Corporate intelligence as a competitive fighting tool

All existing companies today want not only to remain in the service market, but also to gain a foothold in it, and methodically develop from year to year. And in the modern world, this is simply impossible to imagine without corporate intelligence. Those firms that did not realize this in time simply went bankrupt or their business does not develop, and economic indicators remain in one place from year to year. Today, there is a wide variety of ways of business intelligence in the world. All types of competitive intelligence can be divided into two large groups: direct and indirect business intelligence. Let’s look at each of them in more detail. A separate subspecies is business intelligence, which can relate to both indirect and direct intelligence, depending on the surrounding circumstances.

THE IMPACT OF COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE ACQUISITION AND UTILIZATION ON HOTELS' PERFORMANCE: EVIDENCE FROM MALAYSIA

Acquisition and frequency utilisation of Competitive Intelligence (CI) are critical strategic activities designed to assist firms in evaluating emerging trends in their business environments, major and potential threats, capabilities, and competitions for businesses today, particularly in the tourism and hotel sectors. However, there is still ambiguity about the impact of competitive-intelligence acquisition (CIA) and utilisation (CIU) on firms' performance, particularly for the hotel industry in a developing country such as Malaysia. Thus, the purposes of this research are to define the nature of CI practice in Malaysian hotels, and to illustrate the relative importance of various CIA types and sources to marketing managers in Malaysian hotels, moreover, to investigate the impact of CIA and CIU on the financial and non-financial performance of Malaysian hotels. A quantitative research design was adopted in this study. To obtain the necessary data for analysing the hypothesised model of the study, 505 questionnaires were issued to marketing managers in member hotels of the Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH), and a total of 184 analyzable questionnaires were gathered, with a response rate of 34.44%. The research data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling and statistical package for social sciences "SPSS". Despite that half of the responding hotels practiced CI informally, and many of these hotels began practicing CI five years ago, the study found that hotel marketing managers have high and medium interest levels for most types and sources of CI in Malaysia, these five CIA's types were the most important: (1) competitors, (2) customers, (3) human resources, (4) socio-cultural, and (5) Global. As well, these five CIA's sources were the most important: the internet and extranets, (2) customers, (3) electronic information services/intranets, (4) business associates, and (5) newspapers and periodicals, and industry trade associations. Furthermore, the results indicate that CIA and CIU had a positive and significant impact on hotels' performance, but CIU has the most effect. These findings enrich those in positions of power like owners, managers, and practitioners, as well as academicians, with greater knowledge of the relationship and influence of CIA and CIU on firms' performance, particularly for hospitality and tourism firms.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE PROCESSES AND HOTELS' INFORMATION QUALITY: EVIDENCE FROM MALAYSIA

The information quality (IQ) and the tools used to generate it such as competitive intelligence (CI) are the most critical competitive competencies for businesses today, particularly in the tourism and hotel sectors. However, there is still ambiguity about the impact of each phase of the competitive-intelligence process (CIP) on IQ, particularly in the hotel industry in a developing country such as Malaysia. Thus, the purpose of this research is to detect the level of IQ resulting from CIP in Malaysian hotels, as well as to investigate the impact of each phase of CIP (planning and focus, gathering, analysis, and communication) on IQ (contextual and representational) of Malaysian hotels. A quantitative research design was adopted in this study. To collect the data required to analyse the study's hypothesised model, 505 questionnaires were distributed to marketing managers at Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) member hotels, yielding a total of 184 analysable questionnaires with a response rate of 34.44 percent. The research data were analysed using structural equation modelling with partial least squares (SEM-PLS). Despite that half of the responding hotels practiced CI informally, the study found that the level of IQ resulting from CIP was high. Furthermore, the results indicate that the planning and focus, gathering, and analysis phases of CIP had a positive and significant impact on hotels' IQ, while the communication phase had a slight negative but insignificant impact on hotels' IQ. Additionally, the results show that the analysis phase is the most relevant, followed by the gathering phase, and finally the planning and focus phases phase. These findings enrich those in positions of power like owners, managers, and practitioners, as well as academicians, with greater knowledge of the relationship and influence of CIP on firms' IQ, particularly for hospitality and tourism firms.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE PROCESSES AND HOTELS' PERFORMANCE: EVIDENCE FROM MALAYSIA

Competitive intelligence (CI) is a proven systematic process used to improve an organization's competitiveness through the systematic collection, analysing, and communication of information to decision-makers. However, there is still ambiguity about the impact of each process of competitive intelligence process (CIPs) on performance, particularly in the hotel industry in a developing country like Malaysia. Thus, the purpose of this research is to detect the level of CIP practiced in Malaysian hotels, as well as to investigate the impact of each process from the CI processes (planning and focus, gathering, analysis, and communication) on the financial and non-financial performance of Malaysian hotels. A quantitative research design was adopted in this study. To obtain the necessary data for analysing the hypothesised model of the study, 505 questionnaires were issued to marketing managers in member hotels of the Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH), and a total of 184 analysable questionnaires were gathered, with a response rate of 34.44%. The research data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Despite that half of the responding hotels practiced CI informally, and many of these hotels began practicing CI five years ago, the study found that the level of CIP practice was high. Furthermore, the results indicate that the planning and focus, gathering, and analysis processes of CIP had a positive and significant impact on hotels' performance, while the communication process had a negative but insignificant impact on hotels' performance. Additionally, the results show that the planning and focus process is the most relevant, followed by the analysis processes, and finally the gathering process. These findings enrich those in positions of power like owners, managers, and practitioners, as well as academicians, with greater knowledge of the relationship and influence of CIPs on firms' performance, particularly for hospitality and tourism firms.

The State of Competitive Intelligence within New Zealand Private and Public Sector Organisations: a Comparison Study of Competitive Intelligence within New Zealand in 2009

<p>Globalisation and rapid technology advancements are having a profound change on the competitiveness of local and global markets, and shaping the New Zealand marketplace. New Zealand companies are not just competing against other New Zealand companies, but are also competing against global companies. Competitive intelligence is critical for informing vital business decisions and potentially for the viability of a company. The purpose of this study was to research the state of competitive intelligence within the New Zealand private and public sectors and benchmark them against a similar study by Trengrove and Vryenhoek (1997). This research report further explores the relationship between knowledge management and competitive intelligence by examining the culture of competitive intelligence in an information (knowledge) economy through the analysis of competitive intelligence attitudes (Rouach and Santi 2001), 'Strategic Protection Factors' (Rothberg and Erickson, 2005), value and mindset of managing knowledge, and competitive intelligence within New Zealand companies.</p>