A review of three decades of academic research on brand equity: A bibliometric approach using co-word analysis and bibliographic coupling

Abstract

This paper analyzes the scientific research on brand equity published over the last three decades, based on data from the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases. The research objective is to identify both the predominant and the emerging themes related to this topic. This study takes a bibliometric approach, analyzing the co-occurrence of keywords and bibliographic coupling to evaluate the scientific evolution of this scholarly topic, based on a total of 2,730 publications. The results are visually represented in strategic diagrams and longitudinal maps, which indicate that, during the last decade, the motor themes that have emerged around brand equity research include: tourist destinations; satisfaction; products; and brand awareness. This insight provides researchers and professionals with a better understanding of the state of the art that will enable them to gear their research toward emerging issues in this field, such as sports or attitudes.