Business Resources: Market Research and Data
Market Research Databases
These three databases feature market research, reports, and statistics from thousands of sources. Each has coverage strengths and weaknesses, and none are comprehensive on any one area you may be researching. The KAUST Library does not pay for (very expensive) individual market research reports that are published outside of these sources. If you need assistance, please contact your librarian to help you find the types of data or research you are looking for.
- Statista This link opens in a new windowStatista contains statistical data from over 18,000 worldwide sources with over 60K topics in 20 multidisciplinary categories. Statista presents the information in graph format and offers the option of downloading the data/graphs into XLS, PPT or PNG formats for reports and presentations. All data is prepared according to academic standards with links to the original source of information.
Statista also provides an extensive selection of infographics for illustrative data visualization, along with 2500 Dossiers and industry reports containing qualitative and quantitative data. - Euromonitor PassportEuromonitor Passport is the world's leading independent provider of strategic market research. We create data and analysis on thousands of products and services around the world.
Intergovernmental (IGO) and Government Data Sources
IGO Search Engine: This is a custom Google search that only searches across intergovernmental organization websites. Use this to find an organization that might collect and publish data on your topic.
These are some of the major IGO data sources:
UN Data: https://data.un.org/
UN Comtrade: https://comtrade.un.org/
Global trade data from the United Nations
IMF Data: https://www.imf.org/en/Data
The International Monetary Fund publishes massive amounts of international economic and finance data.
World Bank's World Development Indicators: https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators
The WDI is one of the best databases for country-level social and development data in the world.
European Union Eurostat: https://ec.europa.eu/info/statistics/search-eurostat-statistics_en
The EU has published data on all subjects pertaining to issues involving the EU nations.
KSA General Authority for Statistics: https://www.stats.gov.sa/en
This is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's statistical agency.
Industry and Trade Data
There are thousands of industry associations and groups that collect and publish data related to their industry. The first step with trying to locate this data is to start with the association website.
Example: The Gulf Petrochemical Association (https://www.gpca.org.ae/) is a regional association for petrochemicals. Researchers may consult with this association to learn more about the regional petrochemical market and local companies.
Some organizations share their data freely, while others license their data to subscription databases (See above for KAUST Library access), and others do not share their data, or sell their data for a (usually) very high price. There is no one place to search for this kind of data, but you can work with your librarian to formulate your data search strategy.
Finally, it is worth searching in Trade Magazines/Journals to learn more about possible data sources. Many of these trades can be searched through ABI/INFORM and Business Source Ultimate.