---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Subject: CfC: ICT for Competitive Intelligence
Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 15:29:50 +0100
From: Paul Hendriks <p.hendriks(a)nsm.kun.nl>
To: ISWORLD(a)LISTSERV.HEANET.IE
CALL FOR CHAPTERS
Submission deadline April 15, 2002
Information and Communication Technology for Competitive Intelligence
A book edited by Dirk Vriens, Nijmegen School of Management, University of
Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Competitive Intelligence can be described as the production and processing
of information about the environment of an organization for strategic
purposes. To formulate a strategy, an organization needs to collect and
process information about its environment - about, for instance,
competitors, customers, suppliers, governments, technological trends or
ecological developments. Collecting and processing environmental information
has always been important. However, because of the increasing complexity and
dynamics of the environment the pressure to produce relevant actionable
intelligence quickly is increasing as well. To systematically collect and
process strategically relevant environmental information, a large number of
organizations are therefore implementing a competitive (or business)
intelligence function.
To structure the process of competitive intelligence, several authors
propose a cycle of four stages. This intelligence cycle contains the
following stages:
1. Direction In this stage the organization should determine its
strategic information requirements. It should determine about what aspects
in the environment data should be collected.
2. Search Here, it is determined what sources can be used for
data-collection and the data are actually collected.
3. Analysis In the analysis-stage the data collected in the previous
stage are analyzed to assess whether they are useful for strategic purposes.
In other words: in this stage, one tries to find out what particular data
mean for the organization. Here, the actual production of intelligence
(data relevant for strategy) takes place.
4. Dissemination The intelligence (produced in stage 3) is forwarded to
the strategic decision-makers and used to formulate their strategic plans.
To support these stages, different Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) applications may be employed. These ICT-tools include datawarehouses,
datamining tools, the systematic use of the Internet for direction or
search, group-ware applications for uncovering information requirements,
specific applications for supporting the analysis (e.g. System Dynamics
software), the use of an Intranet for disseminating intelligence, or even
specific applications that are said to cover all the four stages. To select
systematically what kind of ICT-tools is useful to support the intelligence
cycle, a detailed understanding of the role of ICT in intelligence
activities is needed.
This book intends to address this need. It sets out to assess the role and
possibilities of ICT in intelligence activities. It aims at uncovering
criteria for the use of ICT in the individual stages, as well as for the
whole cycle. It gives an overview of state-of-the-art ICT applications and
it demonstrates the need to see ICT as an aspect of the whole competitive
intelligence infrastructure. For this book, we need a collection of
scholarly research works on the topic of ICT and Competitive Intelligence.
Chapters based on research from both academia and industry are encouraged.
Representative topics include but are not limited to the following:
Empirical research on the effectiveness of various ICT-tools for competitive
intelligence
Conceptual and empirical research on the criteria for the use of ICT for
competitive intelligence
Conceptual and empirical research on the comparison of ICT-tools
Case studies of the implementation and use of different ICT-tools for
competitive intelligence by real-life firms
Failures and success of the use of ICT for competitive intelligence
Experiences with the use of the Internet for competitive intelligence
Experiences with the use of datawarehouses for competitive intelligence
Conceptual and empirical research on the evaluation of ICT tools for
competitive intelligence
SUBMISSION PROCEDURE
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before April 15,
2002, a 2-5 page manuscript proposal clearly explaining the mission and
concerns of the proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be
notified by May 15, 2002 about the status of their proposals and sent
chapter organizational guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be
submitted by September 15, 2002. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on
a blind review basis. The book is scheduled to be published by Idea Group
Publishing in March 2003.
Inquiries and Submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word97) to:
Dirk Vriens
Nijmegen School of Management
University of Nijmegen
P.O. Box 9108
6500 HK Nijmegen,
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 24 361 21 16 * Fax: +31 24 361 19 33 * Email: d.vriens(a)nsm.kun.nl
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