Web Mining for Strategic Competitive Intelligence

This chapter explains the use of web mining for gathering strategic competitive intelligence. It first discusses some concepts relating to web mining. This is followed by the findings of an exploratory study on how web mining for strategic intelligence is actually used by competitive intelligence professionals in some South African organizations. The findings are discussed under the three major themes, namely general intelligence practices; Web-based intelligence; and skills development and education. The bulk of the chapter proposes a practical methodology for using web mining to gather strategic business intelligence. Some practical comments about the impact of particular circumstances of emerging African countries on this methodology are also given.