Competitor intelligence is defined as

• A. A method for internal auditing
• B. A risk assessment framework
• C. Set of data and information the firm gathers to better understand and anticipate competitors' objectives, strategies, assumptions, and capabilities
• D. A marketing metric

Answer: (C)

Understanding how rivals operate is about gathering and analyzing information to grasp what competitors want to achieve, how they plan to compete, the assumptions they rely on, and the capabilities they bring to the market. This collection and interpretation of data about external players lets a firm anticipate moves and tailor its own strategy accordingly. It’s a proactive, externally focused process that uses publicly available sources and ethically obtained insights to form strategic judgments about rivals.

The other descriptions miss the core idea. Internal auditing focuses on evaluating a company’s own controls and processes, not on rivals. A risk assessment framework is about identifying and evaluating risks across the organization, which can include competitive risk but isn’t exclusively about understanding competitors. A marketing metric is a measurement like reach or conversion, which doesn’t capture the strategic gathering and interpretation of competitor information.