Scientific mapping of digital transformation strategy research studies in the Industry 4.0: a bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Purpose Today, the rapid development and expansion of advanced technologies have created many changes in society and industry and motivate businesses to use digital transformation strategy (DTS) to create significant changes in the business environment. Therefore, it is necessary to define a roadmap and a vision that will determine the steps forward in this direction. In line with this, the purpose of this study is a comprehensive review of past and present studies in this field to identify future research guidelines and gaps related to the implementation of this concept. Design/methodology/approach This study is a bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer software for all documents published in the Scopus database in the field of DTS from 2011 (the emergence of Industry 4.0) to 2021. It should also be noted that the data for this study have been collected and analyzed in September 2021. Findings The current study presents the basic bibliometric results for DTS, and it focuses on DTS performance analysis and its science mapping during the past 10 years. This study first shows the publication process, types and languages of published documents, and the most influential authors, institutions, sources and countries in terms of publishing documents and receiving citations in the field of DTS. Then, by using the VOSviewer software, it shows the bibliographic coupling of top authors, institutions, sources and countries. Finally, it reports the co-occurrence of authors’ frequently occurring keywords and the timeline of their publications. Originality/value The study presents the results of the first attempt to conduct a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of DTS-related documents. Its contribution lies in the fact that it has categorized the most frequently co-occurring keywords into specific clusters so that researchers will know which keywords have co-occurred with each other the most. Also, the most influential keywords in each cluster in terms of having total link strength and the number of its co-occurrence with others were identified. Finally, it became clear that the process of publishing documents over time has been concentrated on topics such as acceptance of digital culture, strategic renewal and digital transformation of business models, as well as presentation of a research agenda on the applications and barriers of DTS in critical situations such as COVID-19, which leads researchers to some awareness and insights for conducting new research.