Abstract
Background: Information technology has assisted in globalisation, which then assisted in making international trade easier. Consequently, businesses no longer compete with local competitors only but also with international ones, leading to intense competition in all business sectors. Businesses will hardly practice what they are not aware of and therefore needs to know about their competitive landscape. Competitive intelligence (CI) gathers information from both the internal and external business environments, and analyses these for use by decision makers. Whilst awareness of the importance of CI is wide, it is not practiced optimally, making the need for creating awareness of the benefits of CI important.Objectives: The objective of this research was to establish the influence of owners’ and managers' working experience of CI practice and awareness in the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) environment.Method: This research was quantitative in nature and a questionnaire was used to collect data from SMEs owners and managers in The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality.Results: This research indicates that SMEs in the study are aware of CI through education and training. Moreover, the study reveals that the working experience of owners and managers has a great influence on awareness and practice of CI and one should implement training programmes in this domain to assist with building competitive advantage.Conclusion: Small and medium-sized enterprises owners or managers’ years of working experience has a greater influence on awareness and practice of CI. Put differently, years of working experience is a great predictor of CI awareness and practice.
Highlights
Enterprises are faced with an increasingly competitive environment in which it is difficult to maintain a sustained competitive advantage (Shih, Liu & Hsu 2010). Guarda, Augusto and Silva (2012) state that competitive advantage can be understood as seeking unique opportunities that will give the enterprise a strong competitive position
Competitive intelligence has been identified to provide enterprises with competitive advantage. This is because competitive intelligence (CI) provides enterprise managers with information regarding their competitive environment and enables decisionmaking
There are pleas to raise awareness of CI amongst SMEs, the current study reveals that these SMEs are aware of CI
Summary
Enterprises are faced with an increasingly competitive environment in which it is difficult to maintain a sustained competitive advantage (Shih, Liu & Hsu 2010). Guarda, Augusto and Silva (2012) state that competitive advantage can be understood as seeking unique opportunities that will give the enterprise a strong competitive position. According to Shih et al (2010), in order to sustain a competitive position, managers should be prepared to respond promptly to changes in customer preferences, competitor strategies and technological advancements. For these reasons, many enterprises – whether public or private, and small or large – initiate their own competitive intelligence (CI) services to inform and prepare managers for changes in the external environment of the enterprise (Taleghani, Rad & Rahmati 2012; Bourret 2012). Competitive intelligence (CI) gathers information from both the internal and external business environments, and analyses these for use by decision makers. Whilst awareness of the importance of CI is wide, it is not practiced optimally, making the need for creating awareness of the benefits of CI important
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