Abstract:

Growing international competition translates into a mounting pressure for companies to increase efficiency and effectiveness. In the knowledge society, technology has turned information into the core, vital resource for strategists and managers. In search of relevant data, companies are developing their intelligence capabilities. This paper investigates the driving forces for companies to implement competitive intelligence processes in their daily activities and the mechanism that competitive intelligence uses to create value for the business. The paper also focuses on the ethics of competitive intelligence and develops a comparative study with corporate espionage techniques.