systematically examines a defined target industry criteria/questions . The industry analysis serves to provide a reliable assessment of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a company in the target industry (SWOT analysis). Industry analyses are carried out, for example, as part of a planned market entry analysis (national/international) or a market potential analysis . A clear definition of the relevant industry ( market segmentation ) is important for the successful implementation of the industry analysis. Market research methods used for the industry analysis include both secondary sources (e.g. statistics, publications by industry associations and companies in the market, specialist articles in important industry journals) and primary market research methods (e.g. interviews with industry experts).