The electronic information industry in Europe

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Developments in the electronic information industry in Europe in recent years have hitherto been dis cussed mainly in the context of developed countries such as France, West Germany and the United Kingdom. The contribution to date of less developed economies (LDEs) to the European information indus try has received little attention from market analysts for a number of reasons. First, there has been a pre occupation with wider issues such as cultural, political, legal and tech nical barriers facing a pan- European information industry, and second, there has been little to report on developments in the less developed countries. There is now, however, clear evidence of a grow ing electronic information business throughout Europe and the less developed countries are determined to secure their share. For the purposes of this paper, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain are defined as LDEs on the basis of prevailing general socio-economic indicators. An analysis of the con tributions of LDEs to the European information industry, using the lat est available European macro-statis tics, indicates that LDEs are very minor players in the business. Reasons for poor performance are examined in the context of the information environments in these countries and the issues highlight ed include the following: national information policy; information awareness; small and medium sized enterprises; role of the public sec tor ; telecommunications; informa tion market constraints; private sector players; information person nel, education and training; experi ence in the information business; and multilingualism. The paper concludes with detailed analysis of very recent trends, i.e. over the last two years, in individual LDEs, based on local reporting of national developments. Significant strides are apparent in Spain where there is a marked shift from public to private sector play ers. Parallel developments (although on different scales) are reported in Portugal and Ireland where there is a growing videotex services industry with emphasis on vertical niche markets. Greece appears to be trailing behind because of telecommunications infrastructural and other problems in the market-place.