Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business wants to take the mystery out of doing business abroad.

More than a year ago, Robinson began developing a World Market Risk Index covering 92 countries. Tapping into a broad array of data from government agencies and international organizations, the index is nearly complete and will soon be offered to businesses, non-profit groups and other clients.

“We would like to empower the decision makers,” said Tamer Cavusgil, a Robinson professor who directs its Institute of International Business. ”The idea was to come up with a comprehensive benchmarking tool, a managerial tool that would inform them of the potential vulnerabilities of doing business in those countries.”

The index covers 250 variables. It can tell a user, for example, whether a country has too many regulations or too few, political upheaval, lack of protection of intellectual property, health problems or severe gender discrimination.

The index is arranged in four broad categories: government, economics, society and operations. The user can then dig deeper into subcategories to learn more about specific risks in each country, said Chris Brown, visiting lecturer in political science at Georgia State who helped build the database.

Overall, the country with the lowest risk is Norway, said Dr. Brown. “The most risky is Ethiopia,” he said.

The United States, although generally low risk, has some high-risk categories, said Dr. Brown. One such area is substance abuse, he said.

“The U.S. comes out as the second most risky country in the world on substance abuse,”  he said. “It does poorly on amphetamines, cocaine, opiates.”

Substance abuse can be very risky for companies since it can make it harder to find  reliable workers. “They (employers) want people who show up,” said Dr. Cavusgil. “They want people who are productive.”

The final risk index should be available within a month. Although additional countries may be added, the index covers most of the countries that conduct substantial trade with Western nations, Dr. Cavusgil  added. Pricing plans are still under development.

“We would like to offer a portfolio of services for companies,” said Dr. Cavusgil. “The data itself is very useful but analysis and customized reports would in fact be more useful for some companies.”

Companies are possible subscribers but so are countries, he added.

“Potentially, national governments would be interested in a tool like this,” he said. “There are many marketing, tourism, promotional agencies that are interested in perceptions of their countries as compared to other competing destinations.”

For more information, e-mail Dr. Cavusgil here.

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