Competitive intelligence is the collection and analysis of information to support strategic decision making for an organisation, as a means to achieve competitive advantages. Identification of information needs is a prerequisite for the subsequent actions and activities in the competitive intelligence process, and, if not done well, optimal intelligence will not be provided. Intending to identify the information needs of university managers in higher education sector, this study addressed the different dimensions of information needs, information sources, and channels used by them. Due to the nature of the subject and research objectives, the research approach was qualitative based on Grounded Theory, an inductive, theory discovery methodology. Twenty-three university managers in Iran were purposively sampled for interviews. It was found that their information needs were mostly about university competitors, university customers and their higher education providers. Their information needs for strategic decisions and actions were about their collaborators in education and information field, effective marketing about product and services, as well as economic, socio-cultural and legal aspects. They need to pay attention to political and economic information in dealing with unexpected topics. Managers obtained information they needed from four types of information sources and channels - human, organisations, open source documents and captured media, and mixed channels. Electronic information sources were considered to be more abundant for them than printed sources. The paper suggests that the findings can contribute to the design, implementation, and development of competitive intelligence information systems that managers and decision-makers are among its major users.

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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify and design a paradigm model for universities' information acquisition behavior in competitive intelligence process.Design/methodology/approachThe sampling has been conducted in two stages. First, purposive sampling has been done among Iranian universities of medical sciences. Second, 20 university staff members were selected using the snowball method. The research was conducted through semi-structured interviews.FindingsThe purpose of acquiring information in competitive intelligence process is to meet organizational and individual information needs in active and passive ways. The characteristics of information acquisition and how to acquire it are varied. Enablers include the information sources, individual, organizational characteristics and environmental pressures. Barriers are individual, organizational, environmental factors. The consequences of information acquisition are success, failure and partial success. Accordingly, a paradigm model of information behavior has been designed.Originality/valueThis is the first study to identify information behavior of universities in competitive intelligence process. In addition to why and how to acquire information, this study also looks at facilitators and barriers factors.