Author(s)

F. Fourati

Abstract

Competitive Intelligence is the collection, selection, analysis, and diffusion of public information which is strategically important to a company’s management. The initial form of such analysis is referred to as Web Mining. In Web Content Mining, intelligent agents return a set of pages appropriate for the user’s query. In this study, we identify the items of the degree of end-user satisfaction with Intelligent Agents. This study demonstrates that most items in the classic enduser satisfaction measure are still valid in using Intelligent Agents. These items were incorporated into a questionnaire. Surveys were mailed to 500 company decision-makers in France. Among all the returned questionnaires, 47 were found to be complete and usable. In addition, we demonstrate the existence of the relationship between the ease of use of Intelligent Agents, the degree of end-user satisfaction and the functionality of this technology. This study provides empirical evidence that the degree of end-user satisfaction is not only positively related to the ease of use of Intelligent Agents but also to the functionality of this technology. Keywords: competitive intelligence, intelligent agents, user satisfaction. 1 Introduction The purpose of this paper is to identify the underlying items of the degree of enduser satisfaction in conjunction with Intelligent Agents. First, we proposed some definitions of Competitive Intelligence, Web Mining and Intelligent Agents in order to understand the reasons of this technology. Second, we demonstrate the existence of relationship between the ease of use of Intelligent Agents, the degree of end-user satisfaction and the functionality of this technology.

Keywords

competitive intelligence, intelligent agents, user satisfaction.