Getting Started with Industry Research
Sally Armstrong
Mature Industry vs. Emerging Industry
When starting your industry research you want to first understand whether you are looking at a mature industry or an emerging industry. A mature industry tends to have larger, more established, and profitable companies that are at the later stage of the industry lifecycle. Food and agriculture, mining and natural resources extraction, and financial services are some examples of mature industries. Mature industries are significantly important to the economy which means a large amount of secondary research is available on them.
Alternatively, an emerging industry tends to consist of a fewer number of companies and is often centred around new technology. Artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality, and blockchain are some examples of emerging industries. An emerging industry often grows to overtake and replace older technology, for example, when Uber grew to overtake the taxi industry. Unlike mature industries, emerging industries are newly formed which means there is a smaller amount of secondary research available on them. This can sometimes make it difficult to find detailed or exact information on specific topics. In this situation, it can be helpful to find a similar but more established industry to help determine industry trends, growth, barriers to entry, and more. For example, it is likely that Uber relied on secondary research on the taxi industry when it first emerged on the market. They were bringing a new concept to the industry and likely relied upon existing secondary research from the mature taxi industry. In other words, do not get discouraged if you are having trouble finding information on your emerging industry.
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Take a moment to consider the mature industries that your new technology will potentially disrupt and overtake. This will likely lead you to valuable information on the environment you plan to grow and establish your own business.
Industry Classification Codes
You should be aware that most mature U.S. and Canadian industries are classified into different classification systems. The North American Classification System (NAICS) was released in 1998 in a partnership between Canada, Mexico, and the United States. It takes into account the statistical needs of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by providing a consistent way to collect, organize, code and publish industry data.
NAICS (pronounced “nakes” and rhymes with “snakes”) replaced the first Canadian Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system which was established in 1948. You should be aware that some business databases and websites still use SIC codes to classify their industry information but NAICS is the more commonly used industry classification system.
The most recent revision to NAICS was released in 2017 with the next revision scheduled for 2022. However, updated versions are released periodically to meet urgent classification needs. For e