Towards a New Approach of the Economic Intelligence Process: Basic Concepts, Analysis Methods and Informational Tools

One of the obvious trends in current business environment is the increased competition. In this context, organizations are becoming more and more aware of the importance of knowledge as a key factor in obtaining competitive advantage. A possible solution in knowledge management is Economic Intelligence (EI) that involves the collection, evaluation, processing, analysis, and dissemination of economic data (about products, clients, competitors, etc.) inside organizations. The availability of massive quantities of data correlated with advances in information and communication technology allowing for the filtering and processing of these data provide new tools for the production of economic intelligence. The research is focused on innovative aspects of economic intelligence process (models of analysis, activities, methods and informational tools) and is providing practical guidelines for initiating this process. In this paper, we try: (a) to contribute to a coherent view on economic intelligence process (approaches, stages, fields of application); b) to describe the most important models of analysis related to this process; c) to analyze the activities, methods and tools associated with each stage of an EI process.