40 
 

 

 

 

The Definition of Competitive Intelligence Needs 

through a Synthesis Model 
 

 

Vincent Grèzes
1
  

 
1
University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland, Switzerland 

Email: Vincent.Grezes@hevs.ch 

 

 

Received March 12, accepted April 5 2015 

 

ABSTRACT: Based on an exhaustive literature review, this paper presents an overview of 

the evolution of different methods useful for defining competitive intelligence needs, where 

the information helps the firm to justify its strategic decisions, the analysis of the early 

warning topics and the elements of the competitors' environment and the actors influencing 

the organization or its value system, and their categorization. These findings are part of a 

doctoral study aiming at identifying the usefulness of data coming from open intelligence. 

The researcher presents, on one hand, a categorization of competitive intelligence needs, and 

on the other hand, a synthesis model that assists managers in defining competitive intelligence 

needs. It also aims to show how to foster innovation. 

 

KEYWORDS: Competitive intelligence, needs definition, decision support, innovation  

 

 
1. Introduction 
 

Competitive intelligence (CI) is about information 

gathering and use, looking for opportunities and 

threats; driven by the expression of the managers’ 

needs and expectations, focused on finding the 

information «believed to be wanted», which they 

«would like to have» (Nicholas, D., 2000).  

 

According to Larivet, S. (2009), the oldest 

definition of competitive intelligence (CI) is found 

in a publication of Hans Peter Luhn, in 1958, where  

 

 

he refers to the use of information gathered through 

a communication system, emphasizing the 

«intelligence» character of the process because of 

its «ability to apprehend the interrelationships of 

presented facts in such a way as to guide action 

towards a desired goal» (Luhn, H.P., 1958, 314). 

 

Nowadays, Choo, C. (1999) classifies the various 

information gathering activities based on four 

complementary definitions: 

Available for free online at https://ojs.hh.se/ 

 

Journal of Intelligence Studies in Business Vol 5, No 1 (2015) 40-56 

mailto:Vincent.Grezes@hevs.ch
https://ojs.hh.se/


41 
 

- Competitor intelligence, defined by Porter, 
M.E. (1982), as the activity aiming at 

developing «a profile of the nature and 

success of the likely strategy changes each 

competitor might make, each competitor’s 

probable response to the range of feasible 

strategic moves other firms could initiate and 

each competitor’s probable reaction to the 

array of industry changes and broader 

environmental shifts that might occur»; 

- Competitive intelligence, proposed by the 
Strategic and Competitive Intelligence 

Professionals (SCIP) as the «process of 

monitoring the competitive environment»; 

- Business intelligence, described by Gilad and 
Tamar (1988), as the « activity of monitoring 

the environment external to the firm for 

information that is relevant for the decision-

making process in the company»; 

- Environmental Scanning, outlined by Choo, C. 
(1999) as follows: «Environmental scanning is 

the acquisition and use of information about 

events, trends and relationships in an 

organization’s external environment, the 

knowledge of which would assist management 

in planning the organization’s future course of 

action», and «Environmental scanning casts an 

even wider net and analyzes information about 

every sector of the external environment that 

can help management to plan for the 

organization's future. Scanning covers not 

only competitors, suppliers and customers, but 

also includes technology, economic 

conditions, political and regulatory 

environment, and social and demographic 

trends». 

  

According to Prescott (1999, 45-46), who refers to 

a 1997 study by the American Productivity and 

Quality Center, CI efforts  mainly focus on (1) early 

warnings, with the aim of identifying «the 

opportunities and threats in the competitive 

landscape», (2) «strategic decision making», (3) 

«tactical decision making», (4) «competitive 

monitoring and assessment», and (5) «assistance 

with the strategic planning process of the 

organization». Therefore a central question 

concerns the choice of the focus, and «the types of 

intelligence that are most critical, both currently 

and in the future ».  

 

Competitive intelligence concerns amongst others 

the identification of opportunities and threats, and 

then is at the starting step of a creativity and 

innovation process (Debois et al., 2011, 44).  

 

Hence, we can identify two phases during which 

environmental scanning takes place, namely during 

the project development phase, and during the 

conduct of the project. The need for environmental 

scanning is indeed recognized «At the business 

model elaboration stage, environmental scanning 

provides a precognition of the environment of the 

project necessary to the elaboration of strong and 

competitive business models (Osterwalder and 

Pigneur (2010, 14). When the business model is 

confronted to the market, the involvement of 

scanning takes on another dimension: it is the 

insurance of the business model’s continuity by its 

redesign according to the environmental changes 

(Lequeux and Saadoun, 2008)» (Grèzes et al., 

2012). 

 

The monitoring process, or intelligence cycle, can 

take different forms depending on the different 

authors. The environment scanning activity is based 

on a formalized process, which is iterative and 

adaptable and is called «intelligence cycle», 

«information cycle» or «monitoring cycle». The 

aim of this process is to manage the quality of the 

procedure by systematizing it, and to adapt it to 

each situation. The successive steps of this process 

are described by the French Agency for 

Standardization (AFNOR, 1998) as follows: 1) to 

identify and map the users of information; 2) to 

assess information needs; 3) to identify and 

evaluate sources of information; 4) to provide 

access to information for each user; 5) to convert 

the raw information into useful knowledge; 6) to 

capitalize knowledge.  

 

In his commented presentation of the 

standardization document AFNOR X 50-185, 

Sutter, E. (2005, §8.2) states that «the analysis of 

the collected information should identify threats 

and opportunities for the business’ activities or 

market changes» (free translation). 

 

Although critically discussed, this process 

illustrates the logic of the sequence of the 

environmental scanning process. Even if it is, for 

some authors (Bulinge, F., 2006),  

not directly transferable to the organization, this 

model has the advantage of providing a tool for 

rapid and effective understanding. 

 

A process that is able to detect the opportunities for 

a sustainable business model is proposed by 

Bonazzi and Grèzes (2013). This process follows 

the steps shown in Fig. 1, and can be adapted to the 

general monitoring process in the following 

manner: 

 

(1) employees answer a series of questions 

concerning to the CI needs of the organization; 

(2) managers confirm the relevance of the questions 

by checking their accordance with strategic 

priorities; 



42 
 

(3) employees or the associated system collect the 

variables in open databases, perform data analysis, 

gather trends, and present them to the managers; 

(4) managers and experts gather information about 

trends and design new scenarios based on the 

detection of opportunities or threats; 

(5) new scenarios are tested. 

 

 

 
 

Fig. 1: Weak signal detection process, Source: Bonazzi and Grèzes (2013) 

 

In order to define the CI needs, several methods are 

regrouped and compared by Vuori (2006), such as 

questionnaires, interviews, observations, Critical 

Success Factors (CSFs), which are defined as «the 

few key areas of activity in which favorable results 

are absolutely necessary for a particular manager to 

reach his goals» (Bullen, C. V., Rockart, J. F., 

1981), and Key Intelligence Topics (KITs), which 

allow the manager to focus on the strategic actions 

and decision of the firm, the early warning topics 

(competitor’s initiatives, technologic and 

governemental issues), and the key competitors 

profiles (competitors, customers, suppliers, 

potential partners) (Herring, J. P., 1999). 

 

Vuori’s findings show that questionnaires, 

interviews and observations are mainly affected by 

the skills of the researcher, wheras CSFs and KITs, 

structured to elicit critical and specific information 

needs, are more affected by the manager’s skills. 

 

Hence, the manager’s skills are crucial in the CI 

needs definition process. Butcher, H. (1998) 

identified that the major problem concerning the CI 

needs definition are the ignorance of the 

information’s availability, and the 

misunderstanding of its obtaining and use. 

Moreover Madinier, H. (2007) and Belin et al. 

(2008) show that environmental scanning processes 

encounter implementation problems due to a lack of 

managers’ ability to define objectives and 

strategies, in order to elicit scanning axes.  

 

Regarding the managers’ attitudes towards the 

definition of CI needs, Herring (1999) recognized 

three types: (1) the reticent manager who has some 

problems expressing his needs, (2) the one who 

wants to know everything, but who is not able to 

describe his needs and believes that he will 

recognize the pertinent information, (3) «the 

manager who asks the business intelligence unit 

what he needs to know».  

 

Regarding the needs, Marti, Y. V. (1996) considers 

three categories: (1) «information that is wanted but 

that is not really needed», (2) «information that 

lacks and that is recognized to be needed», and (3) 

«information that is needed but not known to be 

needed, nor wanted, nor asked for». This distinction 

is important in that it allows to distinguish between 

the «wanted information» as «nice-to-know» 

information, and the required information.  

 

One of the main problems concerning the CI 

process in a firm is that managers do not know what 

to ask their CI manager, because they sometimes 

seem to ignore the vectors of opportunity, threats 

and innovation. Hence it is of utmost importance to 

look for methods that help managers to know about 

it. Therefore our research question is the following: 

How to support the managers in the definition of 

their competitive intelligence needs? It is the aim of 

our research to propose a model that supports 

managers in defining their CI needs. 

 

The remainder of this article is organized as 

follows: the second section exposes the 

methodology used; after the state of the art, results 

are analyzed in the fourth section; a discussion on 

limits and further research concludes this paper. 

 

2. Methodology  
 

This research consists of a literature review and 

analysis based on scientific and professional 

literature in the fields of competitive intelligence 



43 
 

and strategic management, related to the definition 

of the CI needs. We synthesized the results from the 

literature review and produced a CI needs design 

model, based on a typology of the CI needs, that 

facilitates the identification of their types. On this 

basis we also deduct a CI alert matrix, or strategic 

matrix, which allows to link information from the 

outside to the inside of the firm and in order to 

identify opportunities and threats for an 

organization. The typology allows one to describe 

the potential collectable knowledge in a given 

geographical area and provides an analysis of the 

factors that determine the structure of production of 

that knowledge (Doty et al., 1994). The approach 

we adopted to infer the theory from the analysis of 

the data is called «grounded theory» (Strauss and 

Corbin, 1994).  

 

3. State of the art 
 

There are only a few studies in the existent 

literature that concern our research question, 

amongst them are Müller (2004), Vuori (2006) and 

Herring (1999, 2006) which propose a method to 

elicit the CI needs based on questionnaires, or on a 

comparison of several methods. In order to enlarge 

our analysis of the literature on CI needs, we 

searched and consulted the following references in 

the field of competitive intelligence and strategic 

management: Porter, M. E. (1982, 1986), Ghoshal 

and Westney (1990), Bloch, A. (1999), Herring, J. 

P. (1999), Prescott, J. E. (1999), Bieger, T. 2002, 

Besson and Laloum (2003), Conseil Régional de 

Lorraine (2003) Fleischer and Bensoussan (2003), 

Müller, M.-L. (2004), Vibert, C. (2004), Fleischer 

and Bensoussan (2008), Abels and Klein (2008), 

ICOMTEC (2010), and SCIP (2013). Finally, the 

state of the art confirms the need of our research 

question.  

 

4. Analysis, typology and model creation 
 

The research steps were threefold: (A) analysis of 

the evolution of different methods useful to define 

CI needs based on competitive intelligence and 

strategic management literature, (B) analysis of the 

CI needs and typology, and (C) creation of a model 

which is a synthesis of the existing models and 

which serves as a support for managers to define 

their CI needs. 

 

A) Evolution of different methods useful to 
define the CI needs  

 

The literature offers several approaches in order to 

define the CI needs of an organization. They can be 

defined as the categories of information, or themes, 

on which the company or organization must focus 

its environmental monitoring efforts. 

 

In the early 1980s, Porter emphasized the need to 

establish, within the company, a competitor 

intelligence system. According to him «the 

competitive analysis aims at revealing the nature 

and the degree of success of strategic changes that, 

in all likelihood, each competitor could undertake, 

and the possible reactions of other firms, and their 

likely responses to all the industrial changes and, 

broader, to all the transformations in the 

environment that may arise» (Porter, M. E. 1982, 

52 – free translation). 

 

Following these developments, Martinet and 

Ribault (1989) systematized the CI needs based on 

the model of the 5 forces of Porter, ME (1979, 

1982), including customers, suppliers, substitute 

products or services, new entrants, as well as intra-

industry competition (public authorities are not 

mentioned in the first model of Porter). 

 

 

 



44 
 

 
 

Fig. 2: The CI needs 

Source: Martinet and Ribault (1989), based on the 5 forces of Porter, M.E. (1979) 

 

The model proposed by Martinet and Ribault 

(1989), followed by Bloch, A. (1999), has the 

advantage to offer a simplified view on external 

issues in terms of external pressure forces related to 

the organization. According to Fleischer and  

 

 

Bensoussan (2003, 60), this approach allows to 

identify opportunities and threats in the industry, by 

studying its participants and its characteristics. 

Fleischer and Bensoussan (2003) propose the 

following model by developing Porter’s (1982) 

model of the 5 forces of Porter: 

 

 
 

Fig. 3: Standard process of sector analysis. Source: Fleischer and Bensoussan (2003, 67) 

 

The authors, referring to M. Porter, propose to 

collect information on each element of the 

competitive environment successively: competitors, 

suppliers, potential entrants, substitutes, customers, 

consumers. 

 

 

 

 

Bloch, A. (1999) recalls the principles proposed by 

Porter, ME (1982), which advocates, achieving a 

monitoring on the competitors’ value chain, in 

addition to the CI needs model including the 5 

forces approach as presented by Martinet and 

Ribault (1989) first, then by Fleischer and 

Bensoussan (2003). 

 



45 
 

 
 

Fig. 4: Michael Porter’s Value Chain. Source: Bloch, A. (1999, 21) 

 

According to Porter, ME (1986) the advantage of 

this approach based on the value chain model, is its 

ability to simplify the main activities (internal and 

external logistics, production, marketing and sales, 

service), and the support activities (infrastructure, 

human resources, technological developments, 

supplies) for a company or organization. 

 

This approach also allows to analyze the 

companies’ functioning, by employing a 

competitive intelligence approach, and additionally 

to analyze the microeconomic environment of the 

company. 

 

The most recent developments in modeling the 

business components have taken the form of 

business models designs. This approach, formalized 

by the business model canvas proposed by 

Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010) is complementary 

in terms of mapping and simplifying a  

 

 

 

 

complex reality. Indeed, the authors define a 

business model as describing « the rationale of how 

an organization creates, delivers, and captures 

value. »  

 

The proposed framework therefore aims at helping 

to « describe and analyze the economic model [a] 

company [a] competitor or any other 

organization. » Based on the results of a doctoral 

research (Osterwalder, A. 2004) and tested with 

many companies, this framework is composed by 9 

interrelated blocks:  

 

- the value proposition,  
- key activities,  
- key resources,  
- key partnerships,  
- distribution channels,  
- customer relationships,  
- customer segments,  
- cost structure and revenue streams  

 



46 
 

 
 

Fig. 5: The business Model Canvas 

Source: Strategyzer.com based on Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010) 

 

Moreover, and according to Seddon and Lewis 

(2003), the design of one or several business 

models takes part of the strategy  

 

 

of the organisation as an abstract tool that can be 

multiplied according to the different value 

propositions of the firm (Fig. 6). 

 

 

Fig. 6: The relationship between « Business Model » and « Strategy » 

Source: Seddon and Lewis (2003) 

 

Assuming this position, synergies can be found 

between the business model design and the  

 

environmental scanning in order to benefit from 

their complementarities, as  



47 
 

much in the definition phase of the strategy of the 

company as during its activities. One major 

limitation of these approaches which aim at 

defining CI needs relies on the fact that they only 

take into account the internal factors of the 

company and those of its direct microeconomic 

environment. Hence, they should be complemented 

with the observation of the elements emerging from 

the company's macro-economic environment. 

According to Andrews, K. (1971, 59-60), 

«the determination of a suitable strategy for a 

company begins in identifying the opportunities and 

risks in its environment». The author states that 

«the environmental influences relevant to strategic 

decision operate in a company’s industry, the total 

business community, its city, its country, and the 

world. They are technological, economic, social, 

and political [...] ». In addition, Andrews 

emphasizes the continuous nature of the 

monitoring, without which it «become[s] 

inappropriate or even obsolete». 

 

The synthesis of the microeconomic and the 

macroeconomic approaches has been achieved by 

combining the 5 forces of Porter’s approach and the 

analysis of the environment as initiated by 

Andrews, K. (1971). This particular model is 

formalized by the analysis of the 9 sector strengths 

proposed by Fleischer and Bensoussan (2008) (Fig. 

7). 

 

 

 
 

Fig. 71: The 9 sector strengths. Source: Fleischer and Bensoussan (2008) 

 

The model proposed by Fleischer and Bensoussan 

(2008) has the advantage of linking internal and 

microeconomic CI needs with the environment of 

the firm, based on a logical evolution of the model 

of Porter, ME (1979), supplemented with elements 

from the PESTEL analysis. This approach has a 

holistic and schematic nature, which can address 

part of the theoretical CI needs of the business.  

 

Moreover, this model allows to consider all the 

elements required in the analysis of the 

environment proposed by the French Ministry of 

Economy, Industry and  

 

 

 

 

 

Employment (2009) in his guide of best practice in 

competitive intelligence, as well as Osterwalder and 

Pigneur (2010), which present a systematic 

approach to the analysis of the environment in order 

to support leaders in their strategic thinking. 

 

However, Porter, ME (1986) states that «to gain 

and maintain a competitive advantage, we must not 

only understand the value chain of the firm, but also 

how the company fits into the overall value 

system». (free translation). This value system is 

shown below (Fig. 8). This position is also shared 

by Andrews, K. (1971), for whom the observation 

of the evolution of the corporate sector and cross-

sector developments having an indirect link with 

the structure is necessary. 

 

 



48 
 

 

 
 

Fig. 8: The value system. Source: Porter, M.E. (1986, 51) 

 

This system can be schematized, as in the example 

of Porter, ME (1986), by a series of activities that 

add new value to the same good or service. Hence, 

this is called a chain for industrial activities. 

 

This broader flow of activities is the clustering of 

different value chains of suppliers and customers in 

an economic relationship. For example, the 

construction industry includes activities such as 

material extraction and processing, transport, 

several building activities, promotion, sales and 

management. 

 

 

 

Thus, the observation of the structural changes 

(diversification and integration of activities) of the 

analyzed sectors composing the value system is 

likely to provide information about the potential 

development of the other sectors of the chain, and 

the chain as a whole. 

 

Other value system approaches are presented, 

particularly in the field of tourism industry, where 

different types of tourist services are divided into 

sectors connected by a functional link through 

geographic and temporal elements. (Leiper, N., 

1979) (Fig. 9) 

 
Fig. 9: Tourism Services Chain. Source: adapted from Bieger, T. 2002 

 

The various activities in the chain have no direct 

commercial relation as in the model of Porter, ME 

(1986); however, according to Leiper, N. (1979) 

and Bieger, T. (2002), this succession of services 

can deliver the value expected by the tourist in a 

tourist destination. A change in the structure of the 

various activities of the value system is therefore 

also likely to affect other system activities. 

 

 

B) Types of CI needs and categorization  
 

The definitions of the identified types of CI needs 

are summarized below. These types of CI needs 

cover the various strategic information needs 

aiming at providing the company a pertinent 

knowledge about the opportunities and the threats 

from its environment. The CI needs are 

distinguished according to the level of connection 



49 
 

with the organization: (a) microeconomic level CI 

needs, (b) macroeconomic level CI needs. 

 

1) CI needs at the microeconomic level 
 

The CI needs at the microeconomic level concern 

the elements which are directly related to the 

organization. These are the competitive CI needs 

(1), the marketing CI needs (2), the partnerships CI 

needs, (3) the substitutes and new entrants CI needs 

(4), and technologic CI needs (5). These types of CI 

needs are particularly relevant for risk management 

and benchmarking, as well as in the conquest of 

new markets and skills acquisition. 

 

According to Aguilar, M. (1992), based on a study 

conducted by the French Government on 845 SME, 

information about competitors (71%) was the third 

largest CI need after the technology sector (75%) 

and the markets (82%). This study confirms the 

results of Aguilar, FJ (1967, cited by Andrews, K., 

1971), which stated that the information about the 

market, including competitive field information, 

dominates other categories of information search 

(including technological). More recently, 

Digimind’s study (2012) revealed that 89.6% of the 

respondents announced that the competitive CI 

need is one of the key areas of business 

intelligence, while two thirds agree that the 

acquisition of talent is a less prominent concern. 

 

It should be noted that some authors include, in the 

competitive CI needs, all activities involving the 

observation of customers and suppliers (Besson and 

Laloum, 2003, Rouach, D. 2005). Indeed, relations 

with suppliers of the company, as well as with its 

customers, are represented by a chain of contractual 

relations. However, we have chosen to distinguish 

these different interests by basing us on the type of 

relationship, such as participation in the company's 

business (partners) or end consumers (marketing), 

rather than on the legal artifact used. 

 

a) CI needs about competitors 
 

Competitor CI needs means the monitoring of the 

economic agents using simultaneously the same 

resources (natural, human, intellectual, etc.) and 

acting simultaneously on the same market. This 

type of intelligence focuses on all direct or indirect 

competitors of a project, company or organization 

(Bourcier-Desjardins et al., 1990). Bloch, A. (1999) 

states, that this monitoring should cover the entire 

competitors’ value chain. These information 

requirements are intended to identify the 

advantages and disadvantages of competitors 

(Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010) i.e. the 

observation of competitors' business model as a 

whole: competitors‘ value proposition (pricing 

strategies, quality, services), markets, distribution 

channels and key activities, key resources, physical, 

intellectual, human and financial resources 

(Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010, Besson and 

Laloum, 2003), technological partnerships and their 

cost structure (Marcon and Moinet, 2011, Besson 

and Laloum, 2003). 

 

Some authors emphasize that this monitoring 

should focus on the management choices (Besson 

and Possin, 1996, Porter, ME, 1982 Calori and 

Atamer, 1988) which should allow to highlight the 

competitors’ strategies, and thus to have a vision of 

the market’s direction. 

 

b) CI needs about marketing 
 

Marketing CI needs focus on the observation of the 

opportunities and threats that may have an impact 

on the promotion and distribution channels, the 

targeted places, and the pricing strategy (Besson 

and Laloum, 2003, Rouach, D. 2005). Some authors 

insist particularly on the importance of data from 

the market (Jakobiak, 1992), as well as customers’ 

follow-up, new prospects’ detection, and image 

among customers (Marcon and Moinet, 2011). 

According to the business model of the 

organization, elements relating to customer 

relationships and distribution channels, as well as 

customer segments and revenue streams, might be 

relevant. Quantitative methods (business 

intelligence, investigation, etc.) and qualitative 

customer analysis (focus group, survey, etc.), will 

be advantageously coupled with sociological 

approach, in order to assess the acceptance of 

products and distribution channels by the public. 

 

Risk management associated with current partners, 

with marketing related activity, is analyzed in terms 

of partnership CI needs. In the marketing field, it is 

important for the organization to detect trends in 

distribution, commercial methods, expression of 

new needs (Marcon and Moinet, 2011) and new 

pricing strategies. 

 

c) CI needs  about partnership 
 

The partners are strategically important due to their 

involvement in the production of the company's 

value proposition, this way providing a key activity 

or a complementary key resource to the company. 

Partners can also participate in the delivery of the 

product or service to customers, or in maintaining 

relationships with customers. 

 

Therefore, the Partnership CI needs particularly 

focus on suppliers, business partners, and 

contractors or distributors of the organization 

(Besson and Possin, 1996, Bourcier-Desjardins, et 

al., 1990, Besson and Laloum. 2003, Rouach, D. 

2005, Marcon and Moinet, 2011). According to 



50 
 

Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010) the four types of 

partnerships are: strategic alliances between non-

competitors, strategic partnerships among 

competitors, joint ventures to develop new 

activities, and buyer-supplier relationships. For its 

part, Wanner, R. (2011) distinguishes partnerships 

depending on their purpose as pre-production, on an 

alliance related to a specific demand, on 

distribution or on marketing. 

 

The Partnership CI needs have two facets. The first 

is based on the management of risks in relationships 

with existing partners (a), the second is to identify 

opportunities and threats related to the emergence 

of actors or alerts in the field of current business 

partners (b). 

 

a) The Partnership CI needs are particularly related 

to limiting risks associated with agencies’ relations 

and information asymmetries between the partners. 

The bigger the value added by the partner is, the 

more its potential failure is likely to have important 

consequences for the organization. This monitoring 

focuses first of all on the review of the capacity of 

partners to fulfill their obligations to ensure their 

non-failure (Besson and Possin, 1996, Besson and 

Laloum, 2003). Consequently, the CI needs also 

focus on actors and partners’ strategic positions and 

moves. For example, the vertical integration of a 

partner in order to strengthen his market power, or 

the strategic alliances with some competitors, could 

limit access to resources or customers (Osterwalder 

and Pigneur, 2010, Porter, ME, 1982, Calori and 

Atamer, 1988). 

 

b) The Partnership CI needs focus also on 

monitoring and identifying new potential partners 

to optimize the processes, looking for costs 

reduction through the acquisition of new resources 

and activities, or to expand or gain a customer 

segment. (Marcon and Moinet, 2011, Wanner, R. 

2011) 

 

d) CI needs about new entrants and 
substitutes  

 

CI needs concerning potential entrants and 

substitutes could have potential effects at different 

levels of the organization. Observation of new 

entrants and substitutes must cover the 

identification of actors in the different areas which 

are partners, marketing, technological 

developments and competition (Porter, ME, 1982, 

Rouach, D., 2005 Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010).  

 

Different authors insist on substitute’s detection 

(Rouach, D., 2005) and potential new entrants 

(Marcon and Moinet, 2011). According to Porter, 

M. E. (1982), CI needs concerning substitutes and 

potential entrants are on the boundary of 

competitive and technological intelligence. 

 

The CI needs concerning potential entrants and 

substitutes focus on the identification of actors 

acting simultaneously on the same customer 

markets, offering the same products or services, 

meeting the same needs, or acting with the same 

resources as the organization. This CI needs seek to 

identify potential threats that arise from the 

emergence of new competitors or new replacement 

offers.  

 

The identification of new players could have an 

impact on the product or service, markets, 

distribution channels, customer relations, or on the 

pricing strategy. It also focuses on the opportunities 

associated with the implementation of new 

collaborations for the resources management and 

the achievement of key activities, as well as threats 

to current collaborations. It may include the 

identification of good practices among peers, and 

consider benchmarking. 

 

e) CI needs about technology 
 

Technology CI needs are a special type of CI needs 

that has many facets: it concentrates on 

developments in the near and distant technological 

environment of the company (Bourcier-Desjardins 

et al., 1990). 

 

In terms of close technological environment, it 

refers to the changes in technological fields related 

to key activities, key resources, and the company's 

value proposition, but also in its distribution 

activities and customers’ relationship. According to 

Rouach (2005), technology CI needs cover 

fundamental and applied research activities, 

processes and machining processes, as well as 

patents and standards (Besson and Possin, 1996). 

This field deals with monitoring of brands, 

seminars and expert publications on innovation in 

the sector of activity (Besson and Laloum, 2003). It 

is also necessary to focus on all relevant scientific 

information (scientific articles and books), 

technological data, research programs and 

development projects (Jokobiak, F. 1992 Marcon 

and Moinet, 2011). 

 

2) CI needs at the macroeconomic level 
 

The CI needs at the macroeconomic level concern 

the indirect environment: technology (1), policy (2), 

law (3), economy (4) and social issues (5). 

 

This field is of particular interest to the public 

service and its definition of policies and strategies, 

concerning the development of tools and 

organizational and working methods in the 



51 
 

government and the administration, in order to 

increase the economic performance of a nation, of a 

state. 

 

a) CI needs about technology 
 

According to Andrews, K. (1971, 60), technological 

developments are the elements of the environment 

of the organization that may have the fastest 

deployment, and are likely to have the largest 

impact on the creation or limitation of 

opportunities. Indirect technological environment 

of the company refers to the detection of 

technological developments which lead to a change 

in the general environment of the company, in his 

value system. Referring to the work of Bright, JR 

(1963), Andrews, K. (1971, 61) identified seven 

major areas where progress is apparent. These are 

(1) the increase in transport capacity, opening new 

horizons in reducing costs or necessary 

transportation time, (2) increasing energy 

efficiency, changing the intensities and amounts of 

available energy, (3) increasing the capacity to 

expand and control life and associated services, 

such as life extension of perishable goods, control 

of growth of biological materials, etc. (4 ) 

increasing capacity to alter the characteristics of 

materials, providing new properties or new 

materials, (5) the extension of human sensory, (6) 

the growth of physical activities’ mechanization, in 

terms of production, distribution, communication 

and control, even for industries such as mineral 

extraction, (7) the growing mechanization of 

intellectual processes such as problem solving, 

processing information and process’ extension by 

the use of machines. 

 

b) CI needs about politics 
 

The CI needs concerning politics refer to the 

government stability, which is likely to affect the 

security and public tranquility, the fiscal policy of 

the country of residence or activity and the social 

protection measures, corruption, risk of theft by 

states or parallel organizations (Hassid, O. 2005), 

legislation on intellectual property and protection of 

private and confidential information, measures of 

attracting foreign expertise and the rules of foreign 

trade in force in the relevant state, conditioning 

border flows of goods and services. (Rouach, D., 

2005) (Andrews, K. 1971 Marcon and Moinet, 

2011) The objective of those CI needs is to 

anticipate any changes in the political, legal, 

economic and social environment, which may 

influence the activity of the organization. Indeed, 

changes in political conditions are likely to have an 

impact at all levels of the business model of the 

organization, on one or more activities of the 

component, and on its value system. It is related to 

the observation of the discussions and debates 

which are likely to have an effect, related to the 

creation of legislative rules, economic or social 

framing, of the activity. It is therefore an upstream 

monitoring, sometimes legal, sometimes economic, 

and sometimes social. It includes monitoring of 

proposed laws, parliamentary debates, and 

employer proposals. These elements are upstream 

because they do not yet constitute positive law. 

 

c) CI needs about law  
 

CI needs concerning law issues focus on the legal 

environment of the organization, allowing it to 

exert in accordance with the laws that govern its 

business. Its purpose is also to anticipate any 

legislative changes that could affect the activity, 

including the regional and the European level e.g. 

that are crucial for all sectors (Besson and Laloum, 

2003). This type of CI needs includes all legal and 

normative acts that affect the business, such as new 

legislation, laws and decrees, and the case law 

which has links with the organization’s activity or 

with an activity in the value system of the 

organization (Besson and Possin, 1996, Rouach, D. 

2005). It also focuses on the evolution of labor law 

and collective agreements governing the sector's 

activities, and the value system in the country or in 

countries where the activity is carried out, as well 

as subcontractors. By observing the rules governing 

social movements in the industry will include 

information on how the employees could make 

claims (Besson and Possin, 1996). 

 

d) CI needs concerning economic issues  
 

CI needs related to economics concerns information 

about economic and sector specific issues (Rouach, 

D., 2005, Jakobiak, F., 1992). It focuses on the 

observation of key players in the value system, 

prices and trends in the raw materials’ prices and 

resources of the organization, as well as the level of 

infrastructures such as transport, education, access 

to suppliers and consumers in a market. Some 

authors include the general perception of the 

market, the unemployment rate and the country risk 

studies for countries in which the organization is 

active (Besson and Possin, 1996). Andrews, K. 

(1971, 64) specifies that this type of CI needs must 

also take into account national and international 

trends, including the extension of the industrial 

revolution phenomenon to less developed countries, 

which are sensitive to quick changes in living 

standards. The author also stresses the importance 

of the economic policies of different states, 

especially in the field of customs barriers. At a 

more basic level, it concerns the following of the 

reappraisal of minimum income. 

 

 

 



52 
 

e) CI needs concerning social issues 
 

The CI needs concerning social issues include 

different factors: demographic trends in the relevant 

regions, changes in cultural and societal modes, as 

well as those related to consumer trends. Social 

factors are indeed likely to affect directly the 

organization's human resources and consumer 

segments (Rouach, D. 2005). The effects of social 

factors can be felt at every step of the organization's 

value chain likely to involve human resources, both 

at the organization’s level as well as at that of 

partners and other entities in its value system. The 

monitoring of sociological and environmental 

changes includes film critics, studies and press 

articles on consumer tastes, articles on fashion, 

leisure, and gastronomy (Besson and Possin, 1996), 

expenditure patterns (housing, health, leisure), 

habitat (urban, etc.) (Osterwalder and Pigneur, 

2010). It also includes the impact of the activity on 

the environment, and the management of natural 

and technological risks, which is, according to 

Besson and Laloum (2003), more relevant in an 

industrial context. Andrews, K. (1971) outlines five 

major trends in social change: (1) work mode 

changes and leisure, (2) minority groups looking for 

the recall of old grievances or for inequality, (3) 

change of values moving from self-interest to the 

good for society, (4) consideration of the 

environment at the expense of efficiency, (5) 

growing interest in education. 

 

C) A synthesized model that supports 
managers to define their CI needs 

 

In order to synthesize those different and 

complementary approaches on a microeconomic 

respectively a macroeconomic level, we designed 

the following model (Fig. 10). We also take into 

account different sectors and industries.  

 

 

 

 
 

Fig.10: Model of Definition of CI needs. Source: Author contribution 

 

The advantage of this model is to bring together 

internal and external elements of the organization: 

its business model and its value chain, 

microeconomic forces that can exert pressure on its 

business, able to support an analysis of its industry 

and its value system, as well as macroeconomic 

factors derived from the approach of Andrews, K. 

(1971). 

 

Moreover, such as Andrews, K. (1971), Clerc, P. 

(1995; cited by Carayon, B., 2003), and Fleischer 

and Bensoussan (2003) recommend, monitoring 

activities should identify opportunities and threats  

 

 

by scanning the current and the potential external 

factors as well as the opportunities and threats 

related to internal components. Hence, the 

specificity of the CI needs lies in a dual approach 

combining monitoring threats or risks related to the 

existing, and detection of opportunities and threats 

related to the discovery of new elements likely to 

influence the company or the organization. 

 

To represent this dual position of the CI needs, we 

designed the following matrix in order to estimate 

the impact of each CI need. (Fig. 21) 

 



53 
 

 
 

Fig. 11: Alert Matrix, or Strategic Matrix of CI Needs. Source: Author contribution 

 

This matrix can be used to connect each element of 

the model of definition of CI needs (Fig. 10), 

including all internal and external elements of the 

company or organization. With this approach,  

 

managers have the ability to estimate the impact of 

information related to external  

elements, resulting from the use of different types 

of CI needs, on the internal elements of the 

business. 

 

This strategic matrix of CI needs supports strategic 

thinking within the business intelligence processes 

in the company or organization, attributes quality to 

the information (opportunity or threat) and analyzes 

it in terms of current or potential impacts on the 

business model of the company or organization. 

To detect weak signals depending on CI needs, the 

following matrix (Fig. 12) allows eliciting key 

issues, to point out the relevant topics. 

 

 

 
 

Fig. 12: Alert Matrix, or Strategic Matrix of CI Needs (extended version). Source: Author contribution 

 

External elements of the strategic matrix of CI 

needs are numbered according to the amount of 

identified relevant elements. This matrix is 

complementary to the model of definition of the CI 

needs (Fig. 10), in order to deepen the thinking on 

CI needs. 

 

The use of the model of definition of the CI needs 

is illustrated in the following figures (Fig.13-18), as 

a support for the presentation of the different types 

of CI needs. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Opportunité Menace

Facteur 

actuel  

Facteur 

potentiel  

Axe de veille

Détail des 

éléments à 

surveiller

O
p

p
o

rt
u

n
it

é

M
e
n

a
c
e

O
p

p
o

rt
u

n
it

é

M
e
n

a
c
e

O
p

p
o

rt
u

n
it

é

M
e
n

a
c
e

O
p

p
o

rt
u

n
it

é

M
e
n

a
c
e

Fact eur act uel     

Fact eur 

pot ent iel
    

Fact eur act uel     

Fact eur 

pot ent iel
    

Fact eur act uel     

Fact eur 

pot ent iel
    

Partenaire   1
Autres facteurs 

externes…

Proposition 

de valeur

Ressources 

clés

Autres 

éléments 

internes…

Matrice d'alerte 

stratégique de veille

Entreprise de 

référence 1
Concurrent 1



54 
 

 

 

 

 

Fig. 33: CI needs about competitors Fig. 44: CI needs about marketing 

 
Fig. 55: CI needs about partnerships 

 
Fig. 16: CI needs about new entrants and substitutes 

 
Fig. 17: CI needs about technology 

 
Fig.18: Macroeconomic CI needs 

 

Fig. 13-18: Source (author’s contribution)

 

5. Conclusion  
 

Based on our literature review and analysis of 

proposed methods able to define the CI needs, we 

categorized the CI needs, identified several types of 

CI needs at the microeconomic and at the 

macroeconomic levels, and synthesized a model 

able to support managers in the definition of their 

CI needs.  

 

We postulate that this approach could accompany 

and help managers in the definition of their CI 

needs. Furthermore it can help them to identify 

opportunities and threats, as well as to foster 

creativity and innovation.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we were not able to test this model with a 

sufficient panel of managers during our current 

research, this will be part of our further researches.  

It would also be very interesting to test it with 

several types of organizations. 

 

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