The Hekman Library supports its business faculty and students through print and online access to many sources of information on industries worldwide. While there are many paths to collecting this kind of information, we recommend the following steps to best utilize the resources available to you at Calvin:
Government statistics and industry reports are arranged and indexed by
NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) code, formerly
known as the Standard Industrial Classification or SIC code. The NAICS
is searchable online at NAICS 2002.
Reviewing the code categories will also help you think about how
narrowly you may want to scale your industry search. For example, do
you want to research the whole computer industry, or just laptops?
This is a premier and very current source for business students and professionals, providing basic data on 70 major industries arranged in 52 major groups. It provides comparative financial data for major companies within each industry and includes text and summary statistics (including norms and ratios) in a basic and current analysis for each group.
- HF1001 .B796
This eleven-volume set of basic level encyclopedias provides brief histories of high profile companies and industries in the United States. View:In PrintAnnotation
Business Rankings Annual
- HG4050 .B88
This annual survey provides current rankings of companies by size within industry and a variety of other criteira. View:In PrintAnnotation
Encyclopedia of American Industries
- HD102 .E53 Reference
Covers every industry recognized by the NAICS. Includes industry overview, current conditions, industry leaders, workforce, global marketplace, and recommended reading. This is not as current as Standard and Poor’s Industry Surveys, but a very excellent place to begin.
Many general business journals, like Business Week, Forbes, Fortune and Industry Week, and industry-specific journals, like offer special issues with industry outlooks and forecasts. Either browse the print copies on the 3rd floor of the library or search in a database like ABI/Inform or LexisNexis described below.
Data systematically collected by the U. S. government is a primary source for business people analyzing market potential, measuring the effectiveness of sales and advertising programs, setting sales quotas, and developing budgets. The following statistical series are issued by the Bureau of the Census:
Every 5 years; 2007 data is still being gathered as of the fall of 2007 and will be published from 2009-2010.
Most detailed of the census data.
Covers manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, mining, construction, and other industries up to a 7 digit NAICS code and reported by geographic areas.
Two sources that provide an overall review of business conditions include:
Business Statistics of the United States. Annual. HC101.A131 222 Ref. -- Contains national income and product data, industrial production and capacity utilization by market and industry groups, income distribution, consumer income and spending, savings and investment, business sales and inventories, prices, energy, foreign trade, and industry profiles.
Survey of Current Business. Monthly. Current periodicals. 3rd floor. Also available online from 1994 to the present. -- A major source of current statistics in many areas of business. Covers such topics as general business indicators, trade, and finance.
STAT-USA. "a service of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is the site for the U.S. business, economic and trade community, providing authoritative information from the Federal government." This subscription database is only available in the Digital Resource Center.
Financial Data and Ratios
The following sources provide financial ratios and averages for selected industries. Each source provides slightly different data in a different format. RMA provides columns based on size for better comparisons. More industries are covered in Industry Norms, but it lacks the comparisons by size
Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios . Annual HF5681.R25 I53 Ref. -- Key ratios and balance sheet data for retailing, manufacturing, wholesaling, mining, construction, transportation, and service lines of business arranged by two and four digit NAICS codes.
RMA (Risk Management Associates) Annual Statement Studies -- Composite financial data and key ratios on manufacturing, wholesaling, retailing, service, and contracting lines of business. All issues are kept behind the circulation desk in Reserve Reading.
Business Articles & News
Use the Hekman Research Databases
ABI/INFORM-- An online index with abstracts to about 2000 titles, 808 full text, such as the Wall Street Journal (1984-present) and The Economist (1991–present). This is a high-quality, first choice business data base.
General Business File ASAP -- Special options at the bottom of the search page allow you to select a company, SIC, or Investext search.
InfoTrac OneFile -- Larger than and includes Introtrac’s General business File ASAP, but does not include the special options indicated above.
LexisNexis Academic -- This full text data base is a must for national and global industry research. Three approaches to locating industry news include:
(1) A simple search from the Quick News Search screen. Type in “television industry” in quotes to retrieve the phrase, space, China, to retrieve up to 125 of the most relevant news articles).
(2) A guided search. Select Business, Industry and Market, identify product line (e.g. televisions), add some qualifier (e.g. forecasts, American), select from the Industry pull down menu area of interest (e.g. electrical/electronic news). Select the period of time from which you want to retrieve results. You may want to conduct the same subject search from a different Industry (e.g., the pull down menu also contains Distribution, Retail & Wholesale, and Manufacturing and Engineering News, which may also contain relevant information).
(3) An alternative guided search. Select Business, Business News, a News Category (e.g. Business News), a News Source: Industry News, and enter your search terms. In this approach you can go back to the News Category drop down menu and select U. S. News or World News, as well as any of the other options. Select your time period.
Wilson Business AbstractsProvides online index with abstracts to about 600 titles, many in full text.
Industry Information 
