Bibliometrics of social media research: A co-citation and co-word analysis

Abstract

• The most cited journal is Journal of Consumer Research in business and Tourism Management in hospitality/tourism. • The four theoretical pillars in business are WOM and sales , WOM and social media marketing , WOM and social influence , and Internet and online WOM . The four pillars in hospitality/tourism are online reviews and behavior , online reviews and eWOM , information technology and UGC , and research methodology . • The seven themes of keywords are defined as Foundation, Platform, Content, Business Sector, Managerial Application, Methodology, and Emerging Trend. • Four differences between the two fields are observed: different research foundations, business sector foci, methodological supports, and emerging trends. • A future research agenda is proposed in three aspects: WOM based on social theories, big data using text mining methods, and diverse research designs. This study combined two bibliometric analysis methods to provide a systematic and holistic review of social media-related academic literature. A total of 406 publications related to social media between 2007 and 2016 were identified from 16 business and hospitality/tourism journals. Co-citation analysis identified Word-of-Mouth as the major theoretical foundation of social media research in business, while the hospitality/tourism field presented a diverse theoretical foundation. The study then employed co-word analysis to identify the evolution of research themes over time in both fields. The comparison of social media research between the two fields highlighted four similarities, including the growth of research over time, the term "social media" gaining popularity, the new trend of social networking sites, and managerial applications as research focus. Finally, the study called for a future research agenda on social media research in the hospitality/tourism field.