O mundo dos negócios hoje em dia está cada vez mais competitivo e os consumidores buscam de forma acelerada a satisfação de suas necessidades imediatas. Na sociedade do conhecimento, caracterizada pela alta competitividade e pela necessidade inerente de informações, torna-se necessária a adoção de estratégias que permitam a manutenção das vantagens competitivas sustentáveis adaptadas a cada modelo de negócio das corporações. A reorientação de um modelo de negócios utilizando os conceitos de Inteligência Estratégica Antecipativa é foco deste trabalho. Em relação aos procedimentos metodológicos, realizou-se um estudo de caso com uma pesquisa exploratória em um banco de dados interno no CRM da empresa estudada e em paralelo uma coleta de fichas de captação com clientes desta empresa. Estes dois bancos de dados foram inclusos no software Sphinx®. O resultado deste estudo foi a geração de três exemplos: O primeiro com o objetivo de testar se um grupo de palavras com destaque de aparições pode trazer pistas de serviços a serem criados pela empresa. O segundo tinha o objetivo de testar se palavras com aparição nas fichas de captação podem ter algum tipo de relação com aparições destas mesmas palavras na base de CRM dando assim pistas de novas tecnologias a serem aplicadas/desenvolvidas pela empresa. O terceiro tinha o objetivo de testar se um grupo de palavras vinculadas ao tema “serviços” e agrupadas por região do país poderiam sinalizar prioridade de investimento da empresa para geração de serviços adicionais aos usuários de seus softwares através de uma rede de representantes. A aplicação dos conceitos de IEA em situações reais de uma empresa de software buscando auxiliar o gestor nas decisões estratégicas de uma possível reorientação de um modelo de negócios foi o resultado final apresentado neste trabalho. / Nowadays the world of business is becoming each day more competitive and the consumers are looking at a fast pace to satisfy their immediate necessities. At the knowledge society, characterized for the high competitiveness and the inherent necessity of information, becomes necessary the adoption of strategies that allows the maintenance of the sustainable competitive advantages to each model of business of the corporations. The reorientation of a business model using the Anticipatory and Collective Environmental Scanning concepts is the focus of this work. Related with the methodological procedures, a study case was made with an exploratory research in an internal data base in the CRM of the studied company and in parallel was become fulfilled a collection of captation fiches with customers of this company. These two data bases had been enclosed in the Sphinx® software The result of this study was the production of three cases: The first one with the objective to test if a group of words with prominence of appearances, it means, a great number of events, in a CRM database, can bring clues from services to be created by the company. The objective of the second was to test if words with appearance in the captation fiches can have kind of relation with appearances of these same words in the CRM base, thus giving clues of new technologies to be applied/developed by the company. The third had the objective to test if a group of words entailed to the subject “services” and grouped by region of the country could sign priority of investment of the company for the generation of add services to the users of its softwares through of a net representatives. The application of the concepts of IEA in real situations of a software company searching to help the manager in strategic decisions of a possible reorientation of a business model, was the final result presented in this work.

É de conhecimento geral que as mudanças ocorridas no contexto global provocaram mudanças profundas na sociedade e, sobretudo, na competitividade das organizações. Hoje, obtém-se vantagem competitiva através da gestão ótima dos conhecimentos organizacionais, representada pela transformação da informação em inteligência. Este movimento tem se fortalecido no ambinte corporativo em função da crescente necessidade dos gestores tomarem decisões mais assertivas em meio à grande quantidade de dados e informações disponíveis. Diante deste cenário, o processo pelo qual as organizações convertem informação em inteligência tem sido tratado como inteligência competitiva (IC). No Brasil, encontram-se diferentes termos que descrevem este processo, como inteligência de mercado e inteligência de negócios. O fato é que, independente da taxonomia utilizada, as iniciativas práticas em termos da implantação de ações organizacionais e pesquisas científicas têm se intensificado ano após ano. Entretanto, ainda se sente a necessidade de um modelo integrado da IC com as demais estruturas teóricas e práticas que seja capaz de facilitar a compreensão deste fenômeno em sua totalidade. Por isso, o presente trabalho desenvolve uma visão holística sobre a IC e, para isso, é utilizado o método de teoria fundamentada (grounded theory) baseado na triangulação de métodos de pesquisa quanti-quali. De um lado, a pesquisa teórica permitiu compreender a relação entre os diversos aspectos conceituais do tema, destacando a análise quantitativa das publicações em IC que identificou os campos de pesquisa e as referências bibliográficas mais relevantes, utilizada para identificar os principais constructos do modelo holístico. De outro lado, os estudos de caso permitiram confirmar a validade de algumas proposições identificadas no referencial teórico para a construção do modelo. Assim, o trabalho oferece a construção de uma visão holística de IC que emerge dos resultados obtidos ao longo do trabalho, constituído sobre métodos científicos. / Transformations in the global context have caused some deep changes in society, specially in organizations competitiveness. Nowadays, it is possible to achieve competitive advantage through an optimal management of organizational knowledge, represented by the transformation of information into intelligence. This tendency has gained strength in the corporate world because of the growing need of managers to make more assertive decisions due to a great quantity of data and information available. Inside this scenario, the process by which organizations convert information into intelligence has been treated as competitive intelligence (CI). In Brazil, the practical initiatives on the implementation of organizational actions and scientific research have intensified year after year. However, an integrated CI model with all the structures, both practical and theoretical is still necessary to facilitate the understanding of this phenomenon in its totality therefore, this project develops a holistic view of CI. It is based on the grounded theory method, composed of quantitative and qualitative researches. On the one hand, the theoretical research allowed understanding the relationship between the conceptual aspects of the theme, highlighting the quantitative analysis of CI publications that identified fields of research and relevant references, used to identify the key constructs of the holistic model. On the other hand, the case studies have allowed confirming the validity of some propositions identified in the theoretical framework. Thus, this project offers the construction of the holistic view of CI that emerges from the results obtained during the work, constituted of scientific methods.

The formation of bacterial biofilms on surfaces and their subsequent biofouling pose extensive safe and healthy concerns to a variety of industries. Biofilms are ubiquitous, and the biofilm state is considered the default mode of growth for the majority of the world's bacteria population. Once mature, biofilms are difficult to remove completely and have improved resistance against antibacterial agents. Given this, there has been significant interest to mitigate or at least manage biofilm formation on surfaces. One such method has been through the material design of surfaces, and to the interest of this study, through the development of antimicrobial stainless steels. Stainless steel is not an inherently antimicrobial material. Stainless steels alloyed with small amounts of either copper (Cu) or silver (Ag), both well-known natural antimicrobial agents, have been investigated since their initial development in the late 1990's onward. This class of materials have been proven to show significant antimicrobial effect over their traditional counterparts without compromising the characteristic mechanical properties of the stainless steels. However, most of the antimicrobial assessments for these materials documented within literature are conducted over a 24-hour timeframe and do not adequately account for the biofilm mode of growth. As so, this study aimed to assess how biofilms grow on this class of antimicrobial steels over a longer duration of growth and under growth conditions which more adequately modeled the biofilm mode of life. The same strain of Escherichia coli commonly used in antimicrobial surface testing, ATCC 8739, was grown on submicron-polished coupons of a ferritic Cu-alloyed stainless steel (1.50 wt. % Cu), an austenitic Ag-alloyed stainless steel (0.042wt. % Ag), and a standard 304 series stainless steel, used as a baseline. Following ASTM-E2647-13, the E. coli/SS coupons were grown using a drip flow bioreactor under low shear conditions at either ambient temperature or 37 ± 3 degrees C with a batch phase of 6 hours and a continuous phase of 48 hours up to 96 hours. Directly after harvesting, the coupons were analyzed with an Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (E-SEM) under low vacuum with a water vapor environment. The effect of surface chemistry and alloy microstructure, surface roughness, rinsing the surfaces prior to inoculation and after harvesting, temperature, and growth duration on the resulting E. coli biofilms were all investigated in some capacity. Growth on the submicron finished surfaces indicated there were no significant differences between the biofilms grown on the three different steel compositions. Bacterial attachment appeared non-preferential to surface chemistry or alloy microstructure, suggesting that E. coli interacted with the surfaces effectively the same under the given growth conditions. To account for apparent randomness in bacterial attachment, it is hypothesized that the surface features of interest were on a size scale irrelevant to the size of single bacterial cells. To account for the lack of an observed biocidal effect from the Cu- and Ag-alloyed stainless steels, it is hypothesized that an organic conditioning film which developed on the surfaces from the fluid environment may have effectively inhibited the release of Cu and Ag ions from the steel surfaces. / MS

The importance of environmental analysis in the strategic management process and the effects of economic value drivers on firm or industry performance have been discussed conceptually and empirically by researchers in corporate failure, and in the areas of finance, accounting, strategic management, and the hospitality industry in the past. The belief is that the more systematic and frequent the scanning performed by managers the higher the chances of improving the firm's or industry's performance. The present study is an attempt to identify economic value drivers that impact the casual theme sector of the restaurant industry and to ascertain the degree of the impact during the period 1994-2003. The statistical analysis was based on time series data, using Cross Correlation, Granger Causality, and Multivariate Regression. An exhaustive range of economic value drivers within ten categories were tested: commodity market; foreign currency market; labor market; inflation; stock market; national income and output; interest rate; government revenue, spending, debt, and taxes; money supply; and consumer spending. The unit of analysis was done at the industry level, and an index of operational cash flows of the casual theme sector of the restaurant industry was developed. Economic value drivers within the categories of commodity markets, labor markets, inflation, stock market, national input/output, government revenue/spending/debt/taxes, money markets, and consumer spending indicated co-movements with and causality to the index of operational cash flows per unit in the casual theme restaurant industry. A high variance in the operational cash flows in the casual theme restaurant industry was explained by a set of economic value drivers within commodity markets, inflation, and labor markets. In broad, practical terms, the study intends to support the importance of assessing the economic environment for better performance of the restaurant industry and to provide food service managers with a conceptual model to understand the unanticipated effects on the performance of existing or new strategies. In real terms, the model and set of economic value drivers in the model would help them decide what kinds of action or investment in a firm or industry's weakness should be taken to buffer future operational risks against value drivers within economic environment. / Master of Science

<p>Pollution problems have drawn worldwide awareness and become significantly important now. Particulate matter (PM) emission is one of the key pollution issues. Particulate matter has a significant impact on the environment and human health, especially particle sizes that range below 10μm. Researches continuously work an improvement of fine particulate matter collections emitted from all kinds of sources, such as automobiles, industrial combustion, etc. Governments in many countries are planning to regulate the PM emission from the existing PM_10 (particle diameter<10μm) to new limits PM_2.5 (particle diameter<2.5μm) within the next few years. For this reason, present PM control system needs to be improved.</p><p>The objective of this work is to develop a dust flow separator type electrostatic precipitator (DFS-ESP) for the effective control of fine particulate matter emission from natural gas combustions. The characteristic of PM emitted from natural gas combustion is studied, and the performance of a DFS-ESP is evaluated by experiments and numerical predictions.</p><p>An experiment was conducted for natural gas combustion exhaust flow rates from 2.5 to 9 Nm^3/h, ESP applied voltages from 0 to 30kV, and gas temperature from 80 to 160°C. A series of particle measurements were conducted at upstream, downstream and middle of the DFS-ESP system by an optical particle counter for particle mass density, and by condensation nucleate particle counter for particle size distributions and particle number density. Particle sampled from the natural gas combustion system was also analyzed by an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) technique. Flow velocity profile and pressure drop of the DFS-ESP were measured by a Pitot tube and diaphragm type pressure transducer, respectively.</p><p>The experimental results show that the particle size emitted from natural gas combustion ranges from 17 to 300nm in diameter, and the volume density is approximately from 5 x 10^8 #pt/m^3 to 5 x 10^9 #pt/m^3 depending on the combustion conditions. The dust flow separator can concentrate 90% of fine particles in 1 to 3% of the gas flow and divert it from the main flow to the ESP section where the particles can be removed. In terms of overall particle collection efficiency, the DFS-ESP system can remove up to 90% of the particles based on the number density. The pressure drop across the DFS-ESP is observed to be lower than lPa for the present range of flow rate, which is within acceptable limits for industrial applications.</p> / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

The number of the Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has grown substantially in recent years. As the sector has expanded it has experienced a high level of internal competition especially due to scarce donor resources and their requirements such as greater financial accountability and clearer evidence of program influence. Therefore strategic thinking and the use of strategic management approaches are very much needed. While the volume of research on strategic management in large corporations is extensive research on strategic management in SMEs is relatively limited and the research on strategic management in NGOs is very limited. Therefore, following the recommendations of the prior researchers for further studies, this research is an attempt to shed light on the top mangers` perception of the importance of strategic management processes in NGOs in Palestine. This research discovered that more than half of the NGOs surveyed have strategic management systems indicating that a significant proportion of NGOs view strategic management as crucial. Managers of the studied NGOs perceived a strategic management approach as an important factor for increasing the quality of service delivery, achieving goals and increasing overall organizational performance. Regarding the internal organizational factors managers believed that employing strategic management techniques helped significantly in sorting out organizational problems, reducing organizational conflicts and aiding organizational development. The NGOs that have set a strategic management approach are more adjustable to environmental factors. The environmental awareness of managers in NGOs is very important. The managers` strategic awareness and their perception of the III benefits coming from a formal strategic planning approach within the NGO considerably impacts upon the success of the organisation. They perceived environmental scanning as a very important factor for NGO success. Environmental scanning is also perceived as a significant factor in the strategic management process and its impact upon performance. The studied NGOs placed most emphasis on a mission statement followed by evaluating and assessing and developing a vision statement and yearly goals. The respondents considered flexibility, adjustability and organizational development as important elements in implementing strategies. As the size of the NGOs increased their use of strategic management approaches such as developing a mission statement and objectives, annual and long term goals and employing formal strategic planning techniques increased. Managers of NGOs perceived the - value of leadership presented by managers¿ as the first priority in the factors which are significant for future success. This emphasises the significance of leadership as a crucial factor for success in all organizations in general and in NGOs in particular. In this research it has been recommended that donors from the international community, the Islamic and the Arab world should continue to support Palestinian NGOs. Indeed they have the right to ask the Palestinian NGOs to show transparency, accountability and to be moderate and well managed. On the other hand they should respect the Palestinian national agendas and priorities and not use the assistance being given as a political tool. The Palestinian National Authority should allow NGOs the freedom to operate effectively and ensure that the relationship between NGOs and Palestinian National Authority is a cooperative one.

This study set off in a notion, rather than insight; there seems to be a lot of talk about how innovation should thrive and how the environment should be scanned, but not so much about the relationship in between. While the usefulness of sharing information about the environment is seldom questioned, how the information sharing comes to play is as seldom a topic for debate. This sparked our curiosity and to explore the phenomena deeper we conducted interviews with nine out of the ten co-workers within the unit for Research &amp; Innovation at LFV. The result indicates that while environmental scanning was believed to be an important part of their work, they had no strategic guidelines on how it should be exerted and it was viewed to be more of a passive part in their practical work. Furthermore, their work situation was highly individualized and autonomous, which made them very motivated to scan the environment, but also caused a certain discrepancy in how they perceived it. This combination of disparate perspectives, high motivation and lack of unanimity resulted in a rather narrow monitoring of the environment and an imbalance between the interest and the actual use of information. While information was greatly sought after by everyone, the information shared was not perceived as meaningful in the same extent. Some co-workers meant this induced an overload of information and therefore became more restrictive in their information sharing, but others became frustrated that the information they shared never seemed to be used and thus shared even more as a response. Hence, the effect was not only self-fulfilling and reflexive, but also inhibited the environmental scanning from becoming a significant element in the innovation process. / Denna studie tog avstamp i en uppfattning, snarare än en insikt; det verkar talas gott om hur innovation ska frodas och hur omvärlden ska bevakas, men desto mindre om relationen däremellan. Medan nyttan med att dela information om omvärlden sällan blir ifrågasatt, verkar det lika sällan fokuseras på hur den informationsdelningen går till i praktiken. Detta väckte vår nyfikenhet och för att utforska fenomenet djupare utförde vi intervjuer med nio av de tio medarbetarna på enheten för Forskning &amp; Innovation på LFV. Resultatet indikerar att omvärldsbevakning ansågs vara en viktig del av verksamheten, men att det fanns få strategiska riktlinjer om hur det ska utföras och att det var en mer passiv del av arbetet. Vidare var arbetssituationen högst individuell och autonom, vilket gjorde dem mycket motiverade att scanna sin omgivning, men också skapade en viss diskrepans i hur de uppfattade den. Denna kombination av olikartade perspektiv, hög motivation och brist på samstämmighet resulterade i en något snäv bevakning av omvärlden och en obalans mellan intresset och användningen av information. Samtidigt som information var mycket eftertraktat så blev inte informationen som delades uppfattad som meningsfull i samma utsträckning. Vissa medarbetare upplevde att detta genererade ett överflöd av information och blev därför mer restriktiva i sin informationsdelning, men andra blev frustrerade över hur informationen de delade aldrig verkade komma till användning och reagerade med att dela ännu mer som följd. Därav blev effekten inte bara självuppfyllande och reflexiv, utan hämmade också omvärldsbevakningen från att bli ett betydelsefullt element i innovationsprocessen.

No estudo recente da Inteligência Competitiva (IC), aponta-se a necessidade de se obter uma compreensão mais quantitativa do ambiente de negócios e suas relações entre os diversos agentes econômicos com o propósito de desenvolvimento de ferramentas úteis aos profissionais de IC. Nesse sentido, o pleno entendimento da dinâmica competitiva se apresenta como alicerce fundamental na qual os produtos de IC devem ser ancorados para cumprir com seu papel nas organizações. Sob essa perspectiva, o presente trabalho se apresenta como uma proposta à compreensão do papel da IC nas organizações sugerindo um meta modelo da dinâmica competitiva. Inicia-se com foco em identificar e delimitar o papel da IC nas organizações tendo como base o constructo de modelo de negócios que tem obtido destaque na literatura, conhecido como Modelo Canvas, e como resultado é proposto um modelo do papel da IC, obtido a partir da triangulação dos métodos de pesquisa survey e desenvolvimento teórico-conceitual. Na sequência, visando a compreensão quantitativa da dinâmica competitiva, aprofundam-se as discussões microeconômicas de interação entre os agentes econômicos e, para isso, adota-se o conceito neoclássico de Equilíbrio Walrasiano e projetam-se as influências recíprocas dos agentes no ambiente de negócios a partir dos conceitos de equilíbrio da Teoria dos Jogos. Como exemplo, é realizada a discussão e a modelagem matemática desta interação para a estrutura de mercado de oligopólio na qual se obtém um meta modelo para construção de cenários de decisão. Desta forma, essa tese representa uma evolução na construção da teoria de IC, em seu sentido mais quantitativo que ainda é pouco explorado na literatura. Com isso, espera-se que este trabalho estimule novos esforços no sentido quantitativo com vista ao desenvolvimento de melhores ferramentas à prática da IC. / Recent studies in Competitive Intelligence (CI) area point out that is a need to obtain a better comprehension of business environment in a quantitative perspective - speacially the relationships among several economic agents - focus on developing useful tools for CI professionals. In this sense, a plenty knowledge of competitive dynamics presents itself as an essential foundation on which CI products must be established to fulfill its role in any organization. From this perspective, this paper offers a proposal to an understanding of CI organizational role, including a suggestion of competitive dynamics meta model. This paper starts with focus on identify and delineate the CI organizational based on the most referenced business model reference - known as Canvas Model - and thus it proposes its CI organizational role model through triangulation of a survey research and a theoretical-conceptual development. After that, it focus on microeconomics discussion about the interaction among economic agents in a quantitative perspective and, to do so, Walrasian Equilibrium theory is adopted as a background of their relationship projections in the business environment using Game Theory. In addition, this paper promotes a mathematical discussion of this dynamics in an oligopoly market structure in which it obtains a meta model for building decision scenarios. In this way, this thesis represents an evolution in the construction of CI theory in a quantitative way that is not completed explored in literature yet. Finally, one should believe that this work might will stimulate new efforts to develop better CI tools for CI professionals.

No estudo recente da Inteligência Competitiva (IC), aponta-se a necessidade de se obter uma compreensão mais quantitativa do ambiente de negócios e suas relações entre os diversos agentes econômicos com o propósito de desenvolvimento de ferramentas úteis aos profissionais de IC. Nesse sentido, o pleno entendimento da dinâmica competitiva se apresenta como alicerce fundamental na qual os produtos de IC devem ser ancorados para cumprir com seu papel nas organizações. Sob essa perspectiva, o presente trabalho se apresenta como uma proposta à compreensão do papel da IC nas organizações sugerindo um meta modelo da dinâmica competitiva. Inicia-se com foco em identificar e delimitar o papel da IC nas organizações tendo como base o constructo de modelo de negócios que tem obtido destaque na literatura, conhecido como Modelo Canvas, e como resultado é proposto um modelo do papel da IC, obtido a partir da triangulação dos métodos de pesquisa survey e desenvolvimento teórico-conceitual. Na sequência, visando a compreensão quantitativa da dinâmica competitiva, aprofundam-se as discussões microeconômicas de interação entre os agentes econômicos e, para isso, adota-se o conceito neoclássico de Equilíbrio Walrasiano e projetam-se as influências recíprocas dos agentes no ambiente de negócios a partir dos conceitos de equilíbrio da Teoria dos Jogos. Como exemplo, é realizada a discussão e a modelagem matemática desta interação para a estrutura de mercado de oligopólio na qual se obtém um meta modelo para construção de cenários de decisão. Desta forma, essa tese representa uma evolução na construção da teoria de IC, em seu sentido mais quantitativo que ainda é pouco explorado na literatura. Com isso, espera-se que este trabalho estimule novos esforços no sentido quantitativo com vista ao desenvolvimento de melhores ferramentas à prática da IC. / Recent studies in Competitive Intelligence (CI) area point out that is a need to obtain a better comprehension of business environment in a quantitative perspective - speacially the relationships among several economic agents - focus on developing useful tools for CI professionals. In this sense, a plenty knowledge of competitive dynamics presents itself as an essential foundation on which CI products must be established to fulfill its role in any organization. From this perspective, this paper offers a proposal to an understanding of CI organizational role, including a suggestion of competitive dynamics meta model. This paper starts with focus on identify and delineate the CI organizational based on the most referenced business model reference - known as Canvas Model - and thus it proposes its CI organizational role model through triangulation of a survey research and a theoretical-conceptual development. After that, it focus on microeconomics discussion about the interaction among economic agents in a quantitative perspective and, to do so, Walrasian Equilibrium theory is adopted as a background of their relationship projections in the business environment using Game Theory. In addition, this paper promotes a mathematical discussion of this dynamics in an oligopoly market structure in which it obtains a meta model for building decision scenarios. In this way, this thesis represents an evolution in the construction of CI theory in a quantitative way that is not completed explored in literature yet. Finally, one should believe that this work might will stimulate new efforts to develop better CI tools for CI professionals.

Diversos estudos exploram temas relacionados ao monitoramento do ambiente com o intuito de auxiliar empresas a se protegerem contra ameaças e a aproveitarem oportunidades provenientes do ambiente externo. Outros pesquisadores se dedicaram aos tópicos relacionados à gestão do conhecimento, colocando o conhecimento como elemento central para o desenvolvimento e o sucesso empresarial. Contudo, identificaram-se poucos estudos que explorem as temáticas de monitoramento do ambiente e gestão do conhecimento em conjunto. Com o propósito de contribuir para o preenchimento desta lacuna, o presente estudo investiga o desenvolvimento da capacidade absortiva em processos de exploração de sinais fracos, sob a perspectiva da criação do conhecimento organizacional. Para tal investigação se utilizou método qualitativo e exploratório; tendo como técnicas de coleta de dados entrevistas semiestruturadas e análise de conteúdo para exploração dos mesmos. Constatou-se que o desempenho do processo de Inteligência pode contribuir para o desenvolvimento da capacidade absortiva, além de propiciar a criação, expansão e renovação de conhecimentos individuais e organizacionais. Observou-se, também, que a realização das atividades de Inteligência incentiva a ação e influencia na tomada de decisão de colaboradores e gestores. Os profissionais ao se sentirem melhor informados sobre oportunidades e ameaças provenientes do ambiente externo à organização passam a refletir e se responsabilizar mais por ações e decisões. / Many studies explore topics related to the environmental scanning process in order to assist companies with protecting themselves against threats and seizing opportunities that arise from external environments. Furthermore, a number of researchers have focused broadly and deeply on topics related to knowledge management, placing knowledge as a central resource to a business’s development and success. Nevertheless, there are few studies that combine the themes of environmental scanning and knowledge management. Aiming contribute to fill this gap, this study investigates the absorptive capacity developing in weak signals’ exploration process through the organization knowledge creation’ perspectives. The employed method to this qualitative and explorative research will be interviews by means of techniques for collecting data; and a content analysis for an exploitation of these data. It was found that the Intelligence process performance contributes to the development of absorptive capacity. Futhermore, the practice of Intelligence process facilitates the creation, expansion and renewal of individual and organizational knowledge. It was also observed that the realization of intelligence activities encourages action and influence in employees and managers decision making. Professionals who feel better informed about opportunities and threats from the external environment in regards to the organization start to further reflect and be more accountable for actions and decisions.