Subject & Course Guides: Quick Service Restaurant Industry Guide: Industry Analysis and Statistics

Tools for Broad Industry Research

Simply search for “restaurants”, “fast food,” etc. to find reports to get a broad understanding of the industry.

IbisWorld
A great resource to get a broad understanding of large industries within the United States.
Use this as an introduction to industries to become more familiar with what’s happening in your prospective industry.

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Note: Many business students have a tendency to overuse IbisWorld in their papers and projects. IbisWorld is a great place to get started, but I can guarantee that students who depend too much on the reports without consulting numerous other sources will not do as well on their projects. You need to consult multiple resources to have a well-rounded view of your industry.

IBISWorld contains in-depth, regularly updated industry reports for over 700 United States NAICS-classified industries. Each report averages 25-30 pages in length, and contains the following information:

Key Statistics
Segmentation
Market Characteristics
Industry Conditions
Key Factors
Key Competitors
Industry Performance
Outlook
Note: Ohio University Libraries only subscribes to the Industry Market Research and Company Research Components. All other components of the database are not included in the library’s subscription.

Search for Fast Food to find relevant reports that may offer another perspective on the industry.

First Research
Provides industry profiles on over 600 industry segments. The reports are very easy to read and can help you gather a quick understanding of the industry.

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Industry profiles include the following information:
- Industry overviews

Use Statista to find statistics on companies, consumers, or the market size of the fast food /QSR industry.
Search by company name or by industry topic

Statista
"The Portal for Statistics," contains statistics and studies from over 22,500 sources. Especially useful in finding statistics for company, industry, and market information.

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When using, be sure to click on the "Source" link to find the original source of the statistic, which can help you find additional information.

Use Business Source Complete to find trade publications, articles and reports about the quick service restaurant industry.
Trade publications are especially useful as they give you an insider's look into the industry.

Business Source Complete
Provides full text access of more than 3500 journals, trade publications, magazines, company reports, and more, in the disciplines of business, including marketing, management, accounting, banking, finance and more.

Also useful for finding company profiles, industry profiles, and SWOT analysis for companies.

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I often refer to Business Source Complete as the “Google of Business Information”. Regardless of your topic, Business Source Complete is bound to have something for you. It’s great for company and industry news, academic journals, trade publications, and much more.

Below are a few trade sites and organizations that provide useful information on the QSR industry. I will add to the list as I discover additional useful links. Note that these links goe to the free websites. We do not subscribe so some reports may be behind a paywall.

QSR Magazine
A good source to check out for news about the industry.
QSR Web
"Thoughtful distillation of industry-wide news covering such topics as menu development and trends, sales and marketing, franchising and growth, technological deployment, brand strategy, government issues, customer experience, labor management, food-safety and design and rebranding strategies"
Nation's Restaurant News - Quick Service
Articles about the Quick Service Restaurant industry from a key industry trade publication. Note that Nation's Restaurant News is also available in Business Source Complete.