the last decade. The contribution of IT usage and production is provided in Table 14. Germany 

has not been able to increase its productivity growth rate supported by IT in the same way as 

other industrialized nations.

TABLE 14  Contribution of Information Technology to GDP Growth, 1990 1998 

Real

Contribution of IT related industries 

GDP 

Growth 

Total IT Using IT Producing 

Germany 1.1% 

0.5% 

0.4% 

0.1% 

France 1.3% 

0.5% 

0.2% 

0.3% 

Italy 1.4% 

0.7% 

0.5% 

0.2% 

UK 2.1% 

1.0% 

0.6% 

0.4% 

USA 3.2% 

1.4% 

0.9% 

0.5% 

Source: Van Ark 2001. For Germany, the numbers refer to 1991 97. 

Diffusion of E Commerce Use at the Country and Industry Levels 

In spite of the temporary slowdown of the ICT industry, the number of installed ICT 

technologies is quite high at the industry level. With regard to the three industry sectors in Table 

15 the usage of e commerce standards is in most cases above average when compared to the 

global sample. 

As Table 15 shows, the diffusion of rudimentary or basic e commerce technologies seems to be  

completed to a great extent in all industry sectors. The existence of e mail, websites or Intranets 

is quite common among the companies surveyed, with diffusion rates above the global sample at 

84.4% to 100%. Nevertheless, the usage of Extranet technologies is far below the level of the 

global sample. While the manufacturing and banking/insurance industries use Extranet solutions 

extensively, the retail/wholesale sector is far behind. Innovative forms of electronic data 

interchange, such as Internet based EDI, are not yet very far reaching. Only 10.1% of the 

German industry uses Internet based EDI, with the lowest percent (8.1%) in the retail/wholesale 

industry. This may be due to the long tradition and broad diffusion of traditional EDI, resulting 

in a lower urgency to connect business partners in other ways. It is only in the manufacturing 

sector where Internet based WebEDI front end systems are popular to integrate small business 

partners into existing supply chains. Call centers also are not common in Germany, with the 

exception of the banking/insurance industry where call centers are used to adjust insurance cases 

or assist in telephone banking.

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