Sources Of Information For Technology Intelligence In Chemical Formulation

Sources of Inofrmation for Technology Intelligence in Chemical Formulation

Practitioner’s Section
Sources of Information for Technology
Intelligence in Chemical Formulation
Álvaro Pedroza Zapata*, Sara Ortiz Cantú**
*
**

Department of Economics, Administration and Marketing, ITESO, Periférico Sur Manuel Gómez
Morín 8585, 45604 Tlaquepaque, apedroza@iteso.mx
Department of electronics, Systemsand Informatics, ITESO, Periférico Sur Manuel Gómez
Morín 8585, 45604 Tlaquepaque, sortiz@iteso.mx

This article delineates the chemical formulation field and presents the sources of
information, formal and informal, related with technological intelligence in the
design of chemical formulations. Furthermore elements are provided for technology
strategy integration through the formation oftechnological maps. In addition
relevant databases and web sites were identified: scientific, intellectual property,
as well as industry and enterprise specific databases. A technologist must have a
panoramic view of the information available and an understanding for the databases
structure to conduct the required tests by using Boolean Searching techniques and
taking advantage of iterative searchstrategies. With this, a technologist can choose
those sources that are pertinent to chemical product formulation research projects.
describe the main processes required for the efficient
development of this activity by information
management professionals.
For the technology intelligence focus on chemical
formulation presented here, we refer the reader to
two references: the first one is related to thechemical formulation domain (Aubry and Schorsch,
1999). The second one, related with the field of
technology intelligence, is Benavides and Quintana
(2006). In effect, to avoid useless repetitions, we
will take for granted that the person that wants to
be familiarized with the techniques of technology
intelligence in chemical formulation already knows
the mechanisms of the formulation on one side,and the principles and tools of technology
Intelligence on the other. This focus will enable us
to go in this article to the essential thing, and to
present the strictly necessary complements for the
specific sources of information and development
of technology Intelligence in chemical formulation.

1 Introduction
Intelligence is defined as the capacity to obtain
and analyze information whichfacilitates decision
making (Cohen, 1999).Technology intelligence (TI)
detects opportunities based on early identification
of emerging technologies or white spaces pertinent
to a company’s business interests. Moreover, it
surveys the competitive landscape to identify areas
with limited or no competition, which corporate
strategy can exploit. Competitive intelligence (CI)
tracks competitor activities tospot threats early;
competitive technical intelligence (CTI) blends
elements of both. Porter (2005) described a “tech
mining” approach to generate CTI. Tech mining
addresses managerial issues by deriving empirical
knowledge, primarily from patent and research
publication abstract databases.This article extends
the resource base to be mined to information from
the suppliers, book editors, normsand regulations
available through the internet.
Technological intelligence systems have become
a fundamental tool for organizations that manage
R&D and innovation projects.The UNE166006:2006
EX (standard–Management of R&D and innovation:
technological surveillance systems) systematizes
the manner in which this activity is set up within
innovation organizations. Muñoz et al. (2006)

Journal ofBusiness Chemistry 2011 8 (2)

1.1 Some c onsidera ti ons rega rding surv eil la nc e
an d c h e m i c a l f o r m u l at io n
Chemical formulation, still considered today to
be an art, increasingly needs a great quantity of
multidisciplinary knowledge and has a multisectorial
application. The term “formula” here does not refer
to the molecular structure but the composition of
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