Developin a Model for Marketing Intelligence of Internal Automotive Industry

Inter-organizational intelligence is an effective way for organizations to adapt to the external environment, overcome the possible threats and seize opportunities. And since receiving information from the outside of the business environment affects the competitive position and effectiveness of the organization's marketing policies, it is important to pay attention to the kind of information needed for the organizations and the fact that how much they use intelligence in their strategic decisions. Considering the influence and background of Iran's automotive industry with an eight-decade history in the country and with various ups and downs as well as a special place in terms of cross-sectoral links in the Iran economy, we intended to identify the key factors affecting marketing intelligence based on the experts’ opinions. And then, we aim to present a conceptual model, using ISM technique, to identify the sequences and relevance of these factors.

Based on the nature of the subject and the objectives, the present research is a survey. At first, through reviewing the literature and interviewing experts, marketing intelligence factors were identified and then a questionnaire was designed to determine the importance of each factor. The statistical population of the present study is the Iranian automotive industry including the experts, managers and assistants of strategy, marketing and sales units. Participants were selected based on stratified random sampling proportional to the number of employees in each corporate unit. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to extract the factors (from the first questionnaire) and also to determine the structural validity and suitability of the model. LISREL and SPSS software were used for data analysis. ISM calculations were performed manually to obtain the relationship and sequence of variables from the second questionnaire.

The results of the ISM indicated that the ten approved marketing intelligence factors fall into six levels. The last level in the ISM represents a factor that performs as the cornerstone of the model and underlies the factors of previous levels. The first level in the ISM represents the factors highlighting the ultimate outcomes of the model. In other words, these are the factors that are obtained through other contributors.

Within the obtained model in this study, the monitoring of online communications, governmental information sources and information vendors are at the first level. While, at the bottom of the model is the country's priority factor which is the cornerstone of marketing intelligence in an organization, and the marketing should start emphasizing on this factor. Organization’s directional factors are located at the fourth level which is affected by the intelligent marketing enablers (within the fifth and sixth levels). That is, this factor palys a mediating role in marketing intelligence.