Economic intelligence and knowledge management: two complementary facets of the same issue

This paper aims at analysing the differences between two major research fields: Economic intelligence and knowledge management. A framework showing the complementarities between those two fields is set up. After a literature review on those two fields we explain that economic intelligence and knowledge management are two complementary aspects of a single issue, namely supporting companies' global performance. Economic intelligence shows a major focus on explicit knowledge whereas knowledge management encompasses both tacit and explicit knowledge. Both concepts emphasise the following criteria (learning practices, innovation systems, decision making and understanding) relying on similar processes. Those processes encompass various fields ranging from information search to knowledge analysis and interpretation. They also cover information sharing, collaborative work and learning practices. The goals of both concepts are to increase the organisation's absorptive capacity. This requires a necessary integration between those two concepts (economic intelligence and knowledge management). The issue could be thus: Which of the two concepts might absorb the other? The answer to this question is critical in so far as it may affect the deployment of those strategic functions within organisations.