Developing a competitive intelligence strategy framework supporting the competitive intelligence needs of a financial institution’s decision makers

Abstract

Background: For competitive intelligence (CI) to have the greatest contribution to strategic management, CI professionals require an in-depth understanding of the CI needs of decision makers. CI professionals have to carefully plan how to best inform corporate decision-making.A strategy framework is a planning tool which can be used to explore ways to enhance an organisation’s strategic planning capabilities.Objective: To investigate the CI needs of a financial institution’s decision makers in order to develop a CI strategy framework. To present the strategy framework as a planning tool to CI professionals in the financial services industry as well as mapping the process of developing a planning tool, thereby enabling a financial institution’s CI capability to better meet the CI needs of decision makers.Method: The guiding paradigm of interpretivist research directed the research design of a single qualitative case study, using an inductive approach. Qualitative data analysis techniques were used, which included the use of numerical data, to develop a planning tool for CI professionals based on a thorough understanding of the CI needs of decision makers.Results: Decision makers place considerable value on CI in terms of its contribution to strategy development, decision-making, gaining advantage over competitors and enhancing the financial performance of the organisation. Relationships between concepts and patterns or trends that were identified and utilised to establish themes in the data resulted in a 12-point strategy framework.Conclusion: A financial institution’s CI capability can be enhanced to better meet the CI needs of the organisation’s decision makers when CI professionals carefully plan their approach of informing corporate decision-making. This paper presents a 12-point CI strategy framework as a planning tool for CI professionals.

Competitive intelligence practice in liquor retailing: evidence from a longitudinal case analysis

“…As CI is a sensitive topic (Priporas et al , 2005), and relatively new academic field (Du Toit 2015; du Plessis and Gulwa, 2016), the exploratory approach was chosen as it is “appropriate for understanding phenomena still in early stages of theory development” (Edmondson and McManus, 2007, p. 1161). The longitudinal case design enables the investigation of a firm’s CI practices and its evolution, encompassing the time aspect in the research process (Bryman and Bell, 2015; Pettigrew, 1990; Yin, 2014).…”

“…In the modern business world, it appeared in the 1960s as part of marketing research (Prescott, 1995; Walle, 1999), while Fourie (1999) regards Porter’s (1980) work as the premier kickoff of CI as an academic subject field. Since then it has evolved slowly and even today it is considered as a relatively new business research field (Bousquet et al , 2011; Du Toit, 2015) and du Plessis and Gulwa (2016) emphasize “CI is one of the fastest growing fields in the business world” (p. 3). Although CI can be an important factor for the competitiveness and survival of any company regardless of size and type (Köseoglu et al , 2016; Priporas et al , 2005), findings from empirical studies from various industries and counties report that only large-scale firms employ CI activities in a professional manner to be more competitive, while for the vast majority of companies, mainly small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), it remains an unknown tool or is at an embryonic stage (Gatsoris et al , 2015; Köseoglu et al , 2016; Talaoui and Rabetino, 2017), or carried out informally, probably due to lack of trained personnel and financial resources (Muñoz-Cañavate and Alves-Albero, 2017).…”

Competitive Intelligence Practices and Organizational Performance Linkage: A Review

“…Concurring to another study on an Iranian insurance organisation, contextual factors such as awareness, culture, structure, and process can influence in developing a competitive advantage, while awareness and culture factors displayed the most significant effect (Seyyed Amiri et al, 2017). The awareness from training and education can boost the obligation of CI achievements since it uplifts the harmony between strategic management and CI (Du Plessis & Gulwa, 2016). Therefore, creating awareness in the early stage of CI implementation is crucial before embarking on the CI process.…”

How competitive intelligence can be used to improve a management vocational high school: A case from Indonesia

“…The competitive method of intelligence with the support of information technology will produce quality graduates. Therefore, vocational high schools needs to make improvements in terms of professional human resources [11], reliable management, quality teaching and learning activities, access to quality domestic and foreign higher education institutions and the availability of equal facilities with international standard education [12]. The increasingly difficult challenge in the world of education, especially for planning and management, education policymakers, is that, in this case, the government must have a tool or device to evaluate the extent to which education development, especially the performance of educational services for the community can be achieved [13].…”