The importance of competitive intelligence information for small business management has grown in the 1990s because of the increased complexity of the environment and tougher competition due to globalization of markets. Small businesses can purchase the competitive intelligence from outside experts or have its own competitive intelligence system. The internal system can be informal or a formal competitive intelligence system. The formal intelligence system can be analyzed in terms of its aggressiveness, which is the scope, time frame and the focus of threats/opportunities of the system; capability, which is the personnel, C.I. technology, and communication resources in the system; and the budget of the competitive intelligence function. The sources of the competitive intelligence data can be internal or external, field data or published data. Each have its own benefits
