Research Guides: BUAD 444: Industry Research: Home

BUAD 444: Small Business Management

This guide is designed to support students in BUAD 444: Small Business Management as they complete their course projects. In this class, student teams often work with a local small business to develop a business or strategic plan.

A common first step in developing a business plan is industry research. This guide will help you:

Find industry reports, trends, and forecasts
Use NAICS and SIC codes to identify industries and competitors
Locate company information and market data
Explore government and economic sources for additional insights

Use this page and the tabs on the left to navigate to the most useful resources for your project.

Key Databases for Industry Research

Not sure where to start? These are some of the most useful databases for BUAD 444 projects:

IBISWorld Industry Reports
U.S. industry reports, market size, competitors, and growth forecasts

All reports in this collection are updated between 1 and 4 times a year.
Mergent Intellect
Company data and First Research industry reports

Residential Search: Find address and other contact information on individuals.
Demographics Search: Demographic reports on a geographic area of your choice. Data includes statistics on the area's population, including age, race, gender, income and more.
Business Source Premier
Articles and MarketLine industry/company profiles with SWOTs
Passport
Global industry and market data

After exploring these, visit the Industry and Company Research page for more databases and tools.

Hand-drawn infographic with the words “Small Business” under a rainbow. Surrounding notes include: social media ecosystem, media kit/rate card, listening to what people want, authenticity, path to engagement (look, listen, join, lead), service, matching products to the best fit, and examples like “Will it blend?” The drawing emphasizes storytelling, engagement, and authenticity in small business.

"Social Media Camp 2009 - Using Social Media for Small Business" by Dean Meyers is licensed under CC BY 2.0 .

Possible Research Steps

1. Start with industry research - Use databases such as IBISWorld, Passport, or Gale Business Insights to get an overview of your industry.

Business Source Premier
Full-text for thousands of journals, covering all disciplines of business. (Coverage: Varies according to journal, some back to 1922.)
Gale Business Insights
Full-text company and industry intelligence on global corporations.

Searches can be done on company name or ticker symbol, industry code/description (SIC or NAICS), subjects in article, geographic search, or personal name. Searches can be limited by journal name, date range, or content area.
IBISWorld Industry Reports
U.S. industry market research and industry risk ratings. Contains trends, statistics and analysis on market size, market share of competitors, and industry growth rates. Includes emerging industry trends as well as recent production performance.

All reports in this collection are updated between 1 and 4 times a year.
Passport
You must be a current UD student, faculty, or staff member to use this database. A valid UDNetID and password are required.
A global market research database providing statistics, analysis, reports, surveys and breaking news on industries, countries and consumers.

2. Research competitors - Use databases like Mergent Intellect, Reference Solutions, or Nexis Uni to identify and compare businesses.

Mergent Intellect
Provides access to private and public U.S and international business data, industry news, facts and figures, executive contact information, and industry profiles.

Residential Search: Find address and other contact information on individuals.
Demographics Search: Demographic reports on a geographic area of your choice. Data includes statistics on the area's population, including age, race, gender, income and more.
Reference Solutions
A source for business and residential data in the United States.
Nexis Uni
Full-text information from news, business, and legal sources, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790. Though not required, you have the option to create a personal account that will give you access to special features such as alerts, saved searches, folders, history, annotations and more.

Vendor Lyrasis. Publisher LexisNexis.

3. Add demographic and market data - Use Census data or databases like Statista to understand your customers.

Statista
Data on media, business, finance, politics, and a wide variety of other areas of interest and markets.
Data USA
Data USA is a visualization engine for shared U.S. government data from multiple U.S. sources. Allows users to browse and filter information and create visualizations to enhance their understanding of national, regional, and local issues.

Explore Census Data

4. Find supporting articles & news - Use databases like Business Source Premier or ABI/INFORM for trends, SWOT analyses, and strategy insights.

Business Source Premier
Full-text for thousands of journals, covering all disciplines of business. (Coverage: Varies according to journal, some back to 1922.)
ABI/INFORM
Full text of business and financial journals, including essential scholarly journals and the most important trade journals.

Key Research Terms

New to research and using library resources?

Here are some basics that will help you get started.

Library Catalog - The online search tool for books, ebooks, and other materials the library owns. Think of it like Google, but just for the library’s collection. It searches nearly everything the library has access to.
- Example: DELCAT
Database - An online collection of information you can search. Think of it like a massive Google Drive with many folders and files.
- Example: Business Source Premier, where you can find articles, reports, and case studies about companies and industries.
Journal - A publication that comes out regularly, like a magazine, but for research or professional news. Think of it like one folder in Google Drive with many files inside.
- Examples: Harvard Business Review (professional/trade), Journal of Marketing (scholarly).
Article - A single piece of writing published in a journal, magazine, or newspaper. Think of it like a single Google Doc or Sheet in a folder.
- Example: An article in Harvard Business Review about business strategies.
Keyword - The main word or phrase you use when searching. Think of it like a hashtag that helps you find what you’re looking for.
- Examples: “Starbucks” (one word keyword), “fast food industry” (keyword phrase).
Citation - The details that tell you where an article or report came from (author, title, journal name, date, etc.). Essentially, the academic version of a credit line.
- Guide to citing sources