Professional and trade associations can be very helpful in learning more about an industry or type of business. While full access to an association's content is usually reserved for paid members, they will often provide information to the public through summary reports or press releases.
Start finding industry associations with a simple web search. Be more effective by including the country, industry name, and a keyword like "association." For example, try searching for "Italy and Apparel and Association."
A useful way to identify competitors in a given market is to look at active and pending applications for trademarks in the country of interest. Most countries provide free databases of applications and registered trademarks.
If you're looking to learn about the current state of an industry, top companies found in that industry, or an industry's consumers, try:
Private and public U.S and international business data, industry news, facts and figures, executive contact information, and industry data.
Data sources for industries in countries around the world. Visit the Getting Started Guide for more information.
World Bank's compilation of data which includes education, health, economics, and more.
The author examines the causes of the U.S. stock market crash of 2008 and its relation to overpriced real estate, bad mortgages, shareholder demand for excessive profits, and the growth of toxic derivatives.
A fly-on-the-wall account of the ferocious ambition, greed, and financial one-upmanship behind the most expensive real estate in the world: the new Manhattan megatowers known as Billionaires' Row-from a staff reporter at The Wall Street Journal.
An epic account of the decades-long battle to control what has emerged as the world's most critical resource - microchip technology - with the United States and China increasingly in conflict.
Beginning with a single dealer who lands in a small Virginia town and sets about turning high school football stars into heroin overdose statistics, journalist Beth Macy endeavors to answer a grieving mother's question - why her only son died - and comes away with a harrowing story of greed and need.
The story of humanity is the story of textiles - as old as civilization itself. Textiles created empires and powered invention. They established trade routes and drew nations' borders. Since the first thread was spun, fabric has driven technology, business, politics, and culture. In The Fabric of Civilization, Virginia Postrel traces this surprising history, exposing the hidden ways textiles have made our world.
A journalist explores the homogenization of American culture and the impact of the fast food industry on modern-day health, economy, politics, popular culture, entertainment, and food production.
Wall Street Journal reporters and authors of The Club, Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg tell the riveting saga of how Formula 1 broke through in America, detailing the eclectic culture of racing obsessives, glamorous settings, gearheads, engineering geniuses, dashing racers, and bitter rivalries that have made F1 the world's fastest growing sport.
With all the bitterness and drama of the race between Ford, Dodge, and General Motors, Tractor Wars is the untold story of industry stalwarts and disruptors, inventors, and administrators racing to invent modern agriculture - a power farming revolution that would usher in a whole new world.
A groundbreaking chronicle of the birth - and death - of a pair of jeans, that exposes the fractures in our global supply chains, and our relationships to each other, ourselves, and the planet.
A front-of-the-house Kitchen Confidential from a career maître d'hotel who manned the front of the room in New York City's hottest and most in-demand restaurants.