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Market and industry research

This extensive guide covers numerous aspects of business research, including tools and strategies for researching industries, consumers, and companies.

What you can find through RRU Library

RRU Library subscribes to a variety of specialized business and industry research databases.  The information available in these databases is collected and analyzed by specialists with no affiliation to the companies and industries examined. This reduces the likelihood of bias.

Review the various sections of this guide to find the tool (or tools) that best suit your information need.

If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask a reference librarian for assistance.

Industry profiles - IBIS World

IBISWorld:

This tool contains industry reports. So for example you would search 'automobile' instead of 'Ford'.

Reports in IBIS are available for Canadian, American, Chinese, and global markets.

To search:

  • Enter the name of your target industry. If you do not find what you are after, try one or two other similar search terms. If there is a report on your industry, you should find it.
  • In the example below we are entering a search for 'Automobile'. Some of the available reports are listed below.

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  • If you would like to focus your results to one of the four geographic areas covered by IBIS - Canada, United States, China or the globe - launch your keyword search and use the menu on the left side of your results.

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  • Within a specific report you can view sections of the report, on the left, and download the whole report as a PDF, in the upper right.

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Industry profiles - Passport

Passport

There are a variety of ways to get industry information from this database but you usually start by finding material on your industry - automotive, for example - and then narrow to a specific country or continent.  Your results will be a mix of market level statistics and reports/articles.

Passport is one of more complex tools, offering many pathways to search.

  • For a quick overview, take a look at our Passport help guide.
  • For more detailed instruction, take a look at the video series produced by Passport, found under "Help Guide and Videos" in the uppermost menu bar on the Passport homepage.. 

Statista - Market and industry statistics

Statista is a statistics, market research and business intelligence portal. Statista also provides market forecasts, white papers, dossiers, industry reports, digital market outlooks and consumer market outlooks.

Statista search page

Enter your search and use the filters on the left of your results to make your search more specific.

filters in Statista

To filter to a specific country, using the country filter on the lower left of your results is the most reliable approach.

StatistaCountryFilter