Benchmarking 

ongoing process of measuring and improving products, services and practices against the best that can be identified 

aims on long term improvements, (actually becoming best-in-class) 

its success highly depends on good cooperation between partners 

it is not cheating, industrial espionage or immoral 

Competitive Analyse 

 focus on performance parameters, strategies and products within a given industry sector 

                                                                           focus on outputs, especially outputs of competitors  

it is quite clear or likely that our competitors will not be cooperating with us, unless we are establishing a monopoly together :)        

usage of of indirect methods of data gathering, often employing industrial spies