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1 Introduction 
              
  Economic Intelligence (EI) approach is a means of resolving decision problems based not only on information gathering but also on the interpretation 
                                                                                               
given by the concerned actors (called EI actors) on the extracted information from available heterogeneous sources. EI concerns the set of concepts, methods, 
                                                                                               
and tools which unify all the coordinated actions of research, acquisition, treatment, storage and diffusion of information, relevant to individual or clustered 
                                                                                               
enterprises and organizations in the framework of strategy [9]. It is a process that involves information collection, processing and distribution with the goal of 
                                                                                               
reducing uncertainty in decision making [14]. 
                           

   All the EI phases involve actors who collaborate to produce actionable knowledge for decision making [10] [11]. The actors of importance are mainly 
                                                                                                                                                       
Decision Maker (DM), EI project coordinator and Information Watcher. They complement each others' activities in resolving a decision problem. Decision 
                                                                                                                                                       
maker is the one capable of identifying and establishing the problem to be solved in terms of stake, of risk or threat on the enterprise [5]. In other words, he 
                                                                                                                                                       
knows the needs of the organization, the stakes, the eventual risks and the threats the organization can be subjected to [1]. Information watcher is responsible 
                                                                                                                                                       
for locating, supervising, validating, and emphasizing the strategic information needed for solving decision problem. He works hand in hand with the decision 
                                                                                                                                                       
maker right from the initial stage of making a decision problem explicit. He translates this problem into information search problem so as to begin the 
                                                                                                                                                       
collection of relevant information for solving the problem. EI project coordinator acts as an intermediary between all the EI actors in an organization. He is 
                                                                                                                                                       
responsible for planning the work flow in EI process and coordinating the interactions among EI actors [10]. 
                                                                                                       

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Figure 1 gives an overview of all the stages involved in EI process. For explanation purpose, EI process could be translated into five phases [10]: 

```
- Translation phase: this phase concerns the identification of a decision problem and translating it to an information search problem. In this phase, the 
   objectives are defined by identifying the stake in decision problem. If the decision problem is not properly identified and not properly translated then 
                                                                                                                                              
   all the activities involved in the remaining four phases will be a waste [10]. Model for Decision Problem elicitation (MDP) [5] provides a way of 
                                                                                                                                              
   representing stake. This model comprises of three main parameters for representing stake: the observed object, the signal and the hypothesis 
                                                                                                                                              
   associated with the signal. 

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- **Information search and retrieval phase: this is the information collection phase. After translating a decision problem into an information search problem,**
there is need to identify relevant information sources, validate these sources and then collect necessary information. 

- **Analysis phase: this is an important phase as it allows for processing collected information in order to calculate indicators necessary for decision** 
making. These indicators are to be interpreted. 

- Decision making phase: a proper interpretation of indicators will lead to better decision making. 

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- Protection phase: in practice, this phase is not an isolated phase because it is present throughout all the stages of EI process. For the purpose of 
   explanation, we bring it out as a phase. Right from the decision problem identification to the final decision taken, all the expressed information and 
                                                                                                                                              
   collected information should be properly protected from unwise divulgation as well as from spies and competitors. This is what we refer to as 
                                                                                                                                              
   protection of information patrimony [10]. 

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