Financial Services Companies

Financial institutions, such as brokerage firms and other financial consulting firms, are also in the business of producing original research. Financial firms assist investors by offering research reports presenting the financial firm’s take on an industry or company including providing market metrics. While such reports may be free to a broker’s clients, many reports can also be purchased by non-clients through financial portal websites.

Consulting Firms

Consulting firms consist of individuals who specialize in particular business areas such as by job function (e.g., human resource management), business need (e.g., strategy development) or industry (e.g., transportation). In addition to working for individual clients, consulting firms also produce reports covering their specialties that are made available to the general public. By and large the bigger the consulting firm the more valid and reliable are the reports they produce.

One group of companies to consider as a starting point is large accounting firms. Nearly all the major accounting firms now have divisions focused on management consulting. These divisions regularly make available industry reports.

Market Research Companies

Many companies engaged in market research services offer both customized research activities (i.e., produce work only for a single paying client) and commercial research (i.e., produce work that nearly anyone can buy). Commercial reports produced by reputable firms are generally

well-researched and contain extensive product/industry metrics and statistics, including forecasts and trend analysis. Often these reports are produced by a specific researcher who has been following the market/industry for many years and produces regular updates which include offering comments and insight that go beyond the numbers.

But these reports come with a high price tag. It is not uncommon to pay a large sum for a report that is only a hundred or so pages long. However, as we noted earlier, many research reports are updates of existing reports. The older reports may be available for lower cost.

The Internet has made it convenient for market research firms to sell reports, including single copies, directly through their website However, several of the leading firms do not offer an e-commerce purchase option for single research reports. Instead, these firms continue to follow a subscription model where clients are required to purchase of service agreements in order to gain access to many reports.