The critical success factors of the highly competitive organizations; a systematic literature review

PurposeThe current research aims to analyze the literature to determine its strengths and weaknesses and extract the required information, which will be used to identify the characteristics of the highly competitive organization (HCO), define it and identify the HCO's critical success factors (CSFs). Finally, the future research agenda will be proposed.Design/methodology/approachA multiple stages research methodology was used to fulfill the research objectives. The research started with the systematic literature review (SLR). Then, focus group discussions and Pareto analysis were used to fulfill research objectives.FindingsEleven points were identified in the research to represent the characteristics of the HCO. Then, the HCO was defined based on the elements of these points. Moreover, the vital few CSFs to successfully implement many research scopes were identified. Then, the CSFs of the HCO was generated based on these vital few CSFs.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of the current research is the literature sample size. A larger sample selection could enrich the generated lists with many other CSFs.Practical implicationsMany implications points were highlighted in this research which showed the importance of the current research for academic and practical audiences.Originality/valueThe SLR process showed that the reviewed literature lacked a consolidated list of the HCO characteristics and a clear definition of the HCO. Moreover, the reviewed literature lacked a unified list of the HCO CSFs. Therefore, the current research approach is novel and original.