SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online

 
vol.11 número1 índice de autoresíndice de materiabúsqueda de artículos
Home Pagelista alfabética de revistas  

Servicios Personalizados

Articulo

Indicadores

Links relacionados

  • En proceso de indezaciónCitado por Google
  • En proceso de indezaciónSimilares en Google

Compartir


South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences

versión On-line ISSN 2222-3436
versión impresa ISSN 1015-8812

S. Afr. j. econ. manag. sci. vol.11 no.1 Pretoria abr. 2008

 

ARTICLES

 

Export intensity and the Competitive Intelligence of exporting companies: Evidence from South Africa1

 

 

Ludo CuyversI; Michel DumontI; Wilma ViviersII; Patrick de PelsmackerIII; Marié-Luce MullerIV; Marc JegersV; Andrea SaaymanVI

IDepartment International Trade, University of Antwerp
IISchool of Economics, North-West University
IIIBusiness School, University of Antwerp
IVIBIS Business and Information Systems
VDepartment of Economics, Free University Brussels
VISchool of Economics, North-West University

 

 


ABSTRACT

The present paper investigates the relationship between Competitive Intelligence (CI) factors, characteristics, information sources, needs, requirements and the export intensity of exporting companies in South Africa. We establish whether there are significant differences between firms, grouped according to export intensity with respect to awareness, use, information sources and attitude towards CI activities.
A questionnaire was developed and sent to exporting firms, resulting in a usable sample of 309 South African respondents. These firms are grouped according to export intensity, and CI practices between groups are compared.
The results show that export intensive firms appear to be more aware and supportive of CI activities than less export intensive firms.

JEL: L86, O32

 

 

“Full text available only in PDF format”

 

 

References

1 AGARWAL, S. (1993) "Influence of formalization on role stress, organizational commitment, and work alienation of salespersons: A cross-national comparison study", Journal of International Business Studies, 24: 715-740.         [ Links ]

2 BENITO, G.R.G.; SOLBERG, C.A. & WELCH, L.S. (1993) "An exploration of the information behaviour of Norwegian exporters", International Journal of InformationManagement,13: 274-286.         [ Links ]

3 BILKEY, W.J. & TESAR, G. (1977) "The export behaviour of smaller-sized Wisconsin manufacturing firms", Journal of International Business Studies, Spring/Summer: 193-198.         [ Links ]

4 BURTON, F.N. & SCHLEGELMILCH, B.B. (1987) "Profile analyses of non-exporters vs. exporters grouped by export involvement", Management International Review, 27: 38-49.         [ Links ]

5 CALOF, J.L. & BREAKSPEAR, A. (1999) "Competitive intelligence practices of Canadian technology firms", National Research Council/ Canadian Institute of Scientific and Technical Information.         [ Links ]

6 CAVUSGIL, S.T (1980) "On the internationalization process of firms", European Research, 8: 273-281.         [ Links ]

7 CAVUSGIL, S.T. (1984a) "Differences among exporting firms based on their degree of internationalization", Journal of Business Research, 12: 205-207.         [ Links ]

8 CAVUSGIL, S.T. (1984b) "International marketing research: insights into company practices", Research in Marketing: 261-288.         [ Links ]

9 CHISNALL, P.M. (1977) "Challenging opportunities of international marketing", European Research, 5: 12-34.         [ Links ]

10 DE PELSMACKER, P.; MULLER, M.-L.; VIVIERS, W.; SAAYMAN, A.; CUYVERS, L. & JEGERS, M. (2005) "Competitive intelligence practices of South African and Belgian exporters, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 23: 606-620.         [ Links ]

11 FAIR, W.R. (1966) "The corporate CIA - a prediction of things to come", Management Science, 12: 489-503.         [ Links ]

12 GILAD, B. (1989) "The role of organized competitive intelligence in corporate strategy", Columbia Journal of World Business, 24: 29-35.         [ Links ]

13 GILAD, B. (1996) "Business Blindspots: Replacing Your Company's Entrenched and Outdated Myths, Beliefs and Assumptions with the Realities of Today's Markets, Infonortics: England.         [ Links ]

14 GRABOWSKI, D.P. (1987) "Building an effective competitive intelligence system", Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, 2: 39-44.         [ Links ]

15 GUYTON, W.J. (1962) "A guide to gathering marketing intelligence", Industrial Marketing, March: 84-88.         [ Links ]

16 HART, S.J.; WEBB, J.R. & JONES, M.V (1994) "Export marketing research and the effect of export experience in industrial SMEs", International Marketing Review, 11: 4-22.         [ Links ]

17 HESTON, A.; SUMMERS, R. & ATEN, B. (2003) "Penn world table Version 6.1" Center for International Comparisons at the University of Pennsylvania (CICUP), October 2002.         [ Links ]

18 JOHANSON, J. & VAHLNE, J.-V (1977) "The internationalization process of the firm - A model of knowledge development and increasing foreign market commitments", Journal of International Business Studies, 8: 23-32.         [ Links ]

19 KATSIKEAS, C.S. & DALGIC, T (1995) "Importing problems experienced by distributors: the importance of level of import development", Journal of International Marketing, 3(2): 51-70.         [ Links ]

20 KOH, A.C.; CHOW, J. & SMITTIVATE, S. (1993) "The practice of international marketing research by Thai exporters", Journal of Global Marketing, 7: 7-26.         [ Links ]

21 LEONIDOU, L.C. (1997) "Finding the right information mix for the export manager", Long Range Planning, 30: 572-584.         [ Links ]

22 LEONIDOU, L.C. & THEODOSIOU, M. (2004) "The export marketing information system: An integration of the extant knowledge", Journal of World Business, 39: 12-36.         [ Links ]

23 LIM, J.S.; SHARKEY, TW. & KIM, K.I. (1996) "Competitive environmental scanning and export involvement: An initial inquiry", International Marketing Review, 13(1): 65-80.         [ Links ]

24 MCAULEY, A. (1993) "The perceived usefulness of export information sources", European Journal of Marketing, 27: 52-64.         [ Links ]

25 PORTER, M.E. (1980) Competitive Strategy: Techniques of Analyzing Industries and Competitors, The Free Press: New York.         [ Links ]

26 RAO, TR. & NAIDU, G.M. (1992) "Are the stages of internationalization empirically supportable?", Journal of Global Marketing, 6(1/2): 147-70.         [ Links ]

27 SAAYMAN, A.; DE PELSMACKER, P.; VIVIERS, W.; CUYVERS, L.; MULLER, M.L. & JEGERS, M. (2004) "Export oriented competitive intelligence activities at the firmlevel: Testing and refining the underlying dimensions of the competitive intelligence process", Proceedings of the International Workshop on Competitive Intelligence, 8 October, University of Antwerp Management School.         [ Links ]

28 SAMIEE, S. & WALTERS, P.G.P. (1991) "Segmenting corporate exporting activities: sporadic versus regular exporters", Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 19(2): 93-104.         [ Links ]

29 SCHOLLHAMMER, H. (1994) "Strategies and methodologies in international business and comparative management research", Management International Review, 34: 5-21.         [ Links ]

30 TOFTEN, K. & OLSEN, S.O. (2003) "Export market information use, organizational knowledge, and firm performance - A conceptual framework", International Marketing Review, 20(1): 95-110.         [ Links ]

31 UNCTAD (2003) Handbook of Statistics, New York/ Geneva: United Nations.         [ Links ]

32 URSIC, M.L. & CZINTOKA, M.R. (1984) "An experience curve explanation of export expansion", Journal of Business Research, 12: 159-168.         [ Links ]

33 VIVIERS, W. & CALOF, J.L. (1995) "The promotion of exports in South Africa", Africa Insight, 25: 248-253.         [ Links ]

34 VIVIERS, W.; KROON, J. & CALOF, J.L. (1996) "The export behaviour of South African enterprises: Stages and attitudes towards exports", South African Journal of Business Management, 27: 34-41.         [ Links ]

35 VIVIERS, W.; SAAYMAN, A.; MULLER, M.-L. & CALOF, J.L. (2002) "Competitive intelligence practices: A South African study", South African Journal for Business Management, 33: 27-37.         [ Links ]

36 VIVIERS, W., MULLER, M.-L; & DU TOIT, A. (2005) "Competitive intelligence: An instrument to enhance South Africa's competitiveness", South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences, 8: 246-254.         [ Links ]

37 WALTERS, P.G.P. (1983) "Export information sources - A study of their usage and utility", International Marketing Review, Winter: 34-43.         [ Links ]

38 WALTERS, P.G.P. & SAMIEE, S. (1990) "A model for assessing performance in small US exporting firms", Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 15: 33-50.         [ Links ]

39 WIEDERSHEIM-PAUL, F.; OLSON, H.C. & WELCH, L.S. (1978) "Pre-export activity: The first step in internationalization", Journal of International Business Studies, 9: 47-58.         [ Links ]

 

 

Endnotes
1 This paper stems from a research project financed under the Bilateral Agreement on Scientific and Technological Cooperation between the Republic of South Africa and the Flemish Community (Belgium). Global Insight South Africa is acknowledged for providing the service to enable us the electronic distribution and collection of the questionnaire in South Africa.

Creative Commons License Todo el contenido de esta revista, excepto dónde está identificado, está bajo una Licencia Creative Commons