Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A bibliometric study of service innovation research: based on complex network analysis

  • Published:
Scientometrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In the paper, we apply small world complex network theory to analyze scientific research in the field of service innovation, and discover its research focuses. Our study considers the key words and subject categories of the publications as actors to map keyword co-occurrence network and subject category co-occurrence network, and compare them with their corresponding random binary networks to judge whether these complex networks have the characteristics of small world network, in order to find the hot issues in the field by the small world network analysis. We discuss the knowledge structure in the field through analyzing 437 papers that were searched from Web of Science database over the period 1992–2011. We find that case study, service industry, service quality, market orientation, new product development, and knowledge management were the most popular keywords of the field, and also show the dynamic development of the research focuses in recent 10 years. The researchers who made most contribution in a certain field are also found out. It is concluded that there were more researchers who did investigation about service innovation in the category of Business and Economics, Engineering, Public Administration, Operations Research and Management Science, and Computer Science than those in other categories. The study suggests a quantitative method to analyze trends of scientific research in a certain field, and presents some directions of research mainstream to the researchers who may be interested in the service innovation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Baldwin, C., Hughes, J., Hope, T., Jacoby, R., & Ziebland, S. (2003). Ethics and dementia: Mapping the literature by bibliometric analysis. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 18, 41–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Behrens, H., & Luksch, P. (2010). Mathematics 1868–2008: A bibliometric analysis. Scientometrics, 86, 179–194.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, Z. F., & Guan, J. C. (2010). The impact of small world on innovation: An empirical study of 16 countries. Journal of Informetrics, 4, 97–106.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Coombs, R., & Miles, I. (2000). Innovation, measurement and services: The new problematique. Innovation Systems in the Service Economy, 18, 85–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cowan, R., & Jonard, N. (2000). The dynamics of collective invention. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 52, 513–532.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ding, Y. (2010). Semantic Web: Who is who in the field—A bibliometric analysis. Journal of Information Science, 36(3), 335–356.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ding, Y. (2011). Applying weighted PageRank to author citation networks. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 62(2), 236–245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ding, Y., Chowdhury, G. G., & Foo, S. (2001). Bibliometric cartography of information retrieval research by using co-word analysis. Information Processing and Manage, 37, 817–842.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Gallouj, F. (2002). Innovation in the service economy: The new wealth of nations. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garfield, E. (1972). Citation analysis as a tool in journal evaluation. American Association for the Advancement of Science, 178(1972), 471–479.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grawe, S. J., Chen, H. Z., & Daugherty, P. J. (2009). The relationship between strategic orientation, service innovation, and performance. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 39(4), 282–300.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hertog, P. D., Aa, W. V. D., & Jong Mark, W. D. (2009). Capabilities for managing service innovation: Towards a conceptual framework. Journal of Service Management, 21(4), 490–514.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jeong, S., Lee, S., & Kim, H. G. (2009). Are you an invited speaker? A bibliometric analysis of elite groups for scholarly events in bioinformatics. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 60(6), 1118–1131.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, P. C., & Su, H. N. (2010). Quantitative mapping of scientific research—The case of electrical conducting polymer nanocomposite. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 78, 132–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lisée, C., Larivière, V., & Archambault, É. (2008). Conference proceedings as a source of scientific information: A bibliometric analysis. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 59(11), 1776–1784.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ma, N., Guan, J. C., & Zhao, Y. (2008). Bringing PageRank to the citation analysis. Information Processing and Management, 44, 800–810.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mariluz, F. A., & Antonio, R. R. (2009). Intellectual structure of human resources management research: A bibliometric analysis of the journal human resource management, 1985–2005. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 60(1), 161–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newman, M. E. J., Strogatz, S. H., & Watts, D. J. (2001). Random graphs with arbitrary degree distributions and their applications. Physical Review E, 64(2), 026118 (17).

    Google Scholar 

  • Schilling, M. A., & Phelps, C. C. (2007). Interfirm collaboration networks: The impact of large-scale network structure on firm innovation. Management Science, 53(7), 1113–1126.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Schulteß, P., Wegener, S., Neus, A., & Satzger, G. (2009). Innovating for and with your service customers: An assessment of the current practice of collaborative service innovation in Germany. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2, 6503–6515.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Storey, C., & Kahn, K. B. (2010). The role of knowledge management strategies and task knowledge in stimulating service innovation. Journal of Service Research, 13(4), 397–410.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Ark, B., Broersma, L.,& den Hertog, P. (2003). Services innovation, performance and policy: A review. Research Series, No. 6, Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, The Hague.

  • Wang, M. H., Yu, T. C., & Ho, Y. S. (2009). A bibliometric analysis of the performance of water research. Scientometrics, 84, 813–820.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watts, D. J. (2000). Small worlds: The dynamics of networks between order and randomness. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watts, D., & Strogatz, S. (1998). Collective dynamics of small-world networks. Nature, 393, 440–442.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White, H. D., & McCain, K. W. (1998). Visualizing a discipline: An author co-citation analysis of information science, 1972–1995. American Association for the Advancement of Science, 49(4), 327–355.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wu, M. J., Lin, Y. F., Liu, F. M., & Hsiao, S. L. (2010). Overcoming service innovation bottlenecks using Web 2.0. Expert Systems with Applications, 37, 7373–7379.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The paper is a stage result of the proposed project “Measuring complex innovation networks of frontier sciences and emerging technologies” to National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) in 2013 and is also supported by a NSFC’s project (No. 70932001). The authors are grateful for the editor’s and the reviewer’s valuable comments and suggestions that have led to the significant improvement of this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, Fudan University, 200433, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    Wenjia Zhu

  2. School of Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, People’s Republic of China

    Jiancheng Guan

Authors
  1. Wenjia Zhu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jiancheng Guan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jiancheng Guan.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Zhu, W., Guan, J. A bibliometric study of service innovation research: based on complex network analysis. Scientometrics 94, 1195–1216 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-012-0888-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-012-0888-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation