Business research in India

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the progress of research on business research in India and identify the key disciplines, journals, articles, authors, and institutions.

Design/methodology/approach

Bibliometric analysis using data for articles published from the ISI Web of Knowledge databases consisting of the ISI Web of Science (1899-present) consisting of Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-expanded), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), and Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI); BIOSIS Previews (1969-present); CABI: CAAAB Abstracts (1910-present); MEDLINE (1950-present); Zoological Record (1864-present); and Journal Citation Reports (1999-2008).

Findings

There is growing number of research literature on the theme and more so post 2002. Among the journals, the most prolific, measured by number of articles published are Management Decision, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Harvard Business Review, and Journal of International Marketing and the top ten percent of the journals are responsible for 36 percent of all publications. Similarly the top seven authors are responsible for about 15 percent of all publications and the top ten institutions account for 30 percent of all publications. This highlights that few journals, authors, and institutions are dominating the research arena of business research in India.

Research limitations/implications

Despite its high degree of objectivity, bibliometric analysis has a subjective dimension (Van Raan, 2003) since the researcher had to make choices on the search terms, the time period used, etc., and while the data set is comprehensive, is it not exhaustive as many new journals are not part of SSCI (Pillania and Fetscherin, 2009; Pillania, 2011).

Practical implications

The study undertakes a multi-disciplinary review of literature on business research in India. It identifies the key disciplines, journals, articles, authors, and institutions on business research in India. It is a ready reference for practitioners and future researchers on the subject.

Originality/value

This study has made an attempt to study and document the literature on business research in India.

Citation

K. Mittal, S. and Pillania, R. (2014), "Business research in India", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 33 No. 2, pp. 68-74. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-12-2013-0156