Online business databases for Central and East Europe

Abstract

In accordance with the economic changes in Central and East European countries, the importance of business information sources, especially of online databases has been growing dramatically. In recent years several new company information and business news databases have been announced by several online hosts which have been claimed as appropriate sources for searching corporate intelligence and other business information In the former COMECON countries. As for the author's knowledge, no comprehensive presentation of these databases has appeared in the literature yet, therefore, he attempts to compile those online databases which, based on published sources and database catalogues, are available to search business information tor the countries in the region. The German host, GBI, plays a leading role in producing company databases, and Reuter's Textline database is found to be the best one to search for business news covering Central and East European countries. According to the cited publications, there are some 10 online databases available for searching business news and other relevant market related information for the Commonwealth of Independent States.