SDI Convergence - Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association

The Value Chain Approach to Evaluate the Economic Impact of
Geographic Information: Towards a New Visual Tool
Elisabetta Genovese 1 , Stéphane Roche 1 , Claude Caron 2
1 Département des Sciences Géomatiques, Université Laval
{elisabetta.genovese, stephane.roche}@scg.ulaval.ca
2 Groupe Géobusiness, Faculté d’administration, Université de Sherbrooke
claude.caron@usherbrooke.ca
Abstract
Geographic Information (GI) is becoming more important everyday at all levels of society.
GI has a central role in supporting economies, improving business effectiveness in
the private sector, enabling more efficient governments, and increasing citizens’ quality
of life. Assessing the value of digital information products, services and infrastructures
is particularly complex due to the specific characteristics of GI as a not- standard economic
good (Krek and Frank, 2000) and the nature of the GI market itself (Krek, 2006).
One promising assessment approach is the value chain: value is created step-by-step
along the chain. Thus, pricing in a value chain serves to determine the way in which the
value created for the end user is distributed among the contributors. In theory, the
value chain is one of the most suitable approaches to assess GI. However, it is also
one of the most complex one due to the number of variables connected to how GI is
produced and used. Therefore, it is often impossible to determine a single and constant
value to specific GI (Longhorn and Blakemore, 2008) and a concrete example of application
of a formal economic analysis based on the value chain concept still does not
exist (Genovese et al., 2008). The EcoGeo project, in its first phase, has developed a
prototype computer tool named Socioscope, which provides cartography of the links
existing between various public and private contributors (Plante, 2006). In EcoGeo’s
second phase, Socioscope will be upgraded and the value chain of the geomatic sector
in Quebec will be defined. The final goal of the project is an economic evaluation for a
test-area inside the value chain: the ability to measure the GI economic value will provide
key decision support for both institutional and private sectors.
Keywords: geographic information, geomatics, value chain, socio-economic assessment.
1. INTRODUCTION
Geographic information (or geomatics, the term which is used in Canada and France to
express the concept) occupies a growing place in modern societies. Common examples
include supporting both routine and key decisions in areas such as public health,
public safety, emergency services, environmental issues, land management, forestry,
agriculture, urban and rural planning, and retail analysis, among others (Samborski,
2007).
The impact of the Internet on the pricing of information and communications has been
substantial and GI has gradually followed a democratisation process (Gauthier, 1999;
Noucher and Archias, 2007). Information that was expensive and reserved for specialists
(Longhorn and Blakemore, 2008) is now accessible to all users. For example, the
advent of free web mapping services has allowed the wider public to have free access
to GI and easy-to-use web-mapping technology. Likewise, Global Positioning System
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