Research and development in the social sciences and humanities — NAICS 54172 industry report

01

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–418046%

5–98522%

10–196416%

20–49379%

50–99185%

100–19962%

200–49921%

500+0—

Of 392 Canadian establishments with employees, 68% have fewer than ten — mostly small operators.

Where they areA

Ontario16542%

British Columbia8121%

Quebec6416%

Alberta3810%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, US · opened 2020

83.3%

1 year

64%

3 years

50.8%

5 years

34.3%

10 years

opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

02

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 541, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

regional competitionlow capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 541 Professional, scientific and technical services

Professional licensing is the barrier and the principal's time is the ceiling. Firms are built from a book of clients, and an aging partner group makes acquisition and succession the common entry.

Who sets the price: The firm, by reputation, against hourly-rate comparison.
The software it runs on: Practice management, time and billing, and a specialist tool per profession — the densest vertical-software territory in the economy.

03

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Screened one level up. Nothing is filed at this exact code; the screen for 5417 Scientific research and development services covers it.

Vertical softwareScreenedfiled at 5417

Clinical Trial & R&D Data Management SoftwareStructure decides

binding constraint: entry cost

Incumbent Veeva Systems (NYSE: VEEV) and Medidata (Dassault Systèmes)

Validation is the moat and it is expensive: GxP computerised-system validation, 21 CFR Part 11 audit trails and sponsor qualification audits all sit ahead of the first paying trial, and sponsors buy suites rather than modules. Veeva's R&D and Quality business alone runs at $1.75B and IQVIA's technology segment at roughly $6.6B — an entrant is not competing for a seat but for a place in a validated stack.

NAICS 54174 vendors named6 sourced figuresOpen →

04

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

Sold across the wider branch

Vertical softwareScreenedfiled at 5417 Scientific research and development services

Clinical Trial & R&D Data Management SoftwareStructure decides

binding constraint: entry cost

Incumbent Veeva Systems (NYSE: VEEV) and Medidata (Dassault Systèmes)

Validation is the moat and it is expensive: GxP computerised-system validation, 21 CFR Part 11 audit trails and sponsor qualification audits all sit ahead of the first paying trial, and sponsors buy suites rather than modules. Veeva's R&D and Quality business alone runs at $1.75B and IQVIA's technology segment at roughly $6.6B — an entrant is not competing for a seat but for a place in a validated stack.

NAICS 54174 vendors named6 sourced figuresOpen →

And what every business buys · 25 generic categories

Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.

05

Who works here

The occupations employed in Professional, scientific and technical services, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Concentrated in this sectorA

Judges, lawyers and Quebec notaries One industry 71.1%

Computer, software and Web designers and developers Mostly one sector 55.4%

Architects, urban planners and land surveyors Mostly one sector 54.7%

Technical occupations in architecture, drafting, surveying, geomatics and meteorology Mostly one sector 51.2%

Photographers and support occupations in arts and culture Mostly one sector 50.3%

Graphic and interior designers Mostly one sector 48.9%

Civil and mechanical engineers Mostly one sector 45.2%

Electrical, electronics and computer engineers Mostly one sector 40.3%

Managers in engineering, architecture, science and information systems Mostly one sector 40.2%

Natural resources engineers Mostly one sector 39.2%

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Technical occupations in computer and information systems Across the economy 29.6%

Accounting, insurance and related business administrative occupations Across the economy 24.9%

Technical inspectors and regulatory officers Across the economy 23.1%

Office administrative assistants - general, legal and medical Across the economy 16.8%

Financial, insurance and related administrative support workers Across the economy 16.6%

Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 16.2%

Technical occupations in electronics and electrical engineering Across the economy 11.8%

Survey, statistical and data entry occupations Across the economy 11.5%

Administrative services managers Across the economy 10.7%

Administrative, property and payroll officers Across the economy 9%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.

All 162 occupations →

06

Inside this industry

1 row sits directly beneath 54172. Each has a base report of its own.

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
541720	Research and development in the social sciences and humanities	392	screened at 5417

Alongside it, under 5417 Scientific research and development services

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
54171	Research and development in the physical, engineering and life sciences	2,696	screened at 5417