Entrepreneurship

This guide is designed to help students learn how to use K-State Libraries' resources to find information about industries, markets, consumers, companies, and more.

Library Research Guide

Industry Reports

Industry reports can be a valuable source of information for a feasibility analysis or business plan. Reports typically present overviews of industry trends, industry revenue, and revenue projections in an easy to digest format. Though reports may cover an industry that is broader than the market you are researching (for example, Sporting Goods Stores instead of Bicycle Shops), they are still useful for understanding the environment in which a new company may be operating.

IBISWorld
Paid for by K-State Libraries
K-State Libraries subscribes to IBISWorld US Industry Reports and US Specialized Industry Reports. The US Industry reports module covers 700 industries. Reports have statistics and analysis on market characteristics, operating conditions, current and forecast performance, major industry participants and more. The Specialized Industry Reports complement the Industry Reports module and can be useful when researching small or new industries.

First Research Industry Profiles (available through ABI/INFORM)
First Research provides industry profiles for over 1000 US industry segments. Profiles contain critical analysis, statistics and forecasts.
Fitch Solutions Country Industry Reports (available through ABI/INFORM)
Fitch covers 20 major industries for the US and other global markets.

MarketLine Industry Profiles

Business Source Premier
MarketLine company and industry profiles are available in Business Sources Premier. Industry profiles include Porter's Five Forces Analyses. The Five Forces is a framework, developed by Michael Porter, for analyzing the forces that shape an industry.

Find MarketLine Industry Profiles in Business Source Premier.

Enter MarketLine (one word) in the Ti Title field.
Enter United States in the GE Geographic Terms. MarketLine also covers other countries.
Enter the search terms for your industry in the TX All Text field.
After running the search, use menu on left to limit by source type (industry profile) and date (last few years).

Tips for finding MarketLine Industry Profiles in Business Source Premier.

Industry Statistics

Statista
Paid for by K-State Libraries
Insights and facts across 600 industries and 50+ countries; includes the Global Consumer Survey. Use as the starting point of your research to get facts and insights on topics that matter, expert research in condensed form, market outlooks, analyzed markets from 150+ countries, daily infographics, visualized global stories, and global consumer survey information.

Industry Financial Ratios

IBISWorld
IBISWorld Industry reports now contain industry financial ratios. To find ratios, look at the Key Statistics page of reports. Data is estimated at the industry level from the aggregated sources (IRS SOI Tax Stats, US Census Bureau, IBISWorld).

Industry Gross Margin

Mergent Online
Find the average gross margin for companies in your industry.

1. Go to Mergent Online and search for a company in your industry.
2. Choose Report Builder tab and Comparison Reports option.
3. Select the following options on the Comparison Report Selection Screen:

Peer Group selection: Classification NAIC
Select Comparison Report Type: All Companies
Report Type: Active Companies Only
Report Item Selection: Ratios > Gross Margin %
Make sure Include average box is checked.

4. Then download report and look at the peer average for gross margin.