Editorial Column and Short Paper—The Global 2000 Companies and the Economic Sectors

As a continuation of a study directed at identifying the similarities and differences between companies that operate in either the Goods or Services Sector of the economy, the authors employ a technique called “Data Surface Mining” (DSM). This simple technique utilizes data previously published in the business press or elsewhere that were gathered for other reasons are further analyzed for a purpose of interest here. As such, data were generated in a recent study conducted by FORBES for the purpose of identifying the world's 2000 best companies according to the metrics of Sales, Profits, Assets and Market Value. These data were further analyzed and are presented here to ascertain the relative presence of these companies in the two economic sectors, Goods and Services. The understanding of such issues is of critical importance in light of the fact that the Services Sector represents more than 80% (GDP and/or employment) of the United States economy and is of increasing importance in the global economy in both developed and emerging nations.

[Service Science, ISSN 2164-3962 (print), ISSN 2164-3970 (online), was published by Services Science Global (SSG) from 2009 to 2011 as issues under ISBN 978-1-4276-2090-3.]