Antonio Muñoz-Cañavate

Electronic Administration in Spain: From Its Beginnings to the Present

This study presents the basic lines of electronic administration in Spain. The complexity of the Spanish political-administrative system makes such a study challenging, in view of the considerable degree of autonomy and competences of the regional administrative bodies and local agencies with respect to the central government, the former being more visible in the 17 regions of Spain. Nonetheless, the central government maintains a series of legal instruments that allow a certain common framework of action to be imposed, aside from what is put into effect through diverse programs aimed precisely to develop common tools for the regions and municipalities of Spain. After an introduction that provides some necessary background, this study describes the legislative framework in which Spains electronic administrative system has developed. The data included in the study refer to investment in information and communication technologies (ICT) and the services offered by the different Administrations on the internet; internet access by citizens, homes, businesses, and employees, as well as the interactivity existing with administrations by means of the internet; the origins and rise of various political initiatives of the Central Government involving electronic administration; and finally, the situation of civil service personnel, as catalysts of the success of Information Society in the Public Administration within Spain.

Business information through Spain's Chambers of Commerce Meeting business needs

From different public and private requirements, mechanisms have been set in action that allow for companies to obtain information in order to make decisions with a stronger foundation. This article is focused on the description of an entire information system for the business world, developed in the realm of the Chambers of Commerce of Spain, which has given rise to the creation of an authentic network of inter-chamber information. In Spain, the obligatory membership of businesses to the Chambers of Commerce in their geographic areas, and therefore the compulsory payment of member quotas, has traditionally generated some polemics, above all because many firms have not perceived a material usefulness of the services offered by these Chambers. Notwithstanding, the 85 Chambers currently existing in Spain, as well as the organization that coordinates them — the Upper Council or Consejo Superior de Cámaras de Comercio — and the company created expressly to commercialize information services online, Camerdata, have developed genuinely informative tools that cover a good part of the information demands that a business might claim, and these are described here.

Information science courses and the graduate job context in Spain

Received 1 September 2009Revised 21 December 2009This paper supports the appropriateness of the objectives of the Librarianship and Information Science(LIS) graduate university studies system in Spain. It identifies formulas to allow the construction ofinnovative study plans which are attractive within the information society. LIS university studies startedin Spain in the 190s although professional training has been available since the 19th century. This givesan historic perspective from which to analyse what has been done and the goals achieved using differentparameters. The authors have adopted a critical vision because they argue that the objectives defined forLIS programs have only marginally been achieved, and the new fields and work prospects have not beenvery well explored. As a result, an important fall in the registration of students in the LIS degree hasoccurred over recent years.

Relational Capital and Organizational Performance in the Portuguese Hotel Sector (NUTS II Lisbon)

Abstract In todays competitive environment, in which creativity and innovation play an important part, organizations are becoming increasingly aware that their physical and financial assets are incapable of generating competitive advantages that are sustainable, and perceive that it is their intangible assets which allow value to be created for their products and services. Intellectual capital is the capacity to transform knowledge and intangible assets into wealth, and its management is the process of extracting value from that same knowledge. Worldwide, tourism has been one of the fastest growing sectors in recent decades. In Portugal in particular, it is one of the countrys principal economic activities and a strategic area for the competitiveness of the economy. This communication presents a part of the results of a comprehensive study analysing the impact of intellectual capital (human capital, structural capital, and relational capital) on the organizational performance of the hotels in the Greater Lisbon and Setubal Peninsula area. The results that are reported are only those concerning relational capital, an invaluable and scarce resource that is hard to imitate, transfer, or replace, and that has a long life expectancy. The research project was carried out in 2012. Exploratory interviews were conducted, and, as the instrument of measurement, a questionnaire was addressed to the managers of the 167 hotels located in the study area. The aim was to gauge their perceptions in relation to the different components of intellectual capital and to the key organizational performance indicators that are commonly used in the sector. The methods and results concerning the relational capital component of the overall study are presented and discussed. The managers highlighted the importance of meeting their clients’ needs and wishes, of fostering client loyalty, of collecting and disseminating their feedback, of brand recognition, and of maintaining a permanent market orientation. Relational capital includes elements whose nature is external to the hotel, and therefore beyond its control. Their effects on the organizations performance, given the current context of severe and prolonged economic crisis, need to be analysed with particular care.

International Intelligence in Spain: An Approach to Information Resources for Business

The concept of international intelligence has taken on a greater importance for companies seeking to internationalize and access foreign markets. An exhaustive environmental scan—including international competitors, suppliers, clients in target countries, legislation and the political situation in other territories, and others—involves gathering the necessary information, its analysis and subsequent dissemination, and decision making. Within the context of the important role to be played by information management professionals who are specialized in foreign information, this article describes the information resources that Spanish companies have available to them that can assist them as they enter foreign markets.

Information Transfer in the Agricultural Sector in Spain

This article examines the structures of information transfer to the agricultural (production) and agro-alimentary (transformation and commercialization of the products) sector within Spain. An historical perspective is provided to better illustrate the reality and complexity of Spain with regard to the systems of agrarian extension, agricultural research, the resources provided by Spains central administration, and the use of information by related enterprises. The Service of Agrarian Extension appeared in Spain in the 1950s, and new political-administrative structures (agribusiness associations, cooperatives) were founded when Spain became a democratic nation in the late 1970s and with the arrival of electronic information, largely in the 1990s. We describe the research and technological centers supporting innovation in the agro-alimentary sector and the communication media dedicated to the agricultural sector. The article illustrates that the systems of agricultural information in Spain have been largely derived from initiatives of the Public Administration, with few private initiatives.

Information Capture and Knowledge Sharing Systems in the Field of Library and Information Science: The Case of MEDLIB-L in Medicine

Professionals using the Internet have various tools with which to capture and share information. Email discussion lists, despite their age, are still one of the main applications that telematic networks use for information to be shared in the social media field. They have not lost their validity even though the arrival of numerous applications associated with other types of social media, such as social networks, microblogging networks, wikis, etc., was often thought to augur their demise. Also, the new culture of Knowledge management, in which people share data, knowledge, and experiences, has, with its technological bases, become an indispensable tool for human interaction. This paper presents the results of a study applied to the medical sector which surveyed the MEDLIB-L discussion list users specialists in medical information. The primary aim was to determine the usefulness of the various tools they use (social media, literature alert systems, syndication RSS, search engine alerts, new content trackers) to capture and share information of interest and to serve as means of training and learning. A further aim was to determine the quality and usefulness of the messages sent by the professionals of information management in medicine to the list and the usefulness of its message archiving system.

E-Government in Spain's town councils. A study of transparency, content, and services

This paper presents the results of a study performed at the University of Extremadura (Spain) to evaluate the services that are distributed through Spains Local Administration websites. These Web portals act as front offices through which to establish channels that can be used to interact with citizens and firms. The study is part of an analysis of a sample of 30 town councils in Spain who were asked to respond to a questionnaire designed to gather data on their information, communication, and transaction services applied to three areas: everyday life, distance administration, and political participation. The 30 councils correspond to municipalities whose total population represents 21% of the censused population of Spain. The results presented are those corresponding to services created for citizens in the aforementioned three areas.

Information resources for competitive intelligence: An approach to the information available on the European Union's websites

ABSTRACT Companies need to use information from multiple sources to improve their competitiveness. Since its beginnings in the 1950s, the European Union has developed a number of instruments for this purpose. This article gives an overview of the information resources that are most important for businesses and that originate from institutions and other bodies of the European Union. It is divided into five parts: European agencies; resources of the Directorate-General (DG) for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship, and SMEs; resources provided by other European Commission DGs & services; Points of Single Contact (PSCs) of the EUGO Network; and other support networks.

Competitive intelligence in Spain: A study of a sample of firms

This study presents the main results of a survey of a sample of Spanish firms which include competitive intelligence and/or technology watch (TW) services in their organigrams or which are consumers of such intelligence products. The objectives were to acquire information on (i) the model (whether centralized or decentralized) of their intelligence services and personnel and their consumption of external intelligence consulting services and TW platforms; (ii) the methods they use to determine what information they need; (iii) the means they use to obtain that information; (iv) areas in which they seek information (competitors, consumers, economic situation, etc.); (v) their methods of analysis; (vi) the products generated by that analysis; and (vii) how they promote intelligence tasks internally. The results and the main conclusions are provided in the corresponding sections.