REVIEW: "In the company of spies: When competitive intelligence gathering becomes industrial espionage".

Reseña del artículo titulado "In the company of spies: When competitive intelligence gathering becomes industrial espionage

REVIEW OF ARTICLE: "In the company of spies: When competitive intelligence gathering becomes industrial espionage".

Review of the article titled "In the company of spies: When competitive intelligence gathering becomes industrial espionage

Empirical study of competitive intelligence practice: Evidence from UK retail banking.

Winner of Best Paper in Track Prize sponsored by European Journal of MarketingThis paper presents the findings of an empirical study of the major UK retail banks, the purpose of which was to investigate, not only how they operate their competitive intelligence gathering activities, but the degree to which they “buy-in” to the information sharing attitude. The findings were applied to a best practice model which provides a clear picture of the current status of CI in these establishments and the attitudes of senior managers toward such activity. Recommendations are made on the improvements which would be required for the sector to be considered effective and efficient operators of CI practice

COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE

There are many challenges to face in this century. It’s an era of information. Those who have the best information are going to win the race for supremacy on the market. More and more managers are aware of the fact that they have to do something to remain on the market and to be successful. They have to adapt and to try to gain an advantage over the competitors. Nowadays, the only thing that makes the difference is the company’s competitiveness. The times when the one who had the capacity to produce more was the leader are long gone; now all the actors on every market are focused on quality and this leads to severe competition. What is left then? How can a company gain competitive advantage? The only thing that can make a difference is not the quality of the product but the quality of the information they posses about the market, the client, the product, the technological process, management etc. It’s about the information management. It’s about competitive intelligence.competitive intelligence, information, intelligence, strategy

Information gathering, innovation and growth

In this paper we study the economic implications of IPR protection on corporate intelligence, R&D investment and economic growth. To accomplish this objective, we introduce trade secret and information leakage into a standard quality-ladder growth model and study the long-run implications of improving the privacy of firms' data. We find that reducing the set of practices of information gathering is more effective in protecting firms' privacy than strengthening trade secrets.Quality-improvement, R&D, information leakages, corporate intelligence, growth.

Spying in Multi-market Oligopolies

We consider a multimarket framework where a set of firms compete on two interrelated oligopolis- tic markets. Prior to competing in these markets, firms can spy on others in order to increase the quality of their product. We characterize the equilibrium espionage networks and networks that maximize social welfare under the most interesting scenario of diseconomies of scope. We find that in some situations firms may refrain from spying even if it is costless. Moreover, even though spying leads to increased product quality, there exist situations where it is detrimental to both consumer welfare and social welfare.

The management of ocular allergy in community pharmacies in the United Kingdom

Background Ocular allergies frequently present in pharmacy practices. However, research into the actual management of ocular allergy in pharmacies is lacking. Objective To determine and quantify history and symptom questioning of a patient with presumed allergic conjunctivitis and management strategies employed by pharmacy staff in the UK. Method A mystery shopper technique was used to simulate an episode of allergic conjunctivitis in 100 community pharmacies across the UK. Results The mean number of questions asked by pharmacy staff to the patient was 3.5 ± 2.6, with a range of 0-10. The most common question was whether the patient had a history of allergies (45 %).Ninety-one percent advised on treatment, with the remaining 9 % directly referring to the patient's general practitioner (n = 4) or pharmacist(n = 4), but only two to their optometrist. The most common treatment suggested was sodium cromoglycate 2 % (50 %). However, many pharmacies advising treatment did not ask the patient's age (37 %), if they wore contact lenses (43 %), or gave dosage advice (43 %). Only 5 % of pharmacies advised follow up and 14 % suggested visiting a general practitioner and 1 % an optometrist if symptoms did not resolve with treatment. Conclusion There is a need for improved ophthalmological training for pharmacy staff with respect to the management of allergic conjunctivitis. © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012