Generating Competitive Intelligence in Organizations BERNARD J. JAWORSKI bernie_jaworski@monitor.com Monitor Group, Santa Monica, CA 90401 DEBORAH J. MACINNIS dmacinnis@marshall.usc.edu Department of Marketing, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089 AJAY K. KOHLI Ajay_kohli@bus.emory.edu Goizueta Business School, Emory University, 1300 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30322 Abstract Marketing strategy begins with customer and competitive intelligence. However, in sharp contrast to customer intelligence, there is little research on how competitive intelligence (CI) is actually generated within an organization. The absence of this knowledge makes it difficult to identify ways to improve the CI generation process. Drawing on both depth interviews with full-time personnel who conduct competitive intelligence and academic literature in related fields, the authors derive a novel conceptual framework that describes three interdependent phases of the competitive intelligence generation process: (1) organ- izing for competitive intelligence, (2) searching for information, and (3) sense-making. Dimensions of efficacy at each phase are also identified, and they are posited to be influ- enced by factors pertaining to: (1) the intelligence network, (2) the business environment, (3) the information environment, and (4) analyst characteristics. This framework departs from the existing literature by identifying core components of the competitive intelligence generation process, highlighting its iterative nature, and identifying variables germane to its success. The emergent framework’s implications for managing the competitive intelligence generation process are discussed and future research directions are suggested. Keywords: competitive intelligence, competition Contemporary writings in marketing stress the importance of competitive intelligence in shaping strategic marketing decisions (e.g., Dickson, 1992; Kotler, 1994) and building market-oriented organizations (Day, 1990; Jaworski and Kohli, 1993; Narver and Slater, 1990). Given its integral role in decisions central to marketing and the firm, it is perhaps not surprising that issues surrounding competitive intelligence (CI) have recently been brought into sharp focus. For example, the research priorities of the Marketing Science Institute and a mini-conference of marketing scholars (Dickson, Urbany and Lehmann, 1994) have focused squarely on competitor intelligence. 1 Given its potential strategic benefits, however, surprisingly little research as focused on the process of generating competitive intelligence and the factors that make the process more or less effective. Existing work views the generation of CI as a sequential process of Journal of Market-Focused Management, 5, 279 – 307, 2002 # 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston. Manufactured in The Netherlands.