Does Competitive Intelligence Matter? An Anthropological Way of Thinking

Abstract

Competitive intelligence (CI) has become a very important part of business decision-makers. With the increase of globalization, mergers, and fragmentation top managers have to take into consideration this topic in their strategic planning. Besides, there are important links of competitive intelligence with knowledge management and anthropology. The reason of these links is based on the fact of the growing importance of these two disciplines in current business environment owing to the growth of information technology and diversity. Knowledge Management encompasses many common practices already in business since the identification of a problem, or a set of problems, up to the adoption of solutions by individuals who participate in the business processes. On the other hand, business anthropology deals with the before mentioned participants with their contributions with the Competitive Intelligence staff in the attempt to design a Knowledge Management program to protect their competitive advantages. This paper discusses the implementation of anthropology and knowledge management in a competitive intelligence situation. The authors will define what competitive intelligence is and will look at the links that connect an anthropological perspective followed by a discussion of cross cultural strategy applied with Knowledge Management in Competitive Intelligence decision-making practices.