Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is the core concept of relationship marketing and is increasingly addressed in scholarly and business articles. However, there is a big gap in the literature to make CLV thoroughly applicable in business. This paper aims to illuminate the trend of CLV by critical analysis of the literature. For this purpose, after revealing the scoping map of the research area, CLV concepts, the proposed mathematical models besides its techniques and mentioned categorization, its application, and its limitations are investigated. The research exposes the need to a comprehensive model for increasing the applicability of CLV. In addition, the scoping map illuminates the need for more research in the area of implementation and validation.

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