A research agenda for intelligence studies in business

This research paper defines the scope for a research agenda for competitiveintelligence (CI), market intelligence (MI) and more generally for intelligence studies inbusiness. Respondents in the survey defined the scope to include analysis, traditionalphenomena or problems, new phenomena, trans- or cross disciplinary studies, methodologicalissue and industry specific studies. Respondents were also asked to come up with terms for agood definition of the study. We found that existing definitions of CI in use are overlapping withdefinitions of other more established fields of study, like decision sciences and marketingintelligence. Respondents agreed that it’s practical to define the study in terms of understandingthe external environment. In the discussion a parallel is made to the notion of surroundingworld analysis and Stevan Dedijer’s ideas about social intelligence. A broad discussion leads toa renewed interest for disciplines studied by the humanities as we show what has been lost inthe development of the social sciences. Implications are shown and future studies suggested.