Here is the summary of an interesting scientific paper dealing with the impact of using the Internet for competitive intelligence.
The Internet, as an information-rich resource and interorganizational communication tool, has transformed the way that firms gather, produce and transmit competitive intelligence (CI). The aim of this article is to assess the impact of the Internet on CI and the subsequent effects on the organization.
What is CI? It is a process of knowing what the competition is up to and staying one step ahead of it, by gathering information about competitors and ideally, applying this information in short- and long-term strategic planning. It refers to actionable information about the external business environment that could affect a company’s competitive position. CI is not industrial espionage given that 90% of all information that a company needs to make critical decisions and to understand its market and competitors is already public or can be systematically developed from public data.
The growth of the Internet has led to CI professionals exploiting its information richness and hypermedia capabilities for CI activities. By using the Internet, a company can monitor the presence, posture, products, and prices of other players in its industry. It can track the views of customers and seek out new ideas and expertise internationally.
Model : they examine the downstream effects of using the Internet (for research, internal and external use) on quality of CI information and its subsequent effects on organizational performance.
Concretely, the model could be summarized as followed:
Research + Internal Use + External Use Quality of CI information Impact on organization
The first three components symbolized the Internet Usage.
Results and implications
The results of this study indicate that using the Internet has a positive impact on the quality of CI information.