Corporate Intelligence: Definition and concepts
Purpose:
The purpose of the article is to present the current research in the field of corporate intelligence, define research directions, highlight key findings of previous studies, and define basic concepts in these areas.
Design/Methods/Approach:
A systematic literature review in the field of corporate, business, and competitive intelligence was conducted.
Findings:
Corporate intelligence is an area that has not yet received much academic attention. In this regard, a need has arisen for a comprehensive overview of this activity, which could further serve as a basis for future studies. The article highlights key areas of research, which represent the definition of corporate intelligence, the links with competitive and business intelligence, and corporate security. The article also summarizes the authors’ findings and writings on the intelligence community, the subjects of corporate intelligence, the ethical dilemmas and legality of this area, and the introduction of this activity into companies. It was established that corporate intelligence constitutes a set of all lawful and ethical intelligence activities within a corporation, which overlap with business and competitive intelligence activities and include a security dimension, namely the protection of the organization’s interests.
Research Limitations / Implications:
The limitation of the research is mainly the small number of articles on corporate intelligence. Therefore, we had to include business and competitive intelligence in this activity, which is why some of the characteristics of the latter two are transferred to the former activity.
Practical Implications:
Our goal was to combine the findings of various authors from the aforementioned fields and present them in a clear format that will offer the reader a comprehensive insight into what corporate intelligence is.
Originality/Value:
The article contributes to a broader understanding of the field of non-state intelligence activity and serves as a theoretical starting point for further research into the field of corporate intelligence activities.
UDC: 005.934
Keywords: corporate intelligence, business intelligence, competitive intelligence, security, ethics and legality