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Subject: CfC: ICT for Competitive Intelligence Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 15:29:50 +0100 From: Paul Hendriks p.hendriks@nsm.kun.nl To: ISWORLD@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@nsm.kun.nl
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