Competitive intelligence: construct exploration, validation and equivalence

Purpose – Little empirical research has been conducted on competitive intelligence (CI). This paper aims to contribute to the quantitative strand of the CI literature by exploring and validating the theoretical constructs of the CI process.Design/methodology/approach – Data from 601 questionnaires filled out by South African and Flemish exporters were subjected to exploratory factor analysis and construct equivalence analysis between the sub‐samples.Findings – The results showed that the CI process consists of three constructs, while the context in which CI takes place consists of four constructs. This agrees to some extent with the literature. When verifying the constructs for both cultures it was found that all but one CI context construct can be viewed as equivalent in both groups. Bias analysis identified one item in the questionnaire that was biased. Via regression analysis it was also indicated that the context in which CI takes place influences the CI process to a large extent. The research identif...

[1]  G. Grisetti,et al.  Further Reading , 1984, IEEE Spectrum.

[2]  B. Gilad,et al.  A systems approach to business intelligence , 1985 .

[3]  D. Reibstein,et al.  Competitive Marketing Behavior in Industrial Markets , 1994 .

[4]  John C. Narver,et al.  Market Orientation and the Learning Organization , 1995 .

[5]  D. B. Montgomery,et al.  Marketing Decision-Information Systems: An Emerging View , 1970 .

[6]  William R. King,et al.  Competitive business intelligence systems , 1975 .

[7]  Murray Dalziel,et al.  Building Competitive Advantage Through People , 1998 .

[8]  Larry Kahaner,et al.  Competitive Intelligence: How to Gather Analyze and Use Information to Move Your Business to the Top , 1996 .

[9]  Leonard M. Fuld,et al.  The New Competitor Intelligence: The Complete Resource for Finding, Analyzing, and Using Information about Your Competitors , 1994 .

[10]  Karl P. Sauvant,et al.  UNCTAD, World Investment Report 2003. FDI Policies for Development: National and International Perspectives (Geneva and New York: United Nations, 2003). , 2003 .

[11]  D. Garvin.  Building a learning organization. , 1993, Harvard business review.

[12]  H. Sutton.  Competitive Intelligence , 1988 .

[13]  Jonathan L Calof,et al.  Competitive intelligence practices : a South African study , 2002 .

[14]  Fred R. David,et al.  Competitive Intelligence Activity Among Small Firms , 2012 .

[15]  Pierrette Bergeron,et al.  Regional business intelligence: the view from Canada , 2000, J. Inf. Sci..

[16]  R. T. Lenz,et al.  Environmental analysis units and strategic decision‐making: A field study of selected ‘leading‐edge’ corporations , 1986 .

[17]  Frank E. Woeste,et al.  Safety factors for metal-plate-connected wood trusses: theoretical design versus test specifications , 1994 .

[18]  Jason W. Osborne,et al.  Best practices in exploratory factor analysis: four recommendations for getting the most from your analysis. , 2005 .

[19]  James M. Sinkula.  Market Information Processing and Organizational Learning , 1994 .

[20]  C. Fleisher,et al.  Strategic and Competitive Analysis: Methods and Techniques for Analyzing Business Competition , 2002 .

[21]  Rodrigo de Magalhães,et al.  Information Resources Management , 2016, Definitions.

[22]  Patrick De Pelsmacker,et al.  Competitive intelligence practices of South African and Belgian exporters , 2005 .

[23]  John M. Hannon.  The Nexus between Human Resource Management and Competitive Intelligence: An International Perspective , 1997 .

[24]  Wilma Viviers,et al.  The promotion of exports in South Africa , 1995 .

[25]  David B. Montgomery,et al.  Toward Strategic Intelligence Systems , 1979 .

[26]  Kenneth A. Sawka,et al.  Developing a world‐class CI program in telecoms , 1999 .

[27]  M. L. Kennedy.  Positioning strategic information : Partnering for the information advantage , 1996 .

[28]  Nancy M. Childs,et al.  An Empirically-based Model of Competitor Intelligence Use , 2002 .

[29]  Daniel P. Grabowski.  Building An Effective Competitive Intelligence System , 1986 .

[30]  Keith Fletcher,et al.  The Role of Competitor Information Systems , 1994, Inf. Manag. Comput. Secur..

[31]  F. Pearce.  Business intelligence systems: The need, development, and integration , 1976 .

[32]  F.J.R. van de Vijver,et al.  Methods and Data Analysis for Cross-Cultural Research , 1997 .

[33]  F. Pearce,et al.  Intelligence: A technology for the 1980's? , 1971 .

[34]  John E. Prescott,et al.  The largest survey of “leading‐edge” competitor intelligence managers , 1989 .

[35]  William E. Odom,et al.  Intelligence Analysis , 2008 .

[36]  Calyampudi R. Rao.  Handbook of statistics , 1980 .

[37]  S. Ghoshal,et al.  Building effective intelligence systems for competitive advantage: Sloan Management Review, 1, 49–58 (Fall 1986) , 1987 .

[38]  C J Austin,et al.  Information systems and strategic management , 1995, Health care management review.

[39]  Paul Dishman,et al.  Competitive intelligence as a construct for organizational change , 2000 .

[40]  M. Moon,et al.  Effective use of information & competitive intelligence , 2000 .

[41]  Paul Dishman,et al.  The intelligence process: front-end to strategic planning , 2002 .

[42]  Hans Peter Luhn,et al.  A Business Intelligence System , 1958, IBM J. Res. Dev..

[43]  William R. Fair.  The Corporate CIA---A Prediction of Things to Come , 1966 .

[44]  Nancy M. Childs,et al.  Competitor Intelligence Among Industrial Wholesalers: An Explanatory Study , 1996 .