Management Library

Where can I find a current overview of an industry?

Trade associations are great sources of information on industries. In addition, Cornell subscribes to a number of resources that provide in-depth reports on industries.

CFRA Industry Surveys, available via Capital IQ, provide extensive reports on major U.S. industries.
IBISworld covers hundreds of industries in the U.S., Canada, and China. It is particularly useful for emerging or niche industries.
ABI/INFORM has access to First Research and Fitch Solutions industry reports which cover hundreds of industries in the U.S. and globally.
The U.S. Census Bureau publishes statistics via their Industry Series Portal.

Additional information on agriculture, energy, food and beverage, and real estate industries.

Topics:

industry

Agricultural Sector

The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Economic Research Service (ERS), and other departments provide a number of statistical releases, prices, and reports that detail the US agriculture sector. Cornell’s Mann Library hosts many of these resources on the Economics, Statistics and Market Information System, an easy to use site that consolidates various agency reports and statistics in one place.

These include things like:

Crop reports
Prices for crops, labor, land value, grazing fees, and other related agricultural expenses.
Data and reports on aquaculture, genetically modified crops, and textiles.

For agriculture in other countries, look to government agencies and NGOs such as Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), UN Comtrade, and OECD as well as the government agencies of the specific nations you are looking at. The library has a number of fee-based resources that make it easy to search for data across countries, such as Passport and CEIC.

Energy Industry

Begin your research with the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Annual Energy Outlook, which includes projections on factors that will shape the US energy markets through 2040. From the EIA you can find:

You can narrow down your search by energy source or topic such as coal, electric power, natural gas, petroleum, and nuclear power.

Trade journals and associations are another great source of data and current events. Oil & Gas Journal is a key resource for those interested in natural gas and petroleum production and it contains current events, construction projects (including pipelines and refineries) worldwide, and production statistics. SEIA is ideal for those interested in solar power and Wind IQ similarly is a great resource for those interested in wind power generation in the United States. Bloomberg is another source for information on energy assets.

Food and Beverage Industry

Cornell’s Hotel Library has put together a series of guides for resources in the food service and alcoholic beverage (beer, wine, and spirits) industries. These guides not only point to known consumer market research resources like Mintel Academic, but also include other resources geared specifically towards each individual market.

Real Estate Industry

Cornell’s Hotel Library has put together a research guide with top information sources covering real estate. The subject experts in the Hotel Library have industry leading databases and publications on site in the Marriott Student Learning Center and are happy to assist students.

In addition to Bloomberg, Capital IQ, and Capital IQ Pro which provide REIT and financial markets data, the Hotel Library has additional specialized resources covering real estate transactions, properties, benchmarking, construction costs, and industry forecasts. These resources must be used within the Marriott Student Learning center in the Hotel Library.