Business Information Through Spain's Chambers Of
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Business Information Review http://bir.sagepub.com/ Business information through Spain's Chambers of Commerce : Meeting business needs Antonio Muñoz Cañavate and Pedro Hípola Business Information Review 2008 25: 224 DOI: 10.1177/0266382108098866 The online version of this article can be found at: http://bir.sagepub.com/content/25/4/224 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com Additional services and information for Business Information Review can be found at: Email Alerts: http://bir.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://bir.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Downloaded from bir.sagepub.com at Universidad de Sevilla. Biblioteca on December 19, 2010 Business Information Review Copyright © 2008 SAGE Publications Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC, Vol 25(4): 224–229 [DOI: 10.1177/0266382108098866] Business information through Spain’s Chambers of Commerce Meeting business needs Antonio Muñoz Cañavate Antonio Muñoz Cañavate is a full professor at the Universidad de Facultad de Biblioteconomía y Documentación, Extremadura, Spain, and belongs to its Universidad de Extremadura, Spain Department of Information and Communication. He was previously a fellow at the Department of Computer Pedro Hípola Science of the University of Granada, where he began his studies of the infor- Departamento de Biblioteconomía y Documentación, mative value of the Internet. Having Facultad de Comunicación y Documentación, embarked on dual lines of research, both within the area of information Universidad de Granada, Spain management, one of his main interests is in the processes of corporative information management in Spain’s administrative realms, in the context ‘These services, which may be free or fee-based, depending on the of Electronic Administration. This information one wishes to obtain, sustain a modern information system was the subject of his PhD disserta- tion, presented at the University of that can be accessed in full over the Internet.’ Granada in 2000. A parallel line of investigation is centred on the study of information management in the business world, and more precisely, in knowledge of the external setting that Abstract generates information needs for com- panies, and the organizations that pro- duce information for business purposes. [email: [email protected]] From different public and private requirements, mechanisms have been set in Pedro Hípola is a lecturer at the Com- action that allow for companies to obtain information in order to make decisions munication and Information Science with a stronger foundation. This article is focused on the description of an School, University of Granada, Spain. entire information system for the business world, developed in the realm of He is a member of the advisory board of the journals Revista Española de the Chambers of Commerce of Spain, which has given rise to the creation of Documentación Científica, published by an authentic network of inter-chamber information. In Spain, the obligatory Instituto de Estudios Documentales membership of businesses to the Chambers of Commerce in their geographic sobre Ciencia y Tecnología (IEDCYT – FORMERLY CINDOC) (Spain), and areas, and therefore the compulsory payment of member quotas, has Education for Information, IOS Press traditionally generated some polemics, above all because many firms have not (The Netherlands). Pedro has also been co-editor of the journal El profesional perceived a material usefulness of the services offered by these Chambers. de la información for fourteen years.He Notwithstanding, the 85 Chambers currently existing in Spain, as well as the is now President of CTN/50, the Docu- organization that coordinates them – the Upper Council or Consejo Superior mentation Committee of AENOR (Spanish National Standardisation and de Cámaras de Comercio – and the company created expressly to commercialize Certification Institution), and is a information services online, Camerdata, have developed genuinely informative member of the Standing Committee of tools that cover a good part of the information demands that a business might International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) Management of claim, and these are described here. (Contd. on page 229) Keywords: business information, Chamber of Commerce, Spain 224 Downloaded from bir.sagepub.com at Universidad de Sevilla. Biblioteca on December 19, 2010 Muñoz Cañavate & Hípola: Business information through Spain’s Chambers of Commerce Introduction Furthermore, late 19th-century Spain was charac- terized by an extension of the liberties of meeting and association, which favoured the development of the Over recent decades, Spain has witnessed a surge in Chambers of Commerce as a new framework for ad- very diverse tools that allow businesses to obtain dressing business needs. information as an aid for enhanced decision-making. Spain opted to copy the French model of Chambers, As in any other country, the organizations that produce to such an extent that the introduction of this norm in information for the business world and that configure 1886 affirms: the informative structure underlying commerce are found in both the private and the public realm. Here, France offers, with its Chambers of Commerce, an example that can, at least for now, be followed success- we shall take the private realm to mean that deriving fully. Created in the mid-17th century, they have been from the private industry of information, whether it propagated by other nations, which already signal their comes from big businesses such as Kompass and advantages; and there is no reason why Spain should Dun & Bradstreet, or from the entire conglomerate of not also accept them as an anticipation of the epoch, small national firms that offer information of very just as long as importing the good that can be found in diverse sorts. Also included in the former group is them, it takes care to mold them according to the the information coming from a great number of finan- general uses, customs and laws of the country. cial entities. In order to accommodate greater com- The Royal Decree of 1886 recognized the Chambers plexity, at times businesses that may be providers or as voluntary associations of shopkeepers, manufac- distributors of products or services have managed to turers and shippers. In 1901 they were acknowledged secure their influence by becoming the providers of as public establishments, and in 1911 the model that information for a specific sector [1]. continues to be current regarding obligatory affiliation, Yet the public bodies that supply information for the with the payment of quotas, and under the auspices of business world do not lag far behind, be they trans- the Public Administrations, was defined. Although the national networks such as that offered by the European legal norm that has governed the Chambers of Com- Union, or any other organization that depends on the merce has varied over the decades, at present Spain’s Public Administration of a given country. Chambers of Commerce are governed by Law 3/1993 (22 March, 1993), denominated Ley Básica de las In this latter sense, the regional structure of Spain Cámaras Oficiales de Industria, Comercio y Navegación. offers a complex political-administrative panorama that has greatly diversified the information tools made This Law dating from 1993 states that the Chambers available to businesses, depending on the geographic have the end purpose of representing, promoting and region within Spain where they are located. defending the general interests of commerce, industry and shipping, aside from lending services to busi- Aside from this, and as in other countries, Spain has ness, without interfering with the liberty of syndi- a network of Chambers of Commerce whose obligations cation and of entrepreneurial association. In sum, for local business have permitted them to create a broad the basic lines of activity of the Chambers are: ac- structure of very useful information products. tions to encourage foreign commerce, formation, information and counselling. Origin and evolution of the The tasks involved in information and advisory work are varied, and deserving mention among them are chambers of commerce those dedicated to the elaboration of statistics regard- ing commerce, industry and shipping. They are also in Spain dedicated to the achievement of studies that allow us to be aware of the situation surrounding the different The Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Navigation business sectors, and of course to carry out a public appeared in Spain at the end of the 19th century, thanks census of companies and their delegations. This has to a Royal Decree on 8 April 1886. Their birth was due allowed the firms to generate very complete databases to different causes – among them, the uncertainties describing the situation of the economic and entre- among businessmen that sprouted with the appearance preneurial setting [2]. of the very first worker organization in the country. The sections below describe these informative tools. 225 Downloaded from bir.sagepub.com at Universidad de Sevilla. Biblioteca on December 19, 2010 Business Information Review 25(4) The structure of the The Study Service Chambers of Commerce in One of the work areas that is most important in this upper Council of Chambers is that of the Study Service, Spain, and the information in charge of supplying economic information to busi- and advisory services