Major trends in knowledge management research: a bibliometric study

Crowdfunding A bibliometric analysis and future research Agenda

This study offers a bibliometric and Scientometric examination of the existing body of literature on crowdfunding. The analysis incorporates a total of 1156 articles from the Scopus database. The data is presented using the bibliometric technique, employing R-studio and VOS viewer software. A Scientometric analysis was undertaken to ascertain the discoveries and patterns of research themes, current and future research orientations, impact, co-occurrence, co-citations, as well as trends in impact and collaboration. The literature on crowdfunding has exhibited significant growth from 2010 to 2023. The number of publications pertaining to crowdfunding has experienced substantial growth between the years 2020 and 2023. The highlighted research trends and collaboration trends encompass various aspects of crowdfunding and resource mobilization, including crowdfunding, fundraising, social capital, peer-to-peer lending, venture capital, and crowdfunding success. Additionally, this study offers an expanded scope for the study based on a comprehensive examination of existing literature. The outcomes of our study have the potential to offer valuable insights for forthcoming scholars, corporations, and regulatory bodies seeking to comprehend the present patterns and anticipated advancements in the field of crowdfunding research.

Assessing Health Risks Associated with Heavy Metals in Food: A Bibliometric Analysis

Bibliometric analysis is an effective method used to identify research trends based on historical publications that involves combining different frameworks, tools and methods, leading to the creation of different metrics. This study employed bibliometric analysis to investigate the global health risk assessment of heavy metals in food from 2000 to 2022 using Web of Science and VOSviewer. We explore publication trends, affiliations, countries, journals, citations, keywords and author collaborations. Of the 573 publications on this topic, there has been a notable increase in recent years. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (China) and Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (Iran) are the most prolific affiliations. Environmental Science and Pollution Research is the top journal. Notably, "heavy metals", "risk assessment", "cadmium", "lead", and "trace elements" are frequently used keywords. A study by Miraglia et al. in 2009 received the most citations. Amin Mousavi Khaneghah (Poland) is the most prolific author, with 24 papers. Articles mainly focus on contamination levels in fish, seafood, cereals, dairy, meat, and fruit/vegetables. Some studies highlight potential risks, necessitating stricter food product controls for consumer safety.

Knowing what you don’t know: a tertiary study on knowledge management

Purpose

This paper aims to conduct a tertiary review to analyse the state of the art of literature reviews on knowledge management (KM) published in academic journals and provide an overview of their evolution. From 2000 to 2022, about 500 reviews have been published in the KM field, with most systematic studies compared to bibliometric or meta-analytic studies, and an absence of previous tertiary studies. Therefore, given the lack of previous tertiary research, this paper provides a complete picture of the evolution of review topics in the past and presents implications for both researchers and practitioners.

Design/methodology/approach

A classification scheme was defined to cluster and evaluate the literature reviews, both in terms of methodological approach and content. Regarding the content, the various secondary papers were classified according to the purpose of the research (state of the art, taxonomy, research agenda and research framework), the unit of analysis (small and medium enterprise, large company, start-up and university), the KM models adopted and the thematic areas addressed. Furthermore, a tertiary review methodology was identified integrating two main approaches: a bibliometric approach for cluster identification and a systematic approach for the discussion.

Findings

Two categories of contributions emerge from the results: those concerning research topics that have found a continuous interest over time and those that have not yet found a constant research interest. This latter aspect is relevant to help researchers conduct future literature analysis in KM research to bridge existing research gaps.

Research limitations/implications

This paper provides a unique compendium of search directions to offer a comprehensive overview of the scientific debate about KM. This overview can also be used as a managerial panacea to identify best KM practice guidelines from existing reviews.

Originality/value

This is a unique attempt to conduct a tertiary study on KM for more than two decades by providing insights into the structural body of knowledge through academic progress in the subject of KM. Thus, this study expands the field of KM and provides original approaches for research in the field.

The composition of data economy: a bibliometric approach and TCCM framework of conceptual, intellectual and social structure

Purpose

The data economy mainly relies on the surveillance capitalism business model, enabling companies to monetize their data. The surveillance allows for transforming private human experiences into behavioral data that can be harnessed in the marketing sphere. This study aims to focus on investigating the domain of data economy with the methodological lens of quantitative bibliometric analysis of published literature.

Design/methodology/approach

The bibliometric analysis seeks to unravel trends and timelines for the emergence of the data economy, its conceptualization, scientific progression and thematic synergy that could predict the future of the field. A total of 591 data between 2008 and June 2021 were used in the analysis with the Biblioshiny app on the web interfaced and VOSviewer version 1.6.16 to analyze data from Web of Science and Scopus.

Findings

This study combined findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR) data and data economy and contributed to the literature on big data, information discovery and delivery by shedding light on the conceptual, intellectual and social structure of data economy and demonstrating data relevance as a key strategic asset for companies and academia now and in the future.

Research limitations/implications

Findings from this study provide a steppingstone for researchers who may engage in further empirical and longitudinal studies by employing, for example, a quantitative and systematic review approach. In addition, future research could expand the scope of this study beyond FAIR data and data economy to examine aspects such as theories and show a plausible explanation of several phenomena in the emerging field.

Practical implications

The researchers can use the results of this study as a steppingstone for further empirical and longitudinal studies.

Originality/value

This study confirmed the relevance of data to society and revealed some gaps to be undertaken for the future.

“Social media technologies: a waste of time or a good way to learn and improve technological competences?”

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to deepen understanding of the effects of using social media technologies to acquire technological knowledge and organizational learning competences, of technological knowledge competences on organizational learning and finally of organizational learning on organizational performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was performed by analyzing data from a sample of 197 technology firms located in Spain. The hypotheses were tested using a structural equations model with the program LISREL 8.80.

Findings

This study’s conceptual framework is grounded in complexity theory – along with dynamic capabilities theory, which complements the resource-based view. The study contributes to the literature by proposing a model that reflects empirically how business ecosystems that use social media technologies enable the development of interorganizational and social collaboration networks that encourage learning and development of technological knowledge competences.

Research limitations/implications

It would be interesting for future studies to consider other elements to conceptualize and measure social media technologies, including (among others) significance of the various tools used and strategic integration. The model might also analyze other sectors and another combination of variables.

Practical implications

The results of this study have several managerial implications: developing social media technologies and interorganizational social collaboration networks not only enables the organizational learning process but also encourages technological knowledge competences. Through innovation processes, use of social media technologies also contributes to strengthening companies’ strategic positioning, which ultimately helps to improve firms’ organizational performance.

Social implications

Since social media technologies drive information systems in contemporary society (because they enable interaction with numerous agents), the authors highlight the use of complexity theory to develop a conceptual framework.

Originality/value

The study also deepens understanding of the connections by which new experiential learning contributes to the generation of coevolutionary adaptive business ecosystems and digital strategies that enable development of interorganizational and social collaborative networks through technological knowledge competences. Only after examining the impact of social media technologies on organizational performance in prior literature, did the authors underscore that both quantity and frequency of social media technology use are positively related to improvement in knowledge processes that lead to employees’ creation and acquisition of new metaknowledge.

Supply chain disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic: Recognizing potential disruption management strategies

The COVID-19 pandemic has made a significant impact on various supply chains (SCs). All around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic affects different dimensions of SCs, including but not limited to finance, lead time, demand changes, and production performance. There is an urgent need to respond to this grand challenge. The catastrophic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted scholars to develop innovative SC disruption management strategies and disseminate them via numerous scientific articles. However, there is still a lack of systematic literature survey studies that aim to identify promising SC disruption management strategies through the bibliometric, network, and thematic analyses. In order to address this drawback, this study presents a set of up-to-date bibliometric, network, and thematic analyses to identify the influential contributors, main research streams, and disruption management strategies related to the SC performance under the COVID-19 settings. The conducted analyses reveal that resilience and sustainability are the primary SC topics. Furthermore, the major research themes are found to be food, health-related SCs, and technology-aided tools (e.g., artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), and blockchains). Various disruption management strategies focusing on resilience and sustainability themes are extracted from the most influential studies that were identified as a part of this work. In addition, we draw some managerial insights to ensure a resilient and sustainable supply of critical products in the event of a pandemic, such as personal protective equipment (PPE) and vaccines.

A Scientometric Analysis and Systematic Literature Review for Construction Project Complexity

The construction industry has been experiencing a rapid increase in complex projects for the last two decades. Simultaneously, project complexity has received more attention from academics and practitioners worldwide. Many studies suggest that perceiving complexity is critical for successful construction project management. This study investigates the current status and future trends in construction project complexity (CPC) literature from the Scopus database. This review systematically uses bibliometric and scientometric methods through co-occurrence and co-citation analysis. First, 644 academic documents were retrieved from the Scopus database. Then, co-occurrence and co-citation analysis were performed along with network visualization to examine research interconnections’ patterns. As a result, relevant keywords, productive authors, and important journals have been highlighted. The prominent research topics within the literature on construction project complexity focus on the following topics: identifying and measuring project complexity, schedule performance and cost estimation, system integration and dynamic capabilities, and risk assessment and uncertainty. Finally, the potential research directions are developing towards safety performance, organizational resilience, and integrated project delivery (IPD). The study still has a limitation. The review focuses only on the academic documents retrieved from the Scopus database, thus restricting the coverage of the reviewed literature relating to construction project complexity. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first study that provides a systematic review of the literature from the Scopus database on construction project complexity.

Patterns of publications in social media-based co-creation: a bibliometric analysis

Purpose

Today social media capabilities have enabled businesses and enterprises to more collaboration, engagement and co-creation with their customers. So the current paper expands on this notion. The aim of this study is a bibliometric analysis to examine the trends of publications in the field of co-creation based on social media.

Design/methodology/approach

To data collection of quantitative analysis, Scopus database was selected and the collected data were analyzed using Bibliometrix-package. The Web of Science also was selected to retrieve highly cited and hot papers for qualitative part of analysis besides top 10 Scopus highest citation per year documents on June 6, 2020.

Findings

The results indicate insights into research trends pertaining to social media-based co-creation, as follows: starting jump to the publications occurred in this researches from the year 2008 and the growth trend is progressing in recent years; the stressful points are “co-design,” “co-creation” and “value co-creation” and concepts such as “open innovation,” “co-innovation” and “co-new product design” are new topics that guide future direction; the USA and UK are leaders in number of multiple and single publications; the most active and top journals that are better suited to achieving a high citation rate per year for a related paper were introduced. In addition, the top documents and highly cited papers were qualitatively analyzed on the basis of times cited per year.

Research limitations/implications

The current study is not free of limitations. The database was limited to only Scopus. So the patterns and trends generated in the study may not be generalized to all social media-based co-creation research. Of course, the authors did not intend to ignore other contributions. It is mainly because of the number of documents retrieved from Scopus database and the coverage, Scopus was selected. Moreover, other types of research techniques such as correspondence analysis can be incorporated to generate additional meaningful insight.

Originality/value

In this time of social media and user-generated content portals, co-creation through social media has become quite popular. So the main innovation of this study is providing a visual presentation of the trends and patterns in the evaluation of social media-based co-creation from the first document about the research area published till 2020. The results of this paper can shed light on the factors that strengthen the contribution of studies in a research area. Generally, the bibliometric items the authors analyzed essentially show the entire field picture and guide researchers toward understanding future trends to produce impactful studies.

A review of knowledge management research in the past three decades: a bibliometric analysis

Purpose

This study aims to conduct a bibliometric analysis on knowledge management from journals in the Scopus database between 1988 and 2021. The paper covered the past three decades of publications and carried out performance analysis and science mapping analysis of articles.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses bibliometrics, performance analysis and science mapping analysis of 1,016 articles extracted from the Scopus database. The study examined the scientific productivity of articles, productive authors, citable documents, most relevant institutions, cited countries, co-occurrence of keywords, thematic mapping, co-citations and collaboration of authors and countries. The study used Biblioshiny as a tool to carry out the performance analysis and science mapping analysis.

Findings

The results show that the number of publications has significantly increased in the past decade, 88.4% of authors contribute at least a single article, 8.3% of authors published two articles, 2% of the authors published three documents and 0.6% of the authors contribute four papers. The USA, China and Australia were the most productive countries in terms of the total number of citations and foreign collaborations. Journal of Knowledge Management, Knowledge Management Research and Practice, VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management and International Journal of Technology Management are the top outlets in the knowledge management literature.

Originality/value

Over the past decade, the research on knowledge management construct has exploded because of the growing interest of researchers and practitioners in the field. Despite being a well-developed field, few studies have applied bibliometric analysis in the knowledge management literature. The study is more comprehensive in terms of the actors and methods involved in analyzing the scientific production of articles in the area of knowledge management.

An overview and bibliometric analysis on the colorectal cancer therapy by magnetic functionalized nanoparticles for the responsive and targeted drug delivery

With the growing demands for personalized medicine and medical devices, nanomedicine is a modern scientific field, and research continues to apply nanomaterials for therapeutic and damaged tissue diagnosis. In this regard, substantial progress has been made in synthesizing magnetic nanoparticles with desired sizes, chemical composition, morphologies, and surface chemistry. Among these materials, nanomagnetic iron oxides have demonstrated promise as unique drug delivery carriers due to cancer treatment. This carrier could lead to responsive properties to a specific trigger, including heat, pH, alternative magnetic field, or even enzymes, through functionalization and coating of magnetic nanoparticles, along with biocompatibility, good chemical stability, easy functionalization, simple processing, and ability to localize to the tumor site with the assistance of external magnetic field. Current studies have focused on magnetic nanoparticles' utilities in cancer therapy, especially for colorectal cancer. Additionally, a bibliometric investigation was performed on the public trends in the field of the magnetic nanoparticle to drug delivery and anticancer, which represented progressing applications of these carriers in the multidisciplinary zones with a general view on future research and identified potential opportunities and challenges. Furthermore, we outline the current challenges and forthcoming research perspective for high performance and fostering advanced MNPs in colorectal cancer treatment.

Mapping the field of knowledge management: a bibliometric analysis using R

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to offer the bibliometric analysis of the Journal of Knowledge Management (JKM) to understand how the literature has developed over time.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used bibliometric approaches to analyze a sample of 669 studies from 1997 to 2021. This study focused on performance analysis and scientific mapping of articles using the R package.

Findings

The results indicate that the number of publications during the period has significantly increased which shows a growing interest of researchers in the JKM. This study highlights new emerging themes such as change management, change readiness, product innovation and digital libraries which uncover exciting avenues for new research opportunities. USA and UK were the most productive countries in terms of the number of citations followed by few European countries including Spain, Finland, Germany and Sweden. However, it is worth noting that India was the most productive country in the emerging economies.

Practical implications

This study will act as a guide for researchers of various fields to evaluate the development of scientific publications in a particular theme over time, especially for those who are in the field of knowledge management (KM).

Originality/value

This study aims to accomplish the systematic bibliometric analysis of the JKM for more than two decades, providing useful insights into the key developments in the field of KM. This study is more rigorous and comprehensive in terms of the analytical techniques used.

Ergonomics 4.0: A bibliometric review of Human Factors research in Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0)

BACKGROUND

The scientometric study is a visualization method used to collect big data from databases, to explore the relationships between citing and co-cited documents and then visualize the results. Unlike the new term Ergonomics 4.0, bibliometric analysis has been studied in various related fields of Ergonomics.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to create a bibliometric analysis in related field of Ergonomics and Fourth Industrial Revolution. This analysis can shed light on the new developed research field in both sides of the present study, occupational ergonomics and industry 4.0.

METHODS

After selecting related keywords, Advance search was done in Scopus and Web of Science. Bibliometric results were presented by these databases' analyzer and by exported data to VOS viewer software. No time or language restriction was applied.

RESULTS

Retrieved Articles were 104 and 285 for Web of Science and Scopus respectively. The frequent co-occurrences for keywords were seen between "industry 4.0" and "Human Factors". The USA and Germany were also the most productive countries in this field. Well-known Ergonomics journals had low participation in the Evolution of Ergonomics and Fourth Industrial Revolution topics.

CONCLUSION

Due to more participation of industry 4.0-related researchers in this topic, it is recommended that ergonomists from around the world, and especially Eastern countries, attempt to conduct research in this field. Furthermore, devoting some forth-coming special issues in this field is recommended to top ergonomics journals.

Enforcement and accounting quality in the context of IFRS: is there a gap in the literature?

Purpose

Existing research has concluded that accounting quality is influenced not only by the quality of accounting standards, but also by enforcement systems. Therefore, enforcement is one of the key factors for ensuring International Financial Reporting Standards’ (IFRS) compliance and achieving accounting quality. However, one still does not know what has been studied about this relationship in scientific literature. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to identify, recap and evaluate the current state of research on the relationship between IFRS enforcement and accounting quality, to provide a critical overview of publications in this field and to identify future areas of interest.

Design/methodology/approach

Supported by a structured literature review, this paper fills in a research gap by conducting a scientometric analysis of papers on the relationship between IFRS enforcement and accounting quality construed in a broad sense. It reviews papers published between 2006 and 2019 selected from the Web of Science database, particularly analyzing main journals, authors, geographic areas of study, methods used, specific topics explored and future lines of research to be developed.

Findings

Main findings show a shortage of studies analyzing IFRS enforcement practices in individual countries and, in turn, the impact these practices may have on the accounting quality. This gap calls for further research to know the effectiveness of the IFRS-related enforcement mechanisms.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous scientometric studies focused on the enforcement of IFRS and accounting quality. This study fills this research gap and improves the understanding about what has been published on the topic, also proposing an agenda for future research that can help regulators to adjust policies for the implementation and enforcement of IFRS.

Employee-Related Disclosure: A Bibliometric Review

Academic research specifically focused on employee-related disclosure practices is needed to enhance understanding on CSR reporting. This paper aims to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art in research on employee-related disclosure, analyzing the characteristics of the scientific production on this topic. A bibliometric analysis is conducted on the papers specifically focused on employee-related disclosure published from 2000 to 2019 in journals indexed on the Web of Science database. The findings show that relatively few studies specifically focused on employee-related disclosure have been published over the last two decades (63 papers). Most articles were published during the last 8 years (93.6%), although the highest interest in the study of employee-related disclosure among scholars concentrates on a short period around 2017. Six journals concentrate 31.75% of the publications on the subject. Most papers are empirical studies, using the content analysis technique to analyze corporate reports. Papers are spread over three research subtopics: (1) extent, quality and drivers of human resource disclosures, (2) occupational health and safety disclosures, human rights disclosures and employee-related disclosures as a legitimization tool, and (3) diversity reporting. In all research subtopics, most of the papers have been published during the last four years, confirming that employee-related disclosure is a topic of current interest to researchers. The studies found that the overall level of employee-related disclosure is low, with an increasing or irregular tendency over time. Furthermore, not all items/categories got the same attention by firms. It can be concluded that this research subject is still far from reaching the level of research on environmental reporting and important issues remain to be resolved, both theoretically and empirically.

A bibliometric analysis of pandemic and epidemic studies in economics: future agenda for COVID-19 research

With the rapid global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers from diverse fields of study have contributed markedly in different research aspects. Considering the substantial economic significance of the pandemic at the micro and macro level throughout the world, we review the scientific publications in the discipline of Economics. To draw a broad inference, we analyze a total of 1,636 scientific publications starting from 1974, which covers the period of earlier pandemics or epidemics that have a close association with COVID-19 using bibliometric analysis. Our analysis and mapping reveal key information related to the contributors at different levels, including author, institution, country, and publication sources. Besides, we identify the historical concentration of research using scientific clustering and illustrate transformations at different times. Moreover, recognizing the underlying inadequacy of economics research, we propose several areas of future research. Our findings and suggestions are expected to act as a roadmap to potential research opportunities and notable implications for business and policymakers.

Knowledge Sharing in Business Education

The paper aims to investigate the evolution of the theme of knowledge sharing in business education in academic literature. Based on an extensive search, it can be stated that this is the first systematic review of this topic. The method employed in this study was a systematic review that covered publications from 1997, when the first paper relating the theme was published in the selected databases, to 2020. The analysis was based on 306 articles. Four periods were identified: embryonic, emergent, growth young and growth highest. One of the findings is that knowledge sharing in business education is growing in virtual environments, especially in the last year, where the COVID 19 pandemic restricted the option of face-to-face education in classrooms. It is recommended that business schools decrease the percentage of time they spend in lectures and increase the time and strategies in which students share knowledge, discuss problems and make decisions based on collective reflection.

A structured literature review of scientometric research of the knowledge management discipline: a 2021 update

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to conduct a structured literature review of scientometric research of the knowledge management (KM) discipline for the 2012–2019 time period.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 175 scientometric studies of the KM discipline were identified and analyzed.

Findings

Scientometric KM research has entered the maturity stage: its volume has been growing, reaching six publications per month in 2019. Scientometric KM research has become highly specialized, which explains many inconsistent findings, and the interests of scientometric KM researchers and their preferred inquiry methods have changed over time. There is a dangerous trend toward a monopoly of the scholarly publishing market which affects researchers’ behavior. To create a list of keywords for database searches, scientometric KM scholars should rely on the formal KM keyword classification schemes, and KM-centric peer-reviewed journals should continue welcoming manuscripts on scientometric topics.

Practical implications

Stakeholders should realize that the KM discipline may successfully exist as a cluster of divergent schools of thought under an overarching KM umbrella and that the notion of intradisciplinary cohesion and consistency should be abandoned. Journal of Knowledge Management is unanimously recognized as a leading KM journal, but KM researchers should not limit their focus to the body of knowledge documented in the KM-centric publication forums. The top six most productive countries are the USA, the UK, Taiwan, Canada, Australia and China. There is a need for knowledge brokers that may deliver the KM academic body of knowledge to practitioners.

Originality/value

This is the most comprehensive, up-to-date analysis of the KM discipline.

An overview of the digital solutions for helping people with aphasia through bibliometric analysis

This paper gives insights into recent research developments in the field of digital solutions for people with aphasia and tries to analyse its impact on their rehabilitation. A bibliometric research approach is used for data collection. Relevant studies were extracted from seven major academic databases from years 2000 to 2019 inclusive. The systematic process resulted in 986 studies. The average growth in this field is 4%, which is less compared to other research areas. However, the average citations per paper is 7.27, which represents a medium level of publication quality. Scopus and Web of Science are leading databases for the number of studies (379 and 264) and quality of publications (P-Index: 49.26 and 32.85), respectively. The USA, with 42% of publications, leads this research field, followed by the UK with 15%. Both countries have national aphasia strategies in place through charities (not government level strategies), which potentially contributed to their research leadership. The results show that recent advances in digital solutions have the potential to support people with aphasia. However, further work is needed at both academic and government levels to deliver more research contributions and funding for the rehabilitation of people with aphasia.

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The countries with clear national aphasia strategies in place lead this research field.

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Western countries carry most of the research for aphasia; the global view of this research area is still messing.

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Personal care, in combination with digital solutions, can yield better results.

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The fully immersive virtual reality solutions offer close to real-life interaction experience for the people with aphasia and their surroundings inside the virtual space.

Influence of Knowledge Management Practices on Entrepreneurial and Organizational Performance: A Mediated-Moderation Model

This study aims to identify the influence of knowledge management practices on the entrepreneurial and organizational performance with the mediating effect of dynamic capabilities and moderating role of opportunity recognition. Data were gathered from 486 entrepreneurs and applied a structural equation model to test the hypotheses. We found that knowledge management practices have a positive and significant influence on dynamic capabilities, as well as have a significant impact on entrepreneurial and organizational performance. Moreover, results indicated that dynamic capabilities partially mediate in the relationship between knowledge management practices on entrepreneurial and organizational performance. Furthermore, the relationship between knowledge management practices with entrepreneurial and organizational performance strengthening by opportunity recognition. Further, implications and limitations were discussed in the paper.

What is the impact of library and information science on knowledge management research?

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to determine the place of library and information Science (LIS) research within leading knowledge management (KM) journals and conferences.

Design/methodology/approach

Authors examined articles published from 2000-2018 in top-20 KM publications identified by Google Scholar to look for relationship with LIS. Authors analyzed the identified LIS-related articles to determine the publication trends based on LIS terms used, populations, authorship pattern, country, information setting type and top-cited articles.

Findings

Authors found that the coverage of LIS-related articles within leading KM publications was very low. From the more than 10,000 KM research articles, less than 1 per cent were LIS-related.

Research limitations/implications

This study would help LIS researchers measure the space they have created for their field within leading KM research. By showing the relatively low coverage of LIS within KM research, the study demonstrates that LIS researchers/practitioners need to do more for LIS to be recognized as an important area within KM. KM publications can also enable greater synergies with LIS for mutual benefit.

Originality/value

LIS researchers have increasingly called for KM implementation within libraries. The KM field has a long history in library practice in the context of managing and organizing codified knowledge. Both KM and LIS share the common goals of providing access to knowledge for sharing, transfer and use. However, hardly any studies have looked at the amount of synergy or overlap between these two different but related areas, and whether LIS matters to KM, even though LIS practitioners have been highlighting that KM matters to LIS.

Evaluation of Research Trends in Knowledge Management: A Hybrid Analysis through Burst Detection and Text Clustering

This paper aims to analyze the content of validated journal articles related to Knowledge Management (KM) in more than 18,000 papers of the Web of Science (WoS) database and then provide the most recent specific trends in KM field using text mining and burst detection to help researchers invest in the most challenging and fruitful areas of KM research domain. The method for finding the recent trend of KM includes the following steps: Conducting searches and collecting the publication data from WoS; using a hybrid analysis through burst detection and text clustering; also enriching and analyzing the results in order to achieve an overall perspective about the KM position and the popularity among researchers. This study could be valuable for researchers and KM specialists as well as managers as they may study the history of a subject by getting the structure of its scientific productions, so as to purposefully plan and determine the research priorities in KM.

Gestão do conhecimento: constituição do campo, temas e perspectivas de pesquisas

Resumo Esta pesquisa visa identificar e analisar temas de pesquisas em Gestão do Conhecimento, a fim de compreender como tem se constituído esse campo científico e quais as perspectivas de pesquisas. Para o desenvolvimento deste trabalho, realizou- -se uma revisão sistemática da literatura a partir de estudos bibliométricos em Gestão do Conhecimento publicados no período de 2008 a 2018. Os dados foram agrupados em oito temas: natureza do conhecimento, dimensões sociais, dimensões cognitivas e tecnológicas do conhecimento, espectro do conhecimento, contextos, áreas de interfaces e estudos voltados ao desenvolvimento do campo científico. O estudo oferece um panorama temático do campo da Gestão do Conhecimento, apontando para a necessidade de que sejam abordados novos temas, atentos aos desafios comunicacionais contemporâneos. Como contribuições práticas, os resultados podem auxiliar pesquisadores, profissionais e estudantes que pretendam se inserir no campo. Os resultados fornecem também pistas para organizadores de conferências, ao apontar temas para discussões, e para editores científicos no sentido de orientar futuras chamadas de artigos.

Building intellectual structure of knowledge sharing

Purpose

This study aims to build the intellectual structure of knowledge sharing (KS) research by objectively and systematically capturing and sketching the content of research papers published in the KS research area.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a systematic literature review for data collection, and content analysis and bibliometric techniques of citation and co-citation analysis for data analyses and interpretation.

Findings

Based on the study, the intellectual structure of KS research consisting of five themes has emerged. The five themes identified are: models, frameworks and understanding for KS, the behaviour-oriented perspective of KS, technology-oriented perspective of KS, KS barriers and KS and firm’s performance.

Research limitations/implications

This study has used published literature extracted from selected journals using the web of science database. More journals and databases may be included in future studies.

Practical implications

This study will give future researchers a comprehensive understanding of KS discipline and serve as a quick reference and resource for those interested in KS research. It identifies major areas of KS for the practitioners to enable them to focus and apply various organizational interventions to derive a competitive advantage. The identified themes in the intellectual structure of KS will also provide a holistic view and give multiple perspectives to practitioners so that they can better manage KS in their organizations.

Originality/value

This is among early studies aiming to extract the intellectual structure of KS in the broad area of knowledge management research.

Evolution of the Socio-cognitive Structure of Knowledge Management (1986–2015): An Author Co-citation Analysis

Purpose

The evolution of the socio-cognitive structure of the field of knowledge management (KM) during the period 1986–2015 is described.

Design/methodology/approach

Records retrieved from Web of Science were submitted to author co-citation analysis (ACA) following a longitudinal perspective as of the following time slices: 1986–1996, 1997–2006, and 2007–2015. The top 10% of most cited first authors by sub-periods were mapped in bibliometric networks in order to interpret the communities formed and their relationships.

Findings

KM is a homogeneous field as indicated by networks results. Nine classical authors are identified since they are highly co-cited in each sub-period, highlighting Ikujiro Nonaka as the most influential authors in the field. The most significant communities in KM are devoted to strategic management, KM foundations, organisational learning and behaviour, and organisational theories. Major trends in the evolution of the intellectual structure of KM evidence a technological influence in 1986–1996, a strategic influence in 1997–2006, and finally a sociological influence in 2007–2015.

Research limitations

Describing a field from a single database can offer biases in terms of output coverage. Likewise, the conference proceedings and books were not used and the analysis was only based on first authors. However, the results obtained can be very useful to understand the evolution of KM research.

Practical implications

These results might be useful for managers and academicians to understand the evolution of KM field and to (re)define research activities and organisational projects.

Originality/value

The novelty of this paper lies in considering ACA as a bibliometric technique to study KM research. In addition, our investigation has a wider time coverage than earlier articles.

Publication Trends in Drug Delivery and Magnetic Nanoparticles

This bibliometric study investigated the public trends in the fields of nanoparticles which is limited to drug delivery and magnetic nanoparticles' literature published from 1980 to October 2017. The data were collected from the Web of Science Core Collections, and a network analysis of research outputs was carried out to analyse the research trends in the nanoparticles literature. Nanoparticles and its applications are progressing in recent years. The results show that documents in the field of nanoparticles in chemistry and material science have improved in citation rate, as the authors were researching in multidisciplinary zones. Top-cited documents are mainly focusing on drug delivery, magnetic nanoparticles and iron oxide nanoparticles which are also the top research keywords in all papers published. Top-cited papers are mostly published in Biomaterials journal which so far has published 12% of top-cited articles. Although research areas such as contrast agents, quantum dots, and nanocrystals are not considered as the top-ranked keywords in all documents, these keywords received noticeable citations. The trends of publications on drug delivery and magnetic nanoparticles give a general view on future research and identify potential opportunities and challenges.

Promoting Ethics and Integrity in Management Academic Research: Retraction Initiative

In the management academic research, academic advancement, job security, and the securing of research funds at one's university are judged mainly by one's output of publications in high impact journals. With bogus resumes filled with published journal articles, universities and other allied institutions are keen to recruit or sustain the appointment of such academics. This often places undue pressure on aspiring academics and on those already recruited to engage in research misconduct which often leads to research integrity. This structured review focuses on the ethics and integrity of management research through an analysis of retracted articles published from 2005 to 2016. The study employs a structured literature review methodology whereby retracted articles published between 2005 and 2016 in the field of management science were found using Crossref and Google Scholar. The searched articles were then streamlined by selecting articles based on their relevance and content in accordance with the inclusion criteria. Based on the analysed retracted articles, the study shows evidence of ethical misconduct among researchers of management science. Such misconduct includes data falsification, the duplication of submitted articles, plagiarism, data irregularity and incomplete citation practices. Interestingly, the analysed results indicate that the field of knowledge management includes the highest number of retracted articles, with plagiarism constituting the most significant ethical issue. Furthermore, the findings of this study show that ethical misconduct is not restricted to a particular geographic location; it occurs in numerous countries. In turn, avenues of further study on research misconduct in management research are proposed.

Knowledge management measures: an empirical investigation of Indian cement industry

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop knowledge management constructs comprising of KM processes and KM practices through marketing and sales to derive competitive advantage (CA) in the cement industry.

Design/methodology/approach

A thorough and detailed analysis of the literature was carried out to develop the measures for KM practices, KM processes and their impact on CA. A total of 65 variables affecting competitiveness in the form of questionnaire were developed. The questionnaire was administered through e-mail to 962 territory sales managers (TSM) and equivalent employed in the marketing and sales function of the cement organizations in India. A total of 121 valid and complete responses were received, representing a response rate of 12.6 percent. The factor analysis was carried out on the data collected to establish reliability and validity of the measures.

Findings

A total of seven constructs pertaining to knowledge management practices and processes and competitiveness that comprises of 65 variables have been developed. The statistical results establish that the constructs and the variables considered in the study are reliable and valid.

Research limitations/implications

The sample of respondents for developing constructs consisted of TSM and equivalent employed in the marketing and sales function of cement companies in India. Research scope can be enhanced in the future study by including middle and senior level managers in cement companies to better diagnose and understand perception of KM initiatives across different levels in the cement industry. The work can also be extended to incorporate inbound logistics and procurement that directly contributes to the overall value chain to have a holistic perspective.

Practical implications

The measures developed in this study would be effective management tools for the implementation of knowledge management initiatives in the marketing and sales function to ascertain their level of implementation and impact on the competitiveness.

Originality/value

This study is probably the first of its kind in India to provide KM measures combined for practices and processes to understand the relationship with competitiveness in cement companies pertaining to marketing and sales function. It provides valuable insights as a strategic tool for investing in KM initiatives.

S. Bibliometric analysis of entrepreneurial orientation

Purpose

The remarkable concept of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has attracted scholars’ attention for its relevance to a firm’s performance. Based on bibliometric and distance-based visualization of similarities (VOS) analysis, the purpose of this paper is to outline a broad-spectrum perspective of the structure of research in EO across more than 20 years of publications, identifying the most prominent journals, authors and articles in this field.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses the Web of Science Core Collection and the VOS viewer software. The analysis searches for all the documents connected to EO available in the database from 1976 to 2017. The graphical visualization maps the bibliographic data using both bibliographic coupling and co-citation data.

Findings

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice Journal, Journal of Business Venturing and Family Business Review are the most relevant journals in the field. Among the many important authors in the EO literature, key contributors are Lumpkin, Payne, Short, Covin, Dess and Wiklund. Three different streams of research are linked to the EO concept; strategy and entrepreneurship, family business and miscellaneous work in psychometrics, methods, marketing and knowledge/capability-based approaches to organizations.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to EO research by providing a global perspective on the concept’s investigation, using bibliometric data and graphical networks.

Innovation growth from knowledge transfer in international strategic alliances

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a literature review on knowledge transfer and international strategic alliances to propose a research framework based on the theory of dynamic capabilities. A qualitative and quantitative review has been conducted to find out the past research patterns, emerging trends, and research gaps.

Design/methodology/approach

The qualitative review of more than 300 articles identified by keyword search, reference, and citation search has resulted in 130 most relevant articles. Citation analysis is performed on these studies, their journals, and authors by leveraging the international platforms of SCImago Journal Ranking, Google Scholar, and ResearchGate.

Findings

The study enlists the highly cited studies, their journals, and authors with possible explanations for being highly cited. Criticisms of dynamic capabilities theory have been explained, and a research framework for the application of this theory in the context of international strategic alliances to fill the research gap has been proposed.

Originality/value

Currently, various bibliometric studies are growing in number. This study is not only a review study, but also proposes a research framework to fill the identified research gap.

Mapping the Field of Knowledge Management: Bibliometric and Content Analysis of Journal of Information & Knowledge Management for the Period from 2002–2016

This study aims to overview the research trends in Knowledge Management (KM) using a bibliometric and content analysis. Several research questions pertaining to the annual growth of KM publications, the key topics discussed, popular methodologies, country of origin, and citations analysis are posed and answered. In total, 475 articles published in the Journal of Information & Knowledge Management (JIKM) were retrieved from the Scopus bibliographical database. The results showed a relatively steady growth in the number of articles published in JIKM between 2002 and 2016. US scholars authored 21% of the articles published in JIKM, followed by those from India (almost 10%), Australia (8%), and the UK (7.5%). It is also noteworthy that scientific papers published in JIKM are referenced in highly cited journals of computer science, business, and library and information science. Topics such as knowledge discovery, taxonomy and ontology, and knowledge representation were the major KM research trends to arise from the current phenomena of “big data” and data analytics, as reflected in the subject matter of published works. A comparison between the counts for qualitative and quantitative research methodologies showed a clear tendency toward the latter, including questionnaires, while case studies, content analysis, and framework and conceptual papers also proved to be important for KM researchers.

A reflection on knowledge sharing research: patterns and trends

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to bring to the fore the identity and image of knowledge sharing (KS) research in terms of the patterns and trends of its growth and its intellectual structure by systematically and objectively extracting various information from extant literature published in KS research area.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is based on the counting technique and bibliometric approach (citations and co-citations analysis) applied in extant literature published in the KS research area.

Findings

The study finds that KS research area is evolving and has immense potential to grow in the future. It elaborates upon the publications and collaborative research patterns and identifies the works, authors and journals that have significant theoretical influence in KS research area. The analysis reveals four major themes in KS research, namely, behaviour-oriented perspective of KS, understanding, frameworks and models of KS, technology-oriented perspective of KS and KS barriers.

Research limitations/implications

This study is based on research papers, published in KS research area, that have been extracted from selected journals by mining their titles with “knowledge sharing” as a keyword. Future studies may enhance the search space by including the abstracts in addition to the title while extracting papers in the search.

Practical implications

This study renders all stakeholders an extensive understanding about the direction of KS research. It will help future researchers to identify their areas of interest before venturing into a deeper search. Thus, it will be a significant resource and a quick reference for researchers in KS research area. The study can also help practitioners to focus on key aspects of KS and, further, apply appropriate organizational interventions to enhance KS in promoting innovation and gaining competitive advantage for their organizations.

Originality/value

This is one of the very few and early studies conducted to extract patterns and trends of growth and provide the intellectual structure with KS as a domain of research.

Strategic human resource management: a power based critique

Purpose

By undertaking a detailed review of the Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) discourse, the purpose of this paper is to uncover and explicate the power differentials embedded in the social structure of organizations and suggests ways to reconcile them.

Design/methodology/approach

Methods used are thematic review, content analysis, and inductive theorizing, with Foucault’s archaeological and genealogical analysis style as the overarching framework.

Findings

At the methodological level, the authors demonstrate the application of Foucault’s twin methods: archaeological and genealogical analysis. At the substantive level, the authors have two contributions. First, the authors critique and analyze the various themes of power that emerge from the SHRM discourse as well as the hybridized overlaps of SHRM with other organization studies topics of interest such as organizational learning, network studies, control and postmodernism. Second, the authors propose a “Power” theory based nomothetic, typological synthesis for crafting the business-facing human resource (HR) function. The power lens manifests as the meta-theory to guide a much required streamlining of constructs and “value laden” synthesis of the literature.

Research limitations/implications

The potential of critical theory in crafting situated and context-sensitive research propositions is demonstrated.

Practical implications

Organizational strategists and HR managers can utilize the proposed typology to better understand their current ideological positions and decide future aspired images.

Originality/value

This is a conversation between two paradigms, SHRM and power theory, that are epistemologically at two opposite poles.

Managing knowledge through social media

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise social media usage (SMU) as a contributory, knowledge management (KM) tool towards entrepreneurial behaviour amongst small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Although an underdeveloped concept in entrepreneurship, the conceptual analysis of KM presents evidence which links SMU as complementary to changing KM conventions.

Design/methodology/approach

The pertinent KM and SMU literatures of the SME context were reviewed to form an understanding of this context. Employing a mixed-methods approach, a pragmatic, thematic investigation of SMU-enhanced KM was facilitated.

Findings

Substantial benefits of innovative SMU, as a management tool towards SME entrepreneurialism, were witnessed. SMU enhances the administration of real-time knowledge, encouraging creativity. However, longer-term costs of employing requisite personnel, and anticipated organisational restructuring, present challenges. The paper identifies the potentials of social media technologies in overcoming KM issues. The authors propose a reasoned process model towards entrepreneurial exploitation by acknowledging systematic phases of research, concept, institutionalise, develop, target and assess, referred to as the RCIDTA model.

Practical implications

The authors argue that KM, through social media, facilitates interactions to execute innovative processes within SMEs ever-changing infrastructures. It also informs nascent entrepreneurs, in considering the benefits of systematic KM, and novel SMU, opportunities. The RCIDTA model for SMEs can be utilised in improving knowledge ecosystems of entrepreneurial SMEs, promoting innovation towards sustained organisation growth.

Originality/value

This paper embraces the growing approach of SMEs applying SMU. SMU and its cost efficiency support the start-up activity. This paper highlights central issues concerning the exploitation of sector-specific KM, including organisational strategy, structure, brand formation, fiscal and personnel resource allocation and market share.

Transmitting competencies at universities: employability readiness of students

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine factors that can contribute to minimising a discrepancy between a traditional grade point average and a newly introduced employability readiness indicator, aiming to increase the efficiency of universities in producing employable graduates. While grade point average integrates grades for courses completed, employability readiness indicator indicates the level of competencies developed in these courses.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were collected for two bachelor programmes at Narxoz University by means of a structured interview, a structured observation and a specialised test. Various statistical and regression analyses were applied to determine properties of grade point average and employability readiness indicator as well as factors affecting them by setting and solving the problem of minimising the discrepancy using Bloom’s taxonomy as a framework.

Findings

The minimisation problem appears to have had multiple optimal solutions that significantly decrease the discrepancy on account of factors from thinking levels 3-4 (apply and analyse). To further eliminate this discrepancy, it is reasonable to focus on factors from thinking levels 5-6 (evaluate and create).

Research limitations/implications

Due to its consistency and simplicity, this approach can be applied at any university allowing national and international comparison of educational quality. A longitudinal study covering more programmes is necessary to draw conclusions concerning causality.

Originality/value

The novelty of this study lies in illustrating how the education process can be related to competency development and how critical factors of competency transmission can be identified.

A bibliometric analysis of emergency management using information systems (2000-2016)

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a statistical analysis of research into emergency management (EM) using information systems (IS) for the period 2000-2016.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, research trends in the area of EM using IS are analysed using various parameters, including trends on publications and citations, disciplinary distribution, journals, research institutions and regional cooperation. Through a keyword co-occurrence analysis, this study identifies the evolution of the main keywords in this area, and examines the changes and developments in the main focus of scholars in this period. The study also explores the main research orientations in the field by analysing and integrating the results of two cluster analyses conducted from keyword- and reference-based perspectives, respectively.

Findings

The area of EM using IS has received increased attention and interest by researchers and practitioners. It is suggested that more cooperation among research institutions is required to help facilitate the further development of the area. Six main research orientations are identified: namely Web 2.0-enabled research, geographic information technology (IT), IT-based research, the contextual use of IT, crisis collaboration research and mass media communication research, since the research area first became popular in 2006.

Originality/value

This study is the first to comprehensively map the landscape of EM by conducting a bibliometric analysis of the research using IS. The authors’ findings can help academics and emergency managers gain a comprehensive understanding of the research area, and guide scholars towards producing more effective findings.

Global cocaine intoxication research trends during 1975-2015: a bibliometric analysis of Web of Science publications

BACKGROUND

Cocaine is subject to recreational abuse as a stimulant and psychoactive agent, which poses a major worldwide health problem. The aim of the present study was to perform a bibliometric analysis of publication related to cocaine intoxication an insight of the research trends at a global level to enable recommendations for future research strategies in this field.

METHODS

Publications about cocaine intoxication were retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database on December 28, 2016, and analysed regarding the following bibliometric indicators: research trends, document types, languages, countries/territories with their h-index, collaboration patterns, journals with their impact factors (IF), and institutions.

RESULTS

In total, 2,902 scientific publications from 1975 to 2015 were retrieved from the WoS database. The annual number of publications related to cocaine toxicity increased slightly after 1990 and reached a peak of 148 in 1992, with an average of 103 publications per year. The USA outranked other countries/territories with 2,089 publications, of which 1,927 arose exclusively from the USA and 162 involved international collaborations. The h-index for all publications related to cocaine was 212, and the h-index for all publications related to cocaine intoxication was 99. Moreover, the USA had the highest h-index of 95, followed by Spain with h-index of 24, and Canada with h-index of 24. The main research topics were consistently reproductive toxicity, clinical management of acute cocaine exposure, laboratory methods for detection of exposure to cocaine, cocaine metabolism, and cocaine toxicity in animals.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first bibliometric approach to examining research related to cocaine toxicity and shows that research activity has become more global and extensive since 1990. The USA remains the leading country regarding published literature, the highest h-index, and greatest role in international collaborations.

Mapping the scientific research on non-point source pollution: a bibliometric analysis

A bibliometric analysis was conducted to examine the progress and future research trends of non-point source (NPS) pollution during the years 1991-2015 based on the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-Expanded) of Web of Science (WoS). The publications referencing NPS pollution were analyzed including the following aspects: document type, publication language, publication output and characteristics, subject category, source journal, distribution of country and institution, author keywords, etc. The results indicate that the study of NPS pollution demonstrated a sharply increasing trend since 1991. Article and English were the most commonly used document type and language. Environmental sciences and ecology, water resources, and engineering were the top three subject categories. Water science and technology ranked first in distribution of journal, followed by Science of the total environment and Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. The USA took a leading position in both quantity and quality, playing an important role in the research field of NPS pollution, followed by the UK and China. The most productive institution was the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Acad Sci), followed by Beijing Normal University and US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (USDA ARS). The analysis of author keywords indicates that the major hotspots of NPS pollution from 1991 to 2015 contained "water," "model," "agriculture," "nitrogen," "phosphorus," etc. The results provide a comprehensive understanding of NPS pollution research and help readers to establish the future research directions.

The Journal Impact Factor: Moving Toward an Alternative and Combined Scientometric Approach

The Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is a single citation metric, which is widely employed for ranking journals and choosing target journals, but is also misused as the proxy of the quality of individual articles and academic achievements of authors. This article analyzes Scopus-based publication activity on the JIF and overviews some of the numerous misuses of the JIF, global initiatives to overcome the 'obsession' with impact factors, and emerging strategies to revise the concept of the scholarly impact. The growing number of articles on the JIF, most of which are in English, reflects interest of experts in journal editing and scientometrics toward its uses, misuses, and options to overcome related problems. Solely displaying values of the JIFs on the journal websites is criticized by experts as these average metrics do not reflect skewness of citation distribution of individual articles. Emerging strategies suggest to complement the JIFs with citation plots and alternative metrics, reflecting uses of individual articles in terms of downloads and distribution of related information through social media and networking platforms. It is also proposed to revise the original formula of the JIF calculation and embrace the concept of the impact and importance of individual articles. The latter is largely dependent on ethical soundness of the journal instructions, proper editing and structuring of articles, efforts to promote related information through social media, and endorsements of professional societies.