Trade and industry associations are organizations made up of businesses from specific industries or sectors. Many trade and industry associations conduct research, publish educational materials, and engage in a variety of public relations and political activities. Their websites can be sources of data and information useful for identifying major events and trends impacting domestic and international business.
A simple Google search for an industry term + "trade association" can help you find trade associations relevant to an industry.
Examples:
This platform contains full-text World Book Encyclopedia articles, primary source collections, an atlas, a citation builder, a dictionary, educator tools, government websites, interactive maps, resource guides, timelines, world newspapers, and world resources. Text is in English, French, and Spanish.
A knowledge web-portal that connects international business professionals worldwide to a wealth of information, insights, and learning resources on global business activities. Features include trade statistics, rankings of corporations by country/region, and indices for a range of factors such as Ease of Doing Business and Global Competitiveness. This platform was created by the International Business Center and the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University (IBC), and is partially funded by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI B grant (CIBE program).
This industry research database contains reports on industries in the China, Global, and U.S. markets. The U.S. content is further subdivided into: Industry Reports classified by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), Specialized Industry Reports for industries not adequately covered by NAICS, US Industry State Reports, US State Economic Profiles, US Industry iExpert Summaries, US Specialized Industry iExpert Summaries, US Business Environment Profiles, and US Business Environment State Profiles. Global industry reports are strong in the manufacturing sector. Each report contains an “at a glance” overview (including SWOT analysis), performance data, outlook data, products & markets analysis, competitive landscape analysis, lists of major companies, operating conditions, and key statistics. Statistics include financial ratios and industry averages from the Risk Management Association.
Updated daily. Provides a comprehensive, professional source of investment information and analysis on industries and companies. Full text coverage includes stock, bond, and mutual fund guides and reports; earnings and dividends reports; comprehensive company information; industry surveys for 52 major U.S. industries; and directories of companies, executives and security dealers
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) provides access to millions of informational documents filed by publicly traded companies in their Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval (EDGAR) system. This database provides automated collection, validation, indexing, acceptance, and forwarding of submissions by companies. EDGAR Resources include a list of Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Codes, used to indicate a company's type of business; a search engine to find Central Index Key (CIK) numbers assigned to filers; a Public Dissemination Service (PDS); RESTful data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that include the submissions history by filer and the XBRL data from financial statements; and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Feeds for EDGAR submissions to view, analyze, and manipulate filings.