NBS 'Factual' v. 'Empirical' industry sector market profiles

A subjective summary of the relative merits of the two approaches to researching complex industry sectors is given in the table below to assist decision-making when considering research objectives.

It should be emphasized that the routes are not mutually exclusive. Where appropriate, a 'Factual' industrial sector report can be supported by additional 'empirical' research and vice-versa.

Research objective	Type of Industry Sector Profile
Research objective	'Factual' or quantitative data	'Empirical' or qualitative data
Company data	V. Poor	Good
Demographic data and trends	Good	Fair
Market share by business name	V. Poor (1)	Good
Identification of trading partners (countries) by product value or volume	V. Good	Poor
Identification of trading partners (Businesses)	V. Poor (1)	Good
Market share by detailed business sector	Good	Poor
National and/or Sector production data	V. Good	Fair(2)
National and/or sector trade data	V. Good	Poor(2)
National and/or sector consumption or balance of trade data and trends	V. Good	Poor(2)
Industrial and trade classifications defined	V. Good	None
Numerical accuracy	Good	Fair(2)
Use a lobbying tool	V. good	Fair
Sector-related information (discussion)	None	Good
Exposure of trade anomalies	Fair	V. Poor
Exposure of contract values	Poor(1)	V. Poor
Year-on year repeatability	V. good	Fair

'Factual' v. 'Empirical' industry sector profiles

Last modified: April 29, 2005