Knowledge management and Competitive Intelligence (KM&CI) are particularly relevant to promote innovation strategies in SMEs, to early detect market opportunities and threats, which combined with the deep analysis of the company value chain, can turn into competitive advantage trough innovation. In relation to the KM&CI, in general SMEs: - Are not aware of the importance of the KM&CI and its scope.
- Do not have the many available resources.
- Do not assume the needs forTechnology or the culture of information management.
KM&CI mechanisms should take into account the specific characteristics of SMEs, which usually are unaware of the CI importance and its scope, and do not have the resources availability to create a specific IC unit, nor the culture of information management.
The phases, techniques and processes proposed, can be included in any of the following 7 stages which might be called the Holistic Circle of KM&CI:
Also in the vast majority of cases the definition of corporate strategy, the operational decisions associated, and the IC-related tasks (observation of the environment, selection of sources and information search, transmit messages to the market) are largely assumed by the manager and/or the owner of the company, existing minimum or no links with external suppliers of IC.
On this basis we can assure that:
- It is a key factor to the SME development, the adequate environmental monitoring associated with the company's competitive strategy.
- The KM&CI model to be used in an SME is radically different than the one used in a large company, not only because of the resource constraints but also because of the substantial differences in the macro and micro environments that affect each company's competitive strategy.
- The selected tools should fit the constraints and characteristics of SMEs, and not the other way around.
