•This study is an attempt to explore the initiatives taken by organisations to build competitive intelligence via big data analytics.•Our studyis an attempt to develop a theoretical framework via which we have established linkages between big data analytics capability of an organisation and competitive intelligence.•Our study is an attempt to generate some useful research propositions via which we can advance the theoretical boundaries surrounding big data analytics capability, competitive intelligence and organisational information processing capability. Over recent years, organizations have started to capitalize on the significant use of Big Data and emerging technologies to analyze, and gain valuable insights linked to, decision-making processes. The process of Competitive Intelligence (CI) includes monitoring competitors with a view to delivering both actionable and meaningful intelligence to organizations. In this regard, the capacity to leverage and unleash the potential of big data tools and techniques is one of various significant components of successfully steering CI and ultimately infusing such valuable knowledge into CI strategies. In this paper, the authors aim to examine Big Data applications in CI processes within organizations by exploring how organizations deal with Big Data analytics, and this study provides a context for developing Big Data frameworks and process models for CI in organizations. Overall, research findings have indicated a preference for a rather centralized informal process as opposed to a clear formal structure for CI; the use of basic tools for queries, as opposed to reliance on dedicated methods such as advanced machine learning; and the existence of multiple challenges that companies currently face regarding the use of big data analytics in building organizational CI.