Lynn M. Pearce – Encyclopedia of American Industries (2 Volumes)

Автор: Lynn M. Pearce
Название книги: Encyclopedia of American Industries (2 Volumes)
Формат: PDF
Жанр: Бизнес
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

The Encyclopedia of American Industries (EAI) is a
major business reference tool that provides detailed, comprehensive
information on a wide range of industries in
every realm of American business. Volume one provides
separate coverage of 459 manufacturing industries. Volume
two presents 545 essays covering the vast array of
service and other non-manufacturing industries in the
United States. Combined, these two volumes provide individual
essays on every industry recognized by the U.S.
Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. Both
volumes of EAI are arranged numerically by SIC code
for easy use. Additionally, each entry in the fourth edition
includes the corresponding North American Industry
Classification System (NAICS) code(s).
CONTENT AND ARRANGEMENT
Industry Essays. The Encyclopedia’s business coverage
includes information on historical events of consequence,
as well as relevant trends and statistics entering
the twenty-first century. Sections of coverage in an essay
may include the following:
• Industry Snapshot: Provides an overview of the industry
and identifies key trends, issues, and statistics.
• Organization and Structure: Discusses the configuration
and functional aspects of the industry, including
government regulation, sub-industry divisions,
and interaction with other industries.
• Background and Development: Relates the industry’s
genesis and historical development, including
major technological advances, scandals, pioneering
companies, major products, important legislation,
and other factors that shaped the industry.
• Current Conditions: Provides information on the status
of the industry in the late 1990s to early 2000s,
with an eye to industry challenges on the horizon.
• Industry Leaders: Profiles major companies within
the industry and includes discussion of financial performance.
• Workforce: Contains information on the size, diversity,
and characteristics of the industry’s workforce.
• America and the World: Discusses the global marketplace
for the U.S. industry, as well as international
participation in U.S. markets.
• Research and Technology: Furnishes information on
major technological advances, areas of research, and
their potential impact on the industry.
• Further Reading: Provides users with suggested further
reading on the industry. These sources, many of
which were also used to compile the essays, are publicly
accessible materials such as magazines, general
and academic periodicals, books, annual reports, and
government sources, as well as material supplied by
industry associations. This edition also includes references
to numerous Internet sources. When available,
the URL address and updated or visited date of
these resources is included, although such addresses
are apt to change frequently.
Graphs. The Encyclopedia of American Industries
includes almost 350 informative, easy-to-read graphs detailing
a wide range of key economic and business information.
Graphs without source information have been
compiled from the research material used to write the essay
or from original research.
Conversion Tables. Two industry classification tables
allow cross-referencing of SIC categories with the
NAICS industry codes. (Please see below for additional
information.)
Indexes. The Encyclopedia of American Industries’ index
contains alphabetic references from both volumes to
companies, trade associations, significant business
trends, government agencies, historical figures, and key
legislation. It also includes cross-references for acronyms
and variant names.
ABOUT INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATION
Encyclopedia of American Industries offers tools to
analyze industries using two industry classification systems.
The primary system, the Standard Industrial Classification
(SIC) system, was established by the U.S. government
to provide a uniform means for collecting,
presenting, and analyzing economic data. SIC codes are
still widely used by federal, state, and local government
agencies; trade associations; private research organizations;
and business professionals to promote comparability
in the presentation of statistical data. In addition,
EAI includes reference tables for the 1997 North American
Industry Classification System (NAICS), which has
been adopted by the U.S. government as its new standard
for economic data. Each essay includes the corresponding
NAICS code(s) as well.
1987 Standard Industrial Classification (SIC). Each
SIC code classifies business and nonprofit establishments
by the types of activities in which they are engaged; in
other words, it is “industry-oriented.” An establishment
is an economic unit where a service is performed or a
product is manufactured or sold (generally at a single
physical location). To be recognized as a separate industry
within the SIC system, a set of establishments must
be statistically significant according to criteria such as
the number of persons employed and the volume of business
conducted. Each establishment is placed in an SIC
category according to its primary activity, which is determined
by the industry from which it derives the most
revenue. Many large companies, however, operate multiple
establishments and may participate in several industries,
thus it is possible for a company to be a leading
force in SIC categories outside of its primary industry.
The SIC system comprises four levels of classification,
as described below:
• Divisions: The broadest SIC categories are divisions
that define an activity in very general terms: Agriculture,
Forestry, and Fishing; Mining; Construction;
Manufacturing; Transportation, Communications,
Electric, Gas, and Sanitary Services; Wholesale
Trade; Retail Trade; Finance, Insurance, and Real
Estate; and Public Administration, for example.
• Major Groups: Within these broad categories are major
groups. Each begins with a unique two-digit code
that makes up the first two numbers of the complete
four-digit SIC code. In the case of Manufacturing,
the major group codes range between 20 and 39. Examples
of two-digit groups in Manufacturing are:
Food & Kindred Products (20); Tobacco Products
(21); Furniture & Fixtures (25); Printing, Publishing,
& Allied Industries (27); and Industrial & Commercial
Machinery & Computer Equipment (35).
• Industry Groups: Major groups are further subdivided
into three-digit industry groups. Each is assigned
a three-digit code based on the two-digit code
for its major group. For example, Printing, Publishing
& Allied Industries is broken down into 271 for
Newspapers, 272 for Periodicals, and 273 for Books.
• Industries: Industry Groups are divided still further
into specific classifications that are assigned complete,
four-digit codes based on the Industry Group.
These four-digit classifications are the basis for the
industries detailed in EAI.
1997 North American Industry Classification System
(NAICS). Although NAICS has officially replaced the
SIC system, industry information is still maintained in SIC
categories for this edition. The Encyclopedia of American
Industries provides conversion tables to compare SIC data
with NAICS data, which the governments of Canada, Mexico,
and the United States jointly adopted. It includes broad
classifications that are common among the three nations
as well as unique national-level classifications. Industries
are specified within NAICS by up to six digits, however
in some cases the most specific category is only five digits.
The conversion tables provided in this book reflect the
U.S. version of NAICS, which contains six digits.
NAICS is similar in principle to the SIC system but
differs in industry specificity and grouping; NAICS is
“production-oriented,” or dependent on the activity of the
industry. Also, although the U.S. Census Bureau calls
NAICS a hierarchical numbering system, it does not have
broad terms broken down into narrower terms, broken
down into sub-classifications, then sub-sub-classifications—
as with the SIC system.
Unfortunately, total reliance on NAICS data means
the loss of historical information for some industries. To
help combat this, in 2001 the Census Bureau is slated to
release its information in both SIC and NAICS formats.