Abstract
Scholars and executives have expressed concern over the growing frequency of unethical practices in companies' conduct of competitive analysis — the process by which a firm gathers, analyzes, and interprets data about its rivals. This article reports the results of an exploratory study of 137 senior executives' perceptions of unethical competitive analysis practices, their causes, and their potential effect on industries, companies and individuals. The article discusses the implications of the results for developing guidelines to safeguard against ethical violations in competitive analysis.
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Dr. Shaker A. Zahra is Professor of Strategic Management at Georgia State University. He is author or coauthor of two books and over 130 journal articles, proceedings and professional papers. His research has appeared inStrategic Management Journal, Decision Sciences, Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, Long Range Planning, Journal of Business Venturing, Academy of Management Executive, Journal of Business Ethics, Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, among others. Professor Zahra serves on the editorial review board of seven journals.
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Zahra, S.A. Unethical practices in competitive analysis: Patterns, causes and effects. J Bus Ethics 13, 53–62 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00877155
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00877155