Abstract :
[en] In this increasingly turbulent, global and competitive context, it becomes critical for companies to create and sustain a competitive advantage. Competitive Intelligence (CI), defined as “the process by which organizations gather information on competitors and the competitive environment [...]” (Wright, Eid & Fleisher, 2009, p.942), can contribute to do so by enabling managers to be aware of and respond to changes in their competitive environment. The CI process includes four steps: (a) planning and focus, (b) data collection, (c) data analysis and (d) communication.
First, this paper assesses the level of deployment of CI among Walloon SMEs. Second, it examines the influence of context variables on the CI process. A questionnaire was distributed to 423 Walloon SMEs’ executives, of whom 81 answered. SMEs’ executives were surveyed about their companies’ CI practices as well as their perception of their company’s formal structure, employee involvement and organizational awareness.
We found that Walloon SMEs are not very active to conduct CI effectively. Indeed, while Walloon SMEs have recognized that, theoretically, CI is a necessary activity for maintaining a competitive advantage, in practice, most of them do not have yet a well-established CI process in their company. Then, we established the influence of the context in which CI takes place on the success of the CI process. Specifically, we supported that better formal structure, employee involvement and organizational awareness improve the CI process. Finally, we examined the impact of two extra potential antecedents, namely the innovation orientation and the company’s size. We found that innovation-oriented companies tend to exploit CI more than followers.
The results lead to several recommendations for SMEs. First, managers should be aware that CI is critical for their company’s survival since the context in which they operate is increasingly competitive. Second, businesses, especially those that are innovation-oriented, should note that an improvement in their formal infrastructure, organizational awareness and employee involvement processes could significantly enhance their CI efficiency.
