A review of existing literature on competitive intelligence and insurance markets

Abstract

Competitive intelligence (CI) involves monitoring competitors and providing organisations with actionable and meaningful intelligence (Ranjan & Foropon, 2021). This paper aims to examine current trends in the CI and insurance literature. A qualitative approach with an exploratory-driven design was used to examine CI-related articles. A systematic literature review found 24 publications from 2008 to 2022. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. Journal articles were obtained from Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, and Google Scholar. Publications were classified according to journal, publication year, article count, citations and methodology. The findings showed that Iranian authors produced more CI-related academic articles focusing on insurance. Only a few CI studies in insurance have been published in other countries. The global insurance industry’s CI research was underdeveloped, with articles scattered across various journals. Two South African authors contributed multiple articles. Research in this area needs to be tested more thoroughly before maturity can be achieved. Furthermore, most of the studies the authors reviewed were quantitative. Mixing research methods could contribute more substantive theoretical contributions. In addition, more studies need to investigate the use of data analytics tools and conceptual frameworks for theory testing.