LibGuides: Engineering and Public Policy: 19-486/19-686/90-869 Special Topics: New Technology Commercialization: Public Policy Strategies: Home

This guide

will help you understand the emerging energy policies

National Directories

Leadership Connect (formerly Leadership Library) This link opens in a new window
Finds executives in corporations and financial institutions, government, associations, non-profits, law firms, judicial and foreign representatives, and the media.

U.S. Government reports

Agencies of the federal government often support entrepreneurial efforts, and produce market-oriented reports, in their areas. Do a google search ending in "site:.gov" to limit to governmental sources. Examples:

U.S. DOE - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Solar Energy Technologies Program
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,
Electric Power Market
Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center
Federal and State incentives
Defense Industry Daily
Defense program acquisition news, budget data, market briefings

Industry overviews

Find industry leaders, statistics, current status, future trends, histories and profiles here.

Alternative Energy eTrack - now called GlobalData Power This link opens in a new window
Covers the alternate/renewable energy industries : wind, hydro, solar, ocean, geothermal, biofuels, fuel cells, nuclear, carbon trading, etc. Includes news, deals, analysis, forecasts, and more. NOTE: Click on the "If you have IP access click here" link.
Frost & Sullivan This link opens in a new window
Market reports and analysis on technology aspects of industries. Industries include: aerospace & defense, automotive, chemicals, consumer products, electronics, healthcare, and more. Reports are now available to download as PDFs.
CB Insights This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive global database of private companies and investors activities. Contains advanced searches for private companies, investors, and deals information (especially private equity and venture capital). Also great for news on emerging markets. An excellent resource for startups and entrepreneurship research. (NOTE: You must create an account using your CMU email).
BCC Research This link opens in a new window
Market research reports for industries, specializing in advanced materials, biotechnology, chemicals, energy, healthcare, sensors, plastics, nanotechnology, and other emerging technologies - but with traditional industries as well.
Gartner Core Research This link opens in a new window
Analysis and forecasting for information technology products and services. (Note: Dataquest reports are not in our subscription).
Statista This link opens in a new window
Market, industry, company, and demographic statistics, data-centered reports and dossiers, fully downloadable, various formats, international, easy-to-use.

Includes access to the Consumer Insights (formerly Global Consumer Survey, a resource that offers global consumption and media usage data of consumers. A great market research tool for consumer behavior and interactions with brands. Select the Insights > Explore Consumer Insights within Statista.
IBISWorld This link opens in a new window
Industry market research reports with analysis, data, conditions, segmentation, market share, primary companies, and outlook in the US, UK, China, US States, and globally.

Industry Wizard Tool: Located under "Expert Tools" allows users to quickly search, query, and save industry ratios, data, and statistics from all IBISWorld reports for benchmarking purposes, strategies, etc. Data is downloadable.

Industry Statistics from the Census Bureau
link to the US Census programs that offer industry statistics
More in the INDUSTRIES research guide.
i3 database (trial database)
The database provides information on companies in the energy space. It covers 24,000+ companies' technology, revenue, and track record. The company provides a free 3-day trial. To request the trial: 1. Go to the company's website https://i3connect.com. 2. Click "For Investors & Service Providers". 3. Fill your information and click "Get started". 4. The trial will be sent as a link in an email to the address you provided. Please send your thoughts of the database to Julie Chen (xiaojuc@andrew.cmu.edu)

News sources on markets, industries

Reports on niche or new industries often appear in trade journals - found in these databases. Use search terms such as “market,” “forecast,” “trends,” “overview,” etc. along with your own market identifier, i.e. “transceiver". Example: "A Low-Power Miniaturized 315 MHz Transceiver Module for Biosignal Transmission."

Business Source Premier This link opens in a new window
Academic and industry periodicals in all business disciplines, including the Harvard Business Review; also industry, company, and country reports.
ProQuest This link opens in a new window
Mega-database that searches many interdisciplinary databases together - journals, newspapers, magazines; also industry reports.
LexisNexis Academic (now Nexis Uni) This link opens in a new window
International database: newspapers, journals, wire services, newsletters, reports, blogs, case law, government documents, broadcasts, and more. Update: LexisNexis Academic has been replaced with Nexis Uni.
Engineering Village This link opens in a new window
Articles in communications, computer science, engineering, environmental science, IT, operations research, physics and robotics.

MANUFACTURERS & SUPPLIERS

ThomasNet (formerly Thomas Register)
Provides access to the products and services of over 650,000 industrial companies. Can be searched by product category, keyword, brand name, or company name.

1. Select "Supplier Discovery"
2. Type in your product to get a list of suppliers

Demographics and characteristics of consumer markets

US Census Data
voluminous demographic data on the U.S. from national to zip code level.

Statistical Abstract of the United States This link opens in a new window
Easy to find statistics on all topics, primarily US. Database Guide

Market analysis

Assessing your market means finding the potential revenue for a product or service - and there are many ways to do this, including primary research (interviews, surveys) and secondary research (reports, statistics, articles.)

We can help with the secondary research:

Locate an Industry Overview
Find analysis in articles in the News Sources box on this page (i.e. use "market" and "size" with your keywords)
Research your customer base in the Demographics box
Use government statistics such as - the Annual Survey of Manufacturers Value of Products Shipments, which covers several thousand individual products.