Empirical Research on Matching Categories of Competitive Intelligence to Data gathering approaches and techniques used for decision making in Biotechnology industry

Abstract

The prime objective of this research is to develop a framework of matching categories of CI to data gathering approaches and analysis techniques used by biotechnology companies. The five categories relevant to biotechnology companies identified are: Market intelligence, Competitorintelligence, Customer intelligence, Technology intelligence and Partner intelligence. After examining the available literature, an initial framework was developed matching the categories of intelligence to the primary sources, secondary sources, CI-web based tools & analysis techniques used to gather and analyze data. The relevance and validity of the framework was tested through a web-based survey. The survey was sent to 200 companies belonging to biotechnology industry. The findings of the survey were used to compare and contrast the way companies gathered data and analysis techniques they used to analyze the gathered data. The results of the survey were critically analyzed and used to develop a modified framework. The framework thus developed was evaluated. The amended framework is finally presented in the summary of the findings. The suggested framework can be utilized by biotechnology companies to gather and analyze data for specific categories of CI. Some limitations of the research are indicated and further areas of research on CI are outlined. Lastly, the implications of the CI framework in decision making for managers are discussed. This paper provides deep insights on how biotechnology can use the developed framework to gather and analyze datafor specific categories of intelligence for decision making.