중소기업 CEO의 IE활동의 기능과 경쟁전략과의 관계에 대한 연구

This study aims to investigate the functions of IE(intelligence économique) activities of SMEs' CEOs and to analyze the relationship between these functions and SMEs' competitive strategies. The study, based on the French concept of IE activities, attempts to explore the unstructured and informal IE activities conducted by SMEs' CEOs, unlike the structured and formal IE activities performed in large enterprises. In this study, IE activities refer to a firm's business activities to collect and utilize external and internal information and knowledge in order to align itself to the external environment more effectively. Some key findings based on data from 107 CEOs of local Inno-Biz SMEs include: 1) SMEs' CEOs have three independent functions of IE activities - forecast of external environments, understanding of internal capabilities, and exercise of the influencing power; 2) the function of understanding of internal capabilities is the most actively utilized one among the three functions; 3) SMEs pursuing a differentiation strategy utilize all three IE functions more actively than those pursuing a low-cost strategy. Based on these key findings, the study provides academic and practical implications and discusses its limitations and potential future studies.