Competitive intelligence in a foreign environment: German and Canadian firms compared

Abstract

The objective of this chapter was to examine the intelligence practices of German MNE's and contrast these to those found in Canadian and U.S. studies. Taking into consideration the caveats involved in the comparison of these results (different size firms, different sectors and different time frame between all the comparative studies), the results indicate that German CI efforts are slightly more advanced in terms of formality when contrasted to both Canadian and American firms, have been around for a longer length of time and suffer from far less problems. However, in terms of the actual process of conducting intelligence projects, few differences are evident. Canadian's and Germans make similar use of primary information sources, seem to spend a similar percentage of time in the different functions of intelligence (planning, collection, analyses, communications, and management).