Abstract The globalization of the economy has meant that firms increasingly need a great variety of information, which may be about its competitors, suppliers, distributors, potential customers, but also about technological, legal, sociological, about access to markets, etc. That information may refer to a single country or many. The Internet has led to the multiplication of business information resources, but, with the huge quantity of open access information resources being joined to the electronic information industry, retrieval of that information and endowing it with added value requires highly qualified personnel. Corporate librarians cannot always fulfill that function. That is why Competitive Intelligence consulting firms are beginning to proliferate worldwide since they provide a fundamental point of support for firms to be able to deal with all this information. By means of prior analyses, these firms generate “ad hoc” informative products for their corporate clients. The present work is an exhaustive description of this sector in Spain – its size, forms of operation, services offered, and sectors to which they are directed. This description may serve to help business librarians, brokers, and managers know whom they can turn to in their countries to resolve an informational problem whose complexity they can not address without external assistance.

中文翻译：

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竞争情报咨询公司——商业部门决策的新信息资源：西班牙案例

摘要 经济的全球化意味着公司越来越需要各种各样的信息，可能是关于其竞争对手、供应商、分销商、潜在客户，也可能是关于技术、法律、社会学、市场准入等信息。可以指一个国家或多个国家。互联网导致了商业信息资源的多元化，但是，随着大量开放获取的信息资源加入到电子信息产业中，检索这些信息并赋予其附加值需要高素质的人才。企业图书馆员不能总是履行这一职能。这就是为什么竞争情报咨询公司开始在全球范围内激增的原因，因为它们为公司能够处理所有这些信息提供了一个基本的支持点。通过事先分析，这些公司为其企业客户生成“临时”信息产品。目前的工作是对西班牙该部门的详尽描述——其规模、运营形式、提供的服务以及它们所针对的部门。此描述可用于帮助商业图书馆员、经纪人和管理人员了解他们可以向其所在国家/地区的谁求助，以解决他们在没有外部援助的情况下无法解决的复杂信息问题。目前的工作是对西班牙该部门的详尽描述——其规模、运营形式、提供的服务以及它们所针对的部门。此描述可用于帮助商业图书馆员、经纪人和管理人员了解他们可以向其所在国家/地区的谁求助，以解决他们在没有外部援助的情况下无法解决的复杂信息问题。目前的工作是对西班牙该部门的详尽描述——其规模、运营形式、提供的服务以及它们所针对的部门。此描述可用于帮助商业图书馆员、经纪人和管理人员了解他们可以向其所在国家/地区的谁求助，以解决他们在没有外部援助的情况下无法解决的复杂信息问题。