Competitive Intelligence defined
"Data gathered to improve an organization's competitive capacity."
competitive intelligence. (2011). In J. Law, Business: the ultimate resource (3rd ed.). London, UK: A&C Black. Retrieved from https://loyno.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/ultimatebusiness/competitive_intelligence/0?institutionId=4905
"Information relevant to strategy formulation regarding the environmental context within which a firm competes. Beneficial because it can provide a description of the competitive environment, challenge common assumptions held about the environment, forecast future developments, determine when a strategy is no longer viable, and indicate when and how to adjust strategy to compensate for changing environment."
Kelly, L. & Booth, C. (2004). Competitive intelligence. In Dictionary of strategy: Strategic management a-z (pp. 30-30). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd. doi: 10.4135/9781452229805.n132
Related Guides
Handout for Finding Company Information
- Company Profiles in Business Source CompleteHandout with step-by-step instructions
Company Info Directly from the Source
- Wayback MachineThis is an archive of the web. You are able to type in a URL and look at historic "snapshots" of what that webpage looked like at selected dates in the past.
Here are the types of documents you can find by browsing the website of publicly traded companies:
- annual reports
- presentations for investors
- progress reports
- fact sheets
- supplier list
- press releases
- SEC filings
- investor/shareholder directory
- Nonprofit Explorer (Find 990 forms)Use this database to view summaries of 3 million tax returns from tax-exempt organizations. Includes details such as their executive compensation and revenue and expenses.
Information from the City of New Orleans
- City of New Orleans Open Data SiteData published by the City of New Orleans
Government Information
- usa.govListing of government agencies. Online guide to government information and services.
- American FactFinderAmerican FactFinder from the U.S. Census Bureau provides access to data about the United States, Puerto Rico and the Island Areas. The data in American FactFinder come from several censuses and surveys.
Databases
- Business Source CompleteFind articles about business in magazines, newspapers and journals, author profiles, and country economic reports. See handout on the left column of this research guide to locate company profiles in Business Source Complete
- Communication & Mass Media CompleteFull text and indexing for journals covering communication, mass media, linguistics, discourse, rhetoric, sociolinguistics, communication theory, language, logic, organizational communication and more. Also includes author profiles. Dates of coverage vary, 1915-present.
- Academic Search CompleteFind articles in all subject areas in over 17,000 journals and magazines, with full text for most. Updated daily. Dates vary, some as early as 1865 to present.
- JSTORFull-text scholarly journals in many subject areas. We have Arts & Sciences I through XV, Life Sciences, and many others; click "more" below for a full list. JSTOR has the beginning of each journal to 3, 4 or 5 years ago. How-to videos.
examples of industry-specific database
- Hospitality & Tourism IndexIndustry and scholarly articles on the tourism and hospitality industries from more than 500 journals and magazines. Dates vary, some as far back as 1950 to present.
- link: browse all subject research guidesview the whole list of research guides organized by subject to find resources related to the business you selected.
Local/Regional Business Information and National News Sources
- New Orleans CitybusinessNew Orleans Citybusiness is the business newspaper of Metropolitan New Orleans covering news on business, banking, technology, real estate, construction, law, retail, and development.
- Access World NewsA full-text collection of over 6700 primarily U.S. newspapers. Source for the New Orleans Advocate and Times-Picayune.
- New York TimesFull-text access to current and archive issues of the New York Times is provided by Monroe Library to all current students, staff, and faculty. First-time users will need to create an account using their Loyola email before logging in.
Librarian
Social Media Analytics
- bitlyThis link management platform can be used to track the number of clicks on links you create.
- statcounterUsed to tell you how people get to your website
- Google AnalyticsAdd this code a website to analyze traffic
Survey Tools
What information are you trying to collect, and which type of answer will best collect that information?
Choose from:
- type an answer (short answer, paragraph)
- choose from a list (multiple choice, checkboxes, dropdown)
- upload files (file uploader)
- choose from a grid (linear scale, multiple choice grid, checkbox grid)
- select a date and time (date, time)