- The threat of new entrants
- The bargaining power of suppliers
- The bargaining power of buyers >
- The threat of substitute products or services
- The degree of rivalry among existing competitors
For-profit Organizations
- The operating environment of for-profit organizations includes customers, suppliers, and competitors.
- Other factors to consider may be interest groups such as trade unions (for unionized companies), consumer watchdog or advocacy groups, municipal, provincial, or federal government bodies, and other regulatory agencies.
Non-profit or Charitable Organizations
- The operating environment of non-profit or charitable organizations may also include other external stakeholders including funding agencies or donors.
Defining Your Industry
Bensoussan and Fleisher (2012) recommend the following process.
- Specifically identify or define your industry. You may wish to consult a standard industry classification systems such as NAICS, but there are other ways to identify the boundaries of an industry (based on products, customers, and competitors).
- Once you have defined the industry, begin to gather information in order to evaluate each of the five forces.
Sources consulted:
- Bensoussan, B. & Fleisher, C. (2012) Analysis without paralysis, 2nd ed.
- Bryson, J.M. (2011) Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations, 4th ed.
For help with NAICS, please see: //researchguides.library.brocku.ca/company-industry/naics
Secondary sources for industry and nonprofit sector research
- Directories
- Associations
- Industry Profiles
- Trade Journals
- Newspapers
- Non-profit / Charitable Sector
Company Directories
You can identify for-profit and non-profit organizations using a variety of directories, Library databases, and web sites. You can often identify competitors within the same industry by searching by NAICS code or by keywords in the NAICS description. Read the descriptions under each resource to determine if it will work for your particular data gathering task, based on the purpose of the directory, the geographic scope, and the types and sizes of organizations covered within it.
The following examples illustrate the wide variety of directories in existence:
Mergent Intellect This link opens in a new windowA fully searchable database with detailed information on over 280 million global businesses including direct and indirect subsidiaries and linked to contact details for their decision-making executives.
— Public and private business data
— Corporate family tree
— Executive contactsMergent Online This link opens in a new window
- Contains global business and financial data including company and industry profiles and annual reports.
- Coverage: Current plus up to 15 years of historical data.
- Permitted Uses
Industry and Trade Associations
- Industry and trade associations can be excellent sources of research, statistics, and current information on industries. These associations often publish this information on their own websites. Use your favorite search engine to locate relevant associations in Ontario, Canada, or elsewhere.
- Industry profiles (from IBISWorld, First Research, and other providers) routinely list such associations in the Additional Resources section of each report.
IBISWorld Industry Research Database This link opens in a new window
- Produces and publishes over 425 Canadian and 1,300 US Industry Reports at the 5-digit level of the NAICS code.
- Contains trends, statistics & analysis on market size, market share of major companies and industry growth rates.
- The Library subscribes to the following modules in IBISWorld: Canada Industry Reports (NAICS), United States Industry Reports (NAICS), Canada Industry iExpert Summaries, United States Industry iExpert Summaries, United States Specialized Industry Reports, United States Specialized Industry iExpert Summaries, China Industry Reports (200 industries), Canada Industry Provincial Reports (50+ Ontario industries), and Canada Collection of Macroeconomic Business Environment Profiles.
- Permitted Uses
Industry Profiles
You can learn more about industries and the competitive landscape by consulting one or more of the following sources of industry profiles. Additional sources of Industry Profiles, including Ontario-specific profiles, may be found on the Companies and Industries Research Guide.
IBISWorld Industry Research Database This link opens in a new window
- Produces and publishes over 425 Canadian and 1,300 US Industry Reports at the 5-digit level of the NAICS code.
- Contains trends, statistics & analysis on market size, market share of major companies and industry growth rates.
- The Library subscribes to the following modules in IBISWorld: Canada Industry Reports (NAICS), United States Industry Reports (NAICS), Canada Industry iExpert Summaries, United States Industry iExpert Summaries, United States Specialized Industry Reports, United States Specialized Industry iExpert Summaries, China Industry Reports (200 industries), Canada Industry Provincial Reports (50+ Ontario industries), and Canada Collection of Macroeconomic Business Environment Profiles.
- Permitted Uses
Mergent Intellect This link opens in a new window
- A deep collection of worldwide business information that enables companies to generate insightful business intelligence.
- Permitted Uses
Mergent Online This link opens in a new window
- Contains global business and financial data including company and industry profiles and annual reports.
- Coverage: Current plus up to 15 years of historical data.
- Permitted Uses
Mintel Academic This link opens in a new window
- Includes market research, market analysis, product intelligence, and competitive intelligence reports.
- Brock University has access to Mintel Reports for Canada and USA, which covers a wide variety of sectors, themes, and demographics.
- Coverage:Canadian Reports 2014-current ; US Reports 2008-current ; content added monthly, with most reports updated annually
- Permitted Uses
Passport This link opens in a new window
- Global market information that specializes in company profiles, industry reports, market share data, and consumer trend analysis of consumer products and services across 80 countries
- Includes Economies & Consumers, as well as Industrial-Canada reports for industries across the entire Canadian economy
- Permitted Uses
Statista This link opens in a new window
- Contains more than 1 million statistics on over 80,000 topics.
- Contains Statista dossiers and industry reports for 170 industries and 150 countries.
- Includes market forecasts, as well as market, industry and country outlooks and insights.
Trade Journals
You can identify relevant trade journals using the following websites:
- //www.tradepub.com/[U.S.]
- //magazinescanada.ca/member-directory/ [Canadian]
Some trade journals may restrict access to their online content to subscribers. Most business researchers will rely on the access provided by Library databases. Examples of these are listed below:
ProQuest One Business This link opens in a new window
- Find scholarly journals, books, trade publications, dissertations, working papers, company, industry and market research reports, newspapers, business cases, ebooks, streaming video, and other sources relevant to research in business and economics.
- Includes the ABI/Inform Collection, J. P. Morgan Research, the Entrepreneurship Database, the Business Video Database, the Accounting, Tax & Banking Collection, the Asian & European Business Collection, and the Business Market Research Collection. More Information.
- Permitted Uses
Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
- All disciplines of business
- Find scholarly business journals, trade journals and business magazines
- Includes company profiles, industry reports, market research reports, country economic reports
- Permitted Uses
Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database This link opens in a new window
- Interdisciplinary
- Find scholarly journal articles, magazines and newspapers published in Canada
- Permitted Uses
CPI.Q (Canadian Periodicals) This link opens in a new window
- Interdisciplinary
- Find scholarly journal articles, magazines and newspapers published in Canada
- Coverage: 1988-current ; full text articles available from 1995 to the present.
- Permitted Uses
Factiva This link opens in a new window
- A current international news database from Dow Jones which provides access to premium content from 200 countries, in 28 languages.
- Users have access to a wide range of information from newspapers, newswires, industry publications, websites, company reports, and more.
- Permitted Uses
Newspapers
- This category includes daily newspapers (local, regional, or national in focus), news magazines, and general business news sources.
- Local newspapers typically report on events in the local area, and focus on locally-based organizations and niche industries (e.g., the Niagara wine industry or tourism in Niagara Falls).
- Many newspapers have pay walls on their websites, which limits the number of "free" articles which nonsubscribers may access. Most libraries provide access to news content via their licensed resources (typically news databases).
- Some key sources appear below:
Omni Newspaper Search This link opens in a new window
- Search current and historical newspaper coverage.
Canadian Newsstream This link opens in a new window
- Full text of over 400 Canadian news sources.
- Most titles are updated daily, and some date as far back as the late 1970s.
- Permitted Uses
-
Factiva This link opens in a new window
- A current international news database from Dow Jones which provides access to premium content from 200 countries, in 28 languages.
- Users have access to a wide range of information from newspapers, newswires, industry publications, websites, company reports, and more.
- Permitted Uses
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
- International news, business, and legal sources
- Includes Company Dossier module for detailed company information and Shepard's Citations for federal and state court cases back to 1789
- Permitted Uses
Not for Profit / Charitable Sector
The following sources focus on the Canadian non-profit and/or charitable sector and include sector profiles, statistical data, and specialized directories.
Niagara Knowledge Exchange
Niagara Knowledge Exchange, hosted by Niagara Connects, is a place for people to access and exchange news and ideas on Niagara-focused planning, collaboration, learning, innovation and community action.
Scholarly Journals Focused on the Nonprofit Sector