Managing Frontiers in Competitive Intelligence
Abstract
For specialists and nonspecialists alike, this perceptive selection of the newest and up and coming tools and techniques of competitive intelligence, offering a well balanced combination of theory and practice. It shows how advances in computers and technology have accelerated progress in CI management, and the ways in which CI has affected (and been affected by) all major business functions and processes. It explores applications to organizations of various sizes and types, in both the public and private sectors. Editors Fleisher and Blenkhorn link leading-edge research in CI to advances in current practice, and balance pragmatic against conceptual concerns. Analysts, strategists and organizational decision makers at higher levels will find the book especially valuable, as they seek to make sense of the business environment and assess their organizations' evolving, dynamic places in it.
The pace of change in today's global, competitive economy is greater than at any time in recorded history. Thus, as never before, companies need better tools for business and competitive analysis. The book surveys applications of CI that are critical to business processes, such as mergers and acquisitions, and to evolving industries, such as biotechnology. They focus on how push and pull Internet technologies affect data gathering and analysis and how CI can be managerially assessed using multiple evaluative approaches, unavailable until now in the public domain. They then turn to the future, and lay out some startling yet plausible viewpoints on what the next frontiers of competitive intelligence will be and how organizations can and must ready themselves for them.
... Also, from the national security point of view, Kent (1949) considered that the leaders of a nation must possess intelligence, also viewed as knowledge, to ensure its security and prosperity. Thus, it is generally accepted at both national security and business level that intelligence is a driving force for achieving competitive advantage in a specific field (Alnoukari & Hanano, 2017;Bratianu et al., 2021;Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001;Ivan, 2016;Jourdan et al., 2008;McGonagle, 2016;Rajnoha et al., 2016;Søilen, 2017). ...
... Competitive intelligence's mission is to identify the external threats that could bring risks to the organization, as well as to create vulnerabilities in internal processes (Alnoukari & Hanano, 2017), and to legally identify competitors' weaknesses and strengths (Botos & Radu, 2017;Bratianu, 2002). Therefore, during the processes specific to competitive intelligence, the organization collects valuable information about the external environment and competitors to improve its performance (Fleisher, 2001). Nevertheless, high knowledge entropy and organizational intellectual capital are essential for achieving competitive intelligence (Bratianu, 2007(Bratianu, , 2018. ...
... Another confusion identified in the specialty literature is comparing competitive intelligence to business espionage (Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001;Ivan, 2016;McGonagle, 2016). Even if competitive intelligence is oriented to the external environment, its area of interest is public information from open sources, obtained in legal manners, in a legitimate, legal, and ethical way (Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001;Ivan, 2016). ...
The concept of “intelligence” represents an important subject for researchers, developed over time in many categories, such as business intelligence, competitive intelligence, and national security intelligence. Even so, those meanings basically refer to the same capacity for processing data, information, and knowledge, their differences coming from their area of expertise. Given this, national security intelligence is associated with state institutions, while business intelligence and competitive intelligence are associated with private companies. National security intelligence represents the capacity of the leaders of a country to process the significant data, information, and knowledge for that country's security from all possible perspectives. To achieve this performance, each country has its own intelligence structures that must collect data and information, analyze and transform them into valuable knowledge for the decision-makers. The methods and means used by these intelligence structures for conducting specific activities are mainly secret and classified. This paper represents a literature review regarding the possible links and connections between national security intelligence, business intelligence, and competitive intelligence, aiming to discover the possible similarities between these concepts. We used the bibliometric analysis conducted with the specialized software VOSViewer to achieve this goal. This analysis was focused on the co-occurrence procedure using words and expressions from article titles, abstracts, and keywords. The databases used for this paper were retrieved from the Web of Science core collection, using the following expressions for searching: ”business intelligence – competitive intelligence,” ”business intelligence - national security,” and ”competitive intelligence - national security.” The results showed that no publications approach the differences between business, competitive, and national security intelligence.
... Another confusion could be made by both practitioners and researchers, considering competitive intelligence as business espionage, which is illegal. (Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001;Ivan, 2016;McGonagle, 2016). Competitive intelligence is ethical, legal, and legitimate, and is using public information obtained in legal manners from open sources (Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001;Ivan, 2016). ...
... (Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001;Ivan, 2016;McGonagle, 2016). Competitive intelligence is ethical, legal, and legitimate, and is using public information obtained in legal manners from open sources (Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001;Ivan, 2016). Therefore, competitive intelligence is oriented outside the boundaries of the organizations, aiming at gathering data that can be analyzed and transformed in information required for gaining competitive advantage in a certain field. ...
... Some possible sources of data for competitive intelligence are analyst reports, speeches, interviews, articles, biographies, press releases, resumes, annual reports, investment reports, websites, financial statements, regulatory filings, investment reports, alliance announcements, customers, political reviews, industry handbooks or patent filings (Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001). According to Ivan (2016, p. 138), business intelligence "is more an 'internal affair', in a way that it concerns interdepartmental activities, the analysis of material and informational flows and the modalities to improve the activity." ...
The paper is analyzing the purpose of intelligence structures dedicated to national security system by comparison with those dedicated to business.
... No contexto do ambiente competitivo, Salles (2006) e Wright et al. (2013 afirmam que as PME devem prover mecanismos que prevejam as mudanças do mercado, inclusive para agirem se for necessário baseado em um conjunto grande de informações. Uma das possibilidades, no tocante ao acompanhamento de mercados e ao processo de tomada de decisão, é o uso da Inteligência Competitiva [IC] (Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001) (West, 2001) (Sharp, 2009) (Du Toit & Sewdass, 2014). ...
... Entende-se, por IC, as habilidades em antecipar às mudanças do mercado, em tomar as ações associadas às movimentações dos concorrentes, em reorientar a tecnologia e a direção estratégica das empresas conforme as necessidades de seus clientes (Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001) (West, 2001 Lesca (2003), trata-se de um processo coletivo, pró-ativo e contínuo relacionado à coleta de informações pertinentes e relativas ao ambiente da empresa e às mudanças que podem ocorrer. O autor destaca como principais benefícios: a criação de oportunidades de negócios, a inovação, a antecipação ao ambiente, prever surpresas desagradáveis e reduzir as incertezas. ...
... Para Caron-Fasan (2001), Lesca (2001) e Caron-Fasan e Janissek-Muniz (2004), os sinais possuem como características serem fragmentos de informação, ocultos, ambíguos, inesperados, incertos, errantes e randômicos. Há de se considerar, inclusive, a figura do falsopositivo, ou seja, as informações que levam a conclusões incorretas (Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001) (West, 2001). ...
Resumo O objetivo deste estudo é propor um modelo adaptado da cadeia de valor baseado na capacidade de absorção e na captura de sinais que vise proporcionar maior longevidade e capacidade de inovação para as Pequenas e Médias Empresas. A monitoração do ambiente competitivo é fundamental para a inovação das Pequenas e Médias Empresas e estas devem prover mecanismos que capturem eficientemente os sinais de mudança. A metodologia utilizada foi baseada em análise de documentos e os resultados mostram um modelo capaz de ser utilizado pelas Pequenas e Médias Empresas, que visam ter uma maior capacidade de absorção e captura de sinais, permitindo-as inovar em um ambiente competitivo. Palavras-chave: Pequenas e Médias Empresas; captura de sinais; capacidade de absorção. Abstract The aim of this study is to propose an adapted model of the value chain based on the absorption capacity and capture of signals aimed at providing greater longevity and innovation capacity for Small and Medium Enterprises. The monitoring of the competitive environment is critical to the innovation of Small and Medium Enterprises and these should provide mechanisms to efficiently capture the signs of change. The methodology used was based on document analysis and the results show a model capable of being used for Small and Medium Enterprises, which aim to have higher absorption capacity and capture of signals, allowing them to innovate in a competitive environment.
... Source: Turban & Aronson & Liang (2005) There is a consensus that the strategy begins with a vision of what the organization wants to be in the future, which translates into the development of the specific actions necessary to achieve that vision. Strategic management has been defined as a way of leading an organization that seeks to develop values, management capabilities, organizational responsibilities and administrative systems to connect strategic and operational decision-making (Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001). In the current era of digital transformation, the ability to respond quickly and strategically to unpredictable changes can determine the success or failure of the organization, which is achieved as a corporation becomes more successful in implementing innovation and Digital services. ...
... The objective of strategic decisions is to locate the company so that it can take full advantage of its competitive environment, with competitive intelligence responsible for generating this adjustment. For years, there have been criticisms about the usefulness of strategic planning in the traditional way, raising some authors with an anticipated vision of what would come next, that in the rapidly changing, accelerated and competitive world, a step-by-step strategic planning approach hinders the decision making and dynamic actions towards the required market (Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001). Thus, it seems necessary that instead of being carried out at certain intervals, the strategic planning process is carried out continuously (Vecchiato, 2015) using innovation and digital technologies as essential tools. ...
This chapter addresses a conceptual review of the methodology to define strategies and supports for carrying out effective, efficient, and innovative decisions and strengthen management and leadership, given the dynamic changes that are taking place in the current turbulent environment. The main catalyst is the digital revolution and its implications in a new management style. The functions of anticipation and early assessment of threats, risks, and opportunities, constitute the central functionality of the new strategic approach. Its impact is especially notable in the field of strategic decision making, which must be fully timely, rigorous, transparent, and credible in the face of the growing demands of customers and the public. The use of strategic intelligence has become critical, and the skills for its management and application are of great relevance in terms of defining management strategies and decisions, and complementary to the use of digital technology tools.
... There is a consensus that the strategy begins with a vision of what the organization wants to be in the future, which translates into the development of the specific actions necessary to achieve that vision. Strategic management has been defined as a way of leading an organization that seeks to develop Turban & Aronson & Liang (2005) values, management capabilities, organizational responsibilities and administrative systems to connect strategic and operational decision-making (Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001). In the current era of digital transformation, the ability to respond quickly and strategically to unpredictable changes can determine the success or failure of the organization, which is achieved as a corporation becomes more successful in implementing innovation and Digital services. ...
... The objective of strategic decisions is to locate the company so that it can take full advantage of its competitive environment, with competitive intelligence responsible for generating this adjustment. For years, there have been criticisms about the usefulness of strategic planning in the traditional way, raising some authors with an anticipated vision of what would come next, that in the rapidly changing, accelerated and competitive world, a step-by-step strategic planning approach hinders the decision making and dynamic actions towards the required market (Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001). Thus, it seems necessary that instead of being carried out at certain intervals, the strategic planning process is carried out continuously (Vecchiato, 2015) using innovation and digital technologies as essential tools. ...
This chapter addresses a conceptual review of the methodology to define strategies and supports for carrying out effective, efficient, and innovative decisions and strengthen management and leadership, given the dynamic changes that are taking place in the current turbulent environment. The main catalyst is the digital revolution and its implications in a new management style. The functions of anticipation and early assessment of threats, risks, and opportunities, constitute the central functionality of the new strategic approach. Its impact is especially notable in the field of strategic decision making, which must be fully timely, rigorous, transparent, and credible in the face of the growing demands of customers and the public. The use of strategic intelligence has become critical, and the skills for its management and application are of great relevance in terms of defining management strategies and decisions, and complementary to the use of digital technology tools.
... Some of these definitions are as follows: competitive intelligence is a process in which an organization collects information about competitors and competitive environment to be used in planning and decision makings related to performance improvement (Wright et al., 2009). According to Bulley et al. (2014), Kotler &Keller (2009), andBlenkhorn (2001), competitive intelligence is a process that improves planning and decision making through gaining information from competitors and industrial environment. Santo & Correia (2010) and Herring (1999) presented the same definitions but Herring (1999) focused on planning for gaining and collecting information to achieve competitive intelligence. ...
... Communications: In this step, the results of competitive intelligent are shared with all employees through various channels such as reports, e-mail, seminars, short notes, etc. (Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001). Moreover, this step entails the evaluation of competitive intelligence process, identification of advantages, and evaluation of effectiveness in decision-making process (Nasri, 2011). ...
Privatization, partial tariff liberalization and entrance of foreign insurance companies in Iranian market pose serious challenges to domestic insurance companies. This paper discusses competitive intelligence as a means of gaining competitive advantage for insurance companies and seeks to study its effects on creation of sustainable competitive advantage. A sample of 123 middle and senior managers working in Iran Insurance Company in Tehran were surveyed. Data were collected via questionnaire and analyzed using Structural Equation Model (SEM) in PLS software. Results showed that competitive intelligence had a positive effect on creation of competitive advantage based on two sets of process and contextual factors, with the former exerting greater effect in this regard. It was concluded that companies were required to gain competitive advantage by establishing a strategic unit to collect, analyze and share intelligent information derived from internal and external environment.
... Due to the increasing complexity and dynamics of the environment the need to produce relevant "actionable" intelligence is increasing as well. Because of, for instance, increased global competition, (speed and impact of) political changes, and rapid technological developments (e.g., Kahaner, 1997;Cook & Cook, 2000;Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001) the need for information about the environment is more pressing than ever. As McDermott (in Hannon, 1997, p. 411) puts it, "Perhaps [CI] was inevitable, given the heightened competition that prevails now […]." ...
... A distinction can be made between a "rough" data profile (indicating certain data classes, e.g., "We need to know something about the logistic capacity of competitor X and Y") and an exact data profile (indicating the exact data within a certain data class, e.g., "We need to know the amount of trucks and their capacity"). These topics (both in their exact or rough version) are also known as Competitive Intelligence Needs (Fleisher, 2001), Key Intelligence Topics (Kahaner, 1996) or Essential Information Elements (Sammon, 1984). ...
This chapter discusses the role of ICT for competitive intelligence activities. To this end, it starts with an introduction to competitive intelligence. Next, it discusses possible uses of ICT for intelligence activities. In this discussion attention is paid to the use of the Internet, to general purpose ICT tools, to ICT tools tailored to one or more of the intelligence stages, and to business intelligence tools (data warehouses and tools to retrieve and present data in them). Finally, the chapter describes how organizations may select ICT applications to support their intelligence activities.
... Entende-se, por IC, as habilidades em antecipar às mudanças do mercado, em tomar as ações associadas às movimentações dos concorrentes, em reorientar a tecnologia e a direção estratégica das empresas conforme as necessidades de seus clientes (Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001) (West, 2001). Já as definições de Turban, Sharda, Aronson e King (2009) e Miller (2002 possuem um foco exclusivo nos concorrentes. ...
... MPE devem prover mecanismos que antecipem as mudanças do mercado, inclusive para agirem se for necessário baseado em um conjunto grande de informações. Uma das possibilidades, no tocante ao acompanhamento de mercados e ao processo de tomada de decisão, é o uso da Inteligência Competitiva [IC](Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001) (West, 2001) (Sharp, 2009) (Du Toit & Sewdass, 2014. ...
Resumo O objetivo deste estudo é propor um modelo adaptado baseado no processo de inovação e no processo para a captura de sinais, visando proporcionar processos de inovação melhor estruturados e maior capacidade de antecipar-se às alterações do ambiente externo. A monitoração do ambiente competitivo é fundamental para a sobrevivência das Micro e Pequenas Empresas [MPE] e estas devem desenvolver mecanismos que capturem eficientemente os sinais de mudança. A metodologia utilizada foi baseada em análise de documentos e os resultados indicam um modelo capaz de ser utilizado pelas Micro e Pequenas Empresas que visam ter um processo de inovação melhor estruturado baseado na captura de sinais provenientes do ambiente externo e permitindo-as inovar em um ambiente competitivo. Abstract The aim of this study is to propose an adapted model based on the innovation process and in the process to capture signals that aims to provide innovation processes better structured and better able to anticipate the changes in the external environment. The monitoring of the competitive environment is critical to the survival of Micro and Small Enterprises [MSE] and these should develop mechanisms to efficiently capture the signs of change. The methodology used was based on analysis of documents and the results show a model to be used by Micro and Small Enterprises aimed at having a better structured innovation process based on signal capture from the external environment and allowing them to innovate in an environment competitive.
... • Technology Intelligence deals with the identification, assessment and usage of weak signals and information about emerging technologies and technological discontinuities [12][13][14]. • Competitive Intelligence deals with the assessment of competitors and the identification and assessment of products and services in development or already available in lead markets [15][16][17][18]. ...
... The methods of Strategic Foresight can be differentiated according to the areas in which they are applied, as shown in Figure 5. A case study of Deutsche Telekom AG and a literature review in the area of Competitive Intelligence identified the market-oriented methods [16,17,27]. The Deutsche Telekom AG mainly uses an international scouting network for Technology Intelligence [28,29]. ...
Strategic Foresight activities enable companies to use weak signals to identify opportunities and threats. Research on Strategic Foresight proposes different methods, discusses their implementation and gives recommendations on how to link Strategic Foresight with other functions in an organization. Based on a literature review, we define a generic framework for the management of Strategic Foresight activities on the strategic, tactical and operational level and identify and discuss actors, methods and systems of Strategic Foresight. Building on an in-depth case study of the Deutsche Telekom Laboratories we shed light on the implementation of Strategic Foresight activities. In the discussion we focus on the interaction of methods from Consumer Foresight and Technology Intelligence. Taking an example project, we explore how Strategic Foresight is used on the operational level of innovation management. We conclude that Strategic Foresight can successfully contribute to coping with uncertainty and complexity and can feed the front-end of innovation from the market (customer needs) and technology (realization opportunities) perspective.
... Referring to the analysis of competitive intelligence purposes, economic, Fleisher and Blenkhorn (2001) propose a model that includes determinations of four elements: ...
... • Understanding the organization and customer needs (subsumed a call); • Type of analysis; • The type collection; and • The nature and volume of required data (Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001). ...
In this paper, the author discusses the trajectory of the main Romanian marks from the communist period on the free competition market. This analysis used data that were periodically published by the Romanian newspaper Adevarul, following the surveys and studies conducted by Gemius and Evensys (popularity tops of the fourth edition of the study ?Leading Brands by Romanian Users 2011?), as well as other specialty works, the studies made by Alexander Dolgin in particular. Last but not least, the author examines some ?success stories? of new Romanian brands, compared with the old brands, to bring to evidence and debate the capacity of the new Romanian entrepreneurs to stand out in the market and protect and promote their products in a tough competition environment, subject to globalization.
... • Competitive Intelligence deals with the assessment of competitors and the identification and assessment of products and services in development or already available in lead markets [16][17][18][19]. • Political Environment Foresight deals with the identification, assessment and usage of information on legislation, the political environment and on shifts in the political landscape [1,5]. ...
... The methods of Strategic Foresight can be differentiated according to the areas in which they are applied, as shown in Figure 5. A case study of Deutsche Telekom AG and a literature review in the area of Competitive Intelligence identified the market-oriented methods [17,18,28]. The Deutsche Telekom AG mainly uses an international scouting network for Technology Intelligence [29,30] market and technology perspective [34] as well as between strategic, tactical and operational planning [35]. ...
Strategic foresight activities allow companies to identify weak signals of change and react to opportunities and threats in
their environment. This chapter describes the strategic foresight practices of Deutsche Telekom and their relation to the
innovation and applied R&D activities. Differentiating between continuous foresight (undirected scanning of the environment)
and project-based foresight (issue driven), methods, tools, and processes are described. Activities include consumer foresight,
competitor foresight, and technology foresight.
... It is important to be stated that competitive intelligence is not business espionage. Besides business espionage, which is illegal, competitive intelligence is legal and ethical, using only public information from open sources, respectively press releases, investment reports, political reviews, annual reports, analyst reports, articles, interviews and other similar sources (Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001;Ivan, 2016). ...
The research in management field from the last decades showed that both knowledge and intelligence are considered as some of the most important assets which help business organizations achieve the competitive advantage in a certain market. In our current times, determined by uncertainty and ambiguity, leaders and managers are in a constant need of valuable and timely information that is required for taking the most desirable decision for the company. Given so, researchers and practitioners developed certain tools and activities in order to achieve the information necessary to decision making process, from both inside and outside the company, known as business intelligence and competitive intelligence. Therefore, this article contains a literature review about the connections between business intelligence, competitive intelligence, on one hand, and management, on the other hand. Using the specialized software VOSviewer, this research presents the bibliometric analysis based on the co-occurrences of certain keywords, which demonstrates the inter-correlation of some specific research fields. The data examined using VOSviewer was retrieved from Web of Science core collection, the world`s largest bibliographic database for scientific research.
... As capturas feitas podem ser primárias, secundárias, formais ou informais. Nesse momento é onde os agentes da corporação compreender a necessidade da utilização de inteligência de mercado, através do nível de observações captadas (FLEISHER, 2001;DUTKA, 1999;TOLEDO, 2007). A quarta etapa é a disseminação da informação, que tem como foco passar os resultados encontrados, para gerar estratégias especifica. ...
O processo de inteligência competitiva e a inovação são ações empresariais consideradas no mercado altamente competitivo atual, essenciais para a sobrevivência de uma corporação. O objetivo da presente pesquisa foi localizar como o processo de IC está atrelado à inovação utilizando os dados disponíveis pela PINTEC. Inicialmente foram feitos levantamentos teóricos com o objetivo de introduzir alguns termos e conceitos considerados padrões em ambas as áreas, para em seguida ser feita uma análise dos valores apresentados na última publicação de pesquisa de inovação do IBGE. Os resultados corroboram que esta estratégia auxilia na inovação, onde a IC gera um insumo para a tomada de decisão, sendo que essa estratégia é tipicamente um processo interno, devido à alta importância dos dados obtidos, enquanto externamente o foco tende a ser em informações que não são diretamente do setor, como é o caso de indicadores e análises econômicas. Por fim, levanta-se a análise que um processo de inteligência competitiva bem estruturada dentro de um mercado competitivo se torna uma competência essencial dentro de uma corporação com a possibilidade de aumentar o market share da mesma, no longo prazo.
... This process of monitoring information from the environment where the company operates, in order to discover opportunities and reducing risks is the basis of competitive intelligence, according to Fleisher and Blenkhorn (2001). From the survey and analysis of information, competitive intelligence aims at making decisions and establishing short, medium and long-term strategies (Prescott, 1995). ...
This paper endeavored to identify how the competitive intelligence process influences the growth and performance of franchise networks. The research employed a qualitative method and the field work was done with 15 franchisors from different sectors of activity. Two data analysis techniques were utilized: discourse analysis and critical incident technique. As a result, five critical incidents were found, that is, five competitive intelligence processes which would lead to the growth of a franchise network. In addition, three direct effects on performance were discussed: 1) increase sales and revenues; 2) increase the number of franchise units; 3) boosts chances of survival and growth of the network in local and external markets. On the other hand, it was possible to notice the existence of a dissonance between the perception of the franchisors regarding the rigor and structure of competitive intelligence process in the multiple franchise networks in the market.
... d'étude, il n'existe pas de méthode infaillible pour rédiger et tester un support de collecte de données, mais plutôt un ensemble de conseils pratiques et de bon sens qui s'ordonnent autour de trois considérations importantes : la manière de structurer le questionnaire, la formulation des questions et l'administration du questionnaire.13 . Vicente, R., (2017)," Les facteurs critiques de succès de l'implantation de l'ERM", Thèse présentée à l'École de gestion, comme exigence partielle du doctorat en administration (DBA) offert conjointement par l'Université de Sherbrooke et l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, P71.14 . Shaughnessy, J.,.Zechmeister, E., Zechmeister, J., (2011)," Research Methods in Psychology", Ninth Edition, P138.2.1.1. ...
L’objectif de cette étude est d’essayer de montrer l’effet de l’intelligence économique sur la performance et la compétitivité de l’entreprise à travers un teste de modèle causal vis-à-vis ce tryptique en intégrant la compétitivité comme variable médiatrice. Une enquête par le biais d’un questionnaire a été menée auprès de deux cent quatre entreprises qui opèrent dans les divers secteurs économiques à travers le territoire Algérien. Les questionnaires ont été exploités et traités par Exel2007, SPSS V25, SMART-PLSV3 et NVIVO12. La valeur de la qualité de conformité du modèle structurelle (GOF) a été 0.565, les résultats obtenus ont permis de confirmer l’effet partiel du médiateur et valider ainsi le modèle causal.
Mots clés : l’intelligence économique, performance, compétitivité, modélisation en équation structurelle PLS- SEM.
The objective of this study is to try to show the effect of the economic intelligence on the performance and competitiveness of the company through a test of causal model towards this triptych by integrating competitiveness as a mediating variable. A questionnaire survey was conducted among two hundred and four companies operating in various economic sectors throughout the Algerian territory. The questionnaires were exploited and treated by Exel2007, SPSS V25, SMARTPLSV3 and NVIVO12. The goodness of fit value of the structural model (GOF) was 0.565; the results obtained confirmed the partial effect of the mediator and validate the causal model.
Key words: economic intelligence, performance, competitiveness, modeling in structural equation PLS-SEM.
... Par ailleurs, Sun Tzu, célèbre chef militaire chinois ayant vécu vers l'an 500 av. J.-C., a écrit son célèbre traité The Art of War dans lequel il fait l'éloge de l'importance de l'utilisation du renseignement à des fins militaires et où il affirme qu'aucun chef militaire ne devrait se sentir en danger s'il se connaît bien et s'il connaît parfaitement son adversaire (Fleisher, 2001). ...
... Cooper and Edgett (2008) and Von Hippel (2005) focused on monitoring consumption tendencies and proposed ethnographic research and direct interaction with consumers in analysis of lead users. Fleisher and Blenkhorn (2001) propose the monitoring of competitors, media and financial reports and technical analysis of products. Siemens (2008); Shell (2002) andLoo (2002) propose the construction and analysis of future scenarios. ...
The need for effective and efficient Product Innovation (PI) is a great challenge for organisations in today’s hypercompetitive global markets. Many research studies addressed problems/obstacles to successful PI from various perspectives. Many other studies proposed factors to help companies mitigate such problems. Here, the primary objective is to propose an integrated model, to empirically test this model, and get insights about which factors, if managed appropriately, will help reduce the obstacles to PI in practice. A questionnaire was developed, pilot tested, and used to collect data from 47 PI managers. The results support the theoretical importance of a formal PI process, characteristics of the company environment, and the availability of specific resources as important factors to reduce obstacles to company PI. Based on the results recommendations are made to practitioners and researchers in this important area.
Keywords: Product innovation; product development; success factors; process management; organisation environment; required resources.
... It is necessary to look at several di®erent studies, models and current best practices. Several common or similar factors should appear to be crucial to e®ective competitive intelligence regardless of the organization, size of the organization, or industry (Fleisher and Blenkhorn, 2001). ...
This study deals with the gain in quality and cost reduction in the pressing of the spark plug wires from the need to ensure a standard, eliminate quality defects such as poor contact of the cables generating low power failures and unexpected problems. The main objective is to study the best practices in the automotive market, to ensure a standard for fixing the spark plug wires, comparing them with the current method, pointing out potential gains from the analysis of deployment costs by reducing the time of labor and applying the results in the production line to ensure that the spark plug wires come out correctly set. To understand this work some key points were studied and addressed such as the system World Class Manufacturing (WCM), quality tools like FMEA, PDCA cycle and Kaizen. These were applied in the process of pressing the plug wires, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages, seeking the best way to use. The results show the implementation of automation to press the spark plug wires in a positive manner towards the operation performed by the operator. Automation was accepted and used to run the company in 2014. Referring to the layout of the production area, there was a reduction in the cycle time of the post. Moreover, reducing the cycle time of the operator with consequent cost savings for the company and improved ergonomic operation was observed. It is concluded that the main goal, which was to ensure a standard for pressing the plug wires and eliminating quality defects, was achieved as evidenced by cost analyses, beyond the desaturation of the job, thus receiving new activities.
... To aggregate and use information that are scattered in the internal and external environments of organizations, there is the concept of Competitive Intelligence, which according Fleisher [1] is a process by which organizations gather actionable information about competitors and the competitive environment and, ideally, apply it to their decision-making and planning processes in order to improve their performance. ...
The large increase in the creation and dissemination of data on the Internet can offer information of high value-added to organizations. This information can be provided by heterogeneous databases that may not be considered relevant by most systems, e.g., social media data, blogs and more. If organizations would use such sources, they could build a new management vision known as Competitive Intelligence. In the context of architectures of Information Retrieval, this research aims on implementing a semantic extraction agent for the Web environment, allowing information finding, storage, processing and retrieval, such as those from the Big Data context produced by several informational sources on the Internet, serving as a basis for the implementation of information environments for decision support. Using this method, it will be possible to verify that the agent and ontology proposal addresses this part and can play the role of a semantic level of the architecture.
... To aggregate and use information that are scattered in the internal and external environments of organizations, there is the concept of Competitive Intelligence, which according Fleisher and Blenkhorn (2001) is a process by which organizations gather actionable information about competitors and the competitive environment and, ideally, apply it to their decision-making and planning processes in order to improve their performance. ...
The evolution of information technology caused an expansion in the amount of data available on the internet. Moreover, such developments demanded that new tools were created to allow processing at high velocity, trying various informational sources. In this context, in flocking to the three V (Velocity, Variety and Volume), emerged the phenomenon called Big Data. From the emergence of this phenomenon, the need to generate new architectures that allow that users, enjoy the high volume of data spread throughout the Web. One way to improve the processes carried out, insert the question of semantic information processing, in which the use of domain ontologies can expand as computational agents interpret the meaning of the data. Thus, this paper aims to present a proposal for architecture that places the elements of Big Data and semantic, seeking to insert a model that is adapted to the current computing needs. As proof of concept performed the implementation of the architecture, exploring the question of scientific research, where a user is assisted to find relevant information in academic databases. Through the implementation, it was found that the use ontologies in a Big Data architecture, significantly improves the recovery of information performed by computational agents.
... To aggregate and use information that are scattered in the internal and external environments of organizations, there is the concept of Competitive Intelligence, which according Fleisher and Blenkhorn [2001] is a process by which organizations gather actionable information about competitors and the competitive environment and, ideally, apply it to their decision-making and planning processes in order to improve their performance. A proactive informational process leads to a better decision, whether strategic or operational, in order to discover the forces that govern the business, reduce risk and drive the decision maker to act in advance, besides protecting the generated knowledge. ...
Resumo
In the context of architectures of Information Retrieval, this research aims on implementing a semantic extraction agent for higher education institutions Web environment, allowing information finding, storage, processing and retrieval, such as those from the Big Data context produced by several informational sources on the Internet, serving as a basis for the implementation of information environments for decision support. Using this method, it will be possible to verify that the agent and ontology proposal addresses this part and can play the role of a semantic level of the architecture.
... On one hand, these commonalities suggest that information professionals could potentially contribute to the CI¯eld. Indeed, literature a±rms that, over the past decades, information professionals had active, direct participation in CI work (Fuld, 1985;Greene, 1988;Hohhof, 1994;Miller, 1995;Fuld, 1995;Miller, 1996;Prescott, 1999;Fleisher and Blenkhorn, 2001;Moon, 2000a,b;Bergeron and Hiller, 2002;Carr, 2003;Juhari and Stephens, 2006;SCIP, 2006a,b). ...
Little is known about how information professionals perceive themselves in the competitive intelligence (CI) work domain. There is a dearth of scholarly attention on their social identities in CI, their involvement with CI, and how their engagement impacts the usage of corporate information agency resources by CI practitioners. The goal of this study is to create a benchmark knowledge base addressing these issues. We developed five constructs — awareness of CI functioning in the organisation, perceived identity toward CI, perceived involvement in CI work, frequency of interactivities with CI practitioners, and perceived usage of corporate information agency resources — and attempted to propose and validate a causal model connecting these constructs. Data were collected through a survey of 86 information professionals, and analyzed using descriptive statistics and partial least squares (PLS). Our major findings include: few respondents identified themselves exclusively as CI professionals; the respondents collectively had a low CI-involvement level; perceived identity influenced perceived involvement; and both perceived involvement and frequency of interactivities influenced the usage of corporate information agency resources. These findings could influence the design of future CI programs and the education programs for new information professionals.
... Cooper and Edgett (2008) and Von Hippel (2005) focused on monitoring consumption tendencies and proposed ethnographic research and direct interaction with consumers in analysis of lead users. Fleisher and Blenkhorn (2001) propose the monitoring of competitors, media and financial reports and technical analysis of products. Siemens (2008); Shell (2002) and Loo (2002) propose the construction and analysis of future scenarios. ...
The need for effective and efficient Product Innovation (PI) is a great challenge for organisations in today’s hypercompetitive global markets. Many research studies addressed problems/obstacles to successful PI from various perspectives. Many other studies proposed factors to help companies mitigate such problems. Here, the primary objective is to propose an integrated model, to empirically test this model, and get insights about which factors, if managed appropriately, will help reduce the obstacles to PI in practice. A questionnaire was developed, pilot tested, and used to collect data from 47 PI managers. The results support the theoretical importance of a formal PI process, characteristics of the company environment, and the availability of specific resources as important factors to reduce obstacles to company PI. Based on the results recommendations are made to practitioners and researchers in this important area.
... Fleisher and Blenkhorn (2005:281) state that intelligence research and education have been dwarfed by older and more established approaches in, for example, business, management, marketing and strategy studies. Overall, the academic research field of intelligence activities seems still to be very much in an emergent state (Badr and Madden 2006; Fleisher and Blenkhorn 2001; Prescott 1995) and there is a need to adopt more systematic methodologies before intelligence theories can begin to attain an established position and professional status. ...
The literature review shows that business intelligence (BI) has a long history even though its systematic use in the business context is more recent. Despite the importance of systematic BI, the concept is still trying to find a footing in both academia and the business world. From the literature review, one sees that there are numerous intelligence concepts and that their categorization is ambiguous. The BI concept is also multidimensional as there is no precise or universal conception of what BI is. The article aims to provide an analysis of BI definitions and related intelligence concepts, such as the content of each key concept, what it describes and how intelligence concepts relate to each other. Another objective of the article is to increase the academic understanding and status of this recent field of research on intelligence activities.
... To aggregate and use information that are scattered in the internal and external environments of organizations, there is the concept of Competitive Intelligence, which according Fleisher [1] is a process by which organizations gather actionable information about competitors and the competitive environment and, ideally, apply it to their decision-making and planning processes in order to improve their performance. ...
The large increase in the creation and dissemination of data on the Internet can offer information of high value-added to organizations. This information can be provided by heterogeneous databases that may not be considered relevant by most systems, e.g., social media data, blogs and more. If organizations would use such sources, they could build a new management vision known as Competitive Intelligence. In the context of architectures of Information Retrieval, this research aims on implementing a semantic extraction agent for the Web environment, allowing information finding, storage, processing and retrieval, such as those from the Big Data context produced by several informational sources on the Internet, serving as a basis for the implementation of information environments for decision support. Using this method, it will be possible to verify that the agent and ontology proposal addresses this part and can play the role of a semantic level of the architecture.
... CI practitioners need to have the profession recognized by external stakeholders as being legitimate and ethical. As the adoption of ethical standards is a hallmark of a profession, it paves the way for the competitive intelligence profession (Fleisher and Blenkhorn, 2000). ...
Information superiority is the most critical asset in war making. It directly addresses the perception of the opponent and in the long term the will of him to act. Sun Tzu's classical text states this fact by the concept of deception as the basis of all warfare. The success in warfare then is dependent on being aware of what's happening, accurately realizing the con-text. This is the intelligence function in broad terms and mostly open source intelligence as it provides the context. Competitive intelligence is based mainly on open sources and day by day the open source share in the intelligence product is increasing. Present diversified open sources & ser-vices represent a methodology shift in war. The two preceding ways have been overt physical acts against military targets in wartime and covert in-formation operations conducted throughout peacetime against even non-military targets respectively. The present methodology must be overt (open) information operations during peacetime. This coincides with a metaphor change as well. It proposes a transformation from a war meta-phor into a game metaphor in which there are some playing rules. In fact, the existence of such rules helps in drawing the boundary of the field of competitive intelligence and thus making it a profession. Game metaphor is safer to adopt than war as it's easier to take responsibility in public dis-closure scenarios in this case. By following this metaphor, you continue to stay in the boundary of legitimate competition. In other terms, you make a conscious preference in terms of war intensities by choosing to avoid the more intense war forms limited conflict, and actual warfare respectively. Finally, this preference is in accordance with the fundamental point of the Sun Tzu's entire argument: The vision of victory without fighting. To sum-marize, open source domination in the competitive intelligence lays the ground for the game metaphor that represents a transformation in war-fare. The apparent outcome is overt information operations during peace-time. It emerges as the most important tool to fight against deception, thus success in information warfare in the contemporary world.
... The literature treats the valuation step more implicitly. It discusses distinctions regarding sources, such as open versus closed sources, internal versus external sources, or primary versus secondary sources (Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001;Kahaner, 1997). These distinctions implicitly refer to criteria used in the valuation of sources. ...
... One reason for us to incorporate information behavior approach into this study is that we see CI as intensive information work. Many CI scholars have pointed out that effective CI often depends on the ability to identify proper intelligence needs, the types of information that can be used to address the needs, the sources and channels to secure the information, and the methods to convert the information into intelligence (Abels and Klein, in press ;Bouthillier and Shearer, 2003 ;Fleisher and Blenkhorn, 2001 ;Fleisher and Bensoussan, 2007 ;Vibert, 2004). These aspects are highly relevant to the components of information behavior research -information needs, information seeking, and information use. ...
Competitive intelligence activities are intensive information behavior. This paper reports a portion of results from a study of how 28 Canadian CI professionals work in the real world, such as the mechanism of their information needs, the types of information that they seek, and the information sources that they use.Les activités de la veille concurrentielle constituent des comportements informationnels intensifs. Cet article présente une partie des résultats d’une étude portant sur la manière dont 28 professionnels canadiens de la veille concurrentielle travaillent dans le monde réel, et plus particulièrement le mécanisme de leurs besoins informationnels, les catégories d’information recherchées, et les sources d’information utilisées.
... Competitive intelligence is as important as a good marketing department and has emerged as a 'must-have tactical tool' in the corporate world (Thomas, 1998). The heightened awareness of competitive intelligence has been spirited by increased global competitiveness characterized by increased industry consolidation and fragmentation (Fleisher & Blenkhorn, 2001). The Internet provides both the data and tools for competitive intelligence, offering a wealth of information and search bots for those wishing to gather information about corporations and individuals. ...
This paper describes a scenario carried out in an intensive course in competitive intelligence and cyberwarfare. The scenario features two business organizations in tight competition and is designed to run over two days. The paper provides details of the scenario and discusses its application as part of a Master of Internet Security Management at Curtin University. Introduction Competitive intelligence is not a new concept, it has been used by numerous high-profile corporations for decades. In order to survive, excel and outstrip rivals an organization must have an intricate knowledge of their own business, the industry and their competitors. The growth in awareness of competitive intelligence is evidenced by the growing number of publications describing how to establish a competitive intelligence department within an organization and how to carry out such a deparment's functions. Competitive intelligence is undertaken in many different forms in both public and private organizations. Miller (2000) suggests that government agencies conduct intelligence focused more on threats than on opportunities, but in corporations this situation is reversed, with emphasis more on opportunities than threats. Shake and Gembicki (1999) suggest modern business executives are equipped with tools of combat with well appointed fortresses where information warfare in a business context involves achieving and maintaining an information advantage over competitors.
... Fleisher and Blenkhorn (2005:281) state that intelligence research and education have been dwarfed by older and more established approaches in, for example, business, management, marketing and strategy studies. Overall, the academic research field of intelligence activities seems still to be very much in an emergent state (Badr and Madden 2006; Fleisher and Blenkhorn 2001; Prescott 1995) and there is a need to adopt more systematic methodologies before intelligence theories can begin to attain an established position and professional status. A literature review and conceptual analyses are needed to understand the basis of BI and to place BI in the right context. ...
The literature review shows that business intelligence (BI) has a long history even though its systematic use in the business context is more recent. Despite the importance of systematic BI, the concept is still trying to find a footing in both academia and the business world. From the literature review, one sees that there are numerous intelligence concepts and that their categorization is ambiguous. The BI concept is also multidimensional as there is no precise or universal conception of what BI is. The article aims to provide an analysis of BI definitions and related intelligence concepts, such as the content of each key concept, what it describes and how intelligence concepts relate to each other. Another objective of the article is to increase the academic understanding and status of this recent field of research on intelligence activities.
This chapter is all about the terminology and history of our field of study. More importantly, it addresses the somewhat confusing landscape of different disciplines that study similar phenomena from varying perspectives. Our goal is to bring clarity and order to this theoretical landscape. Achieving this is crucial for ensuring efficient communication within the field, reducing misunderstandings, and increasing the effectiveness of intelligence work.
L’article offre une revue narrative de la littérature sur la veille concurrentielle et stratégique principalement et, dans une moindre mesure, sur l’intelligence économique et la veille informationnelle, pour explorer l’état de la formation académique, de la recherche académique et des pratiques professionnelles au Canada et aux États-Unis. Les écrits sélectionnés et publiés entre 2000 et 2021 retracent les principaux éléments marquant l’évolution des programmes d’études, des sujets de recherche et des intérêts professionnels reliés à la veille.
As the purpose of the study of intelligence is, in part, to aid the practice of intelligence, scholarship must reflect that practice. This article sets out a theoretical framework for Critical Intelligence Studies that will increase the real-world applicability of the study of intelligence as currently represented by Intelligence Studies. Critical Security Studies’ recognition of the broadening and widening of the concept of security, and the ensuing recognition that intelligence work is not only done by state intelligence agencies or for the security of states, provides an opportunity to push forward the study of intelligence into a position where a well-developed, and theoretically sound, Critical Intelligence Studies can be meaningfully said to exist.
This research paper presents a novel methodology for analyzing and evaluating the competitive and technological levels of the beef production chain in the Atlántico Department in Colombia. Based on the literature review associated with Competitive Intelligence, 31 factors systematized in the dimensions of Commercial Intelligence, Competitor Intelligence, Technical and Technological Intelligence, Social Environment Intelligence, and Strategic Intelligence were identified and validated with a Content Validity Index of 0.893. Cluster analysis was used to identify and characterize the characteristic profiles of cattle farms and processing plants associated with the beef production chain. As a main result, a methodology was structured based on the analysis of clusters and five dimensions of competitive intelligence that discriminate competitive groups and technological development in the sector. The obtained results from this research make it possible to identify weaknesses and strengths in the beef production chain for potential improvement. The evaluation of the methodology effectiveness is confirmed by the identification of five characteristic profiles that were evaluated in terms of their competitive level and technological development concerning the dimensions of competitive intelligence and that can be used for the design and creation of improvement routes for each competitive and technology profile, the design of public policies for developing the production chain and, above all, for the analysis and development of other production chains.
Este artículo tiene como objetivo presentar un estado de la cuestión del principal corpus teórico de la inteligencia competitiva (IC). La literatura actual está compuesta por trabajos realizados por profesionales y por académicos. Este hecho y su origen multidisciplinar están originando cierta dispersión de temas vinculados a los procesos de IC y a su organización, que requieren de cierta unificación. Se exponen las temá-ticas detectadas: terminología, organización de la función, descripción de los procesos, evaluación, modelos existentes, y factores facilitadores e inhibidores de las prácticas de IC. Por último, se señala la necesidad de seguir con trabajos empíricos que validen el constructo existente, y de profundizar en dos líneas de investigación: la integración de los marcos teóricos existentes y la identificación de los factores facilitadores e inhibidores de las prácticas.
This study set out to investigate how personal user traits and behavior and information cues influence the acquisition of online information for actionable decisions. The relationship between personal traits (risk propensity and individual information absorptive capacity), behavioral factors (perceived risk and willingness-to-pay) and informational cues (scenario risk level) was examined by conducting an experiment with 125 mid-level managers. Participants were exposed to high- and low-risk scenarios, given the opportunity to consume free and fee-based competitive information sources, and asked to make a managerial decision. Results of the Willingness-to-Pay (WTP) for information sources indicate: (i) a significant correlation between the perceived risk and WTP, (ii) a significant correlation between the perceived risk and the number of competitive intelligence information items bought, (iii) individual absorptive capacity has high internal reliability, and (iv) investment risk propensity and individual information absorptive capacity did not influence WTP or willingness-to-consume competitive intelligence information. Informational cues rather than personal traits impact decision makers' WTP and willingness to-consume competitive intelligence information. This suggests that best practices should be developed for the use of online information sources in decision-making calibrated to the risk level. Risk level indication may also aid to avoid biases stemming from under- or overuse of information.
The Spanish business environment associates the function of competitive intelligence (CI) to customer-focused marketing area. The fact that competitive intelligence is not seen as a high value-added tool in terms of security, technological vigilance, and strategic vision makes us ask ourselves if Spanish companies realize that CI is an essential source for improving competitiveness and verify if companies have implemented this function appropriately. This article proposes a review of the CI implementation process in Spanish companies. This research work provides an audit of processes carried out with the objective of identifying areas of improvement not only in the implementation but also in the sustainability of the intelligence programs so the reader can audit a function in terms of sustainability of the program. According to this research, the scope of the auditory work in CI is in initial phases, more centered on the auditing of resources than intelligence, the focus of the audits in CI is based on the measures of product control and usability for clients and the implementation of CI audits in Spanish companies as a way of strengthening and legitimizing CI units. Finally, based on the results and needs of the study, we propose a CI auditing process.
Observar informações que as cercam tem sido uma preocupação recorrente em organizações que buscam manter-se competitivas no mercado e, mais do que isto, também incrementar sua atuação e posicionamento. Fala-se de monitoramento ou conhecimento do ambiente da organização através de termos diversos como Inteligência Competitiva, Inteligência Organizacional, Inteligência Empresarial, Inteligência Estratégica, Inteligência de Negócios ou Business Intelligence, entre outros. Entretanto, há reconhecidas diferenças de entendimento entre o foco de atenção destas diversas nomenclaturas, gerando dificuldades na academia e inclusive no ambiente empresarial para quem as procura como apoio na busca de informações e de identificação de inovações, seja em processo, produto, serviço ou diferencial. A partir desta problemática, objetivamos através deste trabalho clarificar o entendimento sobre todos os termos existentes e aportar algum conhecimento que permita compreender as diferenças entre os conceitos de inteligência. Para tanto, realizamos um levantamento sobre o tema inteligência em publicações nacionais e internacionais. Antes de entrar nos conceitos de inteligência, foi abordada a gestão da informação e o ambiente externo, referenciais teóricos fundamentais quando se busca entender estas questões. Como resultado, foi possível realizar um agrupamento de todos os conceitos de inteligência identificados ao longo do estudo, categorizando seus focos de atenção. Identificou-se também que alguns dos conceitos, muito embora as diferenças entre eles devam ser conhecidas e respeitadas, podem ser considerados vizinhos porque seus focos estão direcionados para o ambiente externo das organizações. Palavras-chaves: Inteligência Competitiva; Inteligência Estratégica Antecipativa; Inteligência de Negócios
We will focus in this paper on the competitive intelligence problem which deals with the competitive environment of a company. Our purpose is to predict and anticipate the action of its competitor. We are talking here about a context of reasoning under uncertainty. All existed works define the concept of competitive intelligence and propose a scheme for the competitive intelligence process and its stages, but there is no work, at the best of our knowledge, that touched the practical aspect of the field or developed a complete competitive intelligence solution that can be delivered to the decision maker, which makes the originality of our work. To motivate the research, we will address a competitive practical case in the field of telecommunications. In this paper we propose a competitive intelligence solution composed by two steps: actions association using k-modes algorithm which has the capability to deal with nominal data, and actions generation using rough set theory which has the capability to deal with inexact data and drive rules from it.
The companies involved in the energy sector must reinvent themselves to be innovative and adaptable to contemporary environmental changes. The promotion of renewable energy in rural communities is a great challenge for these companies. They should focus on improving the environment scanning actions and the knowledge management (KM) system and enhancing the collective intelligence to avoid the loss of information, to foster innovation, and to maintain a competitive advantage. To achieve these goals, energy companies require appropriate management tools and practices. The purpose of this study is to propose a theoretical framework of organizational intelligence (OI) supported by a cross-perspective analysis of various aspects: economic intelligence (EI) and KM practices, entropy processes, and organizational enablers. A pilot investigation for testing the framework in the case of Transelectrica S.A. has been elaborated. The findings reveal that the elements of the OI framework are embedded in Transelectrica’s system and they need to be further developed. As an intelligent company acting in the Romanian energy market, Transelectrica has a higher potential to promote projects in the renewable energy sector. The main conclusion highlights that OI is a multidimensional construct that provides the organization the ability to deal with environmental challenges in a “new economy”.
Many of the challenges associated with sustainable development can be traced in the way modern society produces and consumes. Production, distribution and supply of goods and services require material and energy consumption, having an impact on natural resources both quantitatively and qualitatively, generating waste, pollution and disrupting ecosystems. Ecobusiness intelligence is the capacity of people, processes and applications / tools to organize business information, to facilitate consistent access to them and analyse them in order to improve management decisions, for better performance management of the organizations that are increasingly pressed to synchronize their processes and services with a sustainable development agenda, through the development, testing and implementation of decision support software. By adopting sustainable practices, eco – intelligent companies can gain added value, increase market share and boost shareholder value. Moreover, the growing demand for "green" products has created new markets and the visionary entrepreneurs already reap the rewards of approaching sustainability. Large and small companies are learning that sustainable business practices not only help the environment but also can improve profitability by pursuing higher efficiency, fewer harmful side-effects, and better relationships with the community and more. Gaining competitive advantage is a core concern of the companies and the existence of systems of identification, extraction and analysis of available data in a company, but also from the external environment, to provide real support for business decisions, is an essential ingredient of success. This paper highlights the necessity of eco-intelligent tools that help determining the organization's strategies, identifying the perceptions and capabilities of the competitors, analyzing the effectiveness of current operations, deploying long-term prospects for environmental action and establishing indicators and key variables for organizational health, security and natural growth of its assets. The proposed tool is a decision support system that will be implemented in an online environment, tested and integrated with the information systems of the organizations. The eco-intelligent business tool can be used to obtain competitive advantages by the organizations that seek to contribute to a better quality of life in the present without compromising the development and life quality of future generations.
This article looked at competitive intelligence research reported from 1994 to 2014 in the ABI/Inform database to determine the development of competitive intelligence as subject field. This development can be attributed to several factors. Content analysis was used to establish research patterns and the author based the analysis on the extant literature and on the 338 articles that were gathered from the ABI/Inform database. Only peer-reviewed articles were analysed. The most popular term used in the literature is competitive intelligence, followed by business intelligence and marketing intelligence. The journals in which the articles appeared are scattered and few journals have published more than ten competitive intelligence articles. Few authors have published more than five articles.
In response to increasing concerns of society about environmental degradation and increasing demands for a transition to a more sustainable society, the business companies are increasingly active in aligning their processes and services with a sustainability agenda. Production, distribution and supply of goods and services require material and energy consumption, having an impact on natural resources both quantitatively and qualitatively, generating waste, pollution and disrupting ecosystems. Ecobusiness intelligence is the capacity of people, processes and applications/tools to organize business information, to facilitate consistent access to them and analyse them in order to improve management decisions, for better performance management of the organizations that are increasingly pressed to synchronize their processes and services with a sustainable development agenda, through the development, testing and implementation of decision support software. This paper advances the idea that BI methods and tools have an important but as yet not well studied role to play in helping organizations implement and monitor sustainable and socially responsible business practices.
Competitive intelligence has not been known recently. Such processes as industrial or commercial espionage are known much more. The actions, which are used in order to be protected from the mentioned influence, are as follows: making the lists of commercial secrets, official regulations, protection of corporal and informative data and other currently used tools. The competitive intelligence, which plays an especially important part in the context of globalization, is considered to be more significant with developing technologies (Blenkhorn, 2005). In any institution strategic decisions are made by executives at the highest level. According to the Doctor of Science at Pittsburgh University John E. Prescott, the executives of the highest level with no reaction to rivals actions are not forgiven (Prescott, 2004). So it is possible to characterize the first potential clients who might buy the services provided by competitive intelligence. Large international corporations could become such customers. On one side, such corporations have two alternatives of their choice, they are: buying competitive intelligence service from independent companies providing professional services or establish an internal detachment of competitive intelligence as a separate element or as an element working inside the detachment which has already been acting. Anyway it is clear that a lot of preparations are necessary working with large corporations to prove the advantages of the services provided by competitive intelligence (Fleisher, 2001). The available experience is one of the main arguments which could be presented by specialists of competitive intelligence. There are not many institutions preparing trained specialists in the field of competitive intelligence which would currently work. So mostly such specialists having got university degrees in economics, law, management, administration or other fields also having attended special training courses are experienced at working in special operational or secret services. Miller names the experience which specialists of competitive intelligence had got in military and governmental intelligence also working in detachments of analysis of information as an evidence of their available qualification (Miller. 2004). Later on due to the efforts made by the Association of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (ACIP) and some scientists the new professional direction also such profession as a specialist off competitive intelligence appeared. The experience of national intelligence services proves the importance of collecting and analysis of systemic information provided by intelligence for business (ACIP, 2011). Nevertheless it is necessary to remark that the main aim of business is getting profit so it is necessary to adapt the methods used by intelligence services for business goals. Providing security does not play the main part in this case. (SCIP, 2011).
The book helps identify which actors are sources of the critical changes in the environment having a significant impact on the organization. The anticipation of these changes means that the right action/decision can be taken in the right time frame.
http://issuu.com/miniera/docs/comai___tena__06__mapping___anticipating_the_compe
The aim of this study is to analyze the relationships between internal organizational elements and the influence of contextual factors related to innovation management and its challenges. Four companies that have relevant product development activities in Brazil are studied. This topic was chosen due to the lack of empirical studies that analyze the reality of innovation practices in developing countries. Main results indicate the high interdependence between organizational context and consistency of innovation processes and the influence of organizational structures on how initiatives flow through innovation processes. Among the contributions for existing research and practice, two potential patterns of behaviour guided by two of the main challenges concerning innovation in the literature and in the case studies were identified: managing uncertainty and cross-functional orchestration.
In order to solve the problems of isolated islands of information and lack of effective management of the organization in conventional base education resources sharing, a model of educational information system based on GIS is proposed, including systems organization model and system architecture. Summarizing the principle for the construction of this platform and points out problems to be taken into account, the system provides intensive management, vivid expression and scientific analysis of geographical, comprehensive and other related information. It describes the spatial distribution of educational resources specifically, performs statistical analysis of educational information combining with space attribute. It implements function of macro dicing, micro planning and district demolition, information query and maintenance such as distribution of educational institutions, schools' surrounding security, natural disasters preventive places expecting to provide advanced tools and method of implementing educational policy for optimization disposition in resources.
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the impact of competitive intelligence (CI) practices on the firm's performance in the emerging market context of India. The paper seeks to answer the following questions: do CI activities have an impact on the market performance of Indian firms? If so, what are the macro and micro environmental drivers of CI for Indian firms? How are CI activities organized within Indian firms? How is the usage and dissemination of CI taking place within Indian firms?
Design/methodology/approach
The study used a stratified sample developed from a variety of mailing lists focusing on Indian firms. The study employed a cross‐sectional, survey‐based methodology.
Findings
The study identifies two key aspects: Indian firms that exhibit higher levels of CI activities indeed achieve better financial performance results; and the current level of CI activities in Indian firms is at a moderate level, thereby suggesting an opportunity for using and implementing more sophisticated CI techniques.
Practical implications
The findings of this study should assist local and foreign managers in having a more informed understanding of CI activities in the Indian marketplace. Additionally, these findings provide directives to managers regarding the untapped opportunities and potential that CI can offer in a highly volatile and rapidly changing market scenario.
Originality/value
This is the first study that empirically investigates the relationship between the level of CI activities and firm performance in an emerging market context. It is also the first study of its kind that explores the current state of CI practices in the Indian market.
SUMARIO: Los autores definen el concepto de inteligencia competitiva (IC) y realizan una breve revisión de las etapas de la inteligencia competitiva en España a través de la bibliografía. El artículo analiza la situación actual de la inteligencia competitiva, con sus singularidades y especializaciones en los diferentes tipos de sectores durante los últimos 15 años. Esta situación actual se compara con la comparativa de la situación de la inteligencia competitiva con otros países. El artículo se completa con el análisis de las oportunidades y retos a los que la profesión de documentalista se enfrenta en relación a la IC y con la prospectiva de la IC en España. PALABRAS CLAVES: Inteligencia competitiva, Vigilancia tecnológica, Información externa, Gestión de la información estratégica empresarial, Gestión del conocimiento externo, Análisis del entorno, Evolución en España.
The purpose of this short paper is to propose a study on work practices and information behavior of competitive intelligence (CI) analysts, attempting to understand the process of how information is transformed into intelligence. Also, an integrated conceptual framework built upon Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA) and Activity Theory (AT) is proposed.
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