Competitive Intelligence (CI) in Morocco

The business environment is highly complex in Morocco, and the purpose of this article is to examine the current situation with regard to competitive intelligence (CI) activities in Morocco. Morocco lacks competitiveness, as much of its industrial base has long been focused on import substitution, rather than on competitive exports. This study is mainly exploratory in nature. A questionnaire survey methodology was used where a questionnaire was administered to CI experts in organisations to determine the current state of CI in Morocco

Competitive intelligence in emerging economies: A comparative study between Brazil and South Africa

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 Africa become more integrated into the global economy, it stands to reason that the global economy will have more of an impact on the countries’ economies. To this end it has become more crucial to monitor global events and trends and it is very important for both countries to develop a CI culture

Bibliometric analysis to identify an emerging research area: Public Relations Intelligence—a challenge to strengthen technological observatories in the network society

Nowadays within the global economy, organizations of all kinds require strategic information to ensure that their decision making is competitive in uncertain complex environments. This is a key factor for knowledge-intensive companies insofar as this has an impact on their capacity to anticipate, influence and collaborate. Specialized literature is beginning to connect two disciplines such as strategic intelligence and public relations from an enterprise management approach, proposing concepts such as “Public Relations Intelligence”. This paper aims to explore their research areas using bibliometric analysis to uncover how those disciplines evolve in order to propose future research fronts relating to technological observatories. Firstly, a systematic review was carried out to identify and systematize available scientific information between 2006 and 2016 in publications with international impact from common topics. Secondly, it employed bibliometric analysis based on patterns of co-citation and the co-occurrence of keywords to focus on assessing impact and maturity. The main findings suggest that there is an already potential emerging research field between strategic intelligence and public relations which is highlighting common topics such as strategy, issue management, reputation and the American countries-territories being the dominant literature. This work provides evidence to claim a need to foster the conditions for consolidation of this field as a topic of research and it might well be a valuable opportunity to enhance technological observatories in the networked society