Service supply chain: from bibliometric analysis to content analysis, current research trends and future research directions

LGCM and PLS-SEM in Panel Survey Data: A Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis

The application of Latent Growth Curve Model (LGCM) and Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) has gained much attention in panel survey studies. This study explores the distributions and trends of LGCM, and PLS-SEM used in panel survey data. It highlights the gaps in the current and existing approaches of PLS-SEM practiced by researchers in analyzing panel survey data. The integrated bibliometric analysis and systematic review were employed in this study. Based on the reviewed articles, the LGCM and PLS-SEM showed an increasing trend of publication in the panel survey data. Though the popularity of LGCM was more outstanding than PLS-SEM for the panel survey data, LGCM has several limitations such as statistical assumptions, reliable sample size, number of repeated measures, and missing data. This systematic review identified five different approaches of PLS-SEM in analyzing the panel survey data namely pre- and post-approach with different constructs, a path comparison approach, a cross-lagged approach, pre- and post-approach with the same constructs, and an evaluation approach practiced by researchers. None of the previous approaches used can establish one structural model to represent the whole changes in the repeated measure. Thus, the findings of this paper could help researchers choose a more appropriate approach to analyzing panel survey data.

The Studies on Gallium Nitride-Based Materials: A Bibliometric Analysis

Gallium nitride (GaN) has a wide energy band gap and a high power density, efficiency, switching frequency, and electron carrier mobility, having broad applications in digitization. Because GaN has high potentials, this study performed a bibliometric analysis on the publications of GaN indexed in the Web of Science database from 1970 to 2023. A performance analysis of the 15,634 publications was performed using Harzing's Publish or Perish tool, while science mappings were performed with VOSviewer software. The results show that there has been an uptrend in the on-going research on GaN, especially in the past decade. Most of the documents are within the fields of physics, engineering, and materials science. The United States has the highest number of publications and the most impactful research. The United States is also actively collaborating with other countries to gain deeper insights into GaN. The analysis shows that the concentration of GaN research is slowly moving towards the development of high-voltage operations.

A study of cross-border E-commerce research trends: Based on knowledge mapping and literature analysis

As a result of the trend toward economic globalization, the vigorous development of cross-border e-commerce has attracted many scholars to study this field, involving many related fields, such as consumer behavior, advertising, information systems, and supply chain management. Throughout the existing literature, it can be found that most of the research focuses on certain influencing factors of the development of cross-border e-commerce, and there is no systematic and macro- overview of the development trend of research in this field in recent years, nor the integration and analysis of keywords. Given that the research in the field of cross-border e-commerce is fragmented to a large extent, to effectively explore the research trend in this field, we must understand the current situation of cross-border e-commerce. Systematic bibliometric analysis can solve this problem by providing publishing trends and information on various topics. Therefore, based on the scientific database web, this study collected 198 references related to cross-border e-commerce from 2016 to 2021, briefly introduced the current situation and development trend of cross-border e-commerce, visually analyzed and refined the journals, authors, research institutions, countries, publication years, keywords, citations of academic publications in this field, and other key information, and summarized the development trend and path of CEBC in the existing research. It is helpful for researchers to solve the current research gap, understand the future research direction in this field, and help academia establish a strict knowledge system.

Recent Synergies of Machine Learning and Neurorobotics: A Bibliometric and Visualized Analysis

Over the past decade, neurorobotics-integrated machine learning has emerged as a new methodology to investigate and address related problems. The combined use of machine learning and neurorobotics allows us to solve problems and find explanatory models that would not be possible with traditional techniques, which are basic within the principles of symmetry. Hence, neuro-robotics has become a new research field. Accordingly, this study aimed to classify existing publications on neurorobotics via content analysis and knowledge mapping. The study also aimed to effectively understand the development trend of neurorobotics-integrated machine learning. Based on data collected from the Web of Science, 46 references were obtained, and bibliometric data from 2013 to 2021 were analyzed to identify the most productive countries, universities, authors, journals, and prolific publications in neurorobotics. CiteSpace was used to visualize the analysis based on co-citations, bibliographic coupling, and co-occurrence. The study also used keyword network analysis to discuss the current status of research in this field and determine the primary core topic network based on cluster analysis. Through the compilation and content analysis of specific bibliometric analyses, this study provides a specific explanation for the knowledge structure of the relevant subject area. Finally, the implications and future research context are discussed as references for future research.

Roles and Research Trends of Neuroscience on Major Information Systems Journal: A Bibliometric and Content Analysis

Over the past decade, neuroscience has been integrated into information systems as a new methodology and perspective to study and solve related problems. Therefore, NeuroIS has emerged as a new cutting-edge research field. This review aimed to identify, summarize, and classify existing NeuroIS publications through knowledge mapping and bibliometric analysis. To effectively understand the development trend of NeuroIS, this study referred to the journal selection index of the Association of Business Schools in 2021 and journals above three stars in the field of information management as the main selection basis. A total of 99 neuroscience papers and their citation data were included from 19 major information systems journals of SCI/SSCI. This study analyzed bibliometric data from 2010 to 2021 to identify the most productive countries, universities, authors, journals, and prolific publications in NeuroIS. To this end, VOSviewer was used to visualize mapping based on co-citation, bibliographic coupling, and co-occurrence. Keywords with strong citation bursts were also identified in this study. This signifies the evolution of this research field and may reveal potential research directions in the near future. In selecting research methods and analysis tools for NeuroIS, content analysis was used to further conclude and summarize the relevant trends. Moreover, a co-citation network analysis was conducted to help understand how the papers, journals, and authors in the field were connected and related, and to identify the seminal or pioneering major literature. For researchers, network maps visualized mainstream research and provided a structural understanding of NeuroIS. The review concludes by discussing potential research topics in this field.

Current and Future Trends of Information Technology and Sustainability in Logistics Outsourcing

Sustainability awareness across various economic sectors requires firms to use logistics outsourcing to reduce logistics-related emissions with compliant logistics service providers (LSPs). LSPs apply advanced information technologies to help achieve high efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability goals. While logistics outsourcing has received considerable attention from researchers, limited research has identified the elements of logistics outsourcing and established research trends regarding technology and sustainability aspects of logistics outsourcing. This study aims to establish trends in technology and sustainability in logistics outsourcing and identify the important elements of logistics outsourcing. A bibliometric analysis technique using the Biblioshiny package in R. A SCOPUS search resulted in 2019 documents. Research on technology and sustainability in logistics outsourcing is growing, especially in developed countries, with little or no research from developing countries. Sustainable supply chains and third-party logistics themes dominated the past research. Current research is on reverse logistics, circular economy, and green logistics; the latter is likely to dominate the future, focusing on risk management, pollution control, and innovation through advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data. Essential elements of logistics outsourcing are identified as maintaining a good relationship based on trust and cooperation, LSP multi-selection criteria that include sustainability and technology capabilities, proper contract management, and an appropriate in-house versus outsourcing balance for competitiveness. LSP managers are advised to develop sustainability and technology capabilities, including reverse logistics. The paper contributes to logistics management theory by identifying the elements of logistics outsourcing and presenting a bibliometric result to guide future research on sustainability and technology capabilities in logistics outsourcing.

Investigating supply chain research trends amid Covid-19: a bibliometric analysis

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to analyse the effects of Covid-19 on the supply chain management and to provide an agenda for future research in this context.

Design/methodology/approach

By using the SCOPUS database, a total of 191 articles of 1,323 research articles were selected for further analysis. Bibliometric analysis and science mapping were performed which included author influence, affiliation statistics, keywords, citations, co-citation and co-word analysis.

Findings

Five clusters were identified in the context of supply chain management under Covid-19: managing disruptions in global food supply chains (SCs), using Industry 4.0 technologies for sustainable SCs, collaboration across the supply network for contingency situations, coping with disease outbreaks in personal and professional lives and countering the ripple effect of pandemics. These clusters are potential areas for future research.

Originality/value

Literature is still rare about SC practices amid the Covid-19 crisis. Therefore, this study attempts to provide insights and fill the current gaps on this field.

Last mile delivery in logistics and supply chain management: a bibliometric analysis and future directions

Purpose

The main objective of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review (SLR) and structured insight into last mile delivery, ultimately identifying gaps in current knowledge and proposing a framework for future research direction in terms of sustainability in the area.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper identifies and synthesizes information from academic journals and examines “Journals and Publishing place,” “Geographic location,” “Year of Publication,” “University and Author Affiliation,” “Themes and Sub-themes,” “Theory,” “Research Design, Methods and Area” and “Industry Involvement.” A collection of online databases from 2005 to 2020 were explored, using the keywords “Last mile delivery,” “Last mile logistics,” “Last mile transportation,” “Last mile fulfillment,” “Last mile operations” and “Last mile distribution” in their title and/or abstract and/or keywords. Accordingly, a total of 281 journal articles were found in this discipline area, and data were derived from a succession of variables.

Findings

There has been significant growth in published articles concerning last mile delivery over the last 15 years (2005–2020). An in-depth review of the literature shows five dimensions of the last mile: last mile delivery, transportation, operations, distribution and logistics. Each of these dimensions is interrelated and possess clustered characteristics. For instance, last mile operations, last mile transportation and last mile delivery are operational, whereas last mile distribution is tactical, and last mile logistics possess strategic characteristics. The findings also indicate that even though the sustainability concept can be incorporated into all levels of the last mile, the current literature landscape mainly concentrates on the operational level.

Research limitations/implications

This review is limited to academic sources available from Emerald Insight, Science Direct, Taylor and Francis, Springer, MDPI and IEEE containing the mentioned keywords in the title and/or abstract/or keywords. Furthermore, only papers from high-quality, peer-reviewed journals were evaluated. Other sources such as books and conference papers were not included.

Practical implications

This study dissects last mile delivery to produce a framework that captures and presents its complex characteristics and its interconnectedness with various related components. By analyzing last mile delivery in its entirety, the framework also helps practitioners pinpoint which levels of last mile delivery (operation, tactical or strategic) they can incorporate the concept of sustainability.

Originality/value

The research findings enrich the contemporary literature landscape and future work by providing a conceptual framework that incorporates the “economic,” “environmental” and “social” pillars of sustainability in all dimensions of the last mile delivery.

Issues in sustainable supply chain's futuristic technologies: a bibliometric and research trend analysis

This paper presents a systematic review and bibliometric analysis in sustainable supply chain's futuristic technologies. The analysis involves 1596 articles published in the Scopus database from 1990 to 2020. The analysis examines the research outcomes by observing trends in journals, authorship, and keywords. The outcomes are visualized using VOSviewer to show the graphical network of co-authorship and the author's keywords. The results show that this research area has been a growing trend since 2016 and by 2020. The Journal of Cleaner Production was a leading journal in this area between 2016 and 2020, followed by Sustainability (Switzerland). The content analysis led to a classification of the articles into four main categories and sub-categories. The strategic diagram is used to reveal the emerging research themes analysis during the last 5 years (2016-2020) and to present future research. The data trending or emerging shows that technologies such as the technology by using combustion energy, renewable energy, and electric vehicles have been developing substantially. The research hotspots of the sustainable supply chain include, i.e., life cycle assessment (LCA), green investment, and carbon tax. Finally, the analysis also shows the research gaps that point a direction for future research.Graphical abstract.

Systematic review of manufacturing strategy studies focusing on congruence aspect

Purpose

This study provides a systematic review of the literature within the manufacturing strategy (MS) domain focusing on the congruence aspect of different strategic functions to determine the state-of-the-art research progression and the trend of publications.

Design/methodology/approach

We have adopted a five-stage review methodology consisting - 1) Article Identification; 2) Inclusion/Exclusion; 3) Review of the Articles; 4) Literature Analysis; 5) Future research directions. 121 articles focusing on congruence aspects and specific to the MS domain are identified and reviewed. Bibliometric analysis comprising keyword co-occurrence using a VOSviewer© software, and citation analysis is performed. Further, content analysis is carried out to categorize articles based on the type of research methodology, type of tool/method used, and aspects considered for congruence study.

Findings

Based on the research gaps identified in the existing literature on the congruence aspect within the MS domain, this study offers future research directions. Majorly, the work found is an empirical survey. Literature scants to develop a framework that helps to quantify the congruence between two strategic functions.

Research limitations/implications

This study facilitates researchers and practitioners to understand the congruence between different strategic aspects studied in the literature and the level of fit between them. Further, the identified research directions can encourage researchers and practitioners to conceive novel approaches to conduct future works on congruence theme.

Originality/value

The unicity of the current review lies in its theme, i.e. congruence aspect within MS. To the best of author's knowledge, no comparable study is observed to review the congruence aspect in any other domain.

Analysis of the Use and Perception of Shared Mobility: A Case Study in Western Australia

The sharing economy has acquired a lot of media attention in recent years, and it has had a significant impact on the transport sector. This paper investigates the existing impact and potential of various forms of shared mobility, concentrating on the case study of Wanneroo, Western Australia. We adopted bibliometric analysis and visualization tools based on nearly 700 papers collected from the Scopus database to identify research clusters on shared mobility. Based on the clusters identified, we undertook a further content analysis to clarify the factors affecting the potential of different shared mobility modes. A specially designed questionnaire was applied for Wanneroo’s residents to explore their use of shared mobility, their future behaviour intentions, and their perspectives on the advantages and challenges of adoption. The empirical findings indicate that the majority of respondents who had used shared mobility options in the last 12 months belong to the low-mean-age group. The younger age group of participants also showed positive views on shared mobility and would consider using it in the future. Household size in terms of number of children did not make any impact on shared mobility options. Preference for shared mobility services is not related to income level. Bike sharing was less commonly used than the other forms of shared mobility.

Trajectory of research on maritime transportation in the era of digitization

Purpose

The literature on Maritime Transportation (MT) is experiencing a transition phase where the focus of the research is repositioning. It registered steep growth in recent years with its beginning articles on the concepts of cost minimization to the current focus on achieving sustainable operational effectiveness using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Thus, this becomes a right time to investigate the trajectory of research on MT.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed study aims to explore the potential of data analytics techniques such as data mining and network analytics to reflect the trajectory of research in the maritime supply chain over time. This study identifies the eight main dimensions of the research published under maritime paradigm through network analytics. The in-depth review of these dimensions rendered us to segregate them further into sub-dimensions for the ease of understanding and interpretability. Further, the text mining is employed to extract thematic evolution of the research.

Findings

The evolved themes are completely exclusive from the conventional MT research with artificial intelligence, digital storage, waste management and biofuels emerging as contemporary themes. It is found that although there are a sufficient amount of literature on sustainable port practices but their policy implications are still underexplored. The inter-dimension research is needed to achieve the motive of economic efficiency and environmental sustainability simultaneously.

Originality/value

The study has contributed on the methodology side of conducting literature reviews. The dimensions, sub-dimensions and themes are obtained using data analytics tools and techniques. This omits the possibility of personal bias and thus making the results verifiable.

Omni-channel retailing in supply chains: a systematic literature review

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a structured literature review using advanced bibliometric tools to understand the existing knowledge base, understand the trends in omni-channel (OC) research and identify emerging research topics.

Design/methodology/approach

More than 500 articles selected through a keyword combination search from reputed databases of peer-reviewed academic sources from period 2009–19 are analyzed for the purposes of this study. The study first presents an exploratory analysis to determine influential authors, sources and regions, among other key aspects. Second, several network analyses including co-citation and dynamic co-citation network analyses are conducted to identify themes. These allow identifying research clusters and emerging research topics algorithmically. Both centrality and modularity-based clustering are employed. A content analysis of the most influential groups within OC literature for each cluster is included.

Findings

The findings of this paper make unique contributions by using advanced tools from network analysis along with the standard bibliometric analysis tools to explore the current status of OC research, identify existing themes and the guidance for potential areas of future research interest in OC.

Practical implications

This research provides a comprehensive view of the range of topics of importance that have been discussed in the literature of OC management. These research trends can serve as a quick guide to researchers and practitioners to improve decision making and also develop strategies.

Originality/value

The paper employs advanced tools for the first time to review the literature of OC retailing. The sophisticated tools include co-citation and dynamic co-citation network analysis.

Three decades of green advertising – a review of literature and bibliometric analysis

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the research which has been done during the past three decades on the topic of green advertising and identify gaps for future research.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology that has been adopted for analysis is two-pronged – the first being a literature review with tabulation of data using excel sheets and bar graphs and the second being a bibliometric review using the software VOSviewer. Both approaches analyze the number of citations, keywords, authors, journals and countries. A database of 113 articles from 1990 to 2020 is generated from Web of Science.

Findings

Major contributors to the topic of green advertising research have been identified. Thematic classification is created to understand the subtopics of green advertising. Under this classification, nine subtopics have been identified. Six core research gaps have been identified for future research in the area of green advertising.

Practical implications

The study helps identify where green advertising research is being conducted, its growth potential and future prospects. This research work will enable the industry to gain new insights into this emerging field of green advertising for incorporating the same in their advertising campaigns in view of growing consumer concerns on environment.

Originality/value

The paper provides a comprehensive overview of the current status of research in green advertising. The paper is unique as it is the only review on the topic of green advertising. Given the increasing trend of going green among consumers, the paper adds tremendous value to the field of green advertising.