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Competitive intelligence: a practitioner, academic and inter-disciplinary perspective
Edited by Jonathan L. Calof and Sheila Wright
Introduction
The strategic marketing concept is viewed as all-embracing, flexible and adaptable. It demands that marketing managers ensure that the organisation achieves a sustainable competitive advantage ([1] Aaker, 1984; [6] Cady, 1984; [65] Wright, 2005); hence a structured approach to planning and strategy formulation is advocated ([2] Baker, 1996, p. 3339). Strategic marketing also incorporates competitive intelligence activities, and this ensures that competitive intelligence "embraces the serendipity and the one-off aspects of intelligence gathering which leads to better visioning and more exciting scenario development" ([65] Wright, 2005, p. 4). As a consequence, top management view strategy formulation from the stance of reducing the organisation's vulnerability. This has the advantage of forcing marketing managers to think in terms of what constitutes resilience. [53] Sutcliffe and Vogus (2003, p. 95) provide assistance here by suggesting that "Resilience refers to the maintenance of positive adjustment under challenging conditions". Hence, marketing practitioners are required to handle increased levels of complexity and will from time to time be required to re-view and re-appraise the role that competitive intelligence plays in the marketing strategy process. By contributing to the strategy process, competitive intelligence officers will be aware of the importance of strategic intent, which is according to [25] Hamel and Prahalad (1994, p. 8), about developing further the organisation's capabilities and securing additional resources.
This paper makes reference to a strategic marketing intelligence and multi-organisational resilience framework. First, attention is paid to the relevance of strategic purchasing, and this is followed by a section entitled the importance of marketing intelligence. Next, consideration is given to placing competitive intelligence in context, including scenario analysis and planning. Attention is then given to managing risk and reducing an organisation's level of vulnerability, the relationship marketing approach and partnership arrangements, the need for counter-intelligence and the advantages associated with a robust strategic intelligence system. A strategic marketing intelligence and multi-organisational resilience framework is made reference to, the way forward and future research is featured, and a conclusion is provided.
The relevance of strategic purchasing
With respect to partnership arrangements, it is essential that marketing managers have a thorough appreciation of supply chain activities. The value chain concept ([42] Porter,...