A research agenda for intelligence studies in business

Abstract

This research paper defines the scope for a research agenda for competitive intelligence (CI), market intelligence (MI) and more generally for intelligence studies in business. Respondents in the survey defined the scope to include analysis, traditional phenomena or problems, new phenomena, trans- or cross disciplinary studies, methodological issue and industry specific studies. Respondents were also asked to come up with terms for a good definition of the study. We found that existing definitions of CI in use are overlapping with definitions of other more established fields of study, like decision sciences and marketing intelligence. Respondents agreed that it’s practical to define the study in terms of understanding the external environment. In the discussion a parallel is made to the notion of surrounding world analysis and Stevan Dedijer’s ideas about social intelligence. A broad discussion leads to a renewed interest for disciplines studied by the humanities as we show what has been lost in the development of the social sciences. Implications are shown and future studies suggested.