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Introducing Marketing Students to Business Intelligence Using Project-Based Learning on the World Wide Web Carolyn F. Siegel

Ethical, legal business intelligence activities have been practiced for years by domestic and international companies and organizations. Marketing professionals frequently are involved in collecting information, analyzing it, and transforming it into actionable intelligence that can be used in decision making and problem solving. Undergraduate students may be prone to confuse such activities with illegal, unethical economic espionage. Project-based learning activities on the Internet’s World Wide Web can be used to emphasize the importance of intelligence to marketing decisions, introduce students to intelligence processes and content issues, and differentiate legitimate activities from those that are not.

Business schools are not celebrated for teaching about intelligence at the undergraduate (DeGenaro 1991; Sawka 1996), MBA (Heath 1996), or even doctoral level. Business ethics classes may discuss prohibitions on industrial espionage and the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 but rarely directly address applied intelligence issues. Information gathering may be integral to working case studies in policy and management classes, but the effort often goes no further than the study of hardcopy case materials. Marketing class projects may use the results of competitive intelligence activities without linking them to the intelligence process, issues of source accuracy, acceptable practices, or espionage concerns. We live in an era in which businesses are awash in information, and good intelligence skillfully applied is becoming even more critical to success. This article suggests that students need more systematic exposure to intelligence processes and issues and provides suggestions on how project-based learning on the Internet’s World Wide Web (Web) can be used to provide this exposure. Twenty years ago, Montgomery and Weinberg (1979) noted that “a strategic plan can be no better than the information [intelligence] on which it is based” (p. 41). At that time, their research found little focus within businesses on strategic intelligence systems, despite a dramatic increase in the use of strategic planning tools over the previous decade. As late as 90

1986, intelligence was being touted as becoming “an essential competitive tool,” yet many businesses still were not committed to a systematic intelligence effort (Ghosbal and Kim 1986). More recently, the third annual survey by the Futures Group (1997) of senior executives at 102 U.S. companies found 60% had organized business intelligence systems. Among companies with revenues of more than $10 billion, 82% had a business intelligence system. Even companies without structured business intelligence systems regularly collect information from publications, employees, suppliers, customers, the Internet, and other sources. These companies use competitive intelligence more than other forms of business intelligence and need even better intelligence to make competitive decisions. The trend toward increased commitment to intelligence and business intelligence systems reflects several factors. Greatly increased global competition, which emerged in the 1970s and accelerated during the late 1980s and 1990s, provides a compelling reason to collect information about societies with different cultures, political systems, administrative forms, legal systems, infrastructures, and resource bases. Shortened product cycles, business deregulation, rapid technology changes, and converging technologies contribute to increasingly more volatile business environments that require close monitoring (Ghosbal and Kim 1986). Since 1993, the Web has expanded the amount and scope of available information, shortened the time necessary to retrieve it, made it easier to retrieve, increased information access for small businesses, added momentum to globalization, and made companies more vulnerable to espionage forays by hackers and others. The resulting information glut has made the task of transforming information into actionable intelligence ever more formidable. Carolyn F. Siegel is a professor of marketing in the Department of Management, Marketing, and Administrative Communication, Eastern Kentucky University. Journal of Marketing Education, Vol. 22 No. 2, August 2000 90-98 © 2000 Sage Publications, Inc.

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FIGURE 1:

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The Intelligence Process

THE INTELLIGENCE PROCESS Intelligence, from the Latin intelligenti, means “the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations . . . apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment” (MerriamWebster’s Collegiate Dictionary 1993). Intelligence is both process, a system for collecting and transforming information, and content, actionable knowledge that can be used to make business and marketing decisions. The process (Figure 1) is a cycle that consists of (1) framing the question; (2) gathering the data/information; (3) organizing and analyzing the data, transforming them into actionable intelligence; and (4) disseminating the outcome to appropriate decision makers. Feedback is obtained throughout the cycle and used to modify the process, as needed. As a cyclical process, it should be proactive and continuous, not reactive or episodic. It can be performed in-house by one or more employees, often in a self-contained intelligence unit, or by hired consultants with expertise in business intelligence operations. Data are collected from in-house sources (sales records, salesperson reports, customer feedback, internal experts, etc.) or public external sources (industry experts, trade shows, conferences, presentations, newspapers, trade journals, court documents, annual reports, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 10Ks, suppliers, association newsletters, company help-wanted advertisements, brochures, advertisements, shopping the competition, etc.) or purchased from information vendors or databases (Lexus/Nexus, Dow Jones, Dunn and Bradstreet, etc.). Computers are an integral part of most intelligence systems; however, human thought is essential in ensuring that data are transformed into actionable intelligence that is used appropriately, legally, and ethically. Frequently used analysis techniques include ratio analysis; scenario building; trend analysis; strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis; forecasting; benchmarking; cost analysis; regression analysis; content analysis; qualitative analysis; competitor profiling; and so on. Intelligence

content (actionable knowledge) is used in activities such as identifying internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats, preparing business and marketing plans, locating emerging markets, preparing for technological change, and designing risk reduction strategies. BUSINESS ESPIONAGE Most of the information that any business needs is available internally or from open public records (Calof 1998). Yet, some individuals and organizations still cross the line of acceptable, legal practices to engage in economic (industrial) espionage. Espionage, an attempt by one company to discover another’s secrets, is illegal as well as unethical. The White House Office of Science and Technology estimates that business espionage costs U.S. companies as much as $100 billion annually in lost sales (American Society for Industrial Security 1999; Sawka 1996). The financial loss suffered by U.S. businesses due to intellectual property theft could be as much as $250 billion annually (Swartwood and Heffernan 1998). Marketing students, like all business students and professionals, should understand the difference between acceptable intelligence activities and espionage in order to execute the former and avoid the latter. They should be aware that in globally competitive and volatile markets, countries support different intelligence standards, so espionage in one country may be legal in another country, or worse, a government unit itself may engage in sanctioned economic espionage. For example, the French government’s intelligence service electronically bugged business class seats of Air France flights in 1991-92 to eavesdrop on business conversations and entered the hotel rooms of foreign business travelers to rummage attaché cases looking for business documents (Firm 1998). The United States and Canada lag behind European and Asian countries in industrial intelligence gathering activities

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(Calof 1998). Japan in particular is extremely zealous in collecting intelligence about the operations of other countries’ economic enterprises. The Japanese government and businesses collaborate closely in information collection activities worldwide (Hendrick 1996). Other leaders in intelligence operations are Sweden, Germany, and France (Calof 1998). Some of our most valued allies are using or have used economic espionage against U.S. companies in the recent past (Sawka 1996). Reported incidents of economic espionage are increasing, up 323% between 1992 and 1995 (Firm 1998). This includes the theft of marketing plans, price lists, product specifications, customer lists, trade secrets, and other company documents, as well as hacking corporate Intranet and Web sites, bribing company employees to obtain information, and other illegal acts. Membership in the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals doubled in 2 years (1994-96) to 4,676 members (Heath 1996) and increased to 6,694 in 1998 (Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals 1999), reflecting increased employment opportunities for intelligence professionals. WHY USE MARKETING CLASSES FOR TEACHING INTELLIGENCE? Marketing classes are a desirable place in which to teach intelligence for a number of reasons. Marketers contribute to business planning. Business intelligence encompasses the entire universe of issues and factors that affect the business. Marketers working on crossfunctional teams participate in and sometimes direct business intelligence processes. A recent survey of top-level managers at more than 100 medium to large-size companies reveals that marketing departments and personnel are involved in strategic business planning in 86% of the companies studied (Futures Group 1998). In small firms, marketers may have the sole responsibility for information collection and analysis, as well its dissemination and use in business planning. Marketers write marketing plans. Intelligence is crucial to the development of marketing plans and their revision. Most marketing graduates will be involved in processes that produce intelligence for marketing plans. Salespeople often are the front line of data collection and trend spotting in the competitive intelligence process. Marketers are vulnerable to espionage. Marketers, and salespeople in particular, are vulnerable to economic espionage offensives, as victims and sometimes perpetrators, inadvertently or deliberately. Students pursuing careers in marketing and sales should be made aware of their vulnerability and the many forms economic espionage can take, as well as how to counter and avoid such efforts. Marketers compete in a global marketplace. The Web was released to the Internet in December 1991; in March 1992, the

National Science Foundation lifted restrictions on its commercial use. The Web began emerging as a viable commercial entity in 1993, when service traffic increased 340,000% (Zakon 1999). Today, more than 60% of the Web’s 8 million domain names are commercial (DomainStats 1998). The phenomenal growth of the Web and its growing importance to businesses of all sizes means that many marketing students will be involved in Web marketing at some point in their careers. The migration of businesses to the Web and its global scope make it even easier for competitors to collect information about one another. Any marketer who thinks himself or herself immune from such activities is delusional. Marketing students should understand how to use the Web for legal, legitimate intelligence activities and how others are using it. Marketers work in an information economy. The shift to information economies and the abundance of knowledge workers in fully industrialized nations increases the vulnerability of businesses to the threat of intellectual property theft from within and without. As knowledge workers, marketers sift through a growing glut of information, which makes it ever more difficult to transform information into intelligence. Teaching intelligence through project-based Web-learning activities can sharpen student critical thinking skills, a major emphasis in business programs. Being an information worker also has its limitations. Intelligence portability has legal implications according to the judge-made doctrine of inevitable disclosure. This ruling limits the career mobility of knowledge workers seeking to leave one employer for a competitor. Even without a signed noncompete agreement, employees privy to trade secrets are restricted in their employment choices until the intelligence loses its value (Mathiason 1998). Gaining intelligence skills can enhance career opportunities. Some of the most desirable employers are also among those most admired for their intelligence systems. These include Motorola, General Electric, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, IBM, AT&T, and Intel. By providing skill sets valued by these companies, educators may improve student career opportunities. Intelligence projects benefit the marketing educator. Many marketing educators already use projects in their classes (Henke et al. 1988; Natesan and Smith 1998; Siegel 1996). As an applied discipline, marketing is known for its real-world assignments and project-based learning approaches. As Henke et al. (1988) point out, the realism inherent in hands-on, real-world projects will benefit students. Students are more receptive when engaged by interesting projects designed to enhance their career prospects. Educators can vary projects by product, industry, and market, thus tapping their own and student creativity. Educators can refresh their own skills and knowledge by monitoring students in contemporary marketplace projects. Projects also

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provide an excellent way to demonstrate that information must be transformed into intelligence before it becomes actionable. Because intelligence activities draw on concepts developed in other classes, particularly business ethics, business policy, and computer information systems, educators can use intelligence projects to illustrate the value of learning to integrate information across disciplines. TWO-PHASE APPROACH TO INTELLIGENCE PROJECTS Marketing educators are encouraged to begin the introduction of intelligence processes with an overview (phase 1). For those educators using projects, phase 1 is a prelude to the suggested projects in phase 2. Phase 1: Intelligence Overview

For educators not using projects, perhaps because of large class size, phase 1 can be presented as a free-standing lecture without progressing to phase 2. Alternately, it can be developed as a guided discussion, scenario-building exercise, series of student presentations, guest lecture topic, current events discussion, or combination of these methods. Phase 1 introduces intelligence issues and a framework for the phase 2 projects. It poses four broad questions (below). Web sites (see the appendix) are sources of information related to the issues raised by the questions and for in-depth study of specific intelligence issues. What is intelligence and how does it differ from economic espionage? Business intelligence is the legal, ethical collection of data and information that is analyzed and transformed into actionable knowledge for use in strategic planning and problem solving. Business intelligence processes should adhere to legal constraints, company and professional codes of conduct, and personal ethical standards. Acceptable sources of information include internal company records and data and open public records. Business intelligence is both internal to the business (to determine the firm’s own strengths and weaknesses) and external. The firm finds opportunities and threats in its external environment. Most time- and resource-strapped managers cannot consider all external environment elements and issues, so it is important strategically to identify key areas that can be researched. These include the economy, politics, government, laws, regulations, social structure, infrastructure, and technology, as well as competitors, suppliers, consumers, regulators, and the public. Traditional information sources are public documents (SEC and other public reports), stories in business and other types of publications, publically distributed annual reports and other company documents, news and publicity releases, interviews with competitors’ customers, visits to trade show booths, brochures, purchased products, and so on.

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Economic or industrial espionage is illegal and unethical, and carries serious criminal penalties for the offending individual and/or business. Espionage activities include illegal trespass, theft, bribery, fraud, misrepresentation, wiretap, the search of company trash, and violations of written and implicit noncompete agreements. Why engage in intelligence activities? Increased worldwide marketplace competition tops the list of reasons for initiating the intelligence process. Companies collect intelligence to update strategic and tactical plans, upgrade products to better suit customer needs, identify internal problems, identify partners, adjust marketing and production schedules, make product-market matches, and prepare for change. Who does it? The intelligence process can be managed within the firm by an individual, team, or department, or by hired consultants. Different individuals and groups can be involved in the various stages, from salespeople who contribute firsthand observations to computer information specialists who organize and operate database systems. How is it done? In the intelligence process outlined in Figure 1, information is collected from multiple sources, since confirmation by triangulation lessens the risk of processing inaccurate or biased data. Source accuracy and timeliness, particularly of information obtained on the Web, must be evaluated. Data are analyzed using appropriate methods to develop actionable knowledge. Finally, intelligence must be communicated to the right decision makers. Getting actionable intelligence to the right person at the right time and place is one of the greatest challenges in the business intelligence process. Phase 2: Projects

While business intelligence projects vary in scope and complexity, the four steps in Figure 1 present a general framework that can be used to guide students through most projects. Following are brief outlines of three intelligence projects I have used in undergraduate and MBA classes at a medium-size regional university since the World Wide Web first became accessible on campus in the spring of 1995. Upper-division marketing classes are small, between 12 and 26 students, and last 16 weeks in 1-hour class sessions. The projects reflect a problem-based approach to learning that emphasizes information search and retrieval, knowledge application, and critical thinking. Students are challenged to make sound real-world marketing judgments based on the information they collect and transform into intelligence. It is a structured process, with the educator acting as mentor and guide, working with students individually and on teams on a regular basis in class, via hardcopy memo progress reports, and by e-mail anytime. The projects are identified as level 1, level 2, and level 3 based on level of complexity and time needed. They range from a limited competitive intelligence project (level 1) for

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individual students that takes a few weeks to complete to a semester-long comprehensive team project (level 3; three to four students) that requires in-depth scrutiny of the external environment and uses intelligence to develop an international marketing plan. Level 1: Competitive Intelligence Project

The competitive intelligence project is limited in scope, narrowly defined, and addresses only one aspect of business intelligence—the competition—and only on the competition’s own Web sites. The competitive intelligence project can be completed within 2 to 4 weeks by individual students or twoperson teams. It does not require advanced Web information search and retrieval skills. It can be adapted to different courses by changing industry focus and has been used successfully in undergraduate consumer behavior, integrated marketing communication, advertising, and international business classes, as well as in an MBA marketing problems class. I have used a competitive intelligence project in an undergraduate integrated marketing communication class (12 to 22 students) every semester since the fall of 1997. In this class, individual students self-select a local small- to medium-size business as a client. Their ultimate task is to create a functional marketing Web site for the client, and the competitive intelligence project is the first step in this process. Clients often are the student’s relatives or friends. Among the clients who have been served are a local church, a day care center, a music store, a landscape company, an auto parts company, a craft cooperative, a florist, a hairstylist, a men’s clothing shop, a handmade quilted purse maker, and a rock band. Small- to medium-size clients are used for several reasons. Because these clients rarely have a Web site, the student’s marketing task is unencumbered by an existing entity. Students perform a service for the local business community. The competitive intelligence project simulates the employer-employee relationship, which is a good learning experience for students. Because the client is readily accessible, he or she can provide information about current off-line promotions, which are integrated with online marketing plans. Finally, because the clients are local, students can interact directly with the principal decision maker and collect feedback throughout the process. Although small businesses may regard the Web in a solely local context, once on the Web, their competitors are worldwide. Because the Web is a global marketing platform, the use of the competitive intelligence process for similar businesses, regardless of their bricks and mortar location, is justified. The educator predetermines the level of analysis used, since data can be collected at the local, regional, country, market, international, and/or global level of analysis. Level also refers to whether intelligence will be used at the broad business plan level or marketing plan level, or when developing a highly targeted sales, promotion, distribution, pricing, or product marketing plan.

In the competitive intelligence project, students are presented with a highly defined task, to collect information from the Web marketing sites of three of their client’s direct competitors, transform this information into competitive intelligence, and apply that knowledge toward designing the client’s Web site. Students begin by critically thinking about how the competitive intelligence ultimately will be used (Figure 1, step 1), that is, what should happen as a result of creating actionable intelligence. In this project, students should be able to design a better Web marketing site based in part on analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of competitors’ sites. Because Web sites are constantly being competitively analyzed, this project engages students in real-time tasks in the real-world marketplace. Students frame a key question that identifies information needs and sources and establishes information priorities. They should recognize pitfalls they might encounter and areas in which they must not cross into questionable, objectionable, or illegal collection methods. They should be challenged to identify other information sources that might be used and consider how to access them. In step 2, students plan how to collect the data and ensure source accuracy, reliability, and timeliness. They must go to one or more search engines (e.g., MetaCrawler at http://www. metacrawler.com or NorthernLight at http://www. northernlight.com), identify three competitors, and justify their choices. The competitors must have free-standing Web sites, not just one or two pages. In step 3, students explain how information will be organized and identify appropriate data analysis techniques. In the client competitive intelligence project, students use content analysis techniques to analyze technical, design, and marketing content proficiencies. Finally, in step 4, students identify who will receive the actionable intelligence and in what form (i.e., spreadsheet, traditional hardcopy report, memo, presentation, e-mail, Web page, etc.). The educator plays a critical role throughout the process in guiding students through the four steps, challenging them to justify how intelligence will be used to solve a specific marketing problem and raising concerns about ethical and legal issues and the client’s vulnerability to analysis by others. Level 2: Expanded Competitive Intelligence Project

The expanded competitive intelligence project enlarges the scope from solely Web marketing sites to company and industry information, along with Web sites. The project takes at least 6 weeks to complete for individual students or two- to three-person teams. Students select two directly competing companies in an industry of their choice or one determined by the instructor. Competitors must be large enough to have information available on the Web in SEC filings, public relations releases, corporate Web pages, Usenet conversations, and so on. Students gather information from a wide assortment of Web sites—government, educational, and commercial—

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as well as listservs. The expanded competitive intelligence project allows for a broadened discussion of informationcollecting methods, as well as issues of source accuracy (particularly of newspaper articles, Usenet conversations, and public relations releases), countering deliberately set negative word of mouth or misinformation, using listservs for consumer surveys, protecting Web sites against penetration and sabotage, protecting against trademark and copyright violations, and so on. Unlike the level 1 competitive intelligence project in which students use competitive intelligence as input into the construction of a marketing Web site for a local client, the expanded competitive intelligence project is less interactive. Because large companies are the focus, there is little if any opportunity for students to interact directly with company decision makers other than to request additional information by e-mail or feedback forms on the company’s Web site. The advantage of the expanded project is that because the scope has been widened, far more information sources can be used. This emphasizes the importance of factors such as source accuracy, timeliness, and appropriate level of analysis. Level 3: International Marketing Plan Project

The international marketing plan project is far broader than the previous two projects, more time consuming, more rigorous, and requires advanced intelligence and Web information search and retrieval skills. I have used this type of project in international marketing classes at both the undergraduate and MBA levels. The IMP project is assigned over an entire semester as the culminating project for the course and worked on by teams of three to four undergraduate students. At the MBA level, the project is worked on by individual students or two-person teams. The project is divided into two parts: market analysis and international marketing plan. The international marketing plan project considers the entire scope of external factors facing a firm entering an international market. This includes political and economic risk analysis, corruption worldwide, global competitiveness, the bribery propensity of leading exporting nations, how countries sanction competitive intelligence activities, and how U.S. firms can counter some of these approaches. The ultimate goal is for students to develop a comprehensive marketing plan for exporting a product to an international market. Intelligence gathering is emphasized as a critical activity throughout planning, implementation, and control activities. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF WEB-BASED PROJECTS As more marketing educators use the Web in their classes, particularly for projects, the Web becomes easier to use simply because it is more familiar to students and educators. Clearly, the Web’s great advantage in teaching intelligence is its vast store of information. It is an ally in a project-based

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learning approach, since real businesses are gathering the same information as the students and at the same time. Its speed and immediacy are unparalleled. The Web levels the information playing field, making information gathering faster, worldwide, comprehensive, timely, and relatively easy. It also makes espionage (and hacking) easier, which strengthens the argument for using an intelligence process framework approach to projects. Students who worked on the level 1 project in the spring and fall of 1999 were surveyed to determine their reactions to the projects. Responses from the two classes and their demographic characteristics were found to be highly comparable, so the 27 responses were merged. Of the respondents, 59% were female, 5% were nontraditional students, and all were juniors or seniors. Surprisingly, only 33.3% had studied business or competitive intelligence in other classes. Less surprising, only 11.1% had actually performed business or competitive intelligence in other classes. These numbers, along with the lack of previous discussion about espionage issues (44.4% had not discussed espionage issues), indicate that among these students, intelligence issues either were not discussed or did not make a lasting impression. One hundred percent of these students had used the Internet and Web in other classes. Given their stated familiarity with the Web, 55.6% either “very strongly agreed” or “agreed” that most information obtained from the Web is accurate. Of the students, 88.9% either “very strongly agreed” or “agreed” that it is extremely important for marketers and marketing students to understand how to perform competitive intelligence. Likewise, students believe that projects are an effective method for helping them learn real-world skills (88.9% either “very strongly agreed” or “agreed”). Student comments focus on the real-world value of the competitive intelligence project, for example, “This project taught us about hands-on marketing,” “I really enjoyed the use of real-life examples to see how strategy is used,” “I liked doing new techniques about marketing on the World Wide Web,” and “The competitive intelligence project gave us real-life scenarios to learn from.” While there are obvious advantages in using Web projects, at the same time there are downsides to Web use, particularly as its information store continues to expand exponentially. Unless projects are carefully defined and restricted, students risk getting lost on the Web. The glut of information can overwhelm their ability to transform it into intelligence. They can waste a vast amount of time trying to collect information and experience frustration from dead ends. The educator must clearly emphasize the importance of evaluating source accuracy or risk having students use inaccurate if not misleading information that they transform into poor intelligence. Student assessment of source accuracy is a problem that will grow with the expansion of Web information sources. Finally, project-based learning approaches require more hands-on involvement from the marketing educator. This takes time

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and effort. Projects may be impossible for large classes or lecture sections. However, for those educators willing and able to make the commitment, the educational benefits can be substantial. CONCLUSIONS Intelligence and espionage issues are clarified and intensified on the Web, which encourages learning about them through the use of real-world Web-based projects. Even educators who are not oriented toward using projects or who have large classes should seriously consider including and/or increasing coverage of intelligence and espionage issues, as well as source accuracy, in their marketing classes. Educators who use projects might use the suggestions in this article as points of departure for their own classes. Educators are encouraged to be creative and flexible in their use of the Internet for intelligence projects. Regardless of the actual project used, student learning will be enhanced by developing experience in collecting, analyzing, and applying intelligence to marketing problem solving.

APPENDIX Universal Resource Locators The following universal resource locators were accurate as of October 1999; however, they or their content cannot be guaranteed. At the time this manuscript was written, these sites provided information and links to resources that marketing educators and students might find useful in developing an in-depth understanding of specific intelligence issues and processes. What is intelligence and how does it differ from economic espionage? http://www.depaul.edu/ethics/codes1.html—Ethics WWW Resource Database. Links to company codes of conduct from DePaul University’s Institute for Business and Professional Ethics. The list includes ethics codes from businesses, unions, and professional associations. http://www.scip.org/ci/ethics.html—A Code of Ethics for CI Professionals from the Society for Competitive Intelligence Professionals. A section of frequently asked questions at http://www.scip.org/ci/faq.html addresses differences between intelligence and espionage and between intelligence and counterintelligence, and discusses why competitive intelligence is important and how it affects the bottom line. http://www.loyola.edu/dept/politics/ecintel.html—Economic and Competitive Intelligence, the home page for an extensive array of links to issues dealing with economic and competitive intelligence from Loyola University. Links to military and strategic intelligence pages, the Economic Espionage Act of 1996, competitive intelligence programs, the Competitive Intelligence WWW Library, intelligence servers, documents, articles, and other sources. http://iws.ohiolink.edu/~sg-ysu2/indexcompanyresearch.htm —How to perform company research; links to online directories including Company Link, Companies Online, Hoover’s Company Capsules, and the Thomas Register; SEC docu-

ments; directories of public and private companies; and directories of international companies. The site is funded by the OhioLINK Small Grant Research Program and is an instructional Web site that introduces information about basic company research techniques. What is the nature of the threat to U.S. businesses from international industrial espionage? http://nsi.org/Library/Intel/japanesp.html—Commercial Intelligence Gathering, “Jetro and the Japanese Experience” by John F. Quinn for the Fifth National OPSEC Conference titled Managing Risk in the Information Age. Although this paper is several years old, it contains information and frames questions about the debate within the U.S. intelligence community on the controversial subject, “Should the CIA and other intelligence agencies assist American corporations by collecting economic secrets from foreign competitors?” http://nsi.org/Library/Legis/bill1557.html—A copy of the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (PL 104-294): “To prohibit economic espionage, to provide for the protection of United States vital proprietary economic information, and for other purposes.” Among the congressional findings are that economic security is an integral part of national security; encouraging innovation and creativity requires adequate protection of vital economic proprietary information, both tangible and intangible; more than 50 countries have covertly tried to obtain advanced technologies from U.S. industries; the theft, wrongful destruction or alteration, misappropriation, or wrongful conversion by foreign governments or their agents of vital economic proprietary information belonging to U.S. owners directly and substantially threatens the health and competitiveness of critical segments of the U.S. economy and, consequently, the nation’s security; and current laws are inadequate to protect against economic espionage by foreign governments or those acting on their behalf. http://www.infowar.com/class_2/class2_030298b_s.html-ssi —“Pssst . . . Wanna Buy Some Data? (Security Measures to Prevent Industrial Espionage)” in Security Management (1997, vol. 41, no. 12) published by the American Society for Industrial Security. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/980223/23spie.htm— Corporate spy wars, “The Secrets of American Business Are Being Targeted Like Never Before: Can Companies and Law Enforcement Agencies Fight Back?” by William J. Holstein, in U.S. News & World Report (February 23, 1998). Why engage in intelligence activities? http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/mi04122e.html—What’s Your Competitive Intelligence Quotient (CIQ)? by Jonathan L. Calof, Canadian Government Management Center (October 20, 1999). http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/engdoc/main.html—“Perpetual Strategy: A 21st Century Essential” (search at this site for the title of this document). Who does it? http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/sc_mangb/contact/resourc1/engdoc/ 99c.html—Information on which countries are active in collecting competitive intelligence from the Canadian government site Strategis (Industry Canada). http://www.fuld.com—“Competitive Intelligence Guide” describes what Fuld & Company Inc., a leader in competitive

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intelligence, does for clients. Links to the Internet Intelligence Index at http://www.fuld.com/i3/index.html are designed to help visitors gather competitive intelligence information. There are links to nearly 600 sites on the Internet that are intelligence related, covering subjects from macroeconomic data to individual patent and stock quote information. How is it done? http://home.sprintmail.com/~debflanagan/index.html—“An on-line course that will enable you to locate high-level company information; find sales prospects; identify telephone numbers and addresses; locate company home pages; research company financial information; monitor company news and periodicals; review public opinion; use business and financial meta-sites; locate professional associations; find conferences and seminars; learn about an industry; research nonprofit organizations; and identify international business resources.” This is a comprehensive site for links and advice for researching companies online. http://ciir.cs.umass.edu/—Center for Intelligence Information Retrieval, University of Massachusetts at Amherst. This is a National Science Foundation funded SIUCRC center, “one of the leading information retrieval research labs in the world. The CIIR develops tools that provide effective and efficient access to large, heterogeneous, distributed, text and multimedia databases.” http://www.fiu.edu/~library/internet/subjects/businet.htm— Internet resources for business research and studies from Florida International University. Contains links to a variety of sites both domestic and international. http://www.sec.gov/edgarhp.htm—The EDGAR database of corporate information. http://libweb.uncc.edu/ref-bus/buselec.htm—Internet Sources for U.S. Corporate, Industrial, and Economic Information, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, with links to business resources, companies, searches for company information online, legal resources, and business metapages. http://www.brint.com/papers/ciover.htm—“Competitive Intelligence Programs: An Overview of Business Researcher’s Interests (BRINT.com)” by Yogesh Malhotra, BRINT Institute. http://www.prnewswire.com—Public Relations Newswire. Search for public relations releases from U.S. and international businesses. http://www.business.eku.edu/MGT/SIEGEL/Source.htm—A page and links that focus on source accuracy issues. http://gateway.lib.ohio-state.edu/tutor/les1/index.html—A source evaluation tutorial from The Ohio State University Libraries. The tutorial introduces techniques for judging the value of Web sites for research purposes and takes 15 to 30 minutes to complete. http://www.virtualpet.com/industry—A Polson Enterprises Web site that provides tools for researching specific companies, industries, and manufacturing processes. http://www.hoovers.com/—Hoover’s Company Capsules. The List of Lists: links to external lists of a variety of sources that rank companies and people in a number of ways. http://www.corporateinformation.com/—Corporate information from around the world, “for a limited time, detailed write-ups on over 15,000 companies located around the world.” http://www.deja.com/—Search for topic-related newsgroups from Deja News.

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http://www.phoaks.com/—Experts from Phoaks. A collaborative filtering site, Phoaks finds appropriate and relevant Web resources. People post their opinions of Web resources in Usenet Netnews. Phoaks reads, classifies, abstracts, and tallies those opinions automatically. Phoaks’ pages reflect the results. http://www.clearinghouse.net/—Argus Clearinghouse guides to business resources. http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/direct.htm—DirectSearch from George Washington University by Gary Price, MLIS. http://ciir2.cs.umass.edu/Govbot/—GOVBOT, a U.S. government search engine, developed by the Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval. This engine claims to have gathered 1,204,943 Web pages from U.S. government and military sites around the country. http://www.udel.edu/alex/mba/main/netdir2.html—Madalyn, a Business Research Tool from the University of Delaware, contains links to a variety of sites. Where can intelligence information be located for the international marketing plan project? http://www.imd.ch/wcy/wcy1999.html—The World Competitiveness Yearbook assesses global competitiveness. It contains more than 500 pages of reference material for the world business community and government leaders. http://www.weforum.org/publications/GCR/—Global Competitiveness Report, a guide to international competitiveness including essays, country profiles, and key issues. http://www.gwdg.de/~uwvw/bribery.htm—The bribery propensity of leading exporting nations. http://www.transparency.de/—Transparency International, which assesses political and economic risk and corruption worldwide, “is a non-governmental organisation dedicated to increasing government accountability and curbing both international and national corruption.”

REFERENCES American Society for Industrial Security. 1999. Economic espionage [accessed June 11, 1999]. Available from http://www.asisonline. org/stat3.html Calof, Jonathan L. 1998. What’s your competitive intelligence quotient (CIQ)? Canadian Management Network (November 17). Available from http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/ami04122e.html DeGenaro, Bill. 1991. The care and cultivation of corporate main brains. Journal of Business Strategy 12 (September-October): 17-20. DomainStats. 1998. Domain name information services [accessed May 30, 1999]. Available from http://www.domainstats.com Firm, P.C.B. 1998. The economic espionage act of 1996: An experiment in unintended consequences? Lawinfo Forum [accessed June 12, 1999]. Available from http://lawinfo.com/forum/espionageact.html Futures Group. 1997. Ostriches & eagles 1997. Futures Group Inc. (August). Available from http://www.tfg.com/pubs/docs/0_Elll-97.html . 1998. Extroverts or introverts II: A litmus test for strategic planners. Futures Group Inc. Available from http://www.tfg.com/pubs/extroverts-ii. html Ghosbal, Sumantra, and Seok Ki Kim. 1986. Building effective intelligence systems for competitive advantage. Sloan Management Review 27 (Fall): 49-58. Heath, Rebecca Piirto. 1996. Competitive intelligence. Marketing Tools (July-August) [accessed May 25, 1999]. Available from http://www. demographics.com/publications/mt/96_mt/9607_mt/9607mf01.htm

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