Of BI research : a tale of two communities

Abstract

The Business intelligence (BI) literature is in flux, yet the knowledge about its varying theoretical roots remains elusive. This state of affairs draws from two different scientific communities (informatics and business) that have generated multiple research streams, which duplicate research, neglect each other’s contributions, and overlook important research gaps. In response, we structure the BI scientific landscape and map its evolution to offer scholars a clear view of where research on BI stands and the way forward. For this endeavor, we systematically review articles published in top-tier ABS journals and identify 120 articles covering 35 years of scientific research on BI. We then run a co-citation analysis of selected articles and their reference lists. This yields the structuring of BI scholarly community around six research clusters: Environmental Scanning (ES), Competitive Intelligence (CI), Market Intelligence (MI), Decision Support (DS), Analytics Technologies (AT), and Analytics Capabilities (AC). The Co-citation network exposed overlapping and divergent theoretical roots across the six clusters and permitted mapping the evolution of BI research following two pendulum swings. Our article contributes by 1) structuring the theoretical landscape of BI research, 2) deciphering the theoretical roots of BI literature, 3) mapping the evolution of BI scholarly community, and 4) suggesting an agenda for future research.