Knowledge structure in international marketing: a multi-method bibliometric analysis

Abstract

This study examines the underlying forces that shape the international marketing (IM) field using three bibliometric methods: exploratory factor analysis (EFA), hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), and metric multidimensional scaling (MDS). We apply these techniques to evaluate the knowledge structure of IM publications for the 1999–2008 period and to concurrently provide a supplemental examination of the findings for the 2009–2010 period. Overall, our database contains 228,929 citations used in 3,632 IM articles from 34 academic journals in which marketing publications appear. We initially trace the underpinning knowledge structure in the literature in five-year increments for all influential IM publications. We then refine our analysis and examine marketing-centered scholarly influences on the IM literature and undertake an examination of the developments in later years. The results indicate that the IM field is expanding and is considerably more inclusive, sophisticated, and increasingly more complex than in earlier periods. Our findings also demonstrate that other disciplines (principally management) have had a profound influence on the development of the IM literature during the 12-year period under investigation. Using the bibliometric results derived from our data, we provide guidelines for future research and contrast them with those forwarded in review studies of the international marketing literature.