THE ROLE OF INFORMATION IN THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TRADE BETWEEN THE UK AND SAUDI-ARABIA

Many developing countries see an expansion of the use of information t echnology (IT) as a key to future prosperity, and hope to establish an indigenous industry which will supply at least some of their needs. S ome may even develop into IT exporters. Since initially this will invo lve importing IT from developed countries a study was conducted which took the example of Saudi Arabia as a developing country and that of t he UK as a developed country in order to study the type of importing a nd exporting information system that must operate to satisfy both sets of information needs. On the basis of an earlier pilot study of 28 UK IT exporters, a series of null hypotheses were set up to guide the in vestigation, namely that there were no differences in: the utilization of information sources between Saudi Arabian IT importers and UK IT e xporters; the utilization of information sources between those UK IT e xporters involved with Saudi Arabia and those who were not; the effect of size of the firm on the utilization of information sources; and th e obstacles to accessing information sources facing both Saudi IT impo rters and UK IT exporters. Data collection was by means of questionnai re surveys sent to 220 likely UK exporters and 128 Saudi Arabian impor ters. It is concluded that information transfer between the Saudi and UK IT importing and exporting systems occurs on an extensive and conti nuing basis but its efficiency is hampered, in part, by differing atti tudes to the interface, and in part by a differing use of information channels.