Competitive Intelligence and Decision Problems

Chapter 3

The Synergy of Knowledge Management and Competitive Intelligence¹

3.1. Introduction

The capitalization of knowledge is an essential condition to ensure the growth of organizations and their continued viability. It cannot be separated from human agents. Knowledge of individuals or groups of individuals and of their actions constitutes a precious resource, a resource that should be preserved to optimize the realization of organizational aims. These aims are often manifested in the form of decision-making problems. Decision making starts with the adoption or construction of a decision strategy, followed by controlled progress until the decision is made. It is therefore essential for any organization, institution, or government to define and attain strategic means of reinforcing the decision process. This work aims to design and develop user-centered methods for knowledge management (KM) to assist in tactical and strategic decisions concerning processes in organizations.

Competitive intelligence (CI) emerged as a specialized domain offering tactical and strategic processes for decision making. In this context, the approach of facilitating decision making differs from the conception of shared decision support systems (DSS). Most DSS focus heavily on the technological dimension. Furthermore, CI aims to facilitate decision making by recognizing the fact that automated products can be used as a complement to human intervention. In the context of CI, an efficient decision process ...