The Business Anticipatory Ecosystem outside the “First World”: Competitive Intelligence in South Africa (original) (raw)
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Competitive intelligence practices of South African firms
2002
Purpose-The objective of the study was to compare competitive intelligence (CI) practices of exporters in South Africa and Belgium. Design/methodology/approach-An e-mail and postal survey in a sample of 292 Belgian and 309 South African exporting companies was carried out in which CI-practices and opinions and attitudes towards CI were measured. Findings-Most respondents report a "CI culture" in their companies. South African and Belgian exporters are, however, not yet well equipped and not very active to conduct effective CI, especially in the areas of planning, process and structure, data collection, data analysis, and especially skills development. In both countries CI-activities are usually not organized in a separate department and, if they are, CI is mostly done in the marketing and sales department. Managers from both countries consider similar types of information important, and they rely on similar sources of information. Although the responsibility for CI is more a top management issue in Flanders than it is in South Africa, South African companies have on average a longer tradition of organized CI-activity and more full-and part-time staff is involved in CI-activity. These differences can be attributed to the fact that, as compared to Belgium, South Africa is an emerging export country in which the need for more formalised CI-activity focusing on the collection of relevant data is more apparent. Originality/value-This is the first comprehensive study of CI-practices in the two countries. The results lead to a number of recommendations for the exporting companies in both countries and in general add to the knowledge of the position of CI in companies.
Current state of competitive intelligence in South Africa
International Journal of Information Management, 2014
The economic success of a country depends on its capacity to apply activities which create a competitive advantage. The business environment is highly complex in South Africa and the purpose of this article is to examine the current situation with regard to competitive intelligence (CI) activities in South Africa. Since CI is a relatively new activity in South Africa, this study is mainly exploratory in nature. A questionnaire survey methodology was used where questionnaires were administered to CI experts in organisations in South Africa. The majority of respondents has postgraduate degrees and was in either top management or senior/middle management level of their organisations. Only 55% of the respondents are of the opinion that they cope above average with changes in the business environment and 60% of the respondents strongly agreed that the most important CI activity in their organisation is to use CI to remain cognisant with government legislative trends. It is recommended that organisations should enhance a CI culture by creating CI awareness among employees and provide CI training sessions for new employees.
Business intelligence (BI) plays a critical role in providing actionable intelligence to enable good business decision-making. International research shows clear evidence of the benefi ts of implementing sound BI practices. However, within a South African business context, an understanding of the practice, impact and benefi ts of BI is only partly addressed by existing research. Consequently, this article presents the most salient fi ndings of a recent BI study, which was one of the few such studies that have been conducted in South Africa in the 21st century. Although the discussion refl ects fairly high general satisfaction levels with BI among South African businesses, some problems related especially to external BI dimensions are highlighted. An equally important and major concern raised by the article is the apparent lack of companies capitalising on BI opportunities and coordinating BI functions eff ectively. Of concern at the general management level, in particular, are the low satisfaction levels with BI quality, as well as various aspects of BI collection, analysis and dissemination. Despite the fact that businesses use BI functions and planning support software, the survey fi ndings reveal insuffi cient investment in sophisticated BI analysis tools.
In an unstable environment, enterprises are gradually realizing that there should be major changes in how they deploy their strategic resources to compete in the knowledge economy. In this paper, the role of competitive intelligence in South African manufacturing enterprises is examined. The difference between the industrial and the knowledge economy and the competitive intelligence function in an enterprise is explained. The manufacturing industry is the biggest industry in South Africa and in a previous study by the researcher it was founded that only 44% of manufacturing enterprises in South Africa collected information on competitors. It was therefore decided to do a follow-up study and to determine the importance of competitive intelligence in the strategic management process of these enterprises, to find out where and how the enterprises obtain information on competitors and the use of competitive intelligence systems in these enterprises. r
Competitive intelligence in emerging economies: A comparative study between Brazil and South Africa
The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, 2015
Competitive intelligence (CI) has long been recognised as a strategic management tool that could enhance competitiveness. CI is expected to play an essential developmental role in emerging economies. The need to enhance companies’ competitiveness has grown rapidly. CI is essential, and will increasingly be a challenge in the years to come, especially for emerging economies. This article will compare CI activities in South Africa with CI activities in Brazil. Companies in these two countries have faced increased environmental uncertainty and increasingly there is a need to compete. A questionnaire survey methodology was used where questionnaires were administered to CI experts in organisations in South Africa and Brazil. The findings of the study revealed that only a limited number of organisations in Brazil and South Africa recognise the importance of a CI unit. It was also interesting to note that the CI function is more mature in South Africa than in Brazil. As Brazil and South Af...
Competitive intelligence: an instrument to enhance competitiveness in South Africa
South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences (SAJEMS)
The present paper investigates the relationship between Competitive Intelligence (CI) factors, characteristics, information sources, needs, requirements and the export intensity of exporting companies in South Africa. We establish whether there are significant differences between firms, grouped according to export intensity with respect to awareness, use, information sources and attitude towards CI activities.
Enhancing a competitive intelligence culture in South Africa
International Journal of Social Economics, 2005
PurposeFor competitive intelligence (CI) to evolve into a successful business discipline in a company, a culture of competitiveness should prevail. The extent to which CI is practiced in South Africa and the CI culture that exists in South Africa have remained a mystery until the late 1990s. It is the aim of this paper to assess the development of the CI culture since the late 1990s in South Africa and to make recommendations to enhance this culture.Design/methodology/approachFor the empirical evidence, the results of two previous research projects were used. Questionnaires were used in these projects. The questions covered all areas of the intelligence cycle: planning and focus, collection, analysis, communication, process and structure, awareness and culture and attitudes towards CI. Data of the sample population to perform a sample selection was gathered from three sources, namely Reed Inc., the Kompass Southern African and the membership lists of the respective Export Councils. ...
Competitive intelligence: an instrument to enhance South Africa's competitiveness: economic
2005
Abstract: The case for Competitive Intelligence (CI) as an instrument that can enhance the competitiveness of South African companies and South Africa as a country is strong. Various global competitive rankings measurements have indicated over a number of years the areas in which competitiveness is lacking. Moreover, these rankings have indicated that South Africa has failed to improve its position year on year. The fact that the world is becoming increasingly competitive for South African entities is undisputed. Coupled with a ...
Competitive Intelligence Information: A Key Business Success Factor
Journal of Management and Sustainability, 2014
Competitive intelligence (CI) plays a significant role in business management and practice. Management of companies have relied on competitive intelligence information to support decisions to give them an edge over their competitors. Companies use intelligence information to stay abreast and be in tune with the business environment. The purpose of this study is to understand the role of CI, the sophistication and intensity attached to it and examined the degree of knowledge of the processes in a firm. The exploratory study used triangulation and a survey to meet its objectives. Due to the sensitivity of the schedule, only 15 personnel were assigned to this task in the organization. The results indicate that XYZ Company is aware of the role and importance of CI but it is yet to fully utilize its potential. A major finding is that no single coherent CI process is being followed but rather a series of 'adhoc' measures are used. This implies that there is the need to develop systematic procedures for generating CI data and streamline the processes used in analyzing such information. The proposition is that though CI information is widely known and used, firms in Ghana do not follow precise tried and tested processes and there is the need to monitor the trend.
2015
This study employed a descriptive survey design to explore the difficulties manufacturing companies in Zimbabwe encounter in the application and practice of competitive intelligence (CI). This was done with full knowledge that adopting and implementing competitive intelligence concepts is a voluntary process as it is not enshrined in law and therefore there are no legal penalties imposed on those companies which do not apply any one of its tenets .The manufacturing sector was chosen because it is one of the sectors which is heavily threatened by globalization and technological advances. The exposure of the Zimbabwean manufacturing companies to both domestic and foreign competition means that these companies have to adopt and apply business survival strategies which include among others implementation of CI to counter this threat. The primary objective of this research was to explore the application and practice of CI in Zimbabwe. A sample of 100 Chief Executive Officers was chosen f...