The Direction of Competitive Intelligence Activities in Japanese Enterprises Responding to the Changing Global Economic Environment

摘要

The Japanese economy faces a severe global competitive environment, and Competitive Intelligence (CI) is gaining recognition today as an indispensable way to improve the competitive edge of Japan in international society and to formulate new competitive strategies.However, comparison with competitive awareness or CI activities of European and U.S.companies reveals that most Japanese companies have quite a different awareness structure and are undertaking different activities, though it is well known that the Japanese are good at gathering information.This paper explores the current status and development trend of CI in Japan based on the perspectives of 27 CI professionals.The findings from this research provide evidence and explore reasons why Japanese enterprises are not attaching importance to intelligence activities according to the Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP)'s definition of CI.As a result, it seems that a sound strategy for competitiveness based on the intelligence gathering or further investigation has not yet been positively constructed.