THE INTELLECTUAL FOUNDATION OF THE JOURNAL OF BUSINESS LOGISTICS AND ITS EVOLUTION BETWEEN 1978 AND 2007

Information flows and topic modeling in corporate governance

Purpose

Multiple disciplines such as finance, management and economics have contributed to governance research over time. However, the full intellectual structure of the governance “field” including the exchange of knowledge across disciplines and the large variety of governance topics remains to be uncovered. To appreciate the breadth of corporate governance research, it is necessary to understand the disciplinary sources from which the research stems. This manuscript focuses on the interdisciplinary underpinnings of corporate governance research.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper employs bibliometric analysis to trace the evolution of corporate governance using articles included in the ISI Web of Science database between 1990 and 2015. Journals included in these categories encompass a full range of business disciplines and provide evidence of the multi-disciplinary nature of corporate governance. It also uncovers the topics treated by disciplines under the governance umbrella using a machine learning method called latent Dirichtlet allocation (LDA).

Findings

Corporate governance research deals with a number of strategy-related topics. Unlike strategy topics that reside in a single discipline, corporate governance crosses disciplinary boundaries and includes contributions from accounting, finance, economics, law and management. Our analysis shows that over 80% of corporate governance articles come from outside the field of management. Our LDA solution indicates that the major topics in governance research include corporate governance theory, control of family firms, executive compensation and audit committees.

Originality/value

The results illustrate that corporate governance is far more interdisciplinary than previously thought. This is an important insight for corporate governance academics and may lead to collaborative research. More importantly, this research illustrates the usefulness of LDA for investigating interdisciplinary fields. This method is easily transferable to other interdisciplinary fields and it provides a powerful alternative to existing bibliometric methods. We suggest a number of topic areas within library and information science where this method may be applied, including collection development, support for interdisciplinary faculty and basic research into emerging interdisciplinary areas.

Omni-channel retailing research – state of the art and intellectual foundation

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to identify, evaluate and structure the research that focusses on omni-channel retailing from the perspective of logistics and supply chain management; and to reveal the intellectual foundation of omni-channel retailing research.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper applies a multi-method approach by conducting a content-analysis-based literature review of 70 academic papers. Based on the reference lists of these papers, the authors performed a citation and co-citation analysis based on the 34 most frequently cited papers. This analysis included multidimensional scaling, a cluster analysis and factor analysis.

Findings

The study reveals the limited consideration of logistics and supply chain management literature in the foundation of the omni-channel retailing research. Further, the authors see a dominance of empirical research as compared to conceptual and analytical research. Overall, there is a focus on the Western retail context in this research field. The intellectual foundation is embedded in the marketing discipline and can be characterised as lacking a robust theoretical foundation.

Originality/value

The contribution of this research is identifying, evaluating and structuring the literature of omni-channel research and providing an overview of the state of the art of this research area considering its interdisciplinary nature. This paper thus supports researchers looking to holistically comprehend, prioritise and use the underpinning literature central to the phenomena of omni-channel retailing. For practitioners and academics alike, the findings can trigger and support future research and an evolving understanding of omni-channel retailing.

Uncovering the intellectual development of the Journal of Organizational Change Management

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to identify the documents which have had the greatest impact on the Journal of Organizational Change Management (JOCM) articles and to analyze the evolution of the intellectual structure of the journal.

Design/methodology/approach

A knowledge‐stock analysis is performed to assess major trends of the JOCM. A bibliometric study is then conducted thanks to citation and co‐citation analysis about the documents which are the most cited by the articles published in the JOCM (between 1995 and 2011).

Findings

Through the results of their analysis, the authors: describe the growing stock of knowledge of the JOCM over time; identify the documents having the strongest influence on the JOCM articles; and pinpoint the evolution of the intellectual structure of the journal.

Research limitations/implications

Although the sample of retained articles seems representative of the JOCM publication efforts, the data set presents some limitations. There are also some limits inherent to the research design and to the bibliometric methods. The intention of the present research is to give a quantitative overview of the intellectual evolution of the journal.

Practical implications

Grasping the intellectual development of the JOCM enables researchers and practitioners to better understand how issues are being approached by authors who publish in this journal. It also stimulates the scholarly debate.

Originality/value

This knowledge‐stock and bibliometric study is the first to be concerned with the JOCM.