"The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is a system for classifying production units by type of economic activity. It was developed by the statistical agencies of Canada, Mexico and the United States in order to facilitate the collection, tabulation, analysis and dissemination of industry statistics and allow three-country uniformity and comparability of such data. NAICS is also widely used by government agencies, trade associations, public and private sector businesses and various other organizations." - Statistics Canada.
Industry research looks at an entire industry: you'll need to find information about consumers, finances, regulations, statistics, and more. It's often helpful to identify the relevant NAICS code for your industry and industry associations.
Company research focuses on a specific company: you'll also need to find information about consumers, finances, regulations, but on a much smaller scope than industry research. It can be difficult to find financial information for smaller businesses.
Market research examines a specific market for a product. You can find a definition here. Vividata and industry associations may have useful information.
PESTLE is an analysis that looks at the external environment that a firm operates in. See the PESTLE sub-tab in this section for resources and links.
For resources by sector, check out the By Sector sub-tab in this section.
A great place to start is the company's website. Look in About Us and News sections to learn more about the company's mission, goals, and how they present themselves to the public.
Unless companies are public (i.e. they have shares that are publicly traded on a stock exchange), there is no legal obligation to share their financial information to the public. It is unlikely that you will find their financial information since there is no competitive advantage to sharing this information.
You can find out whether a company is public by doing a simple Google search or by looking on the company's website. For example, InterContinental Hotels Group has an "Investors" tab with some financial information. You can also search on SEDAR (Canada) or EDGAR (US) sites for public company filings.