Industry Types: The List Of Industry Types In A Nutshell

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Every organization operates in at least one industry, with some operating in several. An industry can simply be defined as a group of companies with similar business activities, products, and services. There are now five main types of industry: primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary, and quinary. In this article, we’ll discuss the differences between each and list some specific examples.

Industry TypeDescriptionExamples
AgricultureFarming, forestry, and fishing activities.Crop farming, cattle ranching, forestry.
AutomotiveManufacturing and selling automobiles.Ford, Toyota, General Motors.
AviationAirlines, aircraft manufacturing, and services.Delta Airlines, Boeing, Airbus.
Banking and FinanceBanking, investment, and financial services.JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Visa.
BiotechnologyResearch and development in biological sciences.Genentech, Amgen, CRISPR Therapeutics.
ChemicalChemical manufacturing and related industries.Dow Chemical, BASF, DuPont.
ConstructionBuilding and infrastructure construction.Turner Construction, Bechtel, Skanska.
EducationSchools, colleges, and educational services.Harvard University, Khan Academy, Pearson.
EnergyPower generation, renewable energy, utilities.ExxonMobil, Tesla, National Grid.
EntertainmentFilm, television, music, and gaming industries.Disney, Warner Bros., Sony Music, Electronic Arts.
Food and BeverageProduction and distribution of food and drinks.Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Nestlé.
HealthcareHospitals, clinics, pharmaceuticals, medical devices.Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Mayo Clinic.
HospitalityHotels, restaurants, and tourism-related businesses.Marriott, Hilton, Airbnb, Starbucks.
Information TechnologySoftware, hardware, and technology services.Apple, Microsoft, Google, IBM.
InsuranceInsurance companies and related services.Allstate, AIG, Prudential.
ManufacturingGeneral manufacturing of various products.General Electric, 3M, Procter & Gamble.
MediaNewspapers, magazines, online media, and publishing.The New York Times, CNN, Netflix.
MiningExtraction of minerals and natural resources.Rio Tinto, BHP, Freeport-McMoRan.
Real EstateProperty development, sales, and management.Keller Williams Realty, CBRE, Zillow.
RetailSales of goods to consumers through stores or online.Walmart, Amazon, Target.
TelecommunicationsCommunication networks and services.AT&T, Verizon, Ericsson.
TransportationShipping, logistics, and transportation services.FedEx, UPS, Maersk Line, Uber.
UtilitiesWater, gas, and electric utilities.PG&E, E.ON, American Water Works.
Waste ManagementCollection and disposal of waste materials.Waste Management Inc., Republic Services.
PharmaceuticalManufacturing and distribution of pharmaceuticals.Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis.
AerospaceSpace exploration, aircraft, and satellite production.NASA, Boeing, SpaceX.
Textile and ApparelClothing and fabric manufacturing.Nike, H&M, Levi Strauss.
GamingVideo game development and related industries.Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Nintendo.
E-commerceOnline retail and electronic commerce.Amazon, Alibaba, eBay.
LegalLegal services and law firms.Baker McKenzie, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Primary industries

Primary industries are those that extract natural resources such as minerals, soil, plants, water, and those consumed to produce energy. 

This includes industries such as:

  1. Mining –  where metals, minerals, oil, gas, coal, and other resources are extracted from the Earth’s surface. 
  2. Agriculture – with a primary focus on cultivating plants, land, and animals to produce food, drink, and other essential items. 
  3. Forestry – companies in the forestry industry manage and log native forest or timber plantations to produce wood for construction and furniture, among other uses.
  4. Fishing – the fishing industry encompasses any activity associated with the catching, culturing, processing, harvesting, or selling of fish. This includes recreational, commercial, and subsistence fishing.
  5. Hunting – or the practice of killing native or feral animals to harvest animal products, including meat, bone, fur, antlers, or tusks. The hunting industry also encompasses the act of removing predators dangerous to humans, taxidermy, and trophy hunting.

Secondary industries

Secondary industries add value to the natural resources acquired by primary industries. They do this by converting raw materials into useful and profitable products for consumers and other businesses. For this reason, secondary industry is sometimes called the manufacturing industry.

Secondary industry examples include:

  1. Manufacturing – where businesses convert raw components and materials into products. This is often done at scale in highly automated factories to produce low unit cost items.
  2. Construction – a broad industry dealing with the construction of residential, commercial, and industrial buildings. The construction industry also includes road, rail, tunnel, dam, and bridge infrastructure.
  3. Food and beverage – which involves the processing, preserving, and serving of food items. The food and beverage industry works closely with the agriculture industry to produce fresh and long-life food items for restaurants, supermarkets, and other food retailers.
  4. Fashion – or the design, production, and marketing of clothing, footwear, and other items that are worn by people. 
  5. Technology – another broad industry category characterized by the innovation, design, and production of computers, software, apps, aerospace equipment, military equipment, and health care technology. 

Tertiary industries

In a tertiary industry, the major economic activities include:

  • Exchange – or transportation, trade, and communication services that are used to bridge distance.
  • Production – or the supply of a diverse range of services utilized by millions of people.

Tertiary industries are mostly commerce and service-related businesses that produce non-tangible value. Examples of tertiary industries, which are a hallmark of wealthy and advanced nations, include:

  1. Professional services – these are jobs requiring specialized knowledge or training, such as engineers, physicians, lawyers, architects, accountants, surgeons, dentists, and high-level administrators.
  2. Telecommunications – encompassing the transmission of signals, words, messages, sounds, images, or any other information via infrastructure such as cables, the internet, radio, and television.
  3. Franchise – where one company, the franchisor, gives the right for another company, the franchisee, to utilize its brand, systems, or other intellectual property. Many franchisors utilize this model to create commercial chains for the distribution of goods and services.
  4. Education – the education industry includes universities, schools, colleges, or training providers that help consumers acquire knowledge, skills, values, morals, or beliefs.
  5. Entertainment – an industry with many sub-industries devoted to the singular or mass entertainment of people, including comedy, film, music, theatre, and sport.

Quaternary industries

The definition of a quaternary industry is harder to define, but in general, it is any industry based on new technology and specialized knowledge. These industries are characterized by the individual relying on their education and intelligence to generate and operate advanced technologies.

Since it requires highly advanced technology, the quaternary industry is relatively young. Furthermore, it is only present in modern economies where the generation, analysis, and dissemination of knowledge is important enough to warrant it being separated from tertiary sectors.

Quaternary industries include:

  1. Finance – including corporate finance, banking, personal finance, investing, and asset management. 
  2. Consultancy – where specialists offer advice to businesses in a range of areas. 
  3. Research and development – or innovative activities undertaken by governments and corporations to develop new products and services or improve existing ones.

Quinary industries

Quinary industries focus on the creation, re-arrangement, and interpretation of new or existing ideas. They also deal with the use and evaluation of new technologies.

Many economists refer to those involved in quinary industries as “gold-collar professionals” because they hold extremely desirable skills and are involved in high-level decision-making.

Quinary industries may encompass specific sections of tertiary or quaternary industries, including government, science, education, health care, culture, media, and non-profit organizations.

To a lesser degree, some also suggest the domestic activities performed in a home by a family member or dependent are part of the quinary industry. These activities, which include housekeeping, child care, animal care, and maintenance, are typically unpaid and so are not measured by their monetary value. Nevertheless, they contribute to the economy by providing free services that would otherwise have to be paid for.

Key takeaways:

  • While businesses may operate in one or more different industries, an industry can simply be defined as a group of companies with similar business activities, products, and services. Industries are categorized into five broad types: primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary, and quinary.
  • Primary industries extract raw materials from the Earth, including mining, agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting. Secondary industries, which turn those raw materials into useable products, include manufacturing, construction, food and beverage, fashion, and technology.
  • Tertiary industries include any service that results in the creation of intangible value, such as those seen in professional services, telecommunications, franchising, education, and entertainment. In general, quaternary and quinary industries are associated with highly specialized knowledge and technology that tends to be found in modern, developed nations. 

Key Highlights

  • Primary Industries: Involve the extraction of natural resources like minerals, plants, water, and energy sources. Examples include mining, agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting.
  • Secondary Industries: Add value to raw materials through manufacturing processes. This category includes manufacturing, construction, food and beverage production, fashion, and technology.
  • Tertiary Industries: Focus on providing services and often involve commerce and non-tangible value. Examples are professional services (doctors, lawyers), telecommunications, franchise businesses, education, and entertainment.
  • Quaternary Industries: Rely on advanced technology and specialized knowledge. It includes finance, consultancy, research and development (R&D), and other high-level innovative activities.
  • Quinary Industries: Deal with the creation, interpretation, and use of new ideas, often involving high-level decision-making. These industries encompass sectors like government, science, education, healthcare, culture, media, and non-profit organizations.

Read Also: Gaming Industry, Fashion Industry, FinTech Industry, Food Delivery Industry, EdTech Industry.

Connected Economic Concepts

Market Economy

market-economy
The idea of a market economy first came from classical economists, including David Ricardo, Jean-Baptiste Say, and Adam Smith. All three of these economists were advocates for a free market. They argued that the “invisible hand” of market incentives and profit motives were more efficient in guiding economic decisions to prosperity than strict government planning.

Positive and Normative Economics

positive-and-normative-economics
Positive economics is concerned with describing and explaining economic phenomena; it is based on facts and empirical evidence. Normative economics, on the other hand, is concerned with making judgments about what “should be” done. It contains value judgments and recommendations about how the economy should be.

Inflation

how-does-inflation-affect-the-economy
When there is an increased price of goods and services over a long period, it is called inflation. In these times, currency shows less potential to buy products and services. Thus, general prices of goods and services increase. Consequently, decreases in the purchasing power of currency is called inflation. 

Asymmetric Information

asymmetric-information
Asymmetric information as a concept has probably existed for thousands of years, but it became mainstream in 2001 after Michael Spence, George Akerlof, and Joseph Stiglitz won the Nobel Prize in Economics for their work on information asymmetry in capital markets. Asymmetric information, otherwise known as information asymmetry, occurs when one party in a business transaction has access to more information than the other party.

Autarky

autarky
Autarky comes from the Greek words autos (self)and arkein (to suffice) and in essence, describes a general state of self-sufficiency. However, the term is most commonly used to describe the economic system of a nation that can operate without support from the economic systems of other nations. Autarky, therefore, is an economic system characterized by self-sufficiency and limited trade with international partners.

Demand-Side Economics

demand-side-economics
Demand side economics refers to a belief that economic growth and full employment are driven by the demand for products and services.

Supply-Side Economics

supply-side-economics
Supply side economics is a macroeconomic theory that posits that production or supply is the main driver of economic growth.

Creative Destruction

creative-destruction
Creative destruction was first described by Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter in 1942, who suggested that capital was never stationary and constantly evolving. To describe this process, Schumpeter defined creative destruction as the “process of industrial mutation that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one.” Therefore, creative destruction is the replacing of long-standing practices or procedures with more innovative, disruptive practices in capitalist markets.

Happiness Economics

happiness-economics
Happiness economics seeks to relate economic decisions to wider measures of individual welfare than traditional measures which focus on income and wealth. Happiness economics, therefore, is the formal study of the relationship between individual satisfaction, employment, and wealth.

Oligopsony

oligopsony
An oligopsony is a market form characterized by the presence of only a small number of buyers. These buyers have market power and can lower the price of a good or service because of a lack of competition. In other words, the seller loses its bargaining power because it is unable to find a buyer outside of the oligopsony that is willing to pay a better price.

Animal Spirits

animal-spirits
The term “animal spirits” is derived from the Latin spiritus animalis, loosely translated as “the breath that awakens the human mind”. As far back as 300 B.C., animal spirits were used to explain psychological phenomena such as hysterias and manias. Animal spirits also appeared in literature where they exemplified qualities such as exuberance, gaiety, and courage.  Thus, the term “animal spirits” is used to describe how people arrive at financial decisions during periods of economic stress or uncertainty.

State Capitalism

state-capitalism
State capitalism is an economic system where business and commercial activity is controlled by the state through state-owned enterprises. In a state capitalist environment, the government is the principal actor. It takes an active role in the formation, regulation, and subsidization of businesses to divert capital to state-appointed bureaucrats. In effect, the government uses capital to further its political ambitions or strengthen its leverage on the international stage.

Boom And Bust Cycle

boom-and-bust-cycle
The boom and bust cycle describes the alternating periods of economic growth and decline common in many capitalist economies. The boom and bust cycle is a phrase used to describe the fluctuations in an economy in which there is persistent expansion and contraction. Expansion is associated with prosperity, while the contraction is associated with either a recession or a depression.

Paradox of Thrift

paradox-of-thrift
The paradox of thrift was popularised by British economist John Maynard Keynes and is a central component of Keynesian economics. Proponents of Keynesian economics believe the proper response to a recession is more spending, more risk-taking, and less saving. They also believe that spending, otherwise known as consumption, drives economic growth. The paradox of thrift, therefore, is an economic theory arguing that personal savings are a net drag on the economy during a recession.

Circular Flow Model

circular-flow-model
In simplistic terms, the circular flow model describes the mutually beneficial exchange of money between the two most vital parts of an economy: households, firms and how money moves between them. The circular flow model describes money as it moves through various aspects of society in a cyclical process.

Trade Deficit

trade-deficit
Trade deficits occur when a country’s imports outweigh its exports over a specific period. Experts also refer to this as a negative balance of trade. Most of the time, trade balances are calculated based on a variety of different categories.

Market Types

market-types
A market type is a way a given group of consumers and producers interact, based on the context determined by the readiness of consumers to understand the product, the complexity of the product; how big is the existing market and how much it can potentially expand in the future.

Rational Choice Theory

rational-choice-theory
Rational choice theory states that an individual uses rational calculations to make rational choices that are most in line with their personal preferences. Rational choice theory refers to a set of guidelines that explain economic and social behavior. The theory has two underlying assumptions, which are completeness (individuals have access to a set of alternatives among they can equally choose) and transitivity.

Conflict Theory

conflict-theory
Conflict theory argues that due to competition for limited resources, society is in a perpetual state of conflict.

Peer-to-Peer Economy

peer-to-peer-economy
The peer-to-peer (P2P) economy is one where buyers and sellers interact directly without the need for an intermediary third party or other business. The peer-to-peer economy is a business model where two individuals buy and sell products and services directly. In a peer-to-peer company, the seller has the ability to create the product or offer the service themselves.

Knowledge-Economy

knowledge-economy
The term “knowledge economy” was first coined in the 1960s by Peter Drucker. The management consultant used the term to describe a shift from traditional economies, where there was a reliance on unskilled labor and primary production, to economies reliant on service industries and jobs requiring more thinking and data analysis. The knowledge economy is a system of consumption and production based on knowledge-intensive activities that contribute to scientific and technical innovation.

Command Economy

command-economy
In a command economy, the government controls the economy through various commands, laws, and national goals which are used to coordinate complex social and economic systems. In other words, a social or political hierarchy determines what is produced, how it is produced, and how it is distributed. Therefore, the command economy is one in which the government controls all major aspects of the economy and economic production.

Labor Unions

labor-unions
How do you protect your rights as a worker? Who is there to help defend you against unfair and unjust work conditions? Both of these questions have an answer, and it’s a solution that many are familiar with. The answer is a labor union. From construction to teaching, there are labor unions out there for just about any field of work.

Bottom of The Pyramid

bottom-of-the-pyramid
The bottom of the pyramid is a term describing the largest and poorest global socio-economic group. Franklin D. Roosevelt first used the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) in a 1932 public address during the Great Depression. Roosevelt noted that – when talking about the ‘forgotten man:’ “these unhappy times call for the building of plans that rest upon the forgotten, the unorganized but the indispensable units of economic power.. that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.”

Glocalization

glocalization
Glocalization is a portmanteau of the words “globalization” and “localization.” It is a concept that describes a globally developed and distributed product or service that is also adjusted to be suitable for sale in the local market. With the rise of the digital economy, brands now can go global by building a local footprint.

Market Fragmentation

market-fragmentation
Market fragmentation is most commonly seen in growing markets, which fragment and break away from the parent market to become self-sustaining markets with different products and services. Market fragmentation is a concept suggesting that all markets are diverse and fragment into distinct customer groups over time.

L-Shaped Recovery

l-shaped-recovery
The L-shaped recovery refers to an economy that declines steeply and then flatlines with weak or no growth. On a graph plotting GDP against time, this precipitous fall combined with a long period of stagnation looks like the letter “L”. The L-shaped recovery is sometimes called an L-shaped recession because the economy does not return to trend line growth.  The L-shaped recovery, therefore, is a recession shape used by economists to describe different types of recessions and their subsequent recoveries. In an L-shaped recovery, the economy is characterized by a severe recession with high unemployment and near-zero economic growth.

Comparative Advantage

comparative-advantage
Comparative advantage was first described by political economist David Ricardo in his book Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. Ricardo used his theory to argue against Great Britain’s protectionist laws which restricted the import of wheat from 1815 to 1846.  Comparative advantage occurs when a country can produce a good or service for a lower opportunity cost than another country.

Easterlin Paradox

easterlin-paradox
The Easterlin paradox was first described by then professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania Richard Easterlin. In the 1970s, Easterlin found that despite the American economy experiencing growth over the previous few decades, the average level of happiness seen in American citizens remained the same. He called this the Easterlin paradox, where income and happiness correlate with each other until a certain point is reached after at least ten years or so. After this point, income and happiness levels are not significantly related. The Easterlin paradox states that happiness is positively correlated with income, but only to a certain extent.

Economies of Scale

economies-of-scale
In Economics, Economies of Scale is a theory for which, as companies grow, they gain cost advantages. More precisely, companies manage to benefit from these cost advantages as they grow, due to increased efficiency in production. Thus, as companies scale and increase production, a subsequent decrease in the costs associated with it will help the organization scale further.

Diseconomies of Scale

diseconomies-of-scale
In Economics, a Diseconomy of Scale happens when a company has grown so large that its costs per unit will start to increase. Thus, losing the benefits of scale. That can happen due to several factors arising as a company scales. From coordination issues to management inefficiencies and lack of proper communication flows.

Economies of Scope

economies-of-scope
An economy of scope means that the production of one good reduces the cost of producing some other related good. This means the unit cost to produce a product will decline as the variety of manufactured products increases. Importantly, the manufactured products must be related in some way.

Price Sensitivity

price-sensitivity
Price sensitivity can be explained using the price elasticity of demand, a concept in economics that measures the variation in product demand as the price of the product itself varies. In consumer behavior, price sensitivity describes and measures fluctuations in product demand as the price of that product changes.

Network Effects

negative-network-effects
In a negative network effect as the network grows in usage or scale, the value of the platform might shrink. In platform business models network effects help the platform become more valuable for the next user joining. In negative network effects (congestion or pollution) reduce the value of the platform for the next user joining. 

Negative Network Effects

negative-network-effects
In a negative network effect as the network grows in usage or scale, the value of the platform might shrink. In platform business models network effects help the platform become more valuable for the next user joining. In negative network effects (congestion or pollution) reduce the value of the platform for the next user joining. 

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