This paper presents the findings of an empirical study of the major UK retail banks, the purpose of which was to investigate, not only how they operate their competitive intelligence gathering activities, but the degree to which they "buy-in" to the information sharing attitude. The findings were applied to a best practice model which provides a clear picture of the current status of CI in these establishments and the attitudes of senior managers toward such activity. Recommendations are made on the improvements which would be required for the sector to be considered effective and efficient operators of CI practice.In a recent article, Brody (2008) explored and analysed the myriad of phrases which various authors, over time have proposed as their "definitive" version of a CI definition. These have come about, for the most part, by the tweaking of previous definitions, leaving out one word, adding another, but rarely anything more substantial. Fleisher and Bensoussan (2003) also commented on the problem of defining the still evolving field and practice of CI. They concluded that there was no single definition which was likely to be precise and/or universally accepted. Consequently, it is perhaps more useful to agree on identifying the scope of CI.The importance of CI resides in the fact that it widens an organisation's point of view and provides an integrated picture which can be used for informed decision-making, including predictive ability (Hussey and Jenster

PurposeThe paper seeks to show how the increasingly popular use of data and information acquired from open sources (OS) impacts competitive and marketing intelligence (C/MI). It describes the current state of the art in analysis efforts of open source intelligence (OSINT) in business/commercial enterprises, examines the planning and execution challenges organizations are experiencing associated with effectively using and fusing OSINT in C/MI decision‐making processes, and provides guidelines associated with the successful use of OSINT.Design/methodology/approachThis is a descriptive, conceptual paper that utilizes and develops arguments based on the search of three unclassified bodies of literature in competitive and marketing intelligence, intelligence processing and marketing analysis.FindingsOpen sources are useful in marketing analyses because they can be easily accessible, inexpensive, quickly accessed and voluminous in availability. There are several conceptual and practical challenges the analyst faces in employing them. These can be addressed through awareness of these issues as well as a willingness to invest resources into studying how to improve the data gathering/analysis interface.Practical implicationsMarketing analysts increasingly rely on open sources of data in developing plans, strategy and tactics. This article provides a description of the challenges they face in utilizing this data, as well as provides a discussion of the effective practices that some organizations have demonstrated in applying and fusing open sources in their C/MI analysis process.Originality/valueThere are very few papers published focusing on applying OSINT in enterprises for competitive and marketing intelligence purposes. More uniquely, this paper is written from the perspective of the marketing analyst and how they use open source data in the competitive and marketing sense‐making process and not the perspective of individuals specialized in gathering these data.

Purpose -The paper seeks to address the viability of planning and executing the integration of four often independent marketing information management techniques, i.e. competitive intelligence (CI), customer relationship management (CRM), data mining (DM) and market research (MR). Design/methodology/approach -The research presented is a longitudinal, exploratory and descriptive case study, covering a three-year period during a critical development phase of a medium-size, national employer association which sought to improve the quality of marketing-based insights to its strategic planning capability as well as improve economic outcomes. Findings -It is possible to achieve profitable and capability enhancing integration of diverse marketing information management techniques. Successful integration and the use of a highly focused cross-functional team generated better market strategies and bottom line benefits. Practical implications -The need to generate greater insight from popular marketing information management and planning techniques is routinely experienced by marketing and other executive decision makers. This article provides a multi-year roadmap of the successful execution of technique integration, including identifying barriers that arose as well as suggesting solutions for achieving progress. Originality/value -There are very few case studies published that demonstrate the successful evolution and integration of CI, CRM, DM and MR into the enterprise's strategy-making process. The unique element of this example is that it was achieved within the context of a medium-sized, national, not-for-profit employer association.

An agency-based approach is used to analyze the factors that affect the creation and maintenance of collaborative federated interorganizational relationships. An overview of several theoretical perspectives on federative collaborations is presented, and these are found to imply a strong agency component. Agency theory suggests four generic situations that lead principals to seek agents to act on their behalf, which result in "contentful, " practical, symbolic, and systemic agency. The predominant agency costs to be managed are associated with specifying, rewarding, and monitoring and policing agent behavior; the predominant agent problems are agent information acquisition, agent preference mismatch, agent effort, and agent capability. Three types of federations and federation management organizations are formed-participatory, independent, and mandated -as different means to solve different agency problems. The costs and problems most significant for each type of federation are noted, and an assessment of federation efficiency based on minimizing agency costs and problems is suggested.

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