Professional associations can be very helpful in learning more about an industry or profession. Although full access is often reserved for paid members, associations often provide information to the public in the form of summary reports and press releases.
A good way to search for industry associations is to utilize Google. You might want to format your search so that it includes the county, industry name and the keyword "association."
For example: "China and Apparel and Association."
A good way to see who your competitors are in a given market is to take a look at active and pending applications for trademarks in the country of interest. Most countries provide free databases of applications and registered trademarks. These trademarks have to be registered utilizing the International Listing of Goods and Services. Each trademark has to be approved for the class of goods and services that it will be advertising.
To understand a company and its competitors, you need to understand the industry of which it is a part, even if you are looking for information about a niche industry.
Finding information about an industry includes the following steps:
Potential problems:
FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Database) is the database of The Research Division of the Federal Reserve bank and is updated regularly. Economic and financial literature concentrated in the areas of macroeconomics, international and regional economics, money, and banking, is monitored by the division. Changing economic trends, economic policy, and relevant issues are addressed and updates are made to the database regularly.
Data.gov has free, publicly available data that is accessible by anyone and can be used without restriction. The site contains information about resources across the government.
FCSM the replacement for FedStats. It has extensive official statistical information produced by the Federal Government. Over 100 government agencies trend information and submit data on economic trends, crime, education, health care, energy use, etc.
UNdata is an aggregate database from the United Nations Statistical Division. Country profiles and glossaries with themes on Agriculture, Crime, Education, Employment, Energy, Environment, Health, HIV/AIDS, Human Development, Industry, Information and Communication Technology, National Accounts, Population, Refugees, Tourism, Trade, as well as the Millennium Development Goals indicators are provided in over 60 milllion data points.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce provides national, international, regional, and industry economic accounts data that is relevant, accurate, and current.
NBER conducts economic research and disseminates research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals. Focal points of NBER research include developing new statistical measurements, estimating quantitative models of economic behavior, and analyzing the effects of public policies.
The World Bank Data Catalog lists available World Bank datasets, pre-formatted tables, reports, and other resources.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor collects, analyses, and disseminates labor market and economic information such inflation & prices, employment, unemployment, employment projections, pay & benefits, spending, productivity, occupational requirements, regional resources, etc.
ICPSR is an international consortium of over 750 academic institutions, research organizations, foundations, and U.S. statistical agencies. Their data archive has more than 250,000 files in 21 specialized collections of specific topics such education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism and others.
The Census Bureau offers a wide variety of data resources, largely microdata, for applied social science research.
The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program produces publications based on data submitted by over 18,000 law enforcement agencies that is made available to the public.
Economagic compiled a list of dataset links from various government and independent sources.