Evaluate Each Of The Following Approaches That A Business Firm Could Use To Gather Information About Competition. For Each Approach, Mark Your Feeling About Its Appropriateness Using The Following Scale

Evaluate each of the following approaches that a business firm could use to gather information about competition. For each approach, mark your feeling about its appropriateness using the following scale:

1. definitely not appropriate, 2. probably not appropriate, 3. undecided, 4. probably appropriate, and 5. definitely appropriate

The business firm should try to get useful information about competitors by:

___5__ Careful study of trade journals.... Appropriate because if the journals are public then there is no way of stopping anyone that reads them.

___1__ Wiretapping the telephones of competitors... With no legal warrant then tapping a phone line is illegal.

___2__ Posing as a potential customer to competitors... Posing as a customer is a fraudulent act and is punishable by imprisonment and or fines.

__2___ Getting loyal customers to put out a phone "request for proposal" soliciting competitors' bids...If the company had customers doing work for them they would be called employees.

_5___ Buying competitors' products and taking them apart... Anyone can buy a companies product. Taking them apart may not be completely ethical, but there is no reason why they can not do it.

__3___ Hiring management consultants who have worked for competitors

__2___ Rewarding competitors' employees for useful "tips"... Using other companies employees for tips is first of all very risky for the employee and could have them fired among being punished by the competitor.

__2___ Questioning competitors' customers and/or suppliers...Most employees sign a confidentiality form if the company fears their employees or suppliers divulging information. Questioning customers is a different question that in most terms would be ok, if the questions being asked were opinionated questions.

__3___ Buying and analyzing