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As Table 1 shows, there is much more to competitive intelligence than just market research. The word assessment suggests an ongoing process using a variety of information streams and data gathering techniques including psychological profiling and new technology evaluation. This process helps decision makers better understand the development of their industry, the behavior and capabilities of their competitors, and what is necessary to develop or maintain competitive advantage. C ompetitive intelligence (CI), also known as business intelligence, is both a process and a product. As a process, CI is the set of legal and ethical methods a company uses to harness information that helps it achieve success in a global environment. As a product, CI is information about competitors' activities from public and private sources, and its scope is the present and future behavior of competitors, suppliers, customers, technologies, acquisitions, markets, products and services, and the general business environment. Tyson [12] presented CI as a group of varied intelligence activities, shown in Table 1. Nothing is more likely to undermine IT strategic planning than poor knowledge of competitors' computing practices. In today's dynamic markets, CI has become an important source of information about the business environment. Major companies, such as General Motors, Eastman Kodak, and British Petroleum, have organized formal CI units [5]. One recent estimate places the global worth of the CI industry at more than $100 billion [8], exploding from more than $1 billion in 1988 [7]. The Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) has grown in 10 years from 8 members to over 4,000 worldwide , and its Web site receives over 23,000 hits per week [10]. The industry is likely to continue to expand, as the need for CI of all types increases within the current environment of rapid changes in organizational structures and operations. The growth of CI has important implications for both the management and operation of IT units, as IT resources are called upon to support CI activities elsewhere within organizations. Moreover, IT units themselves benefit from conducting their own CI efforts. Despite the critical nature of CI, however, little research has been conducted from an IT viewpoint about management activities regarding CI. This article presents the results of a survey of the attitudes and practices of CEOs and CIOs regarding CI. This study shows that, although competitive intelligence is important to CEOs, firms tend to underinvest in it and that therefore the …