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The present study seeks to answer the following research question: what is the profile of the academic production related to the interorganizational networks in the period between 2006 and 2016? Thus, this study aims to characterize the academic production about the subject interorganizational networks available in national journals with Concept “A” (Qualis Capes), in the period between 2006 and 2016.

This paper uses national journals with Concept “A” of the Qualis classification (2016) for journal selection. In total, 12 “A” concept journals were identified. However, it was decided to analyze ten of them. The procedures suggested by Crossan and Apaydin (2010) for conducting bibliometric studies were adopted. It has been identified that 77 articles were published in eight journals. The R 3.3.2 and R Studio 1.0.136 software were used. The IGRAPH 0.5.5-2 extension (package) was used to analyze graphs and co-authorship networks (Csárdi and Nepusz, 2006). This extension is able to manipulate networks with millions of vertices and edges and provides a series of functions to analyze the properties of social networks, such as subnetworks, intermediation, centrality, among other characteristics (Csárdi and Nepusz, 2006). Correspondence analysis (CA) was also performed. CA is a multivariate exploratory technique that converts a data matrix into a graphical representation, so that rows and columns are represented by points in a graph (Greenacre and Hastie, 1987). This extension is dedicated to the multivariate analysis of data and allows the manipulation of different types of variables (quantitative or categorical). In the present research, multiple CA (MCA) was applied – indicated when the elements are described as categorical variables (Lê et al., 2008). The characteristics considered for carrying out MCA were the “main term”, “research approach”, “type of research”, “constructs” and “research strategies”. By using the FactoMineR 1.34 extension, the hierarchical clustering on principal components (HCPC) function was used (Husson et al., 2007; Lê et al., 2008). This function allows creating clusters from the characteristics of the articles analyzed and highlights the justifications for the groupings created. The function allows forming as many clusters the researcher wishes, being of its attribution to analyze a division that best represents the characteristics of the data (Husson, Josse, and Pagès, 2010). Husson et al. (2010) suggest that an analysis should be performed from the hierarchical tree, thus the number of clusters can be defined considering the overall appearance (or shape) of the tree formed. At last, a word cloud was created using the Wordcloud 2.5 extension (Fellows, 2013). The noticed advantage of using this extension is that it does not separate the terms that form a keyword when generating the cloud. It has been used for the keywords of the 77 articles analyzed; however, it has been decided to keep those that presented frequency greater than or equal to two. By avoiding occasional terms, a more intelligible cloud was obtained.

The present study was not able to verify if the journals analyzed by Andrighi et al. (2011) have influenced others to publish on the subject, as suggested by the Bradford’s Law. The standard “success breeds success”, suggested by the Bradford’s Law, was not confirmed. The so-called nuclear zone (Brookes, 1969; Novaretti et al., 2015) is composed of the journals Brazilian Administration Review (BAR), Revista de Administração Contemporânea (RAC), Revista de Administração Pública (RAP) and Revista Brasileira de Gestão de Negócios (RBGN). The journal RAC stands out for having been the one that has increased its annual average of publication in relation to the theme, when compared with the findings of Andrighi et al. (2011). The journals BAR and RBGN stand out because they are in the nuclear zone, even though they were not considered in the work of Andrighi et al. (2011). It should be noted that all the analyzed journals have in common the fact of addressing the themes of management and administration and, more specifically, making room for the “competitiveness” and “cooperation” constructs. These constructs are related to the theme of networks and were the most recurrent in the articles analyzed. “Cooperation” (29), “competitiveness” (27), “knowledge” (12), “learning” (6) and “trust” (3) were the “constructs” used to compose the 77 articles analyzed. In turn, “network” (49), “alliance” (18) and “cluster” (9) were the “main term” most used in the articles. This implies that the topic of cooperation is more linked to a vision of strategy. As occurred in the research of Andrighi et al. (2011), the term “network” is the most recurrent; in addition, the growth of space obtained by the term “alliance” stands out. The terms “network” and “alliance” were the most used by the articles, being predominant in 87 per cent of the research. In the present research, the predominance of the term “network” may have occurred because its concept is broader and it is used in the literature in different ways, even in contradictory ways (Andrighi et al., 2011; Schommer, 2001). In turn, the term “alliance” may have been recurrent because it has a wide dispersion of published issues, such as governance structure, cooperation, knowledge transfer and trust (Lima and Campos Filho, 2009). By using the HCPC function of the FactoMineR extension, the articles were grouped according to their characteristics, and then three clusters were formed. By analyzing the generated results, it is assumed that the division into three clusters was the one that best represented the data. Cluster 1 is characterized by descriptive, quantitative, half documentary and half survey research studies, being “cluster” the main term. Cluster 2 is characterized by exploratory case studies with qualitative–quantitative analyzes. Cluster 3 is characterized by theoretical tests. The Zipf’s law points out that a small group of words occurs many times; however, when considering the most recurrent words Networks (9), Strategic Alliances (8), Cooperation (8), Interorganizational Networks (8) and Alliances (6) show that they were present in only about 10 per cent of the works. Lotka’s Law, which states that few authors publish much and many authors publish little, was not confirmed. The authors who presented the highest number of publications, T. Diana L. v. A. de Macedo-Soares (6); Jorge Renato Verschoore (6); Alsones Balestrin (5); Douglas Wegner (4); Humberto Elias Garcia Lopes (4), participated in less than 10 per cent of the works. Thus, the authorship was characterized by many researchers publishing few works, what can be an effect of the behavior of these authors, who prefer to publish in network. The centrality of the relations between the authors was analyzed and, in addition, the intermediation points of the network were identified. The present study also analyzed all the references used by the 77 articles that compose the study. The main author of each of the references used was identified. Among the 30 identified authors, Yin and Hair Jr. stand out for books related to fundamentals and research methodologies. Borgatti and Eisenhardt developed research on the topic of interorganizational networks and also created works for methodological foundations. Powell was the most frequently mentioned author (28) and had more different works referenced (9). Powell stands out for the production of articles published in periodicals, not books. Porter’s situation is the opposite. Most of the quotations made to the author come from his books, especially the work “Competitive strategy” (Porter, 1980). All authors identified are foreigners, with the exception of Balestrin. Marshall, Polanyi, Granovetter and Williamson are authors of works considered seminal, being them, respectively, “Principles of economics” (Marshall, 1890), “Personal knowledge: towards a post critical philosophy” (Polanyi, 1958) and “The strength of weak ties” (Granovetter, 1973) and “Markets and hierarchies, analysis and antitrust implications” (Williamson, 1975).

Like all research, it has limitations. The first one derives from the selection criteria of the periodicals to be analyzed. The cut referring to the journals of greater impact excludes most of the national articles. These studies may contain important contributions to the knowledge of the national publication profile. In addition, the choice to analyze the journals disregards other types of work, such as books, scientific events, dissertations and thesis and reports. The choice of articles published in journals is based on the fact that these are a “certified knowledge”, as the studies are peer-reviewed, and in the case of the Qualis “A” stratum, a review of exogenous quality is supposed on this production. Despite its flaws, this system can be considered reliable to evaluate scientific knowledge (Bedeian, 2004; Shugan, 2007). The analysis of the most recent articles may have been hampered by a temporal issue. In addition, the choice of keywords, a necessary step, leaves out other studies. Another limitation refers to the fact that the articles have been analyzed and classified by the authors, which presupposes the use of their value judgments, at least to some extent. Other limitations refer to the bibliometric techniques employed. The main authors referenced in the studies were demonstrated, that is, those authors who have been used as a theoretical reference for studies of interorganizational networks. However, the circumstances under which these citations occurred were not analyzed. For example, an author may be quoted to use the contribution of his/her study, to be criticized or just to be another reference in the text. The lack of this analysis can be considered a fragility of the study.

This text was started talking about the dispersion of the studies on networks in the country. Previous work has been used, theoretically and empirically demonstrating this fact. Zipf’s Law applied to bibliometrics, as described by Guedes and Borschiver (2005), Novaretti et al. (2015) and Pao (1978), was not confirmed in this study, which seems to be an indicative fact that the research on this theme in Brazil presents fragmentation as an intrinsic characteristic. That is, it must remain fragmented, as this would be its own way to evolve. This is evident especially when comparing the study of Andrighi et al. (2011) and its results. With several but continuous temporal cut-outs, and the same keywords, the maintenance of this dispersion is evident. This is also a contribution of this study.

The study contributed to updating the research profile, mainly after the triennium 2013-2015 of Qualis Capes’ evaluations. It also added to the mapping of recent Brazilian academic production related to interorganizational networks, completing studies by Alves et al. (2013), Andrighi et al. (2011), Balestrin et al. (2010), Cunha and Carrieri (2003) and Mascena et al. (2013). Thus, it is believed that the research reached the proposed objectives, despite its limitations.

The present research is also justified by helping to understand the subject being useful for researchers, educators and students, in general, in the task of demonstrating gaps and opportunities of future researches and collaborating with the elaboration of a research agenda (Baumgartner and Pieters, 2003). The work has updated bibliometrics on the subject and allows comparisons with previous bibliometric studies (Alves et al., 2013; Andrighi et al., 2011; Balestrin et al., 2010; Cunha and Carrieri, 2003; Ferreira et al., 2014; Lima and Campos Filho, 2009; Mascena et al., 2013). It is believed that the present study differs from the others because of the analysis performed, the way the data were treated, with techniques that are rarely used simultaneously, going beyond the descriptive statistics.

This paper aims to analyse the impact of clusters on development and growth at the firm and regional level in Latin America (LA). The past 20 years have witnessed an acceleration of cluster initiatives, assuming their positive impact on firm performance and regional development. However, theoretical development and empirical meta-studies in emerging countries to validate this assumed relationship are scarce.

This paper reviews empirical evidence from a population of 123 studies and a sample of 45 empirical studies including 216 clusters in LA.

It concludes that clusters contribute to both development and growth at the firm- and regional-level contingent to factors such as cluster stage of development, collective efficiency, the pattern of governance of the value chain and the sector in which the firm operates; however, clusters are also a potential source of socio-economic divides.

Therefore, these results qualify the conclusions of studies of clusters in developed countries (Porter, 2003; Delgado et al., 2010).

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a structured literature review using advanced bibliometric tools to understand the existing knowledge base, understand the trends in omni-channel (OC) research and identify emerging research topics.

More than 500 articles selected through a keyword combination search from reputed databases of peer-reviewed academic sources from period 2009–19 are analyzed for the purposes of this study. The study first presents an exploratory analysis to determine influential authors, sources and regions, among other key aspects. Second, several network analyses including co-citation and dynamic co-citation network analyses are conducted to identify themes. These allow identifying research clusters and emerging research topics algorithmically. Both centrality and modularity-based clustering are employed. A content analysis of the most influential groups within OC literature for each cluster is included.

The findings of this paper make unique contributions by using advanced tools from network analysis along with the standard bibliometric analysis tools to explore the current status of OC research, identify existing themes and the guidance for potential areas of future research interest in OC.

This research provides a comprehensive view of the range of topics of importance that have been discussed in the literature of OC management. These research trends can serve as a quick guide to researchers and practitioners to improve decision making and also develop strategies.

The paper employs advanced tools for the first time to review the literature of OC retailing. The sophisticated tools include co-citation and dynamic co-citation network analysis.

This paper aims to provide a review of hotel performance within the hospitality and tourism research domain. The authors use network analysis to examine two research questions. The first relates to ascertaining general trends within the hotel performance literature, and the second focuses on identifying the salient streams and sub-topics.

Articles were selected according to three criteria: keywords, journals and year of publication. The analysis embraces 20 years (1996-2015). These choices assure a wide coverage of the literature. Using these three criteria, the sample includes 1,155 papers. For the analysis, the authors created a network of papers designated as nodes, and the citations among the papers as links. A network approach recognizes the internal structure of the network by identifying groups of nodes (papers) that are more densely connected between themselves than to other nodes within the network (modules, clusters or communities).

The authors found 761 papers that were “connected” studies within the network. By contrast, 34 per cent of the sample (394 papers) consists of “unconnected” studies. Excluding outliers, the net sample was 734 articles. The authors identify 14 clusters, which they break down into several sub-topics. The authors conclude by providing some conclusions regarding trends and future research directions. With regards to salient topics, cross-citation and network analysis provide a detailed picture of where the literature comes from and where it currently stands. Conclusions are articulated at the theoretical and empirical levels.

Compared with previous hotel performance reviews, the approach followed by this study enables the discovery of an analytical research map, which is able to identify both clusters and sub-topics populating each segment. Researchers are able to position their work and identify issues that are in growth and decline.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate health care consumers’ diabetes term usage patterns based on Yahoo!Answers social question and answers (Q&A) forum, identified characteristics and relationships among terms within three pairs of related categories identified from the Q&A log, and revealed users’ diabetes term usage patterns.

The Q&A analysis method allowed first-hand investigation of massive data from health care consumers. Visual term clustering analysis across categories was conducted using a multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) visualization method which provides an intuitive and interactive way to explore and discover term association patterns in a visual environment. Closely related categories were identified and corresponding visual term clustering analyses between categories (Sign & Symptom and Organ & Body Part; Diagnosis and Test; and Diagnosis and Medication) as well at the term level were analyzed.

The findings show that there are close relationships between terms in two related categories. Related terms were grouped and patterns were revealed. All the stress values of the MDS analyses fall below 0.10 and RSQ for each of the combined categories is over 0.90 which indicate the investigated terms were well clustered in the visual analyses.

The study provides a unique research methodology for similar consumer health research studies. The results of this study offer insight into consumer health term use behavior, and enrich existing thesauri and subject heading lists, enhance diabetes-related web sites or portals, and improve effectiveness of internal search engines.

The purpose of this paper is to deepen the discussion regarding the competitiveness of clusters based on a theoretical and empirical study that compares the level of competitiveness of the Brazilian wine cluster located in Serra Gaúcha with the competitiveness of the Chilean cluster located in Valle del Maule.

A qualitative-descriptive approach was applied to the study, and data collection was conducted through secondary sources.

The analysis employed a competitiveness analysis model consisting of 11 competitiveness factors. The Chilean cluster presented a higher level of competitiveness in four competitiveness factors (“scope of viable and relevant business,” “introduction of new technologies,” “balance with no privileged positions” and “oriented strategy”), while the Brazilian cluster presented a higher level of competitiveness in three competitiveness factors (“concentration,” “cooperation” and “replacement”). For four of the competitiveness factors of the model, both clusters presented similar levels of competitiveness.

By comparing the two wine clusters, it was possible to identify aspects that can be improved to increase competitiveness, especially in the Brazilian cluster. These aspects include, first, the need for bottle manufacturers in Serra Gaúcha, which would have a positive impact on production costs; second, the expansion of the geographical indication registration for the entire Serra Gaúcha region, resulting in an enhanced image of Brazilian wine abroad; and third, greater incentives for exports, which would result in an increase in market share.

The paper proposes an explanation for the superior level of competitiveness of the Chilean cluster regarding the “scope of viable and relevant business,” “balance with no privileged positions,” “introduction of new technologies” and “strategy focussed on cluster development.” In terms of its contribution, the study developed additional metrics for the model adopted, which can be used for the competitive analysis of other agribusiness clusters.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyse the typology of employee branding in an airline company using fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering to improve the quality of employee brand (EB).

Data were collected from employees of Air India, Chennai division, using a questionnaire and analysed using FCM to find the optimum cluster number. The nature of each cluster was analysed to know its type.

The results prove the presence of four types of EB, namely, all-stars, injured reserves, rookies and strike-out kings in the aviation company. It is proven that employees in all-star have high level of knowledge of the desired brand (KDB) and psychological contract (PC), those in injured reserves have high KDB and low PC, rookies have low KDB and high PC and strike-out kings have low KDB and PC.

The results of this study are limited to the Air India employees. This study contributes to employee branding by empirically substantiating the proposed typology using FCM. It proposes the need to analyse organisations individually before comparisons.

The management must focus on the quality of training and development programmes to enhance the position of rookies and strike-out kings. It must also receive regular feedback from injured reserves and strike-out kings to evaluate their perception of PC.

This is the first paper to empirically prove the typology of employee branding and to implement FCM in clustering employees for enhancing the EB’s quality.

This paper deals with the performance of port clusters. Port clusters are analyzed using a framework that draws from different schools that deal with clusters (see De Langen, 2004). Central to the framework is the identification of eight variables of cluster performance. Four of those-agglomeration and dis-agglomeration forces, internal competition, heterogeneity of the cluster and the level of entry and exit barriers-are related to the structure of a cluster and fourthe presence of trust, the presence of intermediaries, the presence of leader firms and the quality of collective action regimes-are related to the governance of clusters. The validity of these variables is confirmed in three case studies, of the port clusters of Rotterdam, Durban, and the lower Mississippi. The strengths and weaknesses of the three port clusters, the importance of the variables discussed above and opportunities for policy and management to improve the performance of clusters are discussed. The results of this study are relevant for cluster scholars and for scholars specializing in port studies and, since implications of this study for policy and management in (port) clusters are discussed, the study is also relevant for (port) cluster managers and for managers affirms in (port) clusters.

The objectives of the study were to demonstrate the suitability of methodology based on a text mining toolset for detecting trends in scientific papers and to find trends that were present in the field of project management during the research time span (2000–2019).

An approach based on text mining tools supported by expert analysis was adopted due to an extensive number of publications in the field of project management. The novelty of the approach lies in the proposed method of trends discovery instead of the commonly used trends predefinition. The use of computer support allowed the full texts of papers, and not only abstracts, to be analysed, which significantly increased the reliability of the achieved results. Overall, 3,544 papers from seven journals were analysed.

As a result, 43 trends were discovered including seven long-lasting, four declining, 17 emerging and 15 ephemeris trends. Trends were analysed in comparison with the results of previous studies and project management frameworks. New trends and potential gaps were discussed.

The results highlight the topics of research that gain popularity among researchers, and which are related to the current problems that arise in project management. Therefore, the results can help focus studies on the most important areas, as well as find new ones which are not so popular yet. The knowledge of current trends is also important for those project managers who seek to improve the efficiency of their work.

The purpose of this paper is to activate latent users posts by modeling user behaviors by a transition of clusters that represent particular posting activities. Twitter has rapidly spread and become an easy and convenient microblog that enables users to exchange instant text messages called tweets. There are so many latent users whose posting activities have decreased.

Under this model, two kinds of time-series analysis methods are proposed to clarify the lifecycles of Twitter users. In the first one, all users belong to a cluster consisting of several features at individual time slots and move among the clusters in a time series. In the second one, the posting activities of Twitter users are analyzed by the amount of tweets that vary with time.

This sophisticated evaluation using a large actual tweet-set demonstrated the proposed methods effectiveness. The authors found a big difference in the state transition diagrams between long- and short-term users. Analysis of short-term users introduces effective knowledge for encouraging continued Twitter use.

An the efficient user behavior model, which describes transitions of posting activities, is proposed. Two kinds of time longitudinal analysis method are evaluated using a large amount of actual tweets.