Envolvimento da alta direção e inteligência competitiva : uma análise sobre suas relações em organizações de médio e de grande porte da serra gaúcha - Brasil

Abstract

Competitive Intelligence (CI) is an emergent topic with strategic importance for nations and enterprises, and with your continuum theoretical development, arise the necessity to establish links with another knowledge fields. It has been identified a gap of empirical studies that seek to relate CI with Top Management Involvement, an essential factor for the development of this activity within the organization. More than initial support of resources and legitimacy, Top Management Involvement presupposes the commitment and continuous participation of the Top Management in programs of this nature, a behavior that can be of significant influence for its success or failure. So, this research aimed to analyze the relationship between Top Management Involvement and the Context and Process dimensions of Competitive Intelligence Model in medium and large companies of Serra Gaúcha Brazil. Also, it has been proposed to learn about the level of CI development level in the region, limited to organizations of this size, and to explore the relations between Top Management Involvement, Competitive Intelligence and Performance at this organizations. Thus, a descriptive and quantitative research was carried out, based on a survey sample of 160 organizations, measured by scales proposed by another international studies and based on the theoretical model of context and process of IC. Results indicated that there is positive relationship between Top Management Involvement and the IC Development Level at the medium and large companies at Serra Gaúcha, and three out of four scenarios proposed can be perceived. Also there is a positive association between IC, Organizational Performance, Top Management Involvement and IC integration with the decision making process of these organizations. In general, it was observed that most of these companies developed some kind of monitoring (information collecting), even though they do not nominate this activity as "Intelligence". The main focus of monitoring are Sales, Competitors and Innovation in Products, which indicates a beginning of this field development in the companies of this region.d