The Resource Guide is created by Grace Liu and Gabriella Velazquez
Updated on Janurary 8, 2022
This Guide introduces resources for you to learn your industry and competitors.
The courses selected can be audited for free and you can find the audit instructions for Coursera and Edx courses.
Business Intelligence and Competitive Analysis (Rutgers the State University of New Jersey)
In this course, you will gain the knowledge and skills to combine data, analytics models and visualization tools for effective and efficient competitive intelligence. Upon completion of the course, you should be able to conduct competitive intelligence on companies of your choice as a management consultant
Industry Analysis (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
From the Course Entrepreneurship I: Laying the Foundation
Dynamic Industry Analysis (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
From the Course Business Strategy.
Analyzing Industry Structure (University of Virginia)
From the course Foundations of Business Strategy
Omnichannel Retail Strategy Specialization
You'll also learn the fundamentals of human capital management, with a focus on the retail industry, and do a deep dive into some of the practices that drive organizational success. Finally, you will review supply chain fundamentals, concentrating on the impact that the digital transformation has had on the retail industry. In utilizing meaningful retail analytics, you will learn how to generate value for retailers and their supply chains.
The Science and Business of Biotechnology
This course focuses on early-stage biotechnology companies, with particular emphasis on understanding the underlying science, technology, and disease targets—together with the application of novel business structures and financing methods—to facilitate drug discovery, clinical development, and greater patient access to new therapies.
The Business of HealthCare Specialization
Advance your career in healthcare management. Develop business skills and understand the American healthcare system to improve cost and quality.
Launch your career in the music business
This XSeries will give you the knowledge, both theoretical and practical, to launch your career in the music business as an artist, manager, agent, and/or producer. Authored by industry experts, this XSeries will allow you to learn music industry essentials at your own pace.
This course provides an engaging and methodical insight into the past and present cultural and commercial music industry developments, directions, and trends. It will equip the students with the knowledge and skills necessary to appreciate, understand and more productively participate in today’s music industry field.
Introduction to Hospitality and Tourism Industry
This MOOC is for individuals who are desirous of discovering the career opportunities and adventures available to and experienced by the Hospitality/Tourism industry professional person.
Develop foundational skills and knowledge focused on specific areas of the sport business industry.
Fintech: The Future of Finance
After the completion of this certificate program, you will be an expert in the intersection of financial and technology.
The Construction Industry: The Way Forward
This final course in the specialization provides an introduction on types of the construction projects as well as the main concern of the productivity challenge in the construction industry.
The objective of this course is twofold: first, we will focus on contemporary challenges that managers and entrepreneurs in food and beverage businesses should be able to face; and second, we will provide models and tools to design and implement appropriate courses of action to satisfy customers and build an advantage over the competition.
Emerging Food Brands Lab (Davis Wright Tremaine LLP)
Competition is for Losers with Peter Thiel (Stanford Online)
Peter Thiel, founder of Paypal and Palantir, discusses business strategy and monopoly theory in "Competition is For Losers".
The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy (Harvard Business School)
An Interview with Michael E. Porter, Professor, Harvard University. Porter's five competitive forces is the basis for much of modern business strategy. Understand the framework and how to put it into practice.
Rita Gunther McGrath: The End of Competitive Advantages
Rita Gunther McGrath, professor at Columbia Business School, recognizes and embraces the fact that the current business climate is unstable, less certain, and more ambiguous, and it is crucial that innovation and growth strategy frameworks adapt. Tune into this podcast to hear Saul Kaplan and Rita Gunther McGrath break down the change of roles within organizations, the end of sustainable competitive advantages, the rise of global competition and its effect on barriers to entry, and much more.
Startup Success Series: How to Think About Competitors (LaunchVic)
When analyzing the competitive landscape of the space your startup occupies, it's important to be aware of your competitors but focused on yourself. You can't control what your competition does, but you can control your movement, growth and vision by making competitive analysis-informed decisions and focusing on what makes your idea or solution unique. This webinar features tech entrepreneur and investor Eddie Sheehy, to speak with Founder of The Dirt Company Frankie Layton to provide advice for high-performing founders on approaches to thinking about competition.
How to Conduct and Prepare a Competitive Analysis (Edward Lowe Foundation)
An in-depth investigation and analysis of your competition is one of the most important components of a comprehensive market analysis. A competitive analysis allows you to assess your competitor's strengths and weaknesses in your marketplace and implement effective strategies to improve your competitive advantage. This Business Builder will take you through a step-by-step process of competitive analysis, helping you to identify your competition, determine and weigh their attributes, assess their strengths and weaknesses, and uncover their objectives and strategies in your market segment.
How to Start a Software Company (Growthink)
If you’re looking to start a software Company, you’ve come to the right place since we’re going to show you exactly how to do it. We’ll start with key software publishing industry fundamentals like how big the market is, what the key segments are, and how revenues and profits are generated. Then we’ll discuss keys to not only starting a software company, but succeeding in it!
Comprehensive guide to analyze your competitor's marketing strategy (Startuptalky)
Do you find other people already doing well in every niche marketing strategies that pops up in your mind? You must have heard that there is a lot of competition in the field when you thought of starting up with your own business in that field. This is the time you need to realize that, you need to build up a new skill to land your startup in success.
Conducting Сompetitive Pricing Analysis for Competitive Pricing Strategy (Competera.net)
Competitive pricing analysis is your key to increase revenue and stay ahead of the competition. Learn how to choose the right tools and reach the next level of pricing.
The following subscribed databases would allow you to do in-depth research on industry and competitors, check if they are available at the academic or public libraries near you:
The collection may also be included in the Mergent Archive subscription. First Research provides industry profiles covering over 1000 industry segments. Updated on a monthly basis First Research industry profiles contain critical analysis, statistics and forecasts to help you engage key prospects, coach key clients, and deepen customer relationships.
IBISWorld provides industry research reports and profiles for over 700 United States industries. Each report provides key statistics, market characteristics and segmentation, industry conditions, leading competitors, industry performance analysis and future outlook.
Offers industry and market analyses on emerging high-technology and industrial markets in 50 countries. Categories include: Aerospace and Defense, Automotive and Transportation, Chemicals, Materials, Food; Electronics and Security, Energy and Power Systems, Environment and Building Technologies, Healthcare and Medical Devices, Measurement and Instrumentation, Information and Communication Technologies, and Industrial Automation and Process Control.
BCC Research
Reports on major economic, scientific, and technological developments in industrial, pharmaceutical, and high technology worldwide.
Passport
Market research reports on consumer products and industries worldwide from Euromonitor International.
TECHNAVIO
Reports on a variety of global industries including technology, healthcare, retail, energy, aerospace, consumer goods and automotive.
Use Bizminer to find industry financial ratios, failure rates of businesses, local industry market research statistics, competitive market analysis, and more by US location (state, city, county, zip, or custom location). A great resource when developing business plans, or for any sort of entrepreneurship initiatives where you need to measure peer performance in an industry
U.S. consumer market studies and primary and secondary data analysis for topics including food, beverage, apparel, beauty, retail, and travel. Demographic-specific reports are also available.
Market research reports cover business-t- business, healthcare, and consumer markets.
Statista is a searchable database of statistics, studies, dossiers, infographics, and more.
Business Source Complete
The database provides full-text journals, books, case studies, company profiles, SWOT analysis, and industry, economic & market reports. Industry report includes Barnes reports and MarketLine reports.
The Census Business Builder is a suite of services that provides selected data at the county and city level tailored to people looking to start a small business; includes socioeconomic and demographic data, key industry statistics, and even consumer spending data!
Either search the 2017 NAICS code or browse the table of contents to find the NAICS code. The NAICS code can help you identify specific industries of your company.
Resources for Canadian businesses. Create a report to view financial performance data by industry. Financial Performance Data provides access to more than 1000 industries across Canada, including more than 30 performance benchmarks to help small businesses determine how they measure up to their competitors.
Select USA (The International Trade Administration)
Explore the data, trends, and federal resources behind these thriving U.S. industries
Doing Industry Research (Library of Congress)
Company and Industry Research (RUSA’s Business and Reference Services Section)
The following directory databases would allow you to identify competitors in the industry, check if they are available at the academic or public libraries near you:
Directory information for publicly and privately owned companies in the United States and Canada, as well as information about individual consumers in both countries. It can be used for sales leads, mailing lists, market research, employment opportunities, etc.
Database including 30 million business & executive profiles & 240 million residents. It can be used for sales leads, mailing lists, market research, employment opportunities, etc.
This is a good source for some basic company information but they do charge for most of what they have including the products that they sell. Most companies have D&B reports (generally for credit information). Dun & Bradstreet is a publisher that often actively seeks information from private firms by directly calling the company. Much of the information in a D&B report is voluntary so the quantity of information will likely vary from company to company.
PrivCo is a source for business and financial data on major privately-held companies, including family owned, private equity owned, venture backed, and international unlisted companies.
Data for company and industry research, both historical and current. Includes data on global publicly-traded companies, as well as domestic and international private companies.
(Mergent, Inc.)
Find public companies’ SEC filings - including their annual reports 10K.
Find suppliers with a directory of hundreds of thousands of products and services in the U.S. and Canada.
Click the link to find a Worldcat book record; enter a zipcode to check which library nearby has the book you can borrow. When the record is not available, a link to Amazon is provided.
Bland, David J, Alexander Osterwalder, Alan Smith, and Trish Papadakos. Testing Business Ideas. 2020. Print.
Fleisher, Craig S, and Babette E. Bensoussan. Business and Competitive Analysis: Effective Application of New and Classic Methods. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2015. Print.
Greenwald, Bruce C. N, and Judd Kahn. Competition Demystified: A Radically Simplified Approach to Business Strategy. New York: Portfolio, 2005. Print.
Michael, James. Product Competitive Intelligence. Zelfin LLC, 2019.
Porter, Michael E. Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors. New York: Free Press, 2004. Print.
Cannon, Leah. How to Start a Life Science Company: A Comprehensive Guide for First-Time Entrepreneurs. 2017. Print.
Cornwell, David. Software Company: Advice on How to Start, Grow and Exit a Software Company. 2020. Print.
Lah, Thomas and J.B. Wood. Technology-as-a-service Playbook: How to Grow a Profitable Subscription Business. Point B Inc, 2016. Print.
Markides, Constantinos C, and Paul A. Geroski. Fast Second: How Smart Companies Bypass Radical Innovation to Enter and Dominate New Markets. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005. Print.
Parker, Geoffrey, Alstyne M. Van, and Sangeet P. Choudary. Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy and How to Make Them Work for You. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2017. Print.
Saha, Sourish, Samantha Holvey, Anandhi Narasimhan, Anales Debhaumik, Manisha Brahmachary, and Mayukh Samanta. How to Start a Biotech Company. 2019. Print.
Read More Books on This Topic.
Dr. Michael Porter is an economist, researcher, author, advisor, speaker, and teacher. Throughout his career at Harvard Business School, he has brought economic theory and strategy concepts to bear on many of the most challenging problems facing corporations, economies, and societies, including market competition and company strategy, economic development, the environment, and health care.
Dr. Rita McGrath is a globally recognized expert on innovation and growth strategies with an emphasis on corporate entrepreneurship. She received the #1 achievement award in Strategy from the prestigious management rankings group Thinkers50 and is consistently ranked in the Top10.
SCORE mentors offer industry-related consultation via video, email, phone, or in-person.
Business Librarians at either public libraries or academic libraries would be able to help you find the information sources for specific industry/market research with the resources available to them. Majority of libraries offer free consultation services to the general public often without geographic restrictions and libraries often subscribe to different sources, so you can check multiple libraries around you and if it is worthwhile, plan a trip to the Library of Congress.