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Martha S. Grafton Library

Business: How-To Guide: Industry Research

A guide to resources for business research.

Introduction

This guide will demonstrate how to use Grafton's resources to research a specific industry in

Factiva

Mergent Online

Business Source Complete

Step 1:

Before you begin your research, find the NAICS code for the particular industry in which you're interested. You can find it doing a google search, such as "Hotels NAICS"

Factiva

There are two ways you can use Factiva to find industry information: browse for reports and search the news.

Browse for Reports:

1. On the Factiva homepage, click on the Companies/Markets tab, then on the Industry link.

2. Browse the list for the industry you're researching. This will bring you to a page with an industry snapshot, targeted news, reports, charts, analysis and financial data.


Search the News:

This will search the news for your industry. Before we begin, go back to the Factiva homepage. You can do this by clicking the "Search" link in the top menu bar.

1. First, we want to limit our search by industry. So go to the "All Industries" link, with the little blue triangle below the big search box.

2. Then start typing the name of your industry. Once you start typing, you should see it appear in a drop-down menu. Click on the version in the drop-down menu

3. Then, go back to the big search box at the top, and type in keywords for whatever you'd like to research about your industry.

Mergent Online

1. Click on the tab that says "Report Search"

2. Click on "Industry Reports" link.

3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page until you see the box that says "Search by Industry". You can also narrow the search to North America using the box below.

Business Source Complete

Searching:

Search by general keyword, using the default "Select a field (optional)" search.

Or, if you know your NAICS code, you can search by that using the drop-down menu, and selecting "IC NAICS Code or Description."

Useful search terms for industry research: "market overview", "report", "industry"

Refining your Results:

You may get a lot of results. Use the "Refine your results" bar on the left-hand side of the page to narrow your results. For an industry report search, it might be most useful to refine by "Subject: Thesaurus Term" or "NAICS/Industry" where you may see your industry listed. This will narrow your search results by only the ones that have your selected terms listed.

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