The rise of “blockchain”: bibliometric analysis of blockchain study

Global status of research on quality of life in pancreatic cancer patients: A bibliometric and network analysis from 2005-2024

BACKGROUND

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a major global health challenge, with rising incidence and mortality rates, particularly in high-socio-demographic index regions. Given its high mortality and significant morbidity, research on patient quality of life (QoL) has gained momentum, addressing symptom burdens, psychological distress, and treatment-related outcomes. Bibliometric analysis provides a valuable approach to mapping research trends, identifying key contributors, and forecasting future directions.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to map global research on QoL in pancreatic cancer patients, highlighting key findings, challenges, and future directions through bibliometric analysis over the past two decades.

METHODS

Data for this study were collected from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database, using specific search strategies to retrieve relevant documents on the quality of life in pancreatic cancer patients. The data were analysed using the Bibliometrix R package to create knowledge maps and visualize research trends, collaborations, and emerging hotspots in the field.

RESULTS

A total of 819 articles on pancreatic cancer and quality of life were identified, with an average citation count of 47.13 per article, highlighting moderate academic impact. The research revealed a growing trend in collaborative efforts, with an average of 9.42 co-authors per article and 16 % international collaborations. The United States emerged as the leading contributor, with 203 publications and the highest citation count, followed by France and the United Kingdom.

CONCLUSION

This bibliometric analysis highlights the growing volume of pancreatic cancer and quality of life research, with a steady annual growth rate of 6.9 % and increasing collaboration, especially from the United States. However, despite the rising number of publications, a decline in citation impact for recent studies suggests a need for continued innovation in therapeutic strategies to improve clinical outcomes.

The bibliometric analysis of previous twenty- five years' literature: A microfinance review

The tremendous increase in publications in Microfinance since 2000 has highlighted need for and importance of innovative techniques to present big data in this field in a most informative, scientific, and summarized manner. The study highlights the trends and patterns of Microfinance literature by revealing what has been done and what could be done in future. The study comprises of 1429 microfinance publications extracted from the Scopus database. The authors adopt bibliometric analysis through open software application R and network analysis techniques using Gephi AND VOS viewer software. The study adds a valuable contribution to the field of Microfinance by distinctively summarizing the important literature. It identifies global academic research trends and provides insights about trending topics, highly cited literature, authors, countries, collaboration network, word cloud, citation analysis, etc. Finally based on extensive literature survey through bibliometric analysis. The study highlights about the scope of future research in Microfinance.

Research trends in drama therapy: a bibliometric analysis based on Scopus

Aim

As drama therapy has become increasingly important in healthcare, the number of scientific publications has increased, complicating the orientation in the research field. Therefore, the aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive overview of research trends in drama therapy, assessing the impact factors of publications and analyzing the research structure.

Methods

Three hundred and ninety-five scientific articles indexed in Scopus were analyzed without time, geographic and language restrictions using bibliometric analysis methods - performance analysis, citation analysis, and science mapping. Data processing was performed using MS Excel, VOSviewer and Biblioshiny software.

Results

The work of the pioneers of drama therapy continues to be actively cited, influencing the development of drama therapy. Today's leading researchers are increasingly engaging in collaborative research, working across disciplines and contributing to scientific progress. The hot topic of research is older adults and mental health. The diversity of terminology and the large volume of unpublished research point to the need for consolidation. Altmetric analysis would optimize the use of scientific information, promoting innovative research.

Conclusion

This is the first study using the Scopus database to perform an extensive bibliometric analysis of research articles on drama therapy applying Biblioshiny and VOSviewer software. The results of the analysis reflect the evolution of the field from its historical roots to academic maturity, highlighting its current dynamic growth and the trend of drama therapy to establish itself as an interdisciplinary field in the healthcare system. This work serves as a valuable resource for the scientific community, professionals, students, and librarians in the field, helping to optimize the use of scientific resources in drama therapy and contributing to its future development.

Fostering the Circular Economy with Blockchain Technology: Insights from a Bibliometric Approach

The circular economy is an emerging paradigm with important economic, environmental, and societal implications. As the world faces such paradigm shifts, new and radical technologies are urgently needed to enable it; blockchain technology can assist to accomplish the aforementioned circular economy shift given its decentralization and distributiveness principles as well as its smart contract capability. This study represents one of the first attempts to analyze those academic research domains together adopting a science mapping technique. By adopting such approach, the study envisages research challenges, highlights important research gaps, and proposes future paths in the blockchain and circular economy fields. Among the others, key findings show that blockchain technology as a tool for promoting the circular economy has been extensively researched at the micro (i.e., firm) and meso levels (i.e., supply chain) more effort on how blockchain can support the development of circular smart cites and measurement tools for providing information to stakeholders and assisting in policy creation expresses the greatest potential in terms of novel research. Moreover, the research suggests that another possible stream of research might be dealing on how blockchain together with physical technologies (e.g., 3D printing, RFID), can support the transition towards the circular economy.

Mapping the research trends of third language acquisition: A bibliometric analysis based on Scopus

L3 acquisition is gaining prominence in the academic community. The cardinal aim of this study is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of research on L3 acquisition. 425 documents from the Scopus database were analyzed with Bibliometrix. To gain a general and systematic overview of research on L3 acquisition, we grounded our study on three main levels of bibliometric analysis: performance analysis, collaboration analysis, and thematic map. By doing so, we identified the most influential sources, authors, affiliations, countries, and documents, the scientific network among different constituents, as well as the evolution of research trends. The results suggest that L3 acquisition has experienced three periods: initial phase (1984-2008), development phase (2009-2014), and burst phase (2015-2022). The results also indicate that: (1) The International Journal of Multilingualism is the most steady source contributing to this field. (2) Relevant contributors for each period are recognized, including established and emerging researchers. (3) European countries such as Spain, United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, and Poland are at the forefront of publication. (4) Collaboration increases over time but is becoming increasingly oriented in European and Anglophone countries. (5) The research hotspots have shifted throughout time, encompass a broad range of fields, and continue to grow. The study results provide insights into the evolving trends of L3 acquisition studies and data to assist researchers in identifying research gaps.

Fifteen years of YouTube scholarly research: knowledge structure, collaborative networks, and trending topics

Since its inception, YouTube has been a source of entertainment and education. Everyday millions of videos are uploaded to this platform. Researchers have been using YouTube as a source of information in their research. However, there is a lack of bibliometric reports on research carried out on this platform and the pattern in the published works. This study aims at providing a bibliometric analysis on YouTube as a source of information to fill this gap. Specifically, this paper analyzes 1781 articles collected from the Scopus database spanning fifteen years. The analysis revealed that 2006-2007 were initial stage in YouTube research followed by 2008 -2017 which is the decade of rapid growth in YouTube research. The 2017 -2021 is considered the stage of consolidation and stabilization of this research topic. We also discovered that most relevant papers were published in small number of journals such as New Media and Society, Convergence, Journal of Medical Internet Research, Computers in Human Behaviour and the Physics Teacher, which proves the Bradford's law. USA, Turkey, and UK are the countries with the highest number of publications. We also present network analysis between countries, sources, and authors. Analyzing the keywords resulted in finding the trend in research such as "video sharing" (2010-2018), "web -based learning" (2012-2014), and "COVID -19" (2020 onward). Finally, we used Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) to find the conceptual clusters of research on YouTube. The first cluster is related to user -generated content. The second cluster is about health and medical issues, and the final cluster is on the topic of information quality.

A Comprehensive Evaluation Method for the Effectiveness of Public Health-Oriented Music Performance Art Based on Blockchain Technology

Music can promote the development of physical and mental health, and its therapeutic utility has begun to receive widespread attention from scholars, who have systematically studied the therapeutic methods, processes, and utility of music with the theme of music therapy, and the topic has been extended from music therapy at the individual level to the public health domain. Therefore, it is worthwhile to further explore how the effectiveness of music as a performing arts activity in the public health domain is evaluated. However, most of the current studies focus on the evaluation of the effects of music on individual physical and mental health, and few involve the evaluation of music performing arts activities in the public health domain, which greatly hinders the potential of music performing arts applications in the public health domain. Therefore, this study proposes a dynamic and comprehensive evaluation scheme based on the cross-chain technology in blockchain and establishes a cross-chain-based information exchange model for the feasibility of information exchange between music performing arts and public health. The research findings can not only provide theoretical guidance for the formulation of public health policies but also provide technical support for the comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of music performing arts activities.

Overview of Blockchain Oracle Research

Whereas the use of distributed ledger technologies has previously been limited to cryptocurrencies, other sectors—such as healthcare, supply chain, and finance—can now benefit from them because of bitcoin scripts and smart contracts. However, these applications rely on oracles to fetch data from the real world, which cannot reproduce the trustless environment provided by blockchain networks. Despite their crucial role, academic research on blockchain oracles is still in its infancy, with few contributions and a heterogeneous approach. This study undertakes a bibliometric analysis by highlighting institutions and authors that are actively contributing to the oracle literature. Investigating blockchain oracle research state of the art, research themes, research directions, and converging studies will also be highlighted to discuss, on the one hand, current advancements in the field and, on the other hand, areas that require more investigation. The results also show that although worldwide collaboration is still lacking, various authors and institutions have been working in similar directions.

What Is the Role of Tourism Management and Marketing toward Sustainable Tourism? A Bibliometric Analysis Approach

Sustainability is one of the current much-discussed issues in the world, including in tourism sectors. However, there are few studies on tourism management and marketing toward sustainable tourism. This study aims to analyze the literature on tourism management and marketing toward sustainable tourism by using a bibliometric analysis approach based on the Web of Science (WOS) database. A sample of 528 articles was analyzed in this study. The data were processed and the results were graphically presented by using the R program. The results found the occurrence of publications by year, publication source information and authors, journals, countries, institutions, thematic maps, and current trends of topics in tourism management and marketing toward sustainable tourism. Furthermore, the role of tourism management and marketing toward sustainable tourism were discussed in this study. The bibliometric analysis helps to identify a future research agenda in sustainable tourism.

Global Research Trends on Shale Gas from 2010–2020 Using a Bibliometric Approach

In the last few decades, shale gas resources have attracted much global attention as potential sources for clean and affordable energy. Due to this fact, coupled with the increasing energy shortfall, shale gas has become an increasingly attractive energy prospect from both an environmental and economic perspective. This development has led to the rapid growth in the number of researchers and publications in the field of shale gas. Although there are few review articles on the state of research on shale gas, the literature lacked a bibliometric analysis. This study is intended to fill the research gap by carrying out a bibliometric analysis of 9247 shale gas articles that were published between 2010 and 2020. The Web of Science database was used to collect the data. The analysis was performed to identify the most productive authors, institutions, countries, and sources, and to visualize existing collaborations as well as provide valuable information which could form the basis for establishing future collaboration. The analysis results revealed that Li J has the highest number of publications on shale gas whereas Loucks RG is the most cited author. The top three countries with the highest number of publications in shale gas research are China, USA, and Canada, while the China University of Petroleum (Beijing), China University of Geosciences, and Southwest Petroleum University China were the three top institutions with the highest number of publications. Fuel, International Journal of Coal Geology, and Marine and Petroleum Geology are the journals with the highest number of published articles on shale gas. The keyword analysis indicated that shale gas, hydraulic fracturing, pore structure, permeability, adsorption, kinetics, pyrolysis, organic matter, thermal maturity, and numerical simulation are the predominant research topics. This showed the multi-dimensional and multi-faceted character of the shale gas field. Besides, it appeared to be an exciting topic for further study that is based on a detailed evaluation of the shale gas literature. In fact, shale gas, hydraulic fracturing (fracking), CO2 sequestration, kinetic, gas adsorption, diffusion, and simulation are becoming emerging research hotspots. The bibliometric analysis that was presented in this study has revealed valuable information about the most active institutions and countries, and the most influential authors in the field of shale gas which could form the basis for establishing future collaboration. Furthermore, it can help researchers to understand the global research trend in shale gas as well as provide references for establishing future research directions.

Comprehensive three-phase bibliometric assessment on the blockchain (2012–2020)

Purpose

The research work provides a comprehensive bibliometric analysis on blockchain in general and with respect to trust and reputation management in particular. The research work also incorporates the research progress in Pakistan in the field of blockchain.

Design/methodology/approach

The research study is conducted in three phases in which 9 different research questions are assessed for the time duration of 2012–2020 on a total of 9,314 published studies. The source of the research study is from one of the most prestigious databases, the Web of Science (WoS). The scholarly publication includes analysis on WoS categories, annual publication trends, types of documents, research areas, and collaboration network amongst countries, co-word analysis, top 10 countries and top 10 organizations with respect to research publications. The authors use VOSviewer tool to generate collaboration network of countries and co-occurrence network for co-word analysis. The connecting thread among the research question is the overarching research objective of exploring and understanding research out in blockchain. The authors have conducted the research in three phases. Phase 1 is planned to show various quantitative analysis of blockchain worldwide with respect to all 9 questions. In Phase II, prime importance is being given to the trust and reputation management aspect of blockchain. Phase III is concerned with the findings of 9 research questions with Pakistan as the ultimate focus.

Findings

Major findings include that China and the USA are the leading countries as they have contributed the most in research field of blockchain. Computer science emerged as the leading research area. The first research article dates back to 2013 with significant rise in publication trend over the last 4 years from 2017–2020. Trust management emerged as one of the key fields where blockchain plays a pivotal role. Pakistan occupies a position in top 20 countries with respect to research contribution. However, in order to rank amongst top 10 research countries, Pakistan needs rapid technological advancement. The immense rise in research publication trend in Pakistan from the year 2019–2020 as compared to prior 2019 era indicates that due focus is being given in the field of blockchain in Pakistan since the last two years.

Research limitations/implications

The authors have considered WoS data source. Therefore, the study is limited to those published scholarly studies which are present in WoS database. More detailed assessment can be performed by analyzing other data resources. The authors have performed analysis based on 9 research questions. However, other parameters can also be included to perform more enhanced and detailed analysis. All types of documents are included in our research work including secondary studies also. However, some authors might not prefer to include all types of documents.

Practical implications

The paper includes implications for the development of trust and reputation management area of blockchain.

Originality/value

The bibliometric analysis is worthy for scholars, researchers and students to help them make better decision in the field of blockchain with respect to various parameters. The study also serves as a motivating factor to conduct research in the area of blockchain with any language as a medium of research.

Supply chain resilience: A review, conceptual framework and future research

Purpose

The study identifies nine important research areas and critically maps the structural relationships among supply chain resilience (SCRES) dimensions, namely, vulnerabilities, capabilities, strategies and performance metrics. The analysis also revealed various influential authors, journals, institutions and trending articles, across SCRES literature.

Design/methodology/approach

This study performs a bibliometric analysis of 771 articles published over the 32 years from 1988 to 2020, and network analysis in combination with content analysis of 90 most cited articles published in research fronts of SCRES.

Findings

The results demonstrate the underlying research areas within the SCRES, which are clustered into nine research themes: (1) conceptual development of SCRES, (2) recent developments of designing resilient supply chain (SC) networks, (3) focus on identifying drivers of SC vulnerability and risks, (4) impact of risks on network resilience, (5) risk assessment to avoid breakdowns/disruptions, (6) measuring resilience approaches/drivers to improve SC performance, (7) building resilient capabilities by integrating other SC dimensions, (8) quantification of SC network and (9) emphasis on developing robustness in SC networks.

Practical implications

This research offers implications for classifying the works in literature based on bibliometric information and network analysis techniques. This can help researchers and practitioners to understand the prominent areas in SCRES and provide guidelines for future research in this area.

Originality/value

This study provides an overview of the evolution of SCRES over time in the domain of supply chain management and also outlines a future research agenda claimed by the trending articles to encourage further investigations in the field of SCRES.

The Ascent of Bitcoin: Bibliometric Analysis of Bitcoin Research

Bitcoin, as the first decentralized cryptocurrency, pioneers the cryptocurrency markets, both in terms of market capitalization and scientific interest. In this paper, we performed a comprehensive bibliometric study of the Bitcoin-related literature. Using the Scopus database, we created a sample that comprises 4495 documents written in the 2011–2020 period. Furthermore, we provided insights about dimensions such as the change in the number of publications over the course of years, the main research areas, types of published documents, most important platforms and sources of Bitcoin publications, highly cited studies, productive authors, author’s countries, and finally main funders of Bitcoin-related research. Lastly, our bibliometric study manifests the current state and future path of Bitcoin literature from distinct perspectives.

Blockchain as a mean to secure Internet of Things ecosystems – a systematic literature review

Purpose

Blockchain is evolving to become a platform for securing Internet of things (IoT) ecosystems. Still, challenges remain. The purpose of this literature review is to highlight the applicability of blockchain as a medium to secure IoT ecosystems. A two-dimensional framework anchored on (1) IoT layers and (2) security goals is used to organize the existent IoT security threats and their corresponding countermeasures identified in the reviewed literature. The framework helped in mapping the IoT security threats with the inherent features of blockchain and accentuate their prominence to IoT security.

Design/methodology/approach

An approach integrating computerized natural language processing (NLP) with a systematic literature review methodology was adopted. A large corpus of 2,303 titles and abstracts of blockchain articles was programmatically analyzed in order to identify the relevant literature. The identified literature was subjected to a systematic review guided by a well-established method in IS research.

Findings

The literature evidently highlights the prominence of blockchain as a mean to IoT security due to the distinctive features it encompasses. The authors’ investigation revealed that numerous existent threats are better addressed with blockchain than conventional mechanisms. Nevertheless, blockchain consumes resources such as electricity, time, bandwidth and disk space at a rate that is not yet easily accessible to common IoT ecosystems.

Research limitations/implications

Results suggest that a configurational approach that aligns IoT security requirements with the resource requirements of different blockchain features is necessary in order to realize the proper balance between security, efficiency and feasibility.

Practical implications

Practitioners can make use of the classified lists of convention security mechanisms and the IoT threats they address. The framework can help underline the countermeasures that best achieve their security goals. Practitioners can also use the framework to identify the most important features to seek for in a blockchain technology that can help them achieve their security goals.

Originality/value

This study proposes a novel framework that can help classify IoT threats based on the IoT layer impacted and the security goal at risk. Moreover, it applies a combined man-machine approach to systematically analyze the literature.

Blockchain Technology for Secure Accounting Management: Research Trends Analysis

The scope of blockchain technology, initially associated with the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, is greater due to the multiple applications in various disciplines. Its use in accounting lies mainly in the fact that it reduces risks and the eventuality of fraud, eliminates human error, promotes efficiency, and increases transparency and reliability. This means that different economic sectors assume it as a recording and management instrument. The aim is to examine current and emerging research lines at a global level on blockchain technology for secure accounting management. The evolution of the publication of the number of articles between 2016 and 2020 was analyzed. Statistical and mathematical techniques were applied to a sample of 1130 records from the Scopus database. The data uncovered a polynomial trend in this period. The seven main lines of work were identified: blockchain, network security, information management, digital storage, edge computing, commerce, and the Internet of Things. The ten most outstanding emerging research lines are detected. This study provides the past and future thematic axes on this incipient field of knowledge, which is a tool for decision-making by academics, researchers, and directors of research investment programs.

Mapping trends and knowledge structure of energy efficiency research: what we know and where we are going

Energy efficiency (EE) is an evolving research aspect for researchers, businesses, and policymakers for its undeniable role in meeting increasing energy demand, reducing CO₂ emissions, and tackling climate change. This paper provides a review of the current state of EE research by mapping the research landscape in business and economics to understand the socioeconomic dimensions within these research areas. To identify key information, we examine the trends and characteristics of 2935 relevant scientific publications over a 30-year period from 1990 to 2019 in the Social Science Citation Index of the Web of Science database using bibliometric analysis with a R language package called 'bibliometrix'. Our analysis shows an increasing trend in publications from 2006 onwards; the period remarkably coincides with the implementation phase of the Kyoto protocol in 2005. Accordingly, we observe that EE research has a strong association with issues like CO₂ emissions, climate change, sustainability, and the growing importance of these issues in recent years. Thus, our findings provide crucial understandings by incorporating a wide array of scientific outputs in response to calls for greater theoretical clarification of EE research. These findings provide insights into the current state of the art of, and identify crucial areas for future, research. Hence, our research assists in formulating environmentally sustainable policies to tackle the adverse effects of CO₂ emissions and related climate change through providing critical grasps on the scholarly development related to EE.

The Nexus between Big Data and Sustainability: An Analysis of Current Trends and Developments

With the development of technological innovations, Big Data is transforming the socio-economic world, impacting almost every organization and person. The transformations associated with the development of Big Data have important consequences for the sustainability of organizations, regions, and the society as a whole, and as such, they have been specifically addressed by the academic literature focusing on sustainability. Despite its importance, and perhaps because of its rapid emergence, there is a lack of studies dealing with the analysis of this body of literature and its trends. The current research attempts to fill this gap. The study develops a bibliometric and visualization analysis of the literature on the nexus between Big Data and Sustainability. The research analyzes 726 documents on this topic, published until the end of 2020, in the Web of Science Core Collection database through the VOSviewer software. The results indicate the main trends and developments on the topic related to the most cited papers, authors, publications, institutions, and countries. The visualized frameworks, structures and trends are useful for both researchers and practitioners, as they can help them understand the current situation, issues to consider, and main developments on the topic.

A bibliometric analysis of pandemic and epidemic studies in economics: future agenda for COVID-19 research

With the rapid global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers from diverse fields of study have contributed markedly in different research aspects. Considering the substantial economic significance of the pandemic at the micro and macro level throughout the world, we review the scientific publications in the discipline of Economics. To draw a broad inference, we analyze a total of 1,636 scientific publications starting from 1974, which covers the period of earlier pandemics or epidemics that have a close association with COVID-19 using bibliometric analysis. Our analysis and mapping reveal key information related to the contributors at different levels, including author, institution, country, and publication sources. Besides, we identify the historical concentration of research using scientific clustering and illustrate transformations at different times. Moreover, recognizing the underlying inadequacy of economics research, we propose several areas of future research. Our findings and suggestions are expected to act as a roadmap to potential research opportunities and notable implications for business and policymakers.

K. Sinha S, Chui CK. Blockchain in manufacturing quality control: A computer simulation study

Blockchain has been applied to quality control in manufacturing, but the problems of false defect detections and lack of data transparency remain. This paper proposes a framework, Blockchain Quality Controller (BCQC), to overcome these limitations while fortifying data security. BCQC utilizes blockchain and Internet-of-Things to form a peer-to-peer supervision network. This paper also proposes a consensus algorithm, Quality Defect Tolerance (QDT), to adopt blockchain for during-production quality control. Simulation results show that BCQC enhances data security and improves defect detections. Although the time taken for the quality control process increases with the number of nodes in blockchain, the application of QDT allows multiple inspections on a workpiece to be consolidated at a faster pace, effectively speeding up the entire quality control process. The BCQC and QDT can improve the quality of parts produced for mass personalization manufacturing.

Towards a systematic description of the field using bibliometric analysis: malware evolution

Malware is a blanket term for Trojan, viruses, spyware, worms, and other files that are purposely created to harm computers, mobile devices, or computer networks. Malware commonly steals, encrypts, damages, and causes a mess in these devices. The growth of malware attacks has a consequence on the growth and attractiveness of mobile features in mobile devices. Most malware research aims to probe the different methods of preventing, analysing, and detecting malware attacks. This paper aims to demonstrate an exhaustive knowledge map of the Android malware by collecting a ten (10) year dataset from the Web of Science database. A bibliometric analysis was employed for analysing articles published between 2010 and 2019. Using the keyword "malware", 5622 articles were retrieved. After scrutinising with the keywords of "Android malware", 1278 articles were then collected. This study provides an overview of the articles, productivity, research area, the Web of Science categories, authors, high-cited articles, institutions, and impact journals examining malware. Research activities are continued by placing terms in the classification of malware detection systems that outline important areas in malware research. From the analysis, it can be concluded that the highest number of publications focusing on malware studies came from the continent of Asia. Additionally, this study discusses the challenges of malware studies in the recent research studies as well as the future direction.

Blockchain Technology for Sustainable Supply Chain Management: A Systematic Literature Review and a Classification Framework

Through a systematic review of publications in reputed peer-reviewed journals, this paper investigates the role of blockchain technology in sustainable supply chain management. It uses the What, Who, Where, When, How, and Why (5W+1H) pattern to formulate research objectives and questions. The review considers publications since 2015, and it includes 187 papers published in 2017, 2018, 2019, and the early part of 2020, since no significant publications were found in the year 2015 or 2016 on this subject. It proposes a reusable classification framework—emerging technology literature classification level (ETLCL) framework—based on grounded theory and the technology readiness level for conducting literature reviews in various focus areas of an emerging technology. Subsequently, the study uses ETLCL to classify the literature on our focus area. The results show traceability and transparency as the key benefits of applying blockchain technology. They also indicate a heightened interest in blockchain-based information systems for sustainable supply chain management starting since 2017. This paper offers invaluable insights for managers and leaders who envision sustainability as an essential component of their business. The findings demonstrate the disruptive power and role of blockchain-based information systems. Given the relative novelty of the topic and its scattered literature, the paper helps practitioners examining its various aspects by directing them to the right information sources.

Sustainable supply chain management under big data: a bibliometric analysis

Purpose

This study aims to provide a literature review and bibliometric analysis of sustainable supply chain management using big data. We reviewed the literature on sustainable supply chain management under big data from 2012 to 2019 and extracted 777 articles.

Design/methodology/approach

We conducted quantitative analysis and data network visualization of the chosen literature, including authors, journals, countries, research institutions and citations.

Findings

We discovered that the development of this interdisciplinary field has gained increasing popularity among researchers around the world, such as China and the US publishing the most articles and Western states having more cooperation, which indicates this research topic is growing in significance globally.

Originality/value

Scientific and technological revolutions such as big data have been incorporated in various industries. Modern supply chain management has also been combined with the advances in data science to achieve sustainability goals. No studies have reviewed the sustainable supply chain management based on big data. This study fills this gap.

Sustainable manufacturing and industry 4.0: what we know and what we don't

Purpose

The emergence the fourth industrial revolution, known as well as industry 4.0, and its applications in the manufacturing sector ushered a new era for the business entities. It not only promises enhancement in operational efficiency but also magnify sustainable operations practices. This current paper provides a thorough bibliometric and network analysis of more than 600 articles highlighting the benefits in favor of the sustainability dimension in the industry 4.0 paradigm.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis begins by identifying over 1,000 published articles in Scopus, which were then refined to works of proven influence and those authored by influential researchers. Using rigorous bibliometric software, established and emergent research clusters were identified for intellectual network analysis, identification of key research topics, interrelations and collaboration patterns.

Findings

This bibliometric analysis of the field helps graphically to illustrate the publications evolution over time and identify areas of current research interests and potential directions for future research. The findings provide a robust roadmap for mapping the research territory in the field of industry 4.0 and sustainability.

Originality/value

As the literature on sustainability and industry 4.0 expands, reviews capable of systematizing the main trends and topics of this research field are relevant.

A place next to Satoshi: foundations of blockchain and cryptocurrency research in business and economics

Blockchain technology has become an ubiquitous phenomenon. While the topic originated in computer science, the business and economics literature was comparatively slow to pick up on it. To better understand the academic basis, current developments and future research avenues of the discourse, 9672 cited references of 467 blockchain and cryptocurrency articles from the fields of business and economics are gathered from the Web of Science Core Collection and are analyzed. Five major strands of research are identified through factor analysis. They are reviewed and their interrelation is mapped using social network analysis. Research on (I) market efficiency and economics and (II) asset pricing and valuation is relatively mature and focuses on cryptocurrencies, while research on (III) the principles and applications of blockchain technology, (IV) transactions and anonymity and (V) monetary theory and policy lacks maturity. Potential paths for future research are pointed out and in conclusion, it is assessed that this young field of research still leaves plenty of room for manoeuvre. A scientific place next to Nakamoto (2008) is still available for existing, emerging and new research streams.

iEcology: Harnessing Large Online Resources to Generate Ecological Insights

Digital data are accumulating at unprecedented rates. These contain a lot of information about the natural world, some of which can be used to answer key ecological questions. Here, we introduce iEcology (i.e., internet ecology), an emerging research approach that uses diverse online data sources and methods to generate insights about species distribution over space and time, interactions and dynamics of organisms and their environment, and anthropogenic impacts. We review iEcology data sources and methods, and provide examples of potential research applications. We also outline approaches to reduce potential biases and improve reliability and applicability. As technologies and expertise improve, and costs diminish, iEcology will become an increasingly important means to gain novel insights into the natural world.