Competitive intelligence in small and large companies

Market environment today is very turbulent. Maintaining competitiveness requires timely and relevant information about the competition and the market environment. There is a lot of information, but to create and maintain a competitive position, it is not enough just to have information, but it is also necessary to process it in some way so that it can be subsequently used in strategic planning and decision-making. These and other tasks are covered by the term "competitive intelligence (CI)", which is addressed in this bachelor's thesis. The primary goal of this work was to describe the approach of companies to CI and compare them with companies that do not deal with CI. The basic concepts and processes belonging to this interdisciplinary field are introduced here. Part of the text is devoted to a study that discusses about the use of CI practices in European companies. The work also presents the practices of CI in the corporate environment, shows the sources of information and methods that are used to analyze the data and information obtained. The scope is also dedicated to the profile of the employee whose task is to operate the CI. The practical part is a quantitative research that deals with the use of CI in Czech companies. The research takes the form of a questionnaire, which contains questions about companies' awareness of CI, obtaining information about competitors and the use of this information in strategic decision-making.