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Business & Entrepreneurship

Industry Research

This page contains some recommended resources to help you research services and industries. 

Remember - when searching for information about a company, product, service or industry, you may have to look at the bigger picture as well as the details specific to your particular business, product or service.  If you can’t find enough on the company/service/product, try to place it within the larger industry. Also, keep in mind industry dominated by private companies will have less open information available.

  • Identify your industry first. Look for the NAICS code for more information about the industry. https://www.naics.com/search/
  • Search in library databases and online for trade journals, also known as professional magazines. These are often published by an association and cover news and items of interest concerning a particular trade or industry.  
  • Association websites can contain a wealth of information about an industry. For example: The Canadian Mining Association  https://mining.ca/
  • Look in library databases for industry reports, company reports, and/or articles related to your topic.
    • Best bets for industry reports
      • Ibisworld (Canadian and limited US reports)
      • Business Source Complete.(international market research and industry reports from Datamonitor, Barn's Reports, Marketline and others ) 
  • Be creative! Use other resources to find specific information about financials, market size and share, demographics, and/or consumer behaviour.

Adapted from:  Iaizzo, Teresa. “Researching a Company, Product, Service, or Industry” George Brown College Library. Web. Sep 25, 2017

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