Business Research for Biomedical Innovation Scholars

What is NAICS?

"The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is the standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy."

"NAICS was developed under the auspices of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and adopted in 1997 to replace the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. It was developed jointly by the U.S. Economic Classification Policy Committee (ECPC), Statistics Canada, and Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia, to allow for a high level of comparability in business statistics among the North American countries."  (U.S. Census Bureau)

NAICS codes are numerical codes that appear in many different places and are a standard way to refer to a particular industry.  They are supported in Business Source Premier and Mergent Intellect, for example.

So, the easiest way to find a relevant NAICS code is to do a keyword search in a database, open a record for a promising article and check out the NAICS codes listed there.

Going back to our Business Source Premier record for the razor article, NAICS codes would appear as follows.  Notice more than one NAICS code can be assigned.

If you already know the NAICS code for your industry, you can type the code into the search box and then select NAICS in the drop down box to the right.

OR

You can search Mergent Intellect for a company that you know is involved in your industry and check the NAICS codes listed there.  Here is an example for the Gillette company: