Refugees from another troubled industry, information technology, also have been gravitating toward franchising.
The San Francisco peninsular is where the world's new dominant industry – information technology – is most concentrated.
The online I.T. community www.dice.com provides links to educational opportunities, jobs and industry information.
They also pore over industry information and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
VerticalNet, based in Horsham, Pa., operates industry Web sites where companies can get industry information and exchange products.
According to Alphaliner, an industry information provider, seven smaller carriers shut down last year, including Contenemar of Spain.
"We believe that we have seen a market bottom and a rebound from that bottom," said Brad Case, the association's vice president of research and industry information.
A whole industry – information communication technology for development (ICT4D) – is attempting to leverage new technologies to, among other things, engage civil society.
John Wilson, an assistant vice president of ChoicePoint, an insurance industry information company in Alpharetta, Ga., said insurance credit scores had been around since 1993.
Chinese and Southeast Asian groups, for example, are leaders in copyright and trademark violations that the report says threaten the leading United States industry, information.
By the end of the 1990's, United States spice consumption reached an all-time high of 968 million pounds, and most of the increase was in hot spices, according to the Food Institute, a nonprofit industry information group.
