The project is an engaging, team-oriented assignment that will allow students to apply the principles and lessons learned in the classroom to the real world. Teams will launch a “sustainable and social” entrepreneurial initiative that solves real problems or provides desired services for many people. (Follow the 5 themes from IA#3.)
Information needed:
- Industry info: customers, market size, market growth, competition, government, global environment, and key success factors; price/value/frequency, distribution, vendors
- Industry financial ratios / benchmarks, product component pricing, supply sourcing, manufacturer list + outsourcing list
- Where to find free legal paperwork for company legal formation (besides Nolo.com)
Starting with Google? Might be good for...
- Professional associations (San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, American Bakers' Association, etc.)
- Web sites for companies within your industry
- Some articles, fact sheets, statistics
- Pricing, logos, images
Sources for Industry Descriptions and Overviews:
IBISWorld:
Great information on 700 US Industries in the US economy. Each Industry Report includes overviews, data and statistics, market share, competitive landscape, major companies, outlooks and more!
Net Advantage:
Use the Industries search to find Industry Surveys with information on about 50 US industries, including competitors, trends, market size and description, internal and external factors of companies and industries relating to success.
OneSource;
Use this database for company and industry data and information:
Companies: detailed financial data; corporate family showing parent, subsidiaries, branches; competitors; analysts' reports; SWOT, etc.
Industries: market research reports; Datamonitor industry profiles; RMA Industry Norms (ratios), etc.
Passport GMID;
Excellent for country, industry, and consumer statistics and market research. To get consumer information, click on Countries and Consumers, then Consumer Trends and Lifestyles. There are three places where you can get info:
Consumer Lifestyles: Report on consumers within the past year
Country Pulse: More recent, short consumer info
Consumers in 2020: Predictions for future consumer behavior
For each of these sections, use the pull down menu to select your country.
Sources for Industry News and Trends:
ABI/Inform Complete:
Includes citations and summaries and full text from about 1000 business periodicals that contain company and industry information, as well as articles on many other business topics. Includes the full text of the Wall Street Journal.
Business Source Premier:
Focuses on facts, figures, events and market information about companies, industries, products and markets. It covers all industries and is international in scope. Also provides SWOT analyses for companies and industries. Includes the full text of the Harvard Business Review.
LexisNexis Academic:
Use the Search the News section for business news from national and international sources.
Now and Next - Top Trends: Top trends in a variety of industries.
Statistics/Market Share:
Statista:
A database of statistics and data on industries, companies, market share, consumers, and much, much more. Data is viewable in different graph forms, and there are industry reports for certain industries.
TableBase:
Useful for finding statistical information from journals and reports on industries, companies, products, consumers, countries and markets.
Finding Other Businesses in your Industry:
Reference USA:
Create lists of businesses within industries by using city, state, zip code, and more! To start: Click on U.S. Businesses. Then click Custom Search. On the next screen, you can create your own search form to search for industry keywords, plus geographical terms like city, state, zip code, etc.
Sources for Consumer/Target Market Demographics, Behaviors and Trends Research:
American Customer Satisfaction Index
Presents scores based on customer evaluations of goods and services purchased in the United States. Scores are broken down by economic sector, industries, and company names, and given quarterly.
American FactFinder
The database Includes demographic information on income, employment, households, gender, age, ethnicity, education, and much more. Data is arranged by nation, region, state, county, city, and more.
Association for Consumer Research (ACR)
Provides free access to newsletter, papers, and presentations from conferences on consumer research.
Consumer Expenditure Survey: Bureau of Labor Statistics: US Labor Department
Statistics and reports on consumer expenditures, unemployment rates, and much more.
Esri
This company develops geographic information systems (GIS) for many industries, including those that benefit from demographic data. On their site, they provide some of this data for free. Go to this link to access the free data. Highlights are: Demographic Maps, and Lifestyles-Esri Tapestry Segment, where you can type in a zip code and see what types of consumers are in your chosen area. To see this information graphically, you have to download Microsoft Silverlight, but if you don't want to do that, click on the link to see the information in paragraph form. The consumer segments have descriptive names created by Esri, such as Main Street USA, and Laptops and Lattes. Mouse over the chart in the center of the screen to see the characteristics for each of the 65 segments.
Harris Polls Vault: Searchable data from Harris opinion polls from 1963-present.
Nielsen Wire: News stories tracking trends in areas such as consumer behavior and media.
Nielsen PRIZM: My Best Segments
Similar to Esri, this web site groups consumers into general categories, with brief descriptions and demographic information. Use the Zip Code Look-Up to get information about consumers in a particular area in both descriptions and graphs. There are three categories of information for consumers; PRIZM, P$YCLE, which describes the financial status of consumers, and ConneXions, which describes the level of technology use and connectivity of consumers. Use Segment Explorer to view descriptions of all of the consumer segments on the web site. Use the links on the left side of the screen to search for consumer groups by age, income, and other categories.
Passport GMID
Excellent for country, industry, and consumer statistics and market research. To get consumer information, click on Countries and Consumers, then Consumer Trends and Lifestyles. There are three places where you can get info:
Consumer Lifestyles: Report on consumers within the past year
Country Pulse: More recent, short consumer info
Consumers in 2020: Predictions for future consumer behavior
For each of these sections, use the pull down menu to select your country.
Pew Research Center
A non-partisan research group that collects and presents data, opinions, and reports on American attitudes, activities, and trends.
Survey of Consumer Finance
A survey done by the U.S Federal Reserve Board every three years, to track the financial state of consumers. On the web site there are articles that analyze the data, as well as links to data sets. One helpful feature is the SCF Chartbook, which shows selected data from the Survey in charts and graphs. Another is the Working Papers, which are great for understanding the data and its meaning. Survey data on this site goes back to the 1960s.
Sustainable Communities Index
Consumer data by San Francisco neighborhood. Some data are from Census 2000 or from 2007, other data is more current. Categories of data are health-related, but have broader implications, like access to fresh food, bicycle paths, green space, etc.
Time Use Survey: Bureau of Labor Statistics: US Labor Department
Data on how American consumers use their time.
Trendwatching.com: Free monthly lists of consumer trends in many industries.
United Nations Demographic and Social Statistics
Includes information on demographics of countries, income and consumption, and more.
US Census Bureau International Data Base (IDB)
Statistical tables of demographic, and socio-economic data for 227 countries and areas of the
Other Research Guides That May Help:
Researching a Company: http://www.usfca.edu/Library/handouts/Researching_a_Company/
Researching an Industry: Coming soon!
Marketing Research: http://www.usfca.edu/library/marketingresearch/
Business and Marketing Plans: Coming soon!
Tracking Trends: Coming soon!
