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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Information in all its forms is at the heart of the economic intelligence process. It is also a powerful vector of innovation and, more than ever, a balance between economic and societal forces. That is why a large part of Strategic Intelligence for the Future 2 analyzes the various aspects of information, from traditional processing and research to the psychological and epigenetic aspects of its development. This leads to a new vision of its integration into organizations. In addition, new technologies offer extensive access to information, including social networks which are critically analyzed here. In a complex world where geopolitics and the new concept of information warfare are becoming increasingly important, it becomes imperative to better apprehend and understand our environment, in order to develop critical thinking that will reinforce the different global aspects of security in economic intelligence.
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Table of Contents
Cover
Preface
Introduction
1 From Information Metabolism to Economic Intelligence
1.1. Introduction
1.2. Information metabolism according to Timothy Powell
1.3. Let us examine this concept in more detail
1.4. Organizations and human beings
1.5. Change within organizations via the information function and an epigenetic approach
1.6. The zone of proximal development
1.7. Conclusion
1.8. References
2 Changing Our Way of Thinking
2.1. Plato’s cave, or the fight against the world of received ideas
2.2. A society without schools
2.3. On the intelligence cycle
2.4. Thinking outside the box and the iron cage
2.5. Holistic thinking
2.6. Lateral thinking
2.7. To unravel Parkinson’s law and received ideas
2.8. The individual and their behavior
2.9. Thinking about the future or a return to future studies
2.10. Conclusion
2.11. References
3 Innovation
3.1. Some definitions
3.2. The innovation mechanism
3.3. Different types of innovation
3.4. Restraints on developing innovation
3.5. Science, technology and innovation policies
3.6. Public innovation policies in France
3.7. Conclusion
3.8. References
4 Formal Information Research
4.1. The importance of the time factor in scientific data
4.2. Different information typologies
4.3. Information research
4.4. Research practices: reductionist, holistic
4.5. On scientific journals
4.6. Conclusion
4.7. References
5 Examples of Bibliometric Analysis of Scientific Information and Patents
5.1. Specialist search engines
5.2. Scientific publications
5.3. Information contained in the patents
5.4. Text mining from unstructured texts
5.5. Automatic summaries
5.6. Conclusion
5.7. References
6 Social Networks
6.1. Different types of social networks
6.2. General remarks on social networks
6.3. The dangers of social networks
6.4. Minimizing negative influence on social networks
6.5. An example of an international social network: the Confucius Institutes
6.6. Examples of software enabling analysis of social networks
6.7. Beyond socialbots and other IT systems, human action: fake news
6.8. You love, you “like”, you click, you evaluate, but beware of “click farms”
6.9. Big Data
6.10. Conclusion
6.11. References
7 Information and Economic Security
7.1. Security
7.2. Disinformation and image management
7.3. Pressure groups and NGOs
7.4. IT security
7.5. Safeguarding data
7.6. Respecting security clearance
7.7. Crisis management
7.8. Conclusion
7.9. References
Conclusion
Index
Summary of Volume 1
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 5
Table 5.1. Distribution of publications by year
Table 5.2. Breakdown of information on user needs
Table 5.3. Items downloaded and extracts from the enquiry “Moringa”
Table 5.4. Comparing the concepts “rat” and “leaf” and number of related publica...
Table 5.5. Data on the user’s concerns. Data are extracted from automatic analys...
Chapter 6
Table 6.1. Typology of social networks
Table 6.2. Global distribution of Confucius Institutes and Confucius classes
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1
Figure 1.1. Information metabolism according to Timothy Powell
Chapter 2
Figure 2.1. The intelligence cycle, the camel (orange), the lion (red), the chil...
Figure 2.2. Influence of diverse factors on the working hours of teachers in an ...
Figure 2.3. Representation of the previous matrix in graph form
Figure 2.4. Blackberry’s turnover in millions of dollars
Figure 2.5. The unacceptable scenario (left), the French population in 2009 (rig...
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1. Triple helix and PPP
Figure 3.2. Development of incremental innovation
Figure 3.3. Open innovation
Figure 3.4. Open research or internationalization of research [OEC 05]. The thic...
Figure 3.5. Representation of industry in France according to EBRD
Figure 3.6. Representation of industry in Germany according to EBRD
Figure 3.7. The Japanese Start program
Figure 3.8. The level of innovation in the EU. For a color version of this figur...
Figure 3.9. Innovation index for the first two groups of countries. For a color ...
Figure 3.10. R&D expenses for businesses as a percentage of GDP. For a color ver...
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1. Positioning the business
Figure 4.2. The importance of time
Figure 4.3. The main information typologies
Figure 4.4. Distribution of information
Figure 4.5. Creating specific knowledge [MOO 01]
Figure 4.6. Home page and description of CNKI. For a color version of this figur...
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1. Map using the Web as a source of information. Subject, Moringa. For ...
Figure 5.2. Map using Pubmed as a source of information. Subject, Moringa. For a...
Figure 5.3. Map using different Wikis as a source of information. Subject, morin...
Figure 5.4. Data clustering obtained from the English Wiki using the term Moring...
Figure 5.5. Data clustering obtained from the French Wiki using the term Moringa...
Figure 5.6. Country chosen, France, domain, Technology. By selecting a topic you...
Figure 5.7. Translation: The space anchor test to desorb the satellites is a fai...
Figure 5.8. The KITE test used on the Japanese cargo Kounotori-6 (computer image...
Figure 5.9. Example of an author profile in Google Scholar
Figure 5.10. Result obtained from PoP (inquiry in English)
Figure 5.11. Network of main authors
Figure 5.12. Development of the concept of coagulation over the years of publica...
Figure 5.13. Origins of the main authors’ works
Figure 5.14. Network of authors working on fatty acids. This network is obtained...
Figure 5.15. Inter-university collaborations
Figure 5.16. Comparing titles containing the term “water” with authors
Figure 5.17. Database on downloaded “snowboard”
Figure 5.18. Letters shown after the number indicating how advanced the examinat...
Figure 5.19. Patent WO201607744A1 presenting a particular interest for the reade...
Figure 5.20. Citations included in the patent WO2016077441A1
Figure 5.21. Patents cited by and citing patent US6739615B1
Figure 5.22. Extension an an initial parent during the PCT procedure
Figure 5.23. Matrix created from priority countries (PR*) and countries present ...
Figure 5.24. New entrants in the domain of ultrasound
Figure 5.25. Trends in patent deposits (counting by families) by year
Figure 5.26. Summary obtained by choosing reduction manually: here 50%
Figure 5.27. The most important parts of the text highlighted. For a color versi...
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1. List of virtual communities with more than 100 million users [WIK 19...
Figure 6.2. Number of users retweeted [ROC 13]
Figure 6.3. Word cloud representation of hashtags used [ROC 13]
Figure 6.4. Names of URL domains cited [ROC 13]
Figure 6.5. Representation of the way in which the initial tweet (on the left) h...
Figure 6.6. Information concerning the initial tweet and its redistribution [RIC...
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
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Strategic Intelligence for the Future 2
A New Information Function Approach
Henri Dou
Alain Juillet
Philippe Clerc
First published 2019 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licenses issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned address:
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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© ISTE Ltd 2019
The rights of Henri Dou, Alain Juillet and Philippe Clerc to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019930609
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78630-390-5
Preface
Information and information research, interpretation and use can no longer be considered within a strictly national framework. This brings some urgency to understanding other cultures and prompts the use of tools that permit a multilingual vision of knowledge. Information is becoming more and more open and accessible, going hand in hand with the need for a multidisciplinary approach to the problems that need to be solved. This requires looking beyond very specialized but closed systems and integrating into strategic thinking multiple aspects of intelligence: scientific, technological, economic, organizational, societal and cultural.
At the same time, technology enables the research, analysis and diffusion of information in real time to multiple stakeholders. This dynamic is becoming an essential lever in the transformation of business and organizations by opening up their capacity for world intelligence, new innovation ecosystems and unprecedented ruptures.
One of the significant consequences of this mutation is that it obliges the decider to place it at the heart of their system for decision making and strategic governance. It in fact obliges them to adopt a resolutely anticipatory posture, to define a realistic and detailed vision placing “data control” and analysis at the heart of all strategies.
Digital transition has always accompanied the evolution of economic intelligence, but technological evolutions, changes in the international environment and intense competition are leading to a real rupture. This is acquiring a critical character which must generate within businesses a capacity for resilience through this breakthrough innovation.
In particular, strategic information, its collection, analysis and understanding will create, within businesses and organizations, “self-criticisms”, which are transmissible and generate the mutation needed to understand, interpret and act in a moving and ever more complex world.
Henri DOU
Alain JUILLET
Philippe CLERC
January 2019
Introduction
Future economic intelligence will be centered on, among other aspects, information, information research and its analysis and integration in decision-making processes. We first wrote a general reflection on the endogenous integration of the “information function” within organizations. This way of imagining this function’s role leads individuals to develop a different way of thinking, to acquire informative but also critical reflexes that will enable institutions, organizations and businesses to confront the new situations with which they are faced. It is often said that one of the ways for businesses to develop in an uncertain environment is to innovate, whether on the level of technology, administration, management etc. This is why we have examined innovation and its consequences in organizations’ behavior. But, to innovate, that is to move from research to market level, different kinds of information are needed. This why a focus has been placed on holistic research, to properly mark the difference between a reductive vision of information research, and the ever greater need to control the environment through more open research. In this context, various examples of information processing are brought to light. They then follow social networks, since they are currently increasing in importance, mainly due to the advertising for which they are used. It is necessary to understand fully the mechanisms by which they work and the actions of the robot systems within them, so as not to consider social networks only as simple IT systems. Malicious noise and other attacks on an organization’s integrity are also examined as it is necessary to react quickly and prepare for action using maturely thought-out simulations. Finally, information holds great importance for the lives of businesses. It must be secured and defended. Constant attention should be paid to this subject: the threats are multiple; it is a good idea to recognize them and develop internal reflexes to head-off attacks or react to them. The level of protection goes beyond classical information and now covers IT security. The survival of business is at stake and beyond awareness, basic action is needed. Fully understanding the risks involving information is becoming a necessity for businesses, and this is the aim of this book: to make the reader aware of a crucial problem and provide them with a number of key elements to create an “appetite” for this function.
1From Information Metabolism to Economic Intelligence
1.1. Introduction
Volume 2 of Strategic Intelligence for the Future focuses on information, information research, analysis and the integration of information in decision-making processes. In the first chapter of this work we will, before addressing the technical aspects, attempt to demonstrate the role of the “information function” within organizations. We will consider this “information function” in a broad sense, that is information collection, analysis and creation from the results of analyzing “knowledge for action”. Although everyone agrees that the “information function” should be placed at the heart of economic intelligence, it is rare to find work that analyzes the role of this function in the “evolution” of organizations, businesses and indeed individuals. This aspect is especially important as in many cases, a part of this function, searching for and collecting information, is often outsourced or confined to internal structures remote from decision-makers. We will therefore analyze this function’s role, not in the classical framework of the intelligence cycle (or the information cycle according to the authors), but by exploring more deeply its impact on the behavior of individuals, which forms the substrate for development and the action of institutions and businesses. To do this, we will refer to different works in the information domain metabolism on the one hand, in the context of the individuation of actors on the other hand, and finally in epigenetics in the sense of their action on the world around us, as Joël de Rosnay underlines. We will thus be able to consider that the role of the “information function” is to become a vector for learning within the organization, lying within, in Vygotsky’s sense of the term, a proximal zone of development. Indeed, it is through learning that the organization will be able to generate transferable “self-criticisms” that will promote a new form of development. Thus, the “information function” finds a central place when it is the result of endogenous work, engaging all members in the organization. We thus reach a very strong analogy with the Japanese concept of “ba” and its impact on businesses at the level of their coordination, cohesion and efficiency.
1.2. Information metabolism according to Timothy Powell
The concept of a living being metabolizing food compared to the metabolism of information within an institution, was described for the first time by Timothy Powell in 1995 [POW 95]. Since this date, the “information function” environment has changed considerably. This change is twofold:
– on the one hand, advances in technology which, in this domain, now trigger profound change;
– the appearance of new governing systems, supported by methods and tools such as economic intelligence in France or competitive intelligence in the Unites States.
In this context, it is useful to revisit the concept of information metabolism by considering the most recent advances in the domain of biology and genetics, but also by referring to older work with roots in psychiatry and psychology.
In the analogy between the metabolism of food and information metabolism, Timothy Powell made the following comparison:
Figure 1.1.Information metabolism according to Timothy Powell
In this presentation, we therefore find the main stages of the information cycle as it is generally described in economic intelligence. This analogy reveals two aspects that will be important in the rest of this book: cellular chemistry as well as the aspect of taking decisions and taking action, rests in economic intelligence on a “maturation” of strategic information by experts so by human beings) after decisions have been taken. The macro and micro functions are analogous to cellular anabolism and catabolism1 [WIK 18a]. The information function for generally describing this process is not therefore a simple recourse to documentation, rather it engages complex processes, based among others on expertise, lived experience and some understanding of the world around us. It should also be noted that Timothy Powell refers in a short bibliography to works on strategy [TOF 93, TYS 95], to post-capitalist society [DRU 93] and the value of information [POW 94, PET 92] but does not address the relationship of information with biology and the psyche.
1.3. Let us examine this concept in more detail
In a remarkable though sometimes contested work, Kepinsky, in his book Melancholia2 [GRA 75, KEP 74], develops the concept of information metabolism at the cellular level. He develops a psychological theory of the interaction of living organisms with their environment, based on information processing [BIE 15]. He also believes that living beings are characterized by their ability to grow and maintain their own negentropy [WIK 18b], which leads to the notion of equilibrium, and in fact of harmony, in the sense found in Chinese philosophy [CHO 07]. The involvement of entropy in the system is also underlined by Germine’s work [GER 93]. But living beings, as Bielecki [BEI 15] underlines, exist under a number of conditions:
– to reproduce and evolve;
– they are constructed from organic chemical components, based on organic chemical synthesis;
– to interact dynamically with the environment;
– they are open, dissipative structures significantly displaced from thermodynamic equilibrium;
– they conduct electrical circuits on cellular and molecular level;
– they are hierarchical, open systems;
– they are self-organized systems characterized by increasing organization over time; and
– they are systems processing information, matter, and energy in a specific way.
In these eight conditions, we find a considerable analogy with the conditions that will influence the evolution of organizations (meaning businesses, institutions, etc.) and which are broadly considered in the process of economic intelligence. These should evolve and interact with their environment. They can include hierarchical or open organizations. They may also self-organize; an example of this is institutions or autopoietic networks [MIN 02, ZEL 01, ZEL 92] that change according to constraints in their environment. This analogy, which goes further than the one suggested by Timothy Powell, supports the comparison between living organisms and information which, in Kepinsky’s sense, includes anabolic and catabolic processes [DIF 18]. These processes are equivalent to the processes of researching and accumulating strategic information, then analyzing this to produce knowledge for action. This process can also, always by analogy, be compared to the camel, the lion and the child [WEI 10], stages described by Nietzsche in Thus Spoke Zarathustra [DOU 19, NIE 15].
1.4. Organizations and human beings
An organization, whatever it is, is formed by human beings the sum of whose actions will form the institution’s movement, its way of being; the institution evolves its richness through change. It is therefore important, always remaining with the analogy with life and its psychological interactions, to tackle individuation [ORT 18]. Various definitions are possible depending on the field in which this concept is used:
– general definition: distinction between one individual and another in the same species or group and the society of which they form a part of, which makes them exist as an individual;
– embryology: induction process that leads to the formation of complete organic structures;
– linguistics: process by which a group is characterized as opposed to another group thanks to consistencies in linguistic activity;
– philosophy: creation of a general idea, of a type of species within an individual;
– psychanalysis: process of becoming aware of profound individuality, described by Jung [DUC 18].
1.4.1. Individuation according to Jung
We will, in the remainder of this work, prefer the process of individuation described by Jung and Simondon for two principal reasons:
– Jung, in his analytical work, considers the collective unconscious that liberates, within the individual, a vital energy that Jung calls “archetypes”, this is by analogy with the impact of lived experience and history, both for individuals and by analogy for organizations within businesses and institutions;
– because Jung’s process of individuation can be amplified when the “balance” of the relationship between the non-human world (the environment, for example, the Internet, connected objects, etc.) and the human world evolves erratically. So, we will return to the notion of stability, explored previously. We thus come back to the dysfunction that “crops up” in an organization that does not know how to or cannot control the “non-human” environment it must face.
In the process of individuation, “the individual identifies rather with the orientations that come ‘from the self’ – vulgarly defined by the archetype of the self, that is, the totality of the individual personality – than with behaviors, orientations and values that emanate from the social environment around them” [NEV 11]. In this context, we should also list, though on another level, the work of John McGonagle who, in his book entitled A New Archetype for Competitive Intelligence [MCG 96] emphasizes the major role of information and its processing in the evolution of organizations. But the meaning of “archetype” used in the book’s title cannot be compared to that of Jung. For the author, what he means by the archetype is the fact that organizations, under the effect of the evolution of information technologies and nascent globalization (the book was published in 1996), should “mutate”, that is, enter a new state, one not necessarily desired, but imposed by the environment. The metaphor used by the author describes a dinosaur that, with a small brain, cannot control its entire body, however, it is suggested to the dinosaur (as for some organizations) to decrease its total volume to improve control, without thinking that the better solution would be to become more intelligent. In the book, the author presents a set of “stimuli” all based on the processing of varied information that will induce the business to change. We may note “shadow benchmarking”, “actual management analysis” and other techniques based on the mathematical analysis of information as a series of central points around which change will develop, and the entirety of these stimuli are called “cyber intelligence” by the author.
1.4.2. Individuation according to Simondon
Simondon [FRA 18], while still adhering to Jung’s analysis, differentiates his work from it however by the fact that he believes that the exterior environment and among others, the technological environment will play a more important role for Jung in the individuation process.
Individuation can therefore be envisaged: “according to Simondon, the perspective is rather philosophical, built upon a principle of basic ontological analysis in the sense that internal processes between the self3 and the ‘I’ can be applied to the links between human beings and technical objects, especially to those that possess a high level of complexity or materiality (see the new links with digital support)” as José Pinheiro Neves describes [NEV 11].
To illustrate the statement better, we return to the example cited by Neves [NEV 11] that makes it possible, through the concept of individuation, to understand post-modern society better as well as the technical and social environment that characterizes it. A patient teaches courses at a private university but there is no fixed contract for the work, and because of this he cannot envisage a clear and stable future. His wife is in the same situation. They have no children. This unstable financial situation is affecting his relationship with his wife. Therefore, a previously stable relationship is becoming strained in a system where flexible contracts are gradually undermining stability.
“In this context there is an epidemic that is infecting and affecting the imaginary, the spirit of the times. The previous individuation based on a link between security and a regular and daily occupation in space and time (the time of material work in the Taylorian world) tends to disappear gradually. In this context, the Internet and its decontextualized links, without face to face interaction, such as those in digital social networks, play a decisive role in the postmodern imagination and the transformation of the notion of the individual, of the subject”. As Neves emphasizes, “with neo-liberal capitalism and the emergence of post-modern society there is an image that acts as an epidemic that surrounds us all and which may increase with the new chaotic and anomic ways of living daily life in post-modern society” [MAF 00].
In this approach, we find the “fears” generated by uncertainty over employment, by the evolution of some cities (smart cities) to the detriment of interstitial space, by “deserts” of all kinds affecting rural spaces, etc. This consideration of the removal of former archetypes cannot be made without posing serious problems, as modifying archetypes in the process of change within organizations has not been the subject of in-depth studies and appears to be difficult [CAR 02]. In fact, Greenwood [GRE 93] emphasizes that organizations are structured in terms of archetypes (considered as organization templates) which are derived from their institutional practices, but it is change that requires moving from one archetype to another and is highly problematic. In the work of analyzing different case studies, Ploesser [PLO 09] distinguishes four types of archetype to be introduced into organizations to prepare them for change depending on the external circumstances. He thus defines the following archetypes: elements of synergy, change of tendency, oscillation and incremental learning. In his conclusion, he underlines the need to develop meta-models that will make it possible to situate archetypes with different levels of abstraction: immediate, internal, external and in the environment.
1.5. Change within organizations via the information function and an epigenetic approach
Epigenetics [BER 09] is a new science that has been the subject of constant interest for 10 years or so [SCH 15]. It was popularized among others by Joël de Rosnay in his book La Symphonie du vivant [ROS 18]. Epigenetics shows that we are not only the product of our genes, but that we possess a real power to act on them. As far as this work is concerned, we will limit ourselves to indicating that an “unused” part of our DNA may be “motivated” to cause transmissible and reversible changes both to our body (health), but also to our psychological behavior. As Joël de Rosnay, emphasizes, the way we eat, engage in physical activity, our emotional and familial equilibrium are actions that will direct our health and personality. It is in this way that considerable research activity has developed asking how epigenetics can be used to act on a number of diseases, including among those that are not contagious [FAR 15, KIM 17]. What is particularly important at the level of epigenetics and its effects on ourselves, is that these actions are transmissible, but also reversible, in the sense that a change in behavior can have inverse effects and that (partial) transmission from one generation to another is not fixed and the “traits” transmitted may be lost.
But we can go beyond biology and since “epigenetics acts on a system as complex as living organisms, can we not apply it to complex systems such as the society in which we live, work and act?”, as Joël de Rosnay emphasizes. De Rosnay explains in La Symphonie du vivant how the principles of epigenetics can act on our societies’ DNA and therefore modify their expression. Among other suggestions, he suggests establishing a relationship between epigenetics and epimemetics to make modifications at the societal level, in businesses and in all forms of human organization. Social networks direct our behavior and create a “participative citizens’ co-regulation”.
This then leads us back to the subject of this book, the role of the “information function” within an organization and especially within businesses. In fact, it is from this function that the creation of knowledge for action will be organized, toward the business’ strategic objectives. But in our opinion there are two ways to proceed. The first, which is without doubt the worst, is to acquire information entirely externally, without being able to intervene regarding its content, coverage, or the successive repeats through which we learn to become better informed, to develop training and to create a serendipity which will in many cases make the difference. The second calls upon what we call the “endogenous information function”4 internal to the business, which makes it possible to create a climate of curiosity and surprise that will make it possible to confront decision-making consistently and endogenously.
Of course, not all information may be available simply because of the exploitation of varied sources of information by the organization, but if much of it is acquired through efforts from the whole of the institution, and it will create the “self5 criticisms” that will promote its mutation. Moreover, supplied by a joint effort in accessing information and analyzing it, the archetypes acquired over the course of the business’ past life can be modified, the “non-human” world, that is the business’ interface with the external world then becomes more understandable and generates new behaviors. In fact, the creation of an epigenetic dynamic within organizations has been emphasized by the work of Gómez Uranga [GÓM 14] in the context of multinational IT firms. The meme, or the cultural equivalent of the gene, is described as an “element of a culture (taken here in the sense of a civilization) that may be considered to be transmitted by non-genetic means, in particular by imitation” [JOU 05]. This is why access to information and its processing, carried out endogenously, within a business or organization will, beyond the evolution of archetypes, create habits that can be transferred by imitation. But be warned, this process is reversible and if the effort to acquire information ceases, regression will follow.
1.6. The zone of proximal development
The concept of a zone of proximal development (ZDP) [BRU 11] was developed by Vygotsky [VIG 04, WIK 18d] in the context of his research on the educational development of children. He believes that transmission is not always genetic, but that it sometimes may be cultural. In this sense, he returns to the concept of memes; a unit of information that can be exchanged within society. The concept of proximal development can, in our opinion, be extended to an organization. In fact, according to Vygotsky, three essential zones can be established:
– a zone where the child can act alone, this is the equivalent of a business’ profession where information is normally known and mastered;
– a zone where the child cannot do anything, even with assistance, so by analogy, actions taken at international level by a country to help its businesses with export. The Advocacy Center [WEI 06], created in 1993 in the Unites States to promote export is a good example;
– a third zone called “proximal development” (ZDP) is also present. This is a zone where the child can progress with outside help. Here we return to “information function’s” role of endogenous development, where the business should learn to research, master and analyze some of the information needed for a better knowledge of its environment, its potential competitors (new arrivals in Porter’s sense) and above all develop a prospective attitude. It is from these elements that there will develop within the business a knowledge for action and from this “internal mechanism”, the business will mutate.
If we believe that some of the information function rests on the appropriation of technical objects (for example, acquiring mastery of software and IT systems that allow access and statistical analysis of information), we return to ZDP, where mastery of the technical object will occur through training, by analogy with the appropriation of the object by others. This is in step with the work of Pierre Steiner [STE 10]:
“Once grasped, the technical object plays a formative role in our capacity for action, reasoning or even perception […]. Incorporation: the user tests the technical object as a part of themselves; the object is thus a transparent extension of their own body (by means of appropriation), increasing their power for action and perception”.
The concept introduced by Vygotsky leads us to ask an important question in economic intelligence: what happens if a business sub-contracts the whole of its information research, even if the results provided to it are pertinent? In our opinion, the act of not practicing, and of not internalizing research, information sharing and analysis deprives the business of an important lever for its evolution. This also leads to a sometimes tricky question: where should the group (or, in a very small business, the individual) in charge of the “information function” be situated? It is clear, that to be effective, this function must be located close to decision-makers. It would be a grave error only to introduce too many levels of hierarchy between the information and the center(s) where decisions are made. The zone of proximal development and its impact on child learning can also be linked to the concept of the learning business or organization, that is with an internal desire to acquire the means of mastering all or part of the [WIK 18c] information needed for constant surveillance of factors critical to the business’ success [TAM 09] and the mastery of its areas of influence. Thus, the organization will remain in step with its ecosystem.
1.7. Conclusion
In the context of this study, we have not tackled the question of going into further detail about the relationship between the “information function” and its involvement in changing the behavior of institutions and businesses. Much headway is still needed to be able to understand how we could, using the theory of information metabolism, individuation and epigenetics, understand the impetus for change. However, these different orientations are starting to become the subject of research, which although rare, underlines the possibilities offered by such an approach. The “information function”, through its complexity and its direct relationship with strategy, is the Gordian knot of economic intelligence. Because of this, understanding this function’s involvement in the evolution of organizations, among others in the context of a technological evolution moving with increasing rapidity, is becoming a challenge. We wished to emphasize too that classical presentations of the information cycle or its use in economic intelligence, were reductive at least and merit deeper analysis. Bringing into play both the practices of the institution based on archetypes acquired throughout its long history and the involvement of personnel responsible for this function6, it indeed seems that understanding the impetus for change brings into play the interaction between these two aspects, hence the recourse to psychology and epigenetics. If, as Simondon underlines, the individual is in a permanent state of tension because of the relationship between the “non-human” (including technological) world and its deeper aspirations, change management will necessarily have recourse to deeper analyses and different methods from those classically applied at present.
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