Strategic scanning: usefulness of « in- the-field” information for small and mediumsized businesses and industries looking for new outlets product/market

Strategic scanning: usefulness of « in-the-field” information for small and medium-sized businesses and industries looking for new outlets product/market Most publications concerning Scanning deal with information that is mainly or exclusively of documentary origin. Therefore, a whole area of information is left aside: we shall call this kind of information “information obtained from in-the-field individuals” (IOII). We shall define this expression in the following lines. In this article, our ambition is to suggest a new definition of the concept of IOII to highlight the importance of sensorial information, and to show the use of such information when a small or medium-sized business is looking for new outlets product/market. In order to be as precise as possible in the few pages we have at our disposal, we are going to present a real-life case observed by our team. We do not claim to draw general conclusions from the one case presented. This case only aims at illustrating the concept of “in-the-field information” (IOII), and to highlight the significant usefulness of such information in this specific example. As far as “research” is concerned, we stand in the context of a longitudinal research since it has a timescale of several months, and of an investigative research; and we finally stand from an epistemological constructivist view-point as regards the great involvement of the research worker who at the same time played an active part in the change presented in this case. The aims is to draw the reader’s attention on the importance of “in-the-field information” (IOII), in the event of a medium-sized business looking for new outlets; To conceptualise what we have called “in-the-field information” (IOII); To suggest “actionable knowledge” and therefore suggest main lines of trainings aiming at developing people’s capacities to hunt for sensorial information.