Hypercompetition: A Review and Agenda for Future Research

Over the past three decades, hypercompetition – the rapidly escalating competition with a constant changing industry structure and temporary competitive advantages – has attracted significant interest from both economists and management scholars. Despite the common use of the phenomenon in explaining competitive environment by scholars from various research streams, the literature on hypercompetition has developed in a more isolated manner. This article offers a systematic review of the literature on hypercompetition by analysing a sample of 125 articles published or presented at a conference between year 1996 and 2019. The objective for this review is threefold: (1) to give an overview of the empirical and conceptual work in the literature of hypercompetition; (2) to identify the components of hypercompetition drawing from a prolific but fragmented body of empirical findings; and (3) to propose a framework model incorporating the causes and presumed consequences of hypercompetition. The review aims to facilitate a broader understanding of hypercompetition that can help advance the knowledge on hypercompetition and give suggestions for future research.