Mapping the Field of Value Chain: A Bibliometric and Visualization Analysis

Abstract

In recent years, the interest in academic research in the field of the value chain has increased rapidly. However, there is a lack of bibliometric and visualization research on this subject. This paper aims to analyze the main trends of the value chain in multidomain-related literature in the past decade. Thus, we used bibliometric 2002 documents data from the Scopus to generate figures like the trend, co-occurrence and proportion of the value chain by using Rstudio and VOSviewer. The results not only explained the main modern trends under the time series, but also showed the evolution of the development of the theme of the value chain. Additionally, the paper also determines the impact of the value chain in different journals and documents and analyzes the impact of themes, countries and keywords on the publication of the value chain literature. After identifying the most popular themes and keywords in the past decade, we predicted the trend and direction of future value chain research. Due to the lack of literature for data analysis on value-chain-related innovation, this study is a unique contribution to the literature on the measurement method as a supplement. This study also provides a visual and schematic framework for the relevant research in the field of the value chain and summarizes the trend and trajectory. This may help researchers understand the current trend of the research on the value chain and grasp the future research direction.