Sharing-collaborative economy in tourism: A bibliometric analysis and perspectives for the post-pandemic era

Abstract

Sharing economy research has risen exponentially during the last 4 years. Although several theoretical revisions on this topic have been developed, a conceptual analysis based on bibliometric techniques and science mapping tools is lacking. Within this framework, this article has two aims: (i) to carry on a performance analysis to identify the outstanding themes and (ii) to visually present the scientific structure by topics of research in sharing-collaborative economy as well as its evolution to identify future directions. The resources in the Web of Science Citation Index were used. Intelligent techniques and, more specifically, the SciMAT tool (based on co-word analysis and h-index analysis) were applied using a sample of 940 indexed papers from 2010 to 2020 (with 10.652 global citations). Our results show that the new post-pandemic era requires the sharing economy industry to investigate alternative ways: to improve trust, to innovate, to search for authenticity and experiences, to attend tourist motivations based on sustainability, and to use big data and manage overtourism.