Business intelligence and analytics for competitiveness and sustainability: Foundations, research gaps, and future pathways

Business Intelligence and Analytics (BIA) is now an emerging tool of importance for organisation’s technological transformation. It helps grow organisations by enhancing their capability in decision-making and improves competitiveness. Although there are high levels of technological advancements, the research is still scattered, with little emphasis placed on cross-level integration, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and emerging economies. This study addresses these gaps by conducting a bibliometric and co-occurrence analysis of worldwide BIA research by using the Scopus database. VOSviewer was used to apply citation and keyword thresholds to analyze 45 influencing publications and 47 high-frequency keywords. This is to identify intellectual structures, thematic clusters, and research areas. Foundations and strategic value, performance drivers, organisational capabilities, sustainability, risk, human capital dimensions, and innovation pathways are the seven main clusters identified. Results indicate that BIA is multidimensional as a technological and socio-technical capacity that connects technical infrastructure and human, organizational, and contextual aspects. Challenges such as data quality, governance, adoption barriers, and skill gaps, particularly in SMEs as well as emerging economies are underscored in the results. Contributions by this study are integrating insights, extending theoretical perspectives and outlining a research agenda that emphasises inclusivity, sustainability, along with innovation. The implications can assist top level management in integrating BIA into strategic decision-making and provide scholars with a logical framework on which theory and practice can be applied.