Conducting Industry Research

1
Conducting Industry Research

• Determine the SIC/NAICS Codes which describe the
  industry
• Use these codes to find a list of companies in
  either databases or directories
• Determine the Market Leaders ( or market share)
• Determine the Size of the Industry ()

2
Where to get Industry Information?

• Encyclopedia of Business Information Sources
  (Reference Desk)
• Standard Poors Industry Survey (Reference)
• Business and Company Resource Center (Overviews)
• Business Source Premier (Search by NAICS) and
  choose Source Type Industry Profile
• Industry Associations
• Other Databases (Lexis/Nexis, ABI/Inform)
• Government Sources
• Marketing/Analyst Reports (may be hard to get
  )

3
Questions to Ask

• News, Trends, Forecasts/Predictions
• Economic Indicators that Influence
  (Cyclical/Non-cyclical)
• Domestic vs International (Where are the )
• Market Share
• Financial/Ratio Questions (only works for
  publicly traded)
• Innovations/new products (slow or fast,
  constantly changing, set times for introduction
  such as automobiles)
• Legal/Regulatory Issues
• Technology (driven by technology or not?)
• Information Dissemination

4
Domestic vs International ( )

• Is the industry mostly domestic or is it global?
• Where is manufacturing? Sales?
• Can people in other countries afford or want it?
  (income per capita, cultural/religious barriers)
• Demographics to support it?

5
News, Trends, Forecasts/Predictions

• Where is the industry now?
• Where might it be in 3-6 months or longer?
• Where has it been? Historical background
• Is it in growth or decline or a holding pattern?
• What factors might influence it the most?

6
Economic Indicators that Influence /Drive

• Cyclical vs noncyclical industry
• Raw material prices (agricultural prices such as
  corn, wheat, steel prices, cost of computer
  chips, etc.)
• Transportation costs (fuel, etc.)
• Cost of Living
• Others?

7
Market Share

• Who are the dominant players?
• of market share
• Is the market share widely fragmented?
• Is it fairly stable or ever changing?
• How hard is it to determine?

8
Financial/Ratio Questions

• What are the key ratios in analyzing the
  particular industry?
• SP Industry Survey
• StockVal

9
Innovations/new products

• How often?
• Product cycles
• Is there a certain time of year that new products
  are introduced? Such as Consumer Electronics
  Show, etc.

10
Legal/Regulatory Issues

• Is the industry heavily regulated or not?
• How do we keep up with the regulations? Where do
  we go? What are the impacts?
• Legal cases
• Patents/Trademarks
• Bills/Laws pending in Congress
• How do these effect the product and price?

11
Technology (driven by or not?)

• Does the industry use technology heavily?
• How is it used?
• Does the industry use cutting edge technology or
  not?

12
Information Dissemination

• How do we find the most current industry news?
• What are the major trade publications?
• Are they readily available? Do you need to be a
  member? Are they on various databases? Can you
  get articles on interlibrary loan or from
  regional libraries?
• Industry Associations do they publish, release
  statistics or have a research center?
• Trade shows Industry Experts or spokespersons
• Twitter, Blogs, etc.