Social structure of social media research in tourism and hospitality

Abstract

In recent years, the number of publications on social media has increased exponentially. Although several attempts have been made to review social media studies in tourism and hospitality, the social structure of collaborative networks has yet to be analysed. By performing authorship and co-authorship analyses of 385 articles, this study explored the progress of social media research and analysed key authors' productivity, educational background and centrality in research communities. Regional differences in socially constructed social media knowledge were investigated. Networks between universities were also analysed and compared based on region. Findings suggest future research directions for various regions and provide important implications to the academia and industry.