Mid Hudson Regional Business Plan Competition: Industry

All the institutions participating in the Mid Hudson Regional Business Plan Competition have library access to Business Insights: Essentials.  Your local college librarian will be able to offer you assistance in accessing and using this database.  The link below is to the Marist College subscription.  You will need to use the link from your local library website.

Trade Journals are written for practitioners in a specific field.  New products, trends, opportunities and challenges, and very granular statistical information are presented in trade journals.  Most institutions participating in the Mid Hudson Regional Business Competition subscribe to either (1) ABI/Inform; (2) Business Source Elite; or (3) Business Source Complete.

In ABI/Inform, on the right side of the search results page are "Options" for narrowing search results.  Look at the category "Source Type" and select "Trade Journals".  Now all article results displayed will be in Trade Journals.  At the end of the "Narrow Search Options" is a date slider that can be used to display articles published more recently.

In Business Source Elite, in the left hand column there are options to "Refine Results".   Look at the category "Source Type" and select "Trade Journals".  Now all article results displayed will be in Trade Journals.  Near the top of that column is a "Publication Date" slider.  Use that to display more recently published articles.

The links presented below are to the Marist College subscriptions.  Speak with your local Reference Librarian for assistance in accessing and searching the relevant databases at your institution's library.

ABI/Inform, Business Source Premier, and Business Source Elite index thousands of business magazine and journal aritcles, covering all aspects of industry information.  There are articles are specific companies and products as well as articles discussing industry-wide conditions.  All three resources also have industry profiles, most of which are available in full text.  

To find articles about an industry you can search by industry name, company name or NAICS code.

In ABI/Inform there is a publication known as "First Industry Research Profiles". It has been pulled on this guide. However, if your institution has not pulled them out simply limit your search to that document title, and select recent reports.

NAICS (rhymes with bakes) stands for the "North American Industry Classification System".  It is a 6 digit decimal classification code system used to identify economic activity from the sector down to the industry level.  At present it includes 20 sections and 1,057 industries.  Developed by the Office of Management and Budget of the Federal Government, it is used to collect, analyze and report on US economic activity.

Many of the databases you will be searching use NAICS codes as a search or a limit option. The Economic Census uses NAICS to present data.  Be aware that some databases like ABI/Inform and Business Source Premier/Complete  use a modified version of NAICS.