Science mapping in industrial marketing

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to map scientific knowledge in industrial marketing.

Design/methodology/approach

The research was conducted on the basis of a quantitative and descriptive research using scientometric analysis based on scientific records. It analyzes more than 14,000 scientific records on the Scopus database from 1956 to 2009. The sample fits Bradford’s and Lotka’s power laws of distribution of science in use.

Findings

The study reveals the existence of four stages: the genesis of this stream of research (1956-1984), the early development (1985-1995), the consolidation of production (1996-2003) and the phase of scientific maturity (from 2004) with an increasing number of records in recent years. Regarding authorship, there is a clear predominance of single authorship and an average increase in the number of authors per record from one to two authors for recent years. The main sources of knowledge are the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing and the Industrial Marketing Management journal. A statistical significance is shown between the number of records and the number of papers per journal, highlighting that Management Science and Industrial Marketing Management journals are the most cited sources.

Practical implications

Practitioners find in this paper a sound basis for a wide perspective of the key issues addressed by researchers on industrial marketing over the past decades, as well as good insights in terms of the main challenges faced by companies in this field.

Originality/value

Evidence was found of the existence of a long tail behavior in scientific literature of industrial marketing regarding chronology, sources, number of records with a single author and number of records cited.

Citation

Vieira, F. and Brito, C. (2015), "Science mapping in industrial marketing", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 105-115. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-02-2014-0027