To read this content please select one of the options below:

Industry convergence and value innovation: a bibliometric analysis and systematic review

Ye Chen (Glorious Sun School of Business and Management, Donghua University, Shanghai, China)
Lei Shen (Glorious Sun School of Business and Management, Donghua University, Shanghai, China)
Xi Zhang (Glorious Sun School of Business and Management, Donghua University, Shanghai, China)
Yutao Chen (Glorious Sun School of Business and Management, Donghua University, Shanghai, China)

Kybernetes

ISSN: 0368-492X

Article publication date: 8 June 2022

Issue publication date: 1 November 2023

303

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to present a bibliometric analysis and systematic literature review of industry convergence and value innovation to understand the current research status; second, to provide a coherent theoretical research framework for future research.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopts a two-step analysis approach by combining bibliometric analysis and systematic literature review to explore the research topic of industry convergence and value innovation. Besides, two bibliometric tools, HistCite and VOSviewer, were applied to this study.

Findings

This study found that Stefanie Bröring and Fredrik Hacklin are the top two most influential authors among all authors in the sample publications. Technological Forecasting and Social Change is one of the top-ranking journal that often publishes this topic of articles. Germany and the University of Munster are the most influential country and institutions, respectively. Besides, five core research themes were identified based on keywords co-occurrence map, theoretical lenses, factors promoting industry convergence, indicators of industry convergence, the impact of industry convergence and emerging research directions. Based on the above analysis, this paper constructed a theoretical research framework of industry convergence and value innovation.

Research limitations/implications

This paper only draw data from one database – Web of Science – which cannot provide broad coverage of the research topic. Besides, the bibliometric method of this paper is based on high local citation score and high-frequency words, articles in the skirting subjects’ area may not be analyzed.

Practical implications

With the rapid development of technology, such as nanotechnology, radio - frequency identification (RFID), etc., the iterative upgrading of products also comes. As a result, the boundary between industries is gradually blurred, and the phenomenon of industry convergence appears. Therefore, managerial decision-makers are facing challenges of how to respond to the convergence phenomena. From the firm level, firms are facing the problem of value innovation of the existing product, new product development and core competence improvement. Industries are facing the problem of transformation and upgrading. This paper provides certain theoretical insights for both firms and industries to guide the practice accordingly.

Originality/value

This paper is the first to use a bibliometric method to examine the topic of industry convergence and value innovation. In addition, this paper presents an in-depth analysis of this topic and provides a comprehensive theoretical research framework for future study.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The first author would like to thank Prof. dr. Paul Matthyssens for his guidance and support while studying abroad. Also, the first author gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the China Scholarship Council (Grant No. 201906630030) to pursue part of this study abroad.

Citation

Chen, Y., Shen, L., Zhang, X. and Chen, Y. (2023), "Industry convergence and value innovation: a bibliometric analysis and systematic review", Kybernetes, Vol. 52 No. 10, pp. 4576-4610. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-01-2022-0097

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles