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LIBRARY RESEARCH
BA 612 Managing Organization

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS

Industry Classification Systems: SIC and NAICS

It is often necessary to identify the proper numeric classification code when researching an industry. To find the corresponding codes, use the following sources:

Standard Industrial Classification Manual (SIC) (1987= latest edition)
DOCS REF HF 1042 .A55 or DOCS-REF HF 1042 .U622 [On Business Index Table]

The four-digit Standard Industrial Classification Code is used to gather and analyze information on U.S. businesses. The first two digits describe the general industry. The third and fourth digits describe the specific activity. Users should note that effective with the 1997 Economic Census, the SIC has been replaced by the North American Industrial Classification.

1987
SIC
NameClassification Level
D Manufacturing Division (Letter designation)
20 Food and Kindred Products Major Group
205 Bakery Products Industry Group
2052 Cookies and Crackers Industry

Search SIC on the Web:

North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)
DOCS REF HF 1041.5 .N674 1997 [On Business Index Table]

NAICS uses a six-digit coding system to identify particular industries and their placement in this hierarchical structure of the classification system. The first two digits of code designate the sector, the third designates the subsector, the fourth digit designates the industry group, the fifth digit designates the NAICS industry, and sixth digit designates the U.S. detail industry. For example:

2002
NAICS
NameClassification Level
31-33 Manufacturing Sector
316 Leather and Allied Product Manufacturing Subsector
3162 Footwear Manufacturing Industry Group
31621 Footwear Manufacturing Industry
316211 Rubber and Plastics Footwear Manufacturing
(e.g. Athletic shoes, plastics/rubber or plastics/rubber
soled fabric upper manufacturing)
U.S. Detail Industry

Users should note that effective with the 1997 Economic Census, the NACIS is replacing the SIC system. However, it has not yet come into wide use among commercial providers of business data. Consult the U.S. Bureau of Census NAICS site for a list of NAICS codes, tables showing correspondence between NAICS and the SIC system, and other information on how NAICS differs from the SIC System.

Search NAICS on the Web:

Industry Norms and Ratios

The following reference sources provide a "typical" balance sheet and income statement for a company in each industry with ratios. Usually arranged by SIC. (Located on Business Index Tables.)

  • Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios
    DOCS REF HF5681.R25 T68 2001
  • Annual Statement Studies. Robert Morris Associates
    DOCS REF HF 5681 .B2 R6
  • Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios
    DOCS REF HF 5681 .R25 I53 >

Industry Surveys / Overviews

Industry overviews or industry surveys include information on product analysis. The library has the following reference sources.

  • Encyclopedia of American Industries
    DOCS REF HC 102.E53 2001 [On Business Index Table]
    Brief (1-10 pages) descriptions of industry groups, by SIC, with lists of recent articles.

  • Encyclopedia of Emerging Industries
    DOCS REF HD 2324 .E528 [On Business Index Table]
    Details the inception, emergence, and current status of 108 newly flourishing U.S. industries and industry segments.

  • Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage
    Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage brings together a dozen financial and investment publications that provide information for corporate research and for industry, competitive, and investment analysis. Among the publications included are such familiar titles as S&P's Corporation Records, Industry Surveys, Stock Reports, Stock Guide, Bond Guide, Dividend Record, Earnings Guide, Mutual Fund Reports, and the Outlook. Also included are S&P's Register of Corporations, Directors, and Executives and the Security Dealers Directory.

COMPANY ANALYSIS

Company Information / History

Databases

  • Directory of Corporate Affiliations
      The Directory of Corporate Affiliations covers U.S. and non-U.S. public and private companies, their parents, affiliates, subsidiaries and divisions. Data includes leadership, financial and ownership information for each company.
  • Lexis-Nexis Academic
      Provides comprehensive coverage of current news, business and company information, government and legal information, and more.
  • ReferenceUSA Contains directory data for over 12 million US firms and business establishments of all sizes.
  • Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage

Reference Source

  • International Directory of Company Histories
    DOCS REF HD 2721 .I63
    -- A valuable source to find company information and histories.

Company's home page

    Search the company's home page by typing the company's name plus .com. For example: nike.com. You can also use a web search engine such as Yahoo to find a company's home page.

Useful Web Sites

Company Rankings

  • Business Rankings Annual
    DOCS REF HG 4050 .B88 [On Business Index Table]
  • D&B Business Rankings
    DOCS REF HG 4057 .A237 [On Business Index Table]
  • Web100: Big Business on the Web -- Ranks the largest American and international companies by revenues.

Company Financial Information

Databases

Company's Web Site

Company financial information is published section such as

    Investors
    Investor Information
    Investor Relations
    Public Relations

You can find company annual reports and Proxy statements, SEC filings, financial history.

Web Resources

Historical Collection of Annual Reports

    SEC File (formerly the Q-DATA Service)
    MICROFICHE (Microforms collection) -- This is the historical collection of:

    1. Annual reports for companies on the New York and American Stock Exchanges plus all companies that are traded as over-the-counter (NASDAQ).
    2. 10-K reports for companies on the N.Y. and American Stock Exchanges.
    3. Proxy statements for companies on the N.Y. and American Stock Exchanges.

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COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

**To find information on Oregon business rankings, use

Oregon Business
HF 5001 .B873 (Located in Special Collections)
This magazine provides annual rankings on Oregon's public companies, statistics on employment in addition to information on Oregon businesses.

CONSUMER ANALYSIS

Demographics / Lifestyles

The following reference sources are useful for finding demographic information and lifestyles.

  • Best Customers: Demographics of Consumer Demand
    DOCS REF HC 79 .C6 R87 2001
    Reveals who the best and biggest customers are for hundreds of products and analyzes spending patterns by the demographic characteristics.

  • Lifestyle Market Analyst
    DOCS REF HF 5415.33 .U6 .L54 [On Business Index Table]
    Market profiles of major designated market areas, including information about participation in outdoor activities and sport, fitness and health.

Databases / Web Sites

  • ERsys.com -- Provides demographic information on over 2600 US cities. Open the "Drop Down Manual" and select a state and then click "GO". Select a city on next page.

  • University Internet Reporter (Formerly Mediamark Reporter)-- Offers comprehensive data on the uses of various consumer products. The studies include demographic information on the persons surveyed, their use of consumer products, and their use of various forms of advertising, including television, radio, and print media.

  • PRIZM NE -- PRIZM NE is Claritas' newest segmentation system, which assigns every neighborhood in the U.S. to one of 67 clusters. Each cluster describes the predominant demographics and lifestyles of the people living in that neighborhood. You can also access to MicroVision Standard Segmentation System, which defines 50 lifestyle types in the U.S. Enter the 5-digit zip code in the search box and also enter the security code shown below and then click "Submit".

  • Sports Business Research Network
    This is a market research database which includes demographic information on consumers.

  • Tablebase
    Tablebase is a database comprised of tabular information. The tables provide information such as market share, market size, capacity, production, imports, exports, sales, product and brand rankings, forecasts, healthcare statistics and demographics.

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FINDING ARTICLES

  • Academic Search Premier
      Covers current news, business and company information, government and legal information.
  • Business Source Premier
      Full text from nearly 930 journals covering business, management, economics, banking, finance, accounting, etc.
  • Lexis-Nexis Academic
      Provides comprehensive coverage of current news, business and company information, government and legal information, and more.
  • Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition)
      The Wall Street Journal, the financial newspaper of record, is an indispensable source for business professionals, providing business and financial news coverage, personal and company profiles, feature reporting, special reports, and regular columns. The database provides the full-text articles from the Wall Street Journal going back to at least 1986, with some material from earlier years. It includes the entire text of written articles, but no graphs or data, such as stock prices.

Once you find the citation of an article, you need to search he library's online catalog, to find the call number of a journal or magazine. Current periodicals are on the second floor, Current Periodical Room, arranged by call numbers.

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Maintained by: Kaiping Zhang, kzhang@uoregon.edu
Last Modified: 12/28/2007