Competitive intelligence in practice: empirical evidence from the UK retail banking sector

This paper presents the findings of an empirical study of the major UK retail banks, the purpose of which was to investigate, not only how they operate their competitive intelligence gathering activities, but the degree to which they "buy-in" to the information sharing attitude. The findings were applied to a best practice model which provides a clear picture of the current status of CI in these establishments and the attitudes of senior managers toward such activity. Recommendations are made on the improvements which would be required for the sector to be considered effective and efficient operators of CI practice.