Competitive intelligence as a source of competitive advantage: an exploratory study of portuguese biotechnology industry

Abstract

Regarded as a strategic information management process, competitive intelligence (CI) is defined as the conversion of the data and information, gathered by an organization from its external and internal environment, into intelligence that supports the organizational decisionmaking process. It is widely accepted that CI provides management with valuable items of information that improve the quality of decisions and has a positive effect on a company’s competitiveness. Considering the economic importance of the biotechnology industry for Portugal, it is appropriate to study the level of awareness of CI and to identify and describe CI best practices in this sector. An exploratory study was carried out to examine how organizations in the Portuguese biotechnology industry use CI in order to obtain sustainable competitive advantage. Additionally, this research was designed to create hypotheses that could be tested in further studies. Case studies were carried out in two companies and a literature review was conducted to help develop a theoretical framework that would support further analysis.(...)