Management Library

Oxford's A Dictionary of Business defines this concept as the, "...share of the total sales of all brands or products competing in the same market that is captured by one particular brand or product, usually expressed as a percentage."

The Market Share Reporter and the World Market Share Reporter provide this type of data for many industries. These publications can also be found online via Business & Company Resource Center. Passport GMID provides international market research and industry data, including reports and market share on specific products and industries.

An in-depth analysis of the environment in which your business operates is an essential part of marketing research. Be sure to consult our Industry FAQs.

Cornell's Hotel Library has put together a research guide for resources in the real estate industry. In addition, Cornell has a real estate program that focuses on all aspects of the industry.

More than 5,000 company rankings can be found in Business Rankings Annual. This resource is also available through Business & Company Resource Center.

Thomson One Banker provides full-text analyst reports for industries. The list of reports can be limited by specific analyst, if desired.

Industry codes have been developed to provide a way to classify industries into categories. There are two main types of industry codes: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) (A third classification, GICS, is used primarily by financial analysts.). The U.S. Department of Labor has a website that allows you to search for SIC codes by keyword. The Census Bureau has a website that allows you to search for NAICS codes by keyword.

• Mergent Online provides industry reports for two international regions, Europe and Asia Pacific, in several industries.
• Passport GMID covers more than 180 countries. It contains reports and statistics which include current and forecasted data on market size and market share and profile the leading competitors in an industry.
• The International Trade Administration provides industry sector analysis. These reports are a detailed analysis of those industries in which U.S. business have strong interests. They discuss current trends in industries, provide appropriate market/demographic data, outline potential opportunities, discuss local regulations affecting industries, and give key contacts.

Many resources can create lists of companies based on criteria that you establish. For a full list see the related directories tag. Some of the most popular resources are listed below.

• The Build A List function available within Hoover's Online will create lists of companies within industries, locations, and other criteria.
• CareerSearch and Capital IQ allow you to create a list of companies by industry, location, number of employees, et cetera. Results can be downloaded into Excel.

• Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys, available electronically through NetAdvantage, contain a section titled Industry References. The Industry References section lists relevant trade associations for that industry.
• Associations Unlimited provides an easily searchable interface to more than 460,000 international, national, regional, state, and local organizations, including non-profits.

• Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys, available electronically through NetAdvantage, contain a section titled Key Industry Ratios and Statistics.
• Bloomberg provides an extensive list of ratios using the Relative Value (RV) function. Ratio data is provided for the industry average as well as for companies within the industry.
• Financial ratios are also available via eStatement Studies, published by the Risk Management Association (RMA).
• Cost of Capital, published annually by Morningstar, provides detailed ratios and statistics for more than 300 industries. Additional print publications that provide industry financial ratios include: Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios, Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios, and Annual Statement Studies.

Financial databases such as CapitalIQ, Mergent Online, and Thomson One Banker allow you to create a list of companies within an industry and then build a comparison report based on selected criteria, including financials, corporate information, and ratios. Bloomberg's Relative Value (RV) shortcut performs the same function, but with more variables to choose from.