Competitive intelligence formalisation in the property sector: The emerging market study

Abstract

Competitive intelligence (CI) enhances the quality of products or services and decision-making (Tarek et al., 2017). Despite formalisation having been identified as a cornerstone for CI, firms continue to practice it informally (Cavallo et al., 2021). Although CI formalisation has been investigated in other economic industries in South Africa, no study on the formalisation of CI has been conducted in the real estate sector (Cavallo et al., 2021). The objective of this research was to establish the formalisation of CI in the South African real estate sector. This research followed a quantitative research methodology using a web-based questionnaire to collect data from property practitioner firms in the South African real estate sector. The South African real estate sector is very competitive and firms practice CI to gain competitive advantage over their rivals. The findings indicate that the majority of property practitioner firms practice CI formally using different application software. However, the results indicate that property practitioner firms lack a CI system and do not appoint CI professionals. Although the majority of firms do not have a CI system and do not appoint CI professionals, they practice CI formally and use different application software during practice.