Market research is a critical component of academic and applied research in engineering, science, management, and design. It enables researchers and students to understand industries, markets, technologies, and to identify key competitors and major companies within a given industry.
The Technion Libraries provide access to a wide range of databases and tools that support market and industry research from an academic perspective.
Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or requests.
Have an idea?
Before diving in, take a moment to define what you want to explore. Are you exploring a particular industry, a new technology, or potential competitors? Defining your focus early will make your search more efficient and meaningful.
Consider looking beyond publicly available information. Patents, for example, often contain insights about emerging technologies, design solutions, or products that haven’t yet reached the market. Identifying relevant patents can give you a competitive edge and inspire new ideas.
Getting Started
Start by defining what you want to explore: a specific industry, a new technology, or potential competitors.
Clearly outlining your objectives will help you identify the most relevant sources and focus your search effectively.
When researching technologies, consider looking for:
- Applications and usage
- Target audience
- Existing and leading technologies
- The development of the field over time
- Key researchers and inventors
- Manufacturers and suppliers
When researching competitors, consider looking for:
- Main products and services
- Customers
- legal status
- Financial data
- Business strategies and plans
- Collaborations
- Patents
- Key executives and leadership
When researching an industry, look for:
- Industry definition
- Market size and growth forecasts
- Industry structure
- Major players
- Key trends
- Investment activity
Effective market research begins with identifying the right keywords.
You can identify relevant terminology using the following tools:
- Use specialized professional dictionaries, industry glossaries, and thesauri to uncover standard terms and synonyms.
- Wikipedia and other encyclopedic sources can provide overviews and related terms.
- Online search engines, including Google and Google Scholar, reveal how terms are commonly used in the real world.
- Academic databases, such as patent databases (e.g., PatBase Express) and business intelligence platforms (e.g., PitchBook, Hoover’s), often include keyword suggestions or indexed terms that reflect professional usage.
- AI tools, including chat-based assistants, can help find alternative expressions and terminology, but always verify these suggestions against authoritative sources to ensure accuracy and relevance.
Before market research, understand the academic landscape.
Look for existing market analyses, industry and academia collaborations, policy papers, and conceptual or theoretical models. Understanding what is already known and what remains unexplored will strengthen your research design and help position your findings within a broader context.
Use folowing sources and databases:
- Scopus
- Web of Science
- Google Scholar
- PubMed (if relevant)
- Institutional repositories or Current Research Information System (CRIS)
Don’t forget to check patents. They often reveal emerging technologies and innovations not yet on the market.
Selecting appropriate information sources is essential for effective market research. Different research goals require different types of databases and materials.
- For industry analysis and market data, use market research databases such as BCC Research, which provide industry reports, technology assessments, and market forecasts.
- For company and competitor information, consult business intelligence platforms such as PitchBook, Hoover’s, and IVC for financial data, investment activity, company profiles, and deal information.
- For innovation and technological developments, use patent databases such as PatBase, which allow you to track patent activity, inventors, and emerging technologies.
- For current developments and business news, databases such as Nexis provide access to news articles, legal information, and company updates.
- Free sources are worth exploring as well: government publications, industry associations, company websites, and reputable news outlets provide valuable, up-to-date information for background research, terminology, and initial market insights.
Choosing the right combination of subscription-based and free resources will improve the quality, relevance, and efficiency of your research process.
Using industry codes can improve the accuracy of your market research. They help researchers identify industries, locate relevant companies, and retrieve industry-specific data.
Major Classification Systems
- NAICS (North American Industry Classification System)is widely used in U.S. government statistics and business databases (IBISWorld, Mergent, D&B Hoovers, government data). NAICS codes are hierarchical, moving from broad sectors to detailed industry segments.
- SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) is older U.S. classification system. Appears in financial and company database.
- International systems:
- NACE (used in the European Union)
- ISIC (United Nations international standard)
- GICS (commonly used in financial markets and investment analysis)
Library Information Sources
BCC Research provides in-depth industry reports that include market size estimates, growth forecasts, technological trends, competitive analysis, and company profiles.
Reports typically offer quantitative data alongside expert analysis, making them particularly valuable for academic research and technology assessment.
Key features include:
- Detailed market size and growth projections
- Technology-focused industry analysis
- Competitive landscape overview
- Company profiles and market share information
- Forecasts and trend analysis
PitchBook is a business intelligence database focused on private capital markets, including venture capital, private equity, startups, and emerging technologies. PitchBook provides detailed company profiles, investor information, funding rounds, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and market activity data.
It is particularly useful for identifying startups, analyzing investment trends, tracking competitors, and understanding the innovation landscape within specific industries.
Key features include:
- Company profiles (private and public companies)
- Funding and investment data
- Investor and fund profiles M&A transactions
- Industry and technology classifications
- Advanced filtering by sector, geography, deal size, growth stage, and more
PatBase Express is a patent search database designed to provide access to global patent information in a user-friendly interface.
The database includes bibliographic data, abstracts, legal status information, patent families, and citation data.
It is particularly useful for identifying technological trends, analyzing competitors’ innovation activity, and exploring emerging technologies that may not yet be reflected in academic publications or market reports.
Key features include:
- Global patent coverage
- Patent family searching
- Legal status and citation tracking
- Assignee and inventor search
- Technology-based keyword searching
Hoover’s Company Profiles provides data regarding more than 40,000 companies and their competition, financial information and details about entrepreneurs and business networks.
Nexis Uni (LexisNexis) is business database that covers data from more than 24,000 newspapers, blogs, magazines and journals from around the world. It provides detailed information regarding the finances of companies from approximately 150 global information sources, data regarding global markets and industries, and details about entrepreneurs and business networks from approximately 500 databases.
Israeli Market
IVC is a comprehensive database covering the Israeli high-tech and startup ecosystem.
It provides detailed information on technology companies, investors, venture capital funds, and investment activity in Israel.
IVC includes company profiles, funding rounds, exits, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and investor data.
Key features include:
- Profiles of Israeli startups and technology companies
- Venture capital and private equity investment data
- Information on investors, funds, and incubators
- Industry and technology classifications
- Advanced search and filtering by sector, funding stage, location, and company status
Start-Up Nation Central provides information on Israel’s innovation ecosystem, technology sectors, and company directories.
Israel Central Bureau of Statistics is the official statistics on population, economy, industry sectors, trade, and regional data.
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) is Israel’s only securities exchange, acting as the central marketplace for trading equities and bonds. TASE offers trading across a wide range of financial instruments, including stocks, corporate and government bonds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and derivatives.