Competitive Intelligence and Decision Problems

Chapter 7

Strategies for Analyzing Chinese Information Sources from a Competitive Intelligence Perspective¹

7.1. Introduction

Mastery of information has become an essential issue for organizations, whether state departments or private structures, in the field of politics, of business, or of scientific research. In recent years, the scientific research sector has experienced increasing pressure with mounting stakes in political, ideological, and commercial terms, and presents major strategic issues. Scientific research has accelerated and flourished with the development of awareness of a real planetary emergency in certain sectors, particularly those of renewable energy and environmental protection, but also in other fields important for human survival, such as medicine, agriculture, and water treatment. Technical and high-tech sectors are also concerned by new patents that create strategic monopolies. Given that intellectual property rights lock down all scientific discoveries and depend on the fact of being first to register a patent, we are now dealing with a “research race” on an international scale. This is as true in industrialized countries as for major emerging powers, such as India and China. We can no longer afford to ignore these new players, who are gaining rapidly in importance in all domains.

In this context of heightened competition, with alliances between businesses and government and genuine engagement in scientific research, there is a clear need for high-performance ...