Competitive intelligence activity: evidence from Greece

Purpose – To investigate awareness, attitudes and implementation with respect to competitive intelligence (CI) in Greece.
Design/methodology/approach – In-depth interviews with a sample of 50 well-known companies around Thessaloniki, an area of strategic marketing importance in Greece, representing a reasonable cross section of types and sizes of enterprise.
Findings – For the present, adoption in Greece is well behind the USA, but roughly on a par with the UK. The reasons for slow adoption are: unawareness, lack of sufficiently competent staff and a shortage of experts available to train them, perceptions of the cost, and somewhat complacent satisfaction with the general market research activity of in-house marketing departments. The focus is on short-term customer satisfaction, rather than long-term competitiveness.
Research limitations/implications – A deliberately limited exploratory study of a small sample in a highly localised setting. Recommendations are presented for further research.
Practical implications – In the turbulent business environments of the present day, CI can make a crucial strategic contribution to competitive success.
Originality/value – This study broadly confirms the findings and conclusions of previous research in the UK. It has clear value to strategic planning for marketing in Greece itself, but also in general.