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The Internet has significantly changed information management in developed countries through creating pressures to improve communication systems and develop more user friendly environments for information sharing. Now the Internet is penetrating developing countries, changing information practices in various sectors. The Internet is changing traditional ways of conducting information business by establishing new sources of information and new methods of communication on a global basis. It has created pressure to update information/technology infrastructures. It has created competition by bringing many international and indigenous information technology vendors on to the same platform. It has helped policy makers take advantage of access to global sources of information. Discusses the role of the Internet and its impact on developing countries, including major issues associated with electronic information access and delivery. It focuses on the two most populous countries in the world, China and India, which are also information‐rich countries in the East‐Asia and South‐Asia regions respectively.

This paper aims to summarize the quality and usefulness of several online resources, both subscription and free, for finding information on countries of the world.

The paper describes several free and commercial sources that can be used for conducting research on countries of the world, evaluates them and makes recommendations regarding their use and appropriateness for specific clientele.

There are many free resources that can be used for locating information on countries of the world, but researchers needing current and in-depth economic and demographic information may need to consult subscription databases.

This paper intentionally limits its analysis to resources that provide basic statistical and narrative information, along with descriptions of culture; online tools for gathering comprehensive data on country economics and demographics have been excluded for purposes of brevity.

This paper offers a comparative overview, survey and analysis of multiple references sources that can be utilized to locate country information, which will be of value to information professionals, as well as information seekers.

This study examines the impact of expanded geographical disclosures on nonprofessional investor judgments. Public country-by-country reporting (CBCR) is a way to increase corporate transparency, enhancing tax fairness and accountability (European Commission, 2016). Public disclosure would make large multinational companies share information about profits, taxes paid, and number of employees on a per-country basis. However, it is unclear whether nonprofessional investors would even use CBCR and how they would interpret the information. Adding to the policy debate on whether publicly available country-by-country information will be properly used, this study employs an experimental design to investigate the effect of disclosure availability and content on nonprofessional investor judgments. We find that participants receiving an expanded disclosure are able to more accurately assess the state of the social contract between the organization and society, imposing sanctions if necessary. Exploring CBCR provides timely evidence to regulators, standard setters, and tax fairness campaigners on the impact of expanded geographical disclosures as a means of increasing transparency and improving competitiveness.

In this paper, we define a tractable procedure to measure worker incomplete information in the labor market. The procedure, which makes use of earnings distribution skewness, is based on econometric frontier estimation techniques, and is consistent with search theory. We apply the technique to 11 countries over various years, and find that incomplete information leads workers to receive on average about 30–35% less pay than they otherwise would have earned, had they information on what each firm paid. Generally, married men and women suffer less from incomplete information than the widowed or divorced; and singles suffer the most. Women suffer more from incomplete information than men. Schooling and labor market experience reduce these losses, but institutions within a country can reduce them, as well. For example, we find that workers in countries that strongly support unemployment insurance (UI) receive wages closer to their potential, so doubling UI decreases incomplete information and results in 5% higher wages. A more dense population reduces search costs leading to less incomplete information. A more industrial economy disseminates wage information better, so workers exhibit less incomplete information and higher wages. Finally, we find that foreign worker inflows increase incomplete information, and at the same time reduce average wage levels, at least in the short run.

In the former Yugoslavia and Soviet Bloc countries of Central and Eastern Europe most information technology was unavailable, unaffordable or discouraged for forty years. These countries realise that they must improve their internal infrastructures if they are to become integral parts of the global information infrastructure. We report the results of a mail survey conducted in late 1994 and early 1995 of seventy research libraries in Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, building on the findings from interviews conducted with 300 persons in the region in 1993–1994. Results show that these libraries are acquiring automated processing systems, CD‐ROM databases, and connections to computer networks at a rapid rate and that automation activity has increased substantially since 1989; we report specific data on system implementation and network services by country and by type of library. ‘Access’ is their top reason to automate, which appears to mean placing the catalogue online with better search capabilities and putting items on the shelves faster — but does not necessarily mean improvements in self‐service for library users. Co‐operation and standards are highly‐ranked automation goals, yet we find anomalous results on each. Management goals focus more on speed and processing than on management information, staffing or advancing the mission of the parent organisation. Management of human resources ranks low, despite the need for wider staff involvement in the system selection process, education of technically‐trained library professionals, continuing training of staff and training of library users. We conclude with implications of these results for the region.

This paper uses the four occupational categories identified by the OECD ‐ information producers, information processors, information distributors and infrastructure providers ‐ to explore the state of the information economy of countries in the Asia Pacific region. As would be expected, the developed countries in the region have more advanced information economies than the developing countries as measured by the outputs of these four occupational categories. This does not imply that the developing countries in the region are sitting on their hands. Many countries have developed strategies to improve their information technology and telecommunications infrastructure. The paper argues that perhaps too much emphasis has been placed on infrastructure development and not enough on human resource development. It identifies in particular the need to train information processors (i.e. people who use information for the creation of new knowledge, to make decisions or to increase productivity and profit) through the development of information literacy skills, and information distributors, particularly library and information professionals. In connection with the training of information professionals, the writer argues that the current curriculum in many library schools is no longer suitable, and stresses the need to build a curriculum that revolves around the model of the virtual library and the Internet

The purpose of this paper is to survey and analyse the literature emanating from less developed countries (LDCs) and international agencies and dealing with their perception of the needs of LDCs for scientific and technical information (STI) in relation to social and economic development.

The extent to which and ways in which export information is used can play a significant role in a firm's level of export performance. Surprisingly, however, little empirical research has been conducted in the area of export information use, and even less attention has been paid to potential cross‐national differences in how export information is used. The focus of this study is the examination of export information use practices across different countries. Data from a total sample of 989 exporting companies across Austria, Germany, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA were analyzed using analyses of covariance to control for extraneous, firm‐level variables. The results indicate that firms from all countries use information instrumentally/conceptually more often than symbolically; they also tend to use export market intelligence more than other sources of information. Further, examination of the findings revealed that firms from different countries also use information differently. For instance, US exporters are much more symbolic in their use of information than exporters from the other countries, while Austrian exporters tend not to use information symbolically. Implications and limitations are discussed and future research avenues are proposed.

Considers the factors hindering the transfer of information technology and subsequent automation of information management systems in developing countries. The same inhibiting factors which face conventional technology transfer, are identified for information technology transfer. Highlights the failure of policy makers in the Third World to grasp the importance of information and to plan for its collection and management: criticizes the theory of appropriate technology as seeming to aid instead of potential aiding agencies. Stresses the need for positive policies towards information technology in both aiding agencies and recipient governments and identifies the most common obstacles hindering introduction and management of information technology in developing countries.

A hard‐fought victory for the developing countries at the UN Conference on Science and Technology for Development is the accord on the establishment of a Global Information Network (GIN). However, due to the lack of interest on the part of the industrialized countries and absence of financial support, it seems that GIN will remain a paper agreement. But even if GIN was established, it would do little to fulfil the real science information needs of the Third World. A better alternative for the developing countries would be to share locally produced science and technology information amongst themselves and develop a Third World Information Network (TWIN) to meet their specific needs and requirements. There are indications that such a system is randomly evolving in the Middle East.