Competitive intelligence and developing sustainable competitive advantage - Núm. 30, Enero 2017 - Revista AD-minister - Libros y Revistas - VLEX 672313149

Competitive intelligence and developing sustainable competitive advantage

AutorNader Seyyed Amiri - Said Shirkavand - Mahjabin Chalak - Niloufar Rezaeei
CargoPhD in marketing, Nader Seyyed Amiri is assistant professor in faculty of entrepreneurship of University of Tehran - Assistant Professor in the department of financial management at faculty of management in University of Tehran - MA degree in insurance business management from faculty of managemant, University of Tehran - Master Degree of...
Páginas173-194
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ABSTRACT
Privatization, partial tariff liberalization and entrance of foreign insurance companies in Iranian market
pose serious challenges to domestic insurance companies. This paper discusses competitive intelligence
as a means of gaining competitive advantage for insurance companies and seeks to study its effects on
creation of sustainable competitive advantage. A sample of 123 middle and senior managers working in
Iran Insurance Company in Tehran were surveyed. Data were collected via questionnaire and analyzed
using Structural Equation Model (SEM) in PLS software. Results showed that competitive intelligence
had a positive effect on creation of competitive advantage based on two sets of process and contextual
factors, with the former exerting greater effect in this regard. It was concluded that companies were
required to gain competitive advantage by establishing a strategic unit to collect, analyze and share
intelligent information derived from internal and external environment.
KEYWORDS
Competitive intelligence; competitive advantage; insurance; Iran Insurance Co.; structural equation
model.
RESUMEN
La privatización, la liberalización parcial de los aranceles y la entrada de empresas extranjeras de seguros
en el mercado iraní plantea importantes desafíos para las empresas locales de seguros. Este artículo
discute el caso de la inteligencia competitiva como un medio para ganar ventaja competitiva para las
empresas de seguros y busca estudiar los efectos en la creación de ventaja competitiva sostenible. Se
encuestó una muestra de 123 gerentes en posiciones medias y altas de la Iran Insurance Company en
Teherán. La recolección de los datos se realizó a través de un cuestionario y fue analizada con el modelo
de ecuaciones estructurales (SEM, por sus siglas en inglés) en el software PLS. Los resultados mostra-
COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE AND DEVELOPING SUSTAINABLE
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
LA INTELIGENCIA COMPETITIVA Y EL DESARROLLO DE UNA VENTAJA COMPETITIVA SOSTENIBLE
NADER SEYYED AMIRI
SAID SHIRKAVAND
MAHJABIN CHALAK
NILOUFAR REZAEEI
JEL: D, M
Received: 1/09/2016
Modified: 15/11/2016
Accepted: 22/12/2016
DOI: 10.17230/ad-minister.30.9
www.eafit.edu.co/ad-minister
Creative Commons (CC BY-NC- SA)
1 PhD in marketing, Nader Seyyed Amiri is assistant professor in faculty of entrepreneurship of Univer-
sity of Tehran. he is also a guest researcher in Aalborg University of Denmark. Nader`s research area
is Entrepreneurial Marketing and Digital Marketing in Small and Medium E-Businesses and Tourism
SME. Nader is author of many academic articles and book in Marketing and Entrepreneurship. He is
also a member of the ITS (International Telecommunication Society) and the Asian Marketing Asso-
ciation. Nader is consultant of Marketing Systems on small and medium businesses. He serves in the
board of directors in several companies and startups. Institutional Email Address: Nadersa@ut.ac.ir
2 Assistant Professor in the department of financial management at faculty of management in Uni-
versity of Tehran. He focuses on financial competiveness factors as a research area. He has published
many papers in Insurance Industries and teaches finance and economy course in University of Tehran.
Institutional Email Address: shirkavnd@ut.ac.ir
3 MA degree in insurance business management from faculty of managemant, University of Tehran.
She is an expert supplemental health insurance in Mellat Insurance Company. Her research area is
competitive advantages in Insurance Industries. Institutional Email Address: Mahjabin_chalak@ut.ac.ir
4 Master Degree of tourism marketing management in University of Tehran, Faculty of Management.
She has B.A in English translation. is an English translator. beside her activities in marketing and par-
ticularly tourism marketing, she teaches airline ticketing in an aviation academy. Institutional Email
Address: n.rezaeei@ut.ac.ir
AD-minister Nº. 30 january-june 2017 pp. 173 - 194 · ISSN 1692-0279 · eISSN 2256-4322
Nader Seyyed Amiri · Said Shirkavand · Mahjabin Chalak · Niloufar Rezaeei
Competitive intelligence and developing sustainable competitive advantage
174
AD-MINISTER
ron que la inteligencia competitiva tuvo un efecto positivo en la creación de ventaja competitiva basada en dos
conjuntos de factores de procesos y contextuales, donde el primero tuvo en efecto mayor en este aspecto. Se
concluyó que las compañías requirieron obtener ventaja competitiva al establecer una unidad estratégica para
recolectar, analizar y compartir información inteligente derivada del ambiente interno y externo.
PALABRAS CLAVE
Inteligencia competitiva; ventaja competitiva; seguros; Iran Insurance Co.; modelo de ecuaciones estructurales
INTRODUCTION
In the 21st century, new types of organizations based on knowledge and networks
have emerged in response to a complex, vague and changing environment
characterized by indistinct organizational boundaries (Ahmad, 2015). Companies
are faced with an increasingly competitive environment that makes it dicult to
keep a sustained competitive advantage (Nenzhelele & Pellissier, 2014). To survive
in such a marketplace, they must monitor business environment, gather intellectual
information, and make proper and immediate decisions when encountering
dierent opportunities and market threats to improve their performance compared
to other competitors. Competitive intelligence (CI) is a strategic tool that allows
organizations to achieve information in a systematic manner. CI is a process in
which actionable intelligence is produced and published through planning, legal
and ethical information gathering in the competitive environment, information
processing and analysis to help decision making and develop competitive advantages
in organization (Pellissier & Nenzhelele, 2013). In other words, this intelligence
portrays a comprehensive image of current and future nature of competition in the
marketplace for managers to make more informed decisions.
Recently, there has been a growing need for CI because organizations are
continuously changing their services and marketing messages to maintain their
successful performance. In today’s unpredictable economy, companies resort to CI
as a way of building and maintaining competitive edge. Insurance companies, which
used to be oblivious of market research, have changed their outlook to include CI
(Lanzoni & Marcus, 2004; Johns & Van Doren, 2010).
Insurance is one of the sectors contributing to economic growth. Insurance
companies act as a source of risk management for enterprises and individuals. By
providing protection, insurers can contribute to economic growth through channels
of marginal productivity of capital, technological innovations and saving rate (Ćurak
et al., 2009). In fact, economic growth is reflected in the soundness of a national
insurance market (Han et al., 2010). In recent years, extensive measures have been
taken to improve this industry in Iran, including privatization, tari liberalization
in some of insurance fields and encouragement of foreign companies to enter
domestic market (Article 113 of Fifth Development Plan, p.137), which have changed
the insurance industry and created a competitive marketplace in which companies
are obliged to gain advantages over their competitors. Since foreign companies have
great financial and experiential resources, technical power, and freedom in investing

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