Philip S. Nitse

National Accounts Revisited: New Lessons from Recent Investigations

Abstract National (or major) account programs have been used by companies for many years. However, the important premises behind the implementation of national account programs have not been examined in more than a decade. This study revisited these premises in an effort to explore whether the management or structure of national account programs has changed. Although many of the characteristics identified in earlier research still exist, this study identified some noteworthy differences. These include the trend of many companies to service international customers via a national accounts program, the integration of national account programs with traditional salesforces, and the increased emphasis on national account customers within sales organizations. Several managerial topics for future research are proposed.

The impact of color in the e‐commerce marketing of fashions: an exploratory study

As the number of Internet purchases of fashion items increases, the problem of inaccurate color representation on the Web becomes more significant. Color inaccuracy has many negative consequences for marketers, including loss of sales, increased returns and complaints, and customer defections. This research reports the findings of a survey conducted as part of an initial investigation into consumer opinions about fashion merchandise purchasing over the Internet. Results indicate that companies are losing customers and sales as a result of having colors on e‐commerce sites that do not accurately represent the actual colors of the products being sold. Increased dissatisfaction on the part of consumers leads to greater costs in both customer service and reverse logistics. Further, a majority of the respondents indicated that they would not make additional purchases from an e‐tailer if they received items in colors different than they expected. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.

Environmental scanning and organizational culture

This paper examines the connection between environmental scanning for market intelligence, organizational culture and generic strategies. The generic strategies, based on the Miles and Snow typology, are related to the organizational culture types developed by Deshpande et al. An enhanced model of the one proposed by Deshpande et al. is presented. By providing a more complete model, it is possible to more accurately represent an organizations interaction with its environment with respect to its generic strategy and scanning approach. Propositions are presented pertaining to the type of scanning approach utilized by organizations in each quadrant. The paper concludes with planning implications for each quadrant.

Libraries as knowledge management centers

Purpose – This paper proposes enhancing libraries to act as knowledge management centers for small businesses, providing both knowledge management (KM) and competitive intelligence (CI) services. Design/methodology/approach – The requirements for a Library Knowledge Management Center (LKMC) are presented and briefly examined. KM, CI, ontologies, and the Semantic Web are all considered, and the steps needed to realize a LKMC are presented. Findings – An approach to developing a LKMC is provided, as is a rationale for the proposal. Future research issues for realization of this proposal are addressed. Research limitations/implications – This paper presents a conceptual overview of a project that is still in its early stages, and as such its practicality is difficult to evaluate. Practical implications – This proposal, if followed up with future research, will prove beneficial to both small business and to libraries. Small businesses are not always able to gather sufficient internal and external knowledge to assist in strategic planning and positioning, and thus are unable to compete with larger rivals whose resources allow them to develop sophisticated KM and CI systems. LKMCs hold promise to level the playing field. Libraries benefit because this reaffirms their relevance in a digital age in which so much information is freely available to patrons. Originality/value – This paper proposes a new service for libraries, one that will assist small businesses in competing more effectively with larger competitors.

Multi‐class interest profile: applications in the intelligence process

Noting that accurate information needs overlay the entire intelligence cycle from planning to reporting, the authors propose a new concept to fine‐tune the process of electronically gathering information. Since most tools are nondiscriminatory in information gathering, a new concept is needed to assist managers at all levels of the organization. The proposed multi‐class interest profile (M‐CLIP) provides the capability of expanding the representation of interests to reflect the assorted areas that make up a manager’s information needs. The M‐CLIP covers project, organizational, and industry class interest areas. Each area is customizable to make the search pertinent to the user while considering the need for both recall and precision. Supporting features, such as profile expansion, and fine‐tuning are also considered.

Improving competitive intelligence for knowledge management systems

Knowledge management encompasses the entire intelligence cycle from planning to reporting. One aspect that is often overlooked or minimised is the inclusion of competitive intelligence. This paper proposes a new concept to fine-tune the process of electronically gathering competitive intelligence – a key activity in knowledge management systems. Most tools are nondiscriminatory in information gathering, and a structured approach is needed to assist managers at all organisational levels in the needs identification process. The proposed multiclass interest profile provides the capability of expanding the coverage of critical intelligence areas to reflect the assorted topics that make up an organisations information needs. Each component is customisable to make the information that is gathered pertinent to the organisation, and supporting features such as profile expansion and fine-tuning are also incorporated.

Disinformation usage in corporate communications: CI'ers beware

All CI practitioners are leery of being victims of disinformation. Yet, disinformation is one of the many devices commonly used in corporate communications strategies. This article discusses various types of disinformation tactics and why CI professionals should be aware of such usage. Outright lying, for example, is perhaps the most disturbing form of disinformation, but it is also the most easily confronted. Statements also may be true in meaning, but falsified by exaggeration, understatement, or facetiousness. CI professionals should be sensitive to the passive component of disinformation in which one, usually through silence or non-reaction, creates a high-potential for influenced interpretation. Finally, any company planning to use disinformation within a communications campaign should consider the risks involved, from legal liability issues to having ones own customers fall prey to the intended false conclusions, and ones own employees mired in confusion.

Use of the normalized word vector approach in document classification for an LKMC

In order to realize the objective of expanding libr ary services to provide knowledge management support for small businesses, a series of requireme nts must be met. This particular phase of a larger research project focuses on one of the requirem ents: the need for a document classification system to rapidly determine the content of digital documents. Document classification techniques are examined to assess the available alternatives f or realization of Library Knowledge Management Centers (LKMCs). After evaluating prominent techniques the authors opted to investigate a less well-known method, the Normalized Word Vector (NWV) approach, which has been used successfully in classifying highly unstructured doc uments, i.e., student essays. The authors propose utilizing the NWV approach for LKMC automatic document classification with the goal of developing a system whereby unfamiliar documents can be quickly classified into existing topic categories. This conceptual paper will outline an a pproach to test NWV’s suitability in this area.

Library Science, Knowledge Management, Competitive Intelligence: Archive Theory- The Common Link

Summary The gathering, organization, and archiving of critical business intelligence is a complex task. Competitive Intelligence systems gather information for use in the decision making process. Knowledge Management Systems are used to organize this knowledge. Library Science provides structure for the storage of published documents, in both printed and electronic formats. This paper proposes that the common link among the three disciplines is Archive Theory, which is the process by which an archive of information is built. This process provides a framework for analysis of what documents or information to retain and what format to use when retaining them. The paper details the linkage and concludes with an example of a working system that ties all parts together.

History of Computing Education Trends: The Emergence of Competitive Intelligence

Several studies have shown that new curriculum initiatives such as enterprise systems have a predictable lifecycle [1]. This paper looks for trends in competitive intelligence (CI), a relatively new area of study that is beginning to infiltrate curricula around the world. We first examine existing research concerning CI and academia, listing the various approaches through which CI’s role in educational curricula is considered and tracing the history of its emergence. A survey of CI course offerings throughout the US and Australia was conducted in an attempt to identify trends outside a single culture or education system. It shows that CI is an emerging discipline and often appears as an independent degree program rather than just a component of other programs. The methodology used in this study demonstrates how a historical perspective can be used to identify new issues to be considered by curriculum planners.