Overview

An industry is a collection of businesses that are connected by their main lines of activity. There are numerous categories of industries in contemporary economies. Sectors are generally used to combine together bigger groups of industry classifications.

Typically, a company's major revenue sources determine what industry it belongs to. For instance, even if a carmaker may have a financing segment that contributes 10% to the company's overall earnings, most classification systems would place the business in the automaker category.