An industry report is a market assessment tool that takes a comprehensive look at a particular industry or market. During your initial internal assessment of your company, it is likely that you've already located and used an industry report as a way to assess your company's performance against their competitors. That being said, an industry report can also be very useful when assessing other external forces, such as identifying potential environmental barriers, specific regulations that impact your industry, or what types of supply chain issues may arise.
Ultimately, the form and content of an industry report varies between databases. You can use this guide to find industry reports across some of our collections.
Unsure of which industry relates to your business? Please ask a librarian:
Articles from 1,400+ business, law, and I.T. journals plus 27,000+ videos from industry leaders
Pro Tip: If looking for a full industry analysis, try to avoid “Snapshots” or other articles that only briefly examine one aspect of the industry.
Not sure what industry your company belongs to? Company reports in Business Source Ultimate will often have industry categories listed on the report record. You can also refer to the company reports you found during your initial internal assessment.
Industry reports within this database are built with U.S. public data. You can search or browse major industries here.
Industry reports, analysis, and statistics for U.S. and global markets
Type the industry name in the search bar OR browse reports by clicking the “Industry Reports” drop-down menu at the top of the page and perusing the reports available (organized by geographic area and report type).
Pro Tip: All IBISWorld reports include a section on the "External Environment" -- this is a great place to begin your search.
Company financials, industry reports, investment analysis, and competitive benchmarking data
Industry reports in Mergent are best located by searching for industries as they relate to a particular company. This is a great option if you are conducting research or analyzing an industry as it relates to a specific company or brand. Therefore, when searching for industry reports in Mergent it is best to search by company name or ticker first.
Quantitative data on business, finance, politics, and media.
Click on the “Reports” drop-down menu at the top of the page and choose "Industry Reports”. Browse the reports or use the search bar to find a particular industry.
While reports are good places to start, you should also gather and learn from the many journal articles about your industry and top competitors. Business Source Ultimate and ABI/INFORM Complete provide access to full-text articles from scholarly journals, professional publications, magazines, and newspapers.
Articles from 1,400+ business, law, and I.T. journals plus 27,000+ videos from industry leaders
Articles analyzing industries, countries, economies, and markets
Search these databases using keywords related to your industry. Mix and match terms and phrases to locate articles which indicate trends, recent events, or marketing tactics. For more information about using keywords, please see our guide:
You can locate industry association websites by running an advanced Google search using the following format: industry description + association. You can also add site:.org to your search to ensure that you only return results that have a .org domain.
Example search: site:.org brewery + association
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