The Enterprise and Economic Development Glossary a resource of the .network library

industry:

... an category of types of enterprises in which there are subcategories of specific business activity. an accounting of the types of commercial sectors of an economy or the identity of a single business sector involved with the production and sale of goods and services. Business Dictionary.com indicates that the commercial sector includes all types of business enterprises, except those ... engaged in farming, manufacturing, or transportation.

The Free Dictionary.com defines industry as the ... (1) sector of an economy made up of manufacturing enterprises, and as a ... (2) specific branch of manufacture and trade.

Arguably, the words industry and industrial are interchangeable in regard to sectors of an economy. Take into consideration that what was once the Standard Industrial Classification System is now the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) — CLICK HERE for an explanation of why the change was made. Membership organizations (associations) make up categories in both although they are typically nonprofit enterprises, meaning that they not directly involved in the commercial sector of the economy.

An online reference manual titled Industry Classification at Investment Map.org ... is adapted from Revision 3.0 of the International Standard Industrial Classification of all Economic Activities (ISIC) (source of quote).

The process of economic development started out as industrial development. Both are essentially the same process, however. In recognition of the fact that results, such as jobs creation, come from more that just manufacturing, what was once industrial development is not called economic development in many places. The Network uses enterprise and economic development partly for the same reason — see About Enterprise Development.

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