Competitive intelligence as a creative tool for the innovation process: an exploratory study in SMEs
by Abdeslam Hassani; Caroline Blais
International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management (IJEIM), Vol. 28, No. 5/6, 2024

Abstract: Although small and medium enterprises (SMEs) innovate by developing new products and services, these types of innovation have a high failure rate. This could be due to the poor implementation of tools and techniques that help evaluate and select the best ideas and turn them into new products and services. The implementation of competitive intelligence (CI) techniques in the ideation phase of innovation process is a factor that can promote innovation and its success. However, knowledge about these techniques in SMEs is limited. This research attempts to fill this gap through an exploratory study of three SMEs that are successful in products and services innovation. Our findings highlight that the use of a set of CI techniques, like strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis and brainstorm, improves the ideation phase of the innovation process and promotes success of products and services innovation. This study suggests an innovation process model, which includes CI as a set of techniques for generating and selecting ideas, and as an adjustment tool for the development and commercialisation phases.

Online publication date: Sun, 23-Feb-2025

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