aProfessor, Business Management Group, Management and Accounting Department, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
bAssistant Professor, Public Management Group, Management and Accounting Department, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
cPhD. Candidate, Business Management Group (International Marketing), Management and Accounting Department, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
Online published on 7 May, 2014.
Excessive accumulation of knowledge at competition levels is one of the features of new organizations so that increasing the amount of information in the organizations and the necessity of its use in organizational decision lead to the emergence of a phenomenon called competitive intelligence in the last two decades. Competitive intelligence is considered as a strategic management tool and one of the fastest development areas of business. It is also considered as an important technique in the creation of competitive advantage. With such a background, the present investigation was aimed to study design and explain a dynamic model of the competitive intelligence in order to achieve the sustainable competitive advantage in insurance industry from 2008 to 2013. The research methodology was practical and fundamental in terms of objective, exploratory-descriptive in terms of method and nature and a semi-experimental one method of implementation. The population consisted of insurance industry experts including senior and middle managers of the insurance company. The sampling method was purposeful, and the sample size method based on maximum precautionary estimation was employed in order to determine the sample size of the population considering the limited access to the sample experts. The measurement tool in the present study was the standard questionnaire of Simon et al. (2009). The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed using confirmatory factor analysis and interviewing with the experts of Asia insurance company and interviewing with university experts, advisors, and supervisors. The reliability was checked based on Cronbach's alpha and system dynamism tests. The results demonstrated a high reliability of the measurement tool. The data analysis was carried out using SPSS, Vensim Ple and LISREL software. In the present study, the factors affecting competitive intelligence in the insurance industry was explained and confirmed. Some of the factors are understanding of manager from competitive intelligence, employee training, communication skills of the employees, active agents, motivating the employees, familiarity with diverse cultures, sense of belonging and commitment of the employees, ability to attract customers of competitors, etc.
Competitive intelligence, competitive advantage, training, motivation, employees commitment, model, insurance industry
