Competitive intelligence programmes at French Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Over the last ten years France has implemented regional programmes to increase the awareness of, and change attitudes towards, the Competitive Intelligence (CI) practices of enterprises. The emphasis has been on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) with the Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CCI) playing a central role. This is an important part of a national state effort to improve and focus a company’s strategic management of information in both defensive and offensive modes. This report is a summary of 15 semi-structured interviews undertaken with French Chambers of Commerce and Industry in 2009. These form the foundation for future work on identifying the roles of awarenessand attitudes as influence drivers in the competitive intelligence processes of SMEs in France.