Understanding the intellectual structure and evolution of Competitive Intelligence: a bibliometric analysis from 1984 to 2017

ABSTRACT

Competitive Intelligence (CI) is a relatively novel discipline that is generating a growing interest in the field of strategic management. Its novelty, approach and origin have meant that the definition of the CI entails different interpretations and utilities depending on the audience. This research develops a conceptual analysis of CI in literature by quantifying the bibliometric performance indicators, identifying the main authors, countries, journals and research areas and evaluating the intellectual structure and evolution of the discipline using SciMAT as bibliometric analysis software. The bibliometric performance analysis is focused on the citation-based impact of the scientific output, while the science mapping illustrates the evolution of the research themes that build the discipline through the use of bibliometric network analysis techniques. To this purpose, the publications related to CI from 1984 to 2017 available at Scopus have been retrieved (5,275 publications). Finally, it offers a framework to support future researches.

KEYWORDS:

• Business intelligence
• competitive intelligence
• science mapping analysis
• strategic intelligence

Acknowledgments

The authors J. R. López-Robles, H. Gamboa-Rosales, and N. K. Gamboa-Rosales acknowledge the support by the CONACYT-Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (Mexico) to carry out this study. I. Porto Gomez acknowledges financial support from the Basque Government’s Department of Education, Language Policy and Culture (Grant Number IT885-16). Finally, the authors would like to acknowledge also the help of Dr. Benjamin Gilad.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

José Ricardo López-Robles received the bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Master’s degree in Project Management from the Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea and Master’s degree in Business Administration from the ENEB Business School. He is the recipient of the prestigious 2016 Ibero-American Award ‘Veta de Plata’ in the category ‘Science and Technology’ and he is currently a PhD Candidate at the Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea.

Jose Ramón Otegi-Olaso is an engineer with an MBA and Doctoral degree in Project Management. He is a lecturer at the Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, where he coordinates the Master and Doctorate Programmes on Project Management.

Igone Porto Gómez is a researcher of the Deusto University with a Doctoral degree in Project Management and specialised in regional development and territorial innovation models.

Hamurabi Gamboa-Rosales received his doctoral degree in the area of voice processing at the Technische Universität Dresden. He is a professor and researcher in the area of research digital signal processing of the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas.

Nadia Karina Gamboa-Rosales received the bachelor degree in Chemical Engineer at the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas. She completed her MSc and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering at the Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea. She is currently studying a Master’s degree in Business Administration at ENEB Business School and working as researcher at the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas.

ORCID

José Ricardo López-Robles http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3780-1955

Jose Ramón Otegi-Olaso http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6023-8537

Igone Porto-Gomez http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2865-4818

Hamurabi Gamboa-Rosales http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9498-6602

Nadia Karina Gamboa-Rosales http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3421-8289