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Knowledge mapping of platform research: a visual analysis using VOSviewer and CiteSpace

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Abstract

This study offers a systematic review of academic research on platforms in management, business and economics. By using two visualization tools named VOSviewer and CiteSpace, we analyzed 619 articles on platform research with associated 23,093 references from the Web of Science database. We have discerned the most impact publications, authors, journals, institutions and countries in the platform research. In addition, we have explored the structures of the cited references, cited authors and cited journals to further understand the theoretical basis of the platform research. Moreover, by evolution analysis through CiteSpace and co-occurrence analysis through VOSViewer, we explored the evolution process of platform research and predicted the future development trends. The results conjunctively achieved by VOSviewer and CiteSpace will enhance understanding of platform research and enable future developments for both theorists and practitioners.

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Notes

  1. eMarketer is a research enterprise that specially provides data, reports and insights in a digital world.

  2. Sina Finance is a Chinese largest financial network media, which focus on in-depth mining industry information and reporting important industrial conferences and events.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their comments, which assist us to refine our paper. This study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number 71732002—“Research on Organizational Architecture and Collaborative Management of Leading Enterprises’ Innovation Chain”) and by Innovation Enhancement Plan B for Excellent Ph.D. students of Nanjing University (Grant Number 201902B056—“Research on the connotation, characteristics and influence of innovation chain”).

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  1. School of Business, Nanjing University, 22 Hankou Road, Nanjing, 210093, Jiangsu, China

    Xue Ding & Zhong Yang

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  1. Xue Ding
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Ding, X., Yang, Z. Knowledge mapping of platform research: a visual analysis using VOSviewer and CiteSpace. Electron Commer Res 22, 787–809 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-020-09410-7

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