Industry and Company Information
Finding Industry and Company Information
Use the following resources for finding information on your industry, competitors, and competing products. You'll need this kind of information for describing your new business venture, as well as for writing your marketing plan.
- NAICSThe North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is the standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy.
Tutorial: Finding NAICS Codes
- ABI/INFORM This link opens in a new window
Includes international coverage and provides researchers a complete picture of companies and business trends around the world.
- Business Insights: Essentials (formerly Business & Company Resource Center) This link opens in a new window
Use this database to find overviews of the industry into which your business fits; use the NAICS code if you know it. Also find info about companies that are competitors to your business; some SWOT analyses are available. - Business Source Complete (via EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
Search here for industry profiles, marketing research reports, SWOT analyses, and profiles of companies that might be competitors of your planned business. - Mergent Online This link opens in a new windowProvides access to a wide range of financial and business information, including U.S. and international company data, industry reports, global company financials, executive profiles, equity research reports, records from private companies, annual reports, risk ratings and information, and global equity pricing data. Offers the ability to build custom financial reports.
- PrivCo This link opens in a new windowThe PrivCo database presents business & financial data on major privately-held companies, including family owned, private equity owned, venture backed, & international unlisted companies.
**Click on the green "Direct Access" button to access PrivCo without making an account. - RKMA Market Research Ebook Series This link opens in a new windowRichard K. Miller & Associates (RKMA) publishes ten annual market research ebooks spanning multiple sectors. Bowman Library has access to the 2025 editions for each title, available in electronic format (PDF):
Business-to-Business Marketing, Consumer Behavior, Consumer Marketing, Consumer Use of the Internet & Mobile, Entertainment & Leisure Market Research, Restaurant, Food & Beverage Market Research , Retail & E-Commerce Market Research, Sports Marketing, Travel & Tourism Market Research, and U.S. Cities & Communities - ValueLine Investment Survey Reports This link opens in a new windowProvides the ability to search by Company Name, Stock Ticker or Industry for the most recent reports, analyst commentaries and rankings on the 1,700 stocks covered by the Value Line Investment Survey.
The following are useful for gathering more consumer & market information:
Enter a U.S. ZIP Code and select a maximum of two topics (lifestyle and income information are automatically provided). Explore the results including descriptions of the top three segments in the selected ZIP code.
- Statista This link opens in a new window
One of the world's largest statistics portals with data from over 18,000 sources. Provides access to 1 million statistics. Also contains information on industries, countries, digital markets, and other topics, as well as infographics.
