and abstracts for the most important scholarly business journals back as far as 1886 are included. In addition to the searchable cited references provided for more than 1,200 journals, Business Source Complete contains detailed author profiles for the 20,000 most-cited authors in the database. Journal ranking studies reveal that Business Source Complete is the overwhelmingly superior database for full-text journals in all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, MIS, POM, accounting, finance and economics. Additional full-text, non-journal content includes financial data, books, monographs, major reference works, book digests, conference proceedings, case studies, investment research reports, industry reports, market research reports, country reports, company profiles, SWOT analyses and more.
Abbreviation: bscomp
Vendor: EBSCO
Coverage: 1886–Current
Subjects: Business, Business Legal Studies, Communication, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Hospitality, Insurance, Management & Strategy, Marketing, Real Estate, Retail Entrepreneurship, Sport Management, Urban and Regional Planning
Type: Datasets / Statistics, E-Book Collections, E-Journal Collections, Encyclopedias & Dictionaries, Proceedings, Reports
Factiva (20 concurrent user limit) This link opens in a new window
Factiva.com, from Dow Jones, includes access to a wide range of information from newspapers, newswires, industry publications, websites, company reports, and more. The broad range of content provides both local insight and global perspective on business issues and current events – especially with regard to research requiring current information on companies, industries, and financial markets.
There is a 20 concurrent user limit.

Abbreviation: djfac
Vendor: Dow Jones & Company
Subjects: Business, Communication, Finance
Type: Newspapers and Newswires

Step 2. Locate Industry Statistics

Statistics are important to build a picture of the industry and how it is functioning. Data like the size and segments of an industry, industry financial benchmarks and financials, forecasts & trends, major companies, competitors, market share, markets & products, and imports/exports are key to drawing a picture of the industry. See Step 1 above for specific industry market research reports that will have industry statistics. Trade journals and associations in Step 3 will also provide many statistics.

Statista This link opens in a new window
Statista is a leading provider of market and consumer data. Statista consolidates statistical data on over 80,000 topics from more than 22,500 sources.
Abbreviation: stati
Vendor: Statista
Subjects: Business, Communication, Demography and Population Studies, Economics, Hospitality, Marketing, Public Health, Urban and Regional Planning
Type: Datasets / Statistics

Data USA
Data set created to help understand and visualize the critical issues facing the United States in areas like jobs, skills and education across industry and geography. And, to use this knowledge to inform decision making among executives, policymakers and citizens.

Step 3. Find Industry Specific News, Articles, and Reports

Industry and trade associations and specialized industry journals and associations are great places to start

Factiva (20 concurrent user limit) This link opens in a new window
Factiva.com, from Dow Jones, includes access to a wide range of information from newspapers, newswires, industry publications, websites, company reports, and more. The broad range of content provides both local insight and global perspective on business issues and current events – especially with regard to research requiring current information on companies, industries, and financial markets.
There is a 20 concurrent user limit.

Abbreviation: djfac
Vendor: Dow Jones & Company
Subjects: Business, Communication, Finance
Type: Newspapers and Newswires
Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
Business Source Complete is the world's definitive scholarly business database, providing the leading collection of bibliographic and full-text content. As part of the comprehensive coverage offered by this database, indexing and abstracts for the most important scholarly business journals back as far as 1886 are included. In addition to the searchable cited references provided for more than 1,200 journals, Business Source Complete contains detailed author profiles for the 20,000 most-cited authors in the database. Journal ranking studies reveal that Business Source Complete is the overwhelmingly superior database for full-text journals in all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, MIS, POM, accounting, finance and economics. Additional full-text, non-journal content includes financial data, books, monographs, major reference works, book digests, conference proceedings, case studies, investment research reports, industry reports, market research reports, country reports, company profiles, SWOT analyses and more.
Abbreviation: bscomp
Vendor: EBSCO
Coverage: 1886–Current
Subjects: Business, Business Legal Studies, Communication, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Hospitality, Insurance, Management & Strategy, Marketing, Real Estate, Retail Entrepreneurship, Sport Management, Urban and Regional Planning
Type: Datasets / Statistics, E-Book Collections, E-Journal Collections, Encyclopedias & Dictionaries, Proceedings, Reports
Directory Library (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Gale Directory Library hosts a variety of directory products in the following categories: Government Entities, Libraries & Information Sources, Media Entities, Organizations, and Research Centers.
Included are the titles:

Directory of Special Libraries and Information Centers
Encyclopedia of American Religions
Encyclopedia of Associations - International Organizations
Encyclopedia of Associations - National Organizations of the U.S.
Encyclopedia of Associations - Regional, State and Local Organizations of the U.S.
Encyclopedia of Governmental Advisory Organizations
Gale Directory of Databases
Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media
Government Research Directory
International Research Centers Directory
Publishers Directory
Research Centers Directory

Abbreviation: gdlib
Vendor: Gale
Type: Directories
Google Scholar [see description for access instructions] This link opens in a new window
Google Scholar uses Google's search engine to provide a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. Using the link within Google Scholar, you may also link to resources that FSU owns. For more information, visit our Google Scholar LibGuide.
To access FSU resources from Google Scholar, please follow these instructions:
- Go http://scholar.google.com
- Click on the hamburger menu on the upper left hand side and click on "Settings"
- Click on Library links
- Type Florida State University in the box that appears
- Click on the blue Search button
- Click in the check box next to "Florida State University- Find It @ FSU" (Not Cengage Gale Full Text)
- Click on Save
- Scholar should now recognize you as an FSU patron
Abbreviation: gsch
Vendor: Google
Type: Citation Management, Indexes / Catalogs

Step 4. Look at the Competition

There are many places to find competition lists. There is no one place for rankings and much of the data surrounding it is proprietary so often your best guess, backed by evidence is good enough. Additional places to look for specialized rankings are trade and industry magazines. Look for buyers guides and trade directories for additional lists of competitors. A search on the internet for a industry and the phrase “buyers guide” or “top rankings” or “competitors”

NetAdvantage (Standard & Poor's) This link opens in a new window
Find business, company and financial reports, plus investment, stock and mutual fund research. Provides financial content for public companies globally as well as hard-to-find private company information. Contains Company Stock Reports, Industry Surveys, Funds Reports, Stock Screener, Corporations, Executives and Directors Screener, Mutual Fund Screener, Corporate Bond Screener, and Compustat Excel Analytics.
Abbreviation: nasp
Vendor: Standard & Poor's
Subjects: Business, Communication, Economics, Finance, Hospitality
Type: E-Book Collections
Business Insights This link opens in a new window
Provides company profiles, company brand information, rankings, investment reports, company histories, chronologies, and industry news and information from 1980- (Business and Company Resource Center with PROMT, Newsletters, and Investext Plus).
Abbreviation: bcrc
Vendor: Gale
Coverage: 1980–Current
Subjects: Business, Communication, Hospitality
Type: Datasets / Statistics, Encyclopedias & Dictionaries, Historical / Primary Sources, Indexes / Catalogs, Newspapers and Newswires, Reports
PrivCo This link opens in a new window
PrivCo is a source for business and financial data on major privately-held companies, including family owned, private equity owned, venture backed, and international unlisted companies. PrivCo covers over 165,000 companies, including financial data, over 30,000 M&A transactions, and over 15,000 funding rounds. PrivCo also has over 10,000 investors, and advance search options by company, deal or investor, giving you the ability to generate fields of data within seconds based on criteria such as location, sub-industry, revenue and employee sizes, financial backing and more.

Note: create or sign in to your personal user account to access PrivCo.
Abbreviation: priv
Vendor: PrivCo
Subjects: Business, Finance
Type: Datasets / Statistics

Step 5. If are not Finding Your Industry...

If you are unable to find industry information for the industry you are looking for, please contact your business librarian listed on the right. Industry research is often difficult.

Industry Research

Business Librarian

The Best Bets tab above will give you top choices for a quick research start, while the Industry Overview tab will lead you through a five-step methodology for rapidly researching industries. For more detail, use the Advanced Topics section on the left.