Abstract:
BACKGROUND AND AIM : This article investigated the positioning of competitive intelligence
within the field of strategy.
METHODS : Publications on strategy and competitive intelligence were reviewed through
thematic content analysis based on an extended literature review to determine their respective
contents and how strategy as practice related to the crystallised competitive intelligence
themes.
RESULTS : The research demonstrated that strategy and competitive intelligence are
inextricably interwoven. Competitive intelligence was shown to be not merely an activity
or sequence of activities within the broader strategic management process, but a significant
strategic practice.
CONCLUSION : We argued, based on a comprehensive literature review, that competitive
intelligence is an integral practice within strategy that should be explored further for
its contribution to emergent and deliberate strategies and the linkage between intraorganisational
and extra-organisational activities. We proposed a framework to position
competitive intelligence within strategy as practice and in relation to the process view of
strategy. The conceptualised framework contributes to the corpus of strategy research as it
formalised competitive intelligence as a critical part in the thinking about and the practice of
strategy. It moved competitive intelligence from a position on the periphery of strategic
management literature, where it was regarded as a mere activity, to an integral practice of
strategy to be recognised by strategy scholars and worthy of further research.
