Enabler and inhibitor factors influencing competitive intelligence practices

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -This paper has a twofold aim. Firstly, to give some insight into competitive intelligence practices in a little-explored area in the field of competitive intelligence: the higher education sector. Secondly, to find out more about the factors influencing competitive intelligence practices, since little research on this subject has been published. Design/methodology/approach -The investigation used a mixed-methods approach, including face-to-face, semi structured interviews with 47 university managers (degree coordinators, deans and vice-rectors), followed by a semi-structured questionnaire carried out with 400 degree coordinators and deans and analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The interviews informed the questionnaire design. Findings -The survey confirms the proposed framework's usefulness for analysing the enabler and inhibitor factors in an organisation for promoting efficient competitive intelligence practice and also gives some insight into which factors enable or inhibit the efficacy of competitive intelligence practices in Spanish universities.Research limitations/implications -The research focused on degree design adapted to the EHEA. A larger study designed to focus on other management areas in universities would provide a fuller picture of factors influencing competitive intelligence practices. Practical implications -The findings indicate the areas where universities could plan actions to optimise intelligence activities, make the most of them and stand out from the rest. Originality/value -This paper sets out a framework to describe factors related to intelligence function and cycle. In addition, the study reveals which indicators act as enablers or inhibitors for competitive intelligence practices and takes account of some of the particular features of the higher education sector. IntroductionCompetitive intelligence (CI) is a methodology for managing strategic information in order to create actionable knowledge (Brody, 2008;Bergeron and Hiller, 2002;

Competitive intelligence and strategy formulation: connecting the dots

“…Moreover, in accordance with previous research (Garcia-Alsina et al, 2013), evidence suggest that in turbulent times, when uncertainty is even more pressing and perceivedas it is for newcomer companies (Case D) -CI may play a major role in the strategy formulation process. This leads to an additional proposition:…”

“…With varying levels of intent, a number of authors have discussed the infrastructure and the organizational and behavioral factors influencing the CI process (Ghoshal and Westney, 1991;Gibbons and Prescott, 1996;Maltz and Kohli, 1996;Prescott, 2001;Rouach and Santi, 2001;Prescott and Miller, 2002;Jaworski et al, 2002;Badr et al, 2006;Dishman and Calof, 2008;Choo et al, 2008;Saayman et al, 2008;Garcia-Alsina et al, 2013). The main contextual aspects in the literature can be categorized as individual, organizational and industry environment factors.…”

“…Rouach and Santi (2001) identified five types of managerial attitudes toward CI, namely, warrior, active, reactive, sleepers. At the individual level, another relevant aspect is the exposure to informationthe level of opportunities of contact with well-informed people and information-rich contextsfor example, the frequency, the variety and the amplitude of contact networks (Correia and Wilson, 2001;Prescott, 2001;Garcia-Alsina et al, 2013).Outwardnessthe openness of the organization to the external environmentand information climateset of conditions required to access and use the informationare instead the main organizational factors (Correia and Wilson, 2001;Garcia-Alsina et al, 2013), together with firm culture, management style and awareness for CI capabilities (Prescott, 2001;Saayman et al, 2008;Wright et al, 2002;Trim and Lee, 2008).…”

“…Ultimately, it is generally accepted that the structure and decision-making in an organization is influenced by environmental complexity and volatility (Kourteli, 2005). According to Garcia-Alsina et al (2013), the industry environment encompasses two relevant factors, namely, uncertainty and external pressure. Ultimately, as pointed out by Blandin and Brown (1977), managers in environments characterized by rapidly changing constraints, contingencies and opportunities clearly adopt more of an external orientation of information than their counterparts in relatively certain environments.…”

Customer Centricity & Competitive Intelligence Performance in the Insurance Industry in Western Kenya, East Africa

“…In recent years, there has been a huge amount of investment aimed at improving insurance business intelligence & analytics. Yet research from Gartner suggests that many insurance companies are still struggling to see the bigger picture as a result of underlying issues with their approach to data (Gainor, and Bouthillier, 2014;Garcia-Alsina, Ortoll, and Cobarsí-Morales, 2013;Leslau, 2010;Matthews, 2011). When we talk about business intelligence, we often focus on customer experience centricity-centric businesses (Mutua, 2010).…”