Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes
2022, Vol. 12, No. 1 e-ISSN: 1390-8146
Published by: Luis Vargas Torres Technical University
How to cite this article (APA):
Venegas, N., Bonilla, S., Quevedo, M., Guzman, A. (2022) Bibliometric
analysis of scientific production on digital marketing, Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación
y Saberes, 12(1) – 142-155
Bibliometric analysis of scientific production on digital marketing
Análisis bibliométrico de la producción científica sobre marketing digital
Nube Estefania Venegas Sanchez
Master in Accounting and Finance, Universidad Católica de Cuenca, Accounting and Auditing, Cuenca,
Ecuador. nvenegass@ucacue.edu.ec. ORCID: 0000-0002-5398-1557
Sonia Marlene Bonilla Carchi
Magister en Docencia de las Matemáticas, Universidad Católica de Cuenca, Carrera de Administración,
Cuenca, Ecuador. smbonilla@ucacue.edu.ec. ORCID: 0000-0002-3684-194X
Manuel Rafael Quevedo Barros
Master in Accounting and Auditing, Catholic University of Cuenca, Accounting and Auditing, Azogues,
Ecuador. mrquevedob@ucacue.edu.ec. ORCID: 0000-0001-5928-1618
José Alciviades Guzmán Ávila
Master's Degree in Entrepreneurial Development and Innovation, Universidad Católica de Cuenca,
Business Administration, Cuenca, Ecuador. jguzman@ucacue.edu.ec. ORCID: 0000-0002-1558-8826
Digital marketing contributes to create a competitive advantage for
national and international commerce. The objective is to analyze the
trend of scientific production on digital marketing at a global level,
using bibliometric indicators. The results present production, visibility,
impact and collaboration indicators. Identifying a sustainable and
exponential rate of production, the country with significant levels of
publications is in quartile 4, the prevalent keywords are "Digital
Marketing", "Social Media" and "Marketing", is the United States. It
is concluded that the bibliometric analysis provides information on the
products generated from the different territories where they are
produced, which becomes important elements for business, public
and social decision making.
Abstract
Received 2021-05-02
Revised 2021-09-11
Accepted 2021-10- 21
Published 2022-01-04
Corresponding Author
Nube Estefania Venegas
Sanchez
nvenegass@ucacue.edu.ec
Pages: 142-155
https://creativecommons.or
g/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Distributed under
Copyright: © The Author(s)
Bibliometric analysis of scientific production on digital marketing
Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , /2022 / , Vol. 12, No. 1
143
Keywords:
Trend, production, scientific, digital marketing,
bibliometric.
Resumen
El marketing digital contribuye a crear una ventaja competitiva para
el comercio nacional e internacional. El objetivo realizar un análisis de
la tendencia de producción científica sobre marketing digital a nivel
global, mediante indicadores bibliométricos. Los resultados
presentan indicadores de producción, visibilidad, impacto y
colaboración. Identificando un ritmo de producción sostenible y
exponencial, el país con niveles significativos de publicaciones se
encuentra en el cuartil 4, las palabras claves prevalentes son “Digital
Marketing”, “Social Media” y “Marketing”, es Estados Unidos. Se
concluye, que el análisis bibliométrico da información relativa a los
productos generados desde los diferentes territorios donde se
produce, lo cual se convierte en elementos importantes para la toma
de decisiones empresariales, públicas y sociales.
Palabras clave:
Tendencia, producción, científica, marketing digital,
bibliométrico.
Introduction
Nowadays, the diverse demands of the environment and the needs
of their customers are prompting organizations to revise their
strategies and policies (Quiñonez, Castillo, Bruno, y Oyarvide, 2020)
to adapt to the new competitive outlook (Cantillo, Pedraza, y Suarez,
2021; Narváez y Villalobos, 2020). Therefore, marketing is a tool that
allows the company to know the market in order to adapt its products
and services, giving priority to the relationship with its customers and
their long-term satisfaction, in order to obtain what they need and
want through the creation and exchange of value. (Kotler y
Armstrong, 2007).
In this context, the business landscape remains in a constant change
since the commercial use of the internet (Kannan y Li, 2017)
organizations are looking for strategies that allow them to enter the
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global market. (Bricio, Calle, y Zambrano, 2018), sales through cellular
devices grew between 22% and 27%, where 7.4% of retail spending
in the U.S. was attributed to online sales (Malcolm, 2015)In fact, for
the exchange, promotion and sales of products and services,
technology plays an essential role in the exchange, promotion and
sales of products and services. (Perdigón, Viltres, y Madrigal, 2018).
Thus, digital marketing is an effective tool for national and
international business processes, it helps to create a competitive
advantage through marketing plans, market segmentation and social
media recognition (Bricio et al., 2018; Tarazona-Montoya, Peris-Ortiz,
y Devece, 2020)establishing relationships with customers through
digital media, seeking to increase sales of the product offered.
(Álvarez y Zulueta, 2021; Duque y Duque, 2020)seeking to increase
sales of the product offered through advertising and dissemination
via the Internet. (Blanco y Segarra, 2013).
Likewise, digital marketing arises to achieve less costly
communication between customers and companies (Adam, Mulye,
Deans, y Palihawadana, 2002) but the lack of information of the
various applications of the Internet combined with digital marketing
strategies for value creation is a disadvantage for organizations
(Chappell, 2006; Porter, 2001)The lack of information about the
behavior of the new generations in relation to purchases through
virtual media. (Petit, Velasco, y Spence, 2019).
Although some studies related to digital marketing have been
conducted, up to the date of submission of this article and through
an extensive review of the literature, it is evident that there is a
shortage of bibliometric studies that explore the factors associated
with the research topic. Therefore, the objective is to analyze the
trend of scientific production on digital marketing globally, using
bibliometric indicators.
Materials and methods
The search and identification of the documents was performed on
January 14, 2021 in the SCOPUS database owned by Elsevier.
(Scopus, 2020). We used the search equation for document extraction
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("Digital Marketing") linked to the title of the article, abstract and
keywords. The first result was 1400 results, and then only the
typologies of "Article" and "Review" were selected, subjecting them
to a process of metadata normalization and elimination of duplicate
documents, obtaining a final sample of 875 documents published
from the year 2000 to 2020.
The bibliographic tool Mendeley version 1.19.4 was used to process
the data, while the frequency distribution lists were generated with
the Microsoft Excel program, which included the following data: name
of authors, title of publication, type of publication, year of publication,
type of access to publication, institutions of affiliation, journal of
publication, country of publication and number of citations received.
In the first instance, with this information, a descriptive analysis was
carried out to determine the annual behavior of the production on
digital marketing. Then, countries, journals, institutions and the
visibility of the main authors were identified. Finally, a network of the
main keywords of the publications was elaborated using the
VOSviewer software. (van Eck y Waltman, 2010).
Results
The bibliometric study identified 875 documents published in the
SCOPUS scientific database that were related to the subject of study
for the period from 2000 to 2020; of these, 92.57% corresponded to
articles and 7.43% to reviews. Likewise, as shown in Figure I, the
annual distribution of the scientific production on digital marketing at
a global level made it possible to evaluate the trends of its research,
observing a gradual increase in publications, with 2020 being the year
of highest productivity, and according to the coefficient of
determination (R2) of the second order polimonial trend line, a
propensity to growth of publications for the coming years can be
distinguished.
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Graph 1.
Annual production behavior. Source: Elaborated from the
analysis of search results in. Scopus (2020).
The documents were published by authors with affiliation from 88
countries, where 75.66% correspond to open access and the
predominant language of the publications is English (95.31%). The
United States ranks first in the number of published papers on digital
marketing with 196 publications, representing 18.32% of the world's
scientific production, followed by India and the United Kingdom, as
shown in Table 1:
Table 1:
Productivity by country
Ranking
Country
D
1
°
United States
196
2
°
India
137
3
°
United Kingdom
107
4
°
Spain
46
5
°
Australia
41
6
°
Indonesia
34
7
°
Canada
27
8
°
Portugal
24
9
°
Brazil
20
10
°
South Korea
20
D: Documents. Source: Prepared from the analysis of search results
in. Scopus (2020).
Table 2 shows the top 10 journals that have published papers related
to digital marketing, among which the Journal Of Direct Data And
Bibliometric analysis of scientific production on digital marketing
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Digital Marketing Practice stands out with 36 articles located in
Quartile 2 of the Scimago Journal Rank. Of this ranking, two have an
H index higher than 50. The scientific production is concentrated in
journals with a low impact index (quartile 4) only two of the ten
journals are in quartile 1 (Journal Of Business Research and Journal
Of Marketing Education). It is important to note that three of the most
productive journals are published in the United Kingdom and most
belong to the thematic area and category of business, management
and accounting.
Table 2.
Journals with the highest production
Ranking
Magazine
D
SJR
Q
H
Countr
y
1
°
Journal Of Direct Data
And Digital Marketing
Practice
36
0,2
4
2
1
1
United
Kingdo
m
2
°
Journal Of Digital And
Social Media Marketing
22
0,1
3
4
1
United
Kingdo
m
3
°
Emerald Emerging
Markets Case Studies
16
0,1
7
3
4
United
Kingdo
m
4
°
International Journal Of
Recent Technology
And Engineering
16
0,1
1
4
1
7
India
5
°
International Journal Of
Advanced Science And
Technology
15
0,1
1
4
3
Australi
a
6
°
Spaces
12
0,2
2
3
1
6
Venezu
ela
7
°
Journal Of Business
Research
12
1,8
7
1
1
7
9
Netherl
ands
8
°
Journal Of Marketing
Education
12
1,0
1
1
5
3
United
States
Bibliometric analysis of scientific production on digital marketing
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9
°
International Journal Of
Scientific And
Technology Research
11
0,1
2
3
1
5
India
10
°
Sustainability
Switzerland
11
0,5
8
2
6
8
Switzer
land
D
: Documents,
SJR
: Scimago Journal Rank,
Q
: Quartile,
H
: H Index.
Source:
Prepared from the analysis of search results in. Scopus
(2020).
On the other hand, Table 3 shows that most of the published papers
were written in India, where Bina Nusantara University (11) is the
institution with the highest number of articles, followed by Fujitsu Ltd.
(9) and Amity University (9).
Table 3:
Institutions with the highest production
Ranking
Institution
D
Country
1°
Bina Nusantara University
11
Indonesia
2
°
Fujitsu Ltd.
9
Japan
3
°
Amity University, Noida
9
India
4
°
Yonsei University
7
South
Korea
5°
Texas A&M University
7
United
States
6
°
University of Jyvaskyla
7
Finland
7
°
Jaypee Institute of Information Technology
7
India
8
°
University of Pennsylvania
6
United
States
9
°
King Juan Carlos University
6
Spain
10
°
Symbiosis International Deemed University
6
India
D:
Documents.
Source:
Prepared from the analysis of search results
in. Scopus (2020).
Table 4 shows the ten authors with the highest number of
publications, characterizing their level of production through the H
index. (Hirsch, 2005). Karjaluoto, H. heads the list with 6 publications
and the author with the highest impact is Dwivedi, Y.K. with an H
Bibliometric analysis of scientific production on digital marketing
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index of 62 from Prifysgol Abertawe in the United Kingdom, followed
by Kelly, B. with an H index of 36 from the University of Wollongong
in Australia. It is worth mentioning that the Institution with the highest
presence of the ten authors is the University of Wollongong.
Table 4:
Authors with the highest production
Ranking
Author
D
H
Institution
Country
1
°
Karjaluoto,
H.
6
28
University of
Jyvaskyla
Finland
2
°
Ahuja, V.
4
9
Amity
University
India
3
°
Buchanan,
L.
4
3
University of
Wollongong
Australia
4
°
Dwivedi,
Y.K.
4
62
Prifysgol
Abertawe
United
Kingdom
5
°
Kelly, B.
4
36
University of
Wollongong
Australia
6
°
Pandey,
N.
4
5
National
Institute of
Industrial
Engineering
India
7
°
Reed, D.
4
1
Direct
Marketing
Association
United
Kingdom
8
°
Smith,
K.T.
4
13
Texas A and
M University -
Corpus
Christi
United
States
9
°
Yeatman,
H.
4
21
University of
Wollongong
Australia
10°
Alavi, S.
3
5
Jaypee
Institute of
Information
Technology
India
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D: Documents, H: Index H. Source: Prepared from the analysis of
search results in. Scopus (2020).
Also, the top 5 most cited publications involving authors on the list
are: The use of Web analytics for digital marketing performance
measurement by the authors. Järvinen y Karjaluoto (2015) with 81
citations; Search engine marketing is not all gold: Insights from Twitter
and SEOClerks by the authors Aswani, Kar, Ilavarasan, y Dwivedi
(2018) with 71 citations; Digital marketing strategies that Millennials
find appealing, motivating, or just annoying by the authors Smith
(2011) with 71 citations; The usage of digital marketing channels in
SMEs by Taiminen y Karjaluoto (2015) with 54 citations; The role of
digital channels in industrial marketing communications from
Karjaluoto, Mustonen, y Ulkuniemi (2015) with 54 citations and Using
Clickers in a Large Business Class: Examining Use Behavior and
Satisfaction from Rana y Dwivedi (2016) with 30 citations.
Figure II presents the links from one concept to another, showing the
main keywords associated with the topic of digital marketing. There
are three concepts "Digital Marketing", "Social Media" and
"Marketing" that group the various relationships between keywords
and co-citation networks.
Figure 2.
Main thematic axes: Source: Elaborated from the analysis of
search results in. Scopus (2020).
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Digital marketing has evolved over time, encompassing not only the
presentation of the company and the product, but also the
establishment of an association around the brand. Thus, the
bibliometric study through its results provides relevant information on
the global trend of digital marketing according to the Scopus
database.
From the totality of the search, there are 875 documents published
from 2000 to 2020 on the research topic, characterized by a
progressive annual increase. Therefore, it is important to develop
research on the implications of digital marketing in organizations,
especially in the current situation of social isolation, where the proper
use of the Internet is essential for the digital presence of companies.
In addition, understanding that marketing today comprises all aspects
of the business model where the protagonist is the customer, it is
necessary to recognize the importance of processing each data to
obtain information that clarifies the current vision on digital marketing
and its unavoidable application in organizations, in addition, it is
suggested to expand the scientific databases to be used in future
research in order to establish similarities and differences in the results
obtained.
Conclusions
In response to the objective formulated, aimed at analyzing trends in
digital marketing research at the global level, it can be concluded that
there is a sustainable and exponential rate of scientific production on
digital marketing. The United States is the country with the largest
number of articles published on the subject. The United Kingdom
Journal Of Direct Data And Digital Marketing Practice, located in
quartile 2, has the largest number of articles on the subject, followed
by the Journal Of Digital And Social Media Marketing and Emerald
Emerging Markets Case Studies, it should be noted that most of the
publications are in a low quartile (Q4). The institution with the highest
number of production was Bina Nusantara University in Indonesia.
Similarly, the keywords most commonly used in research on digital
marketing are "Digital Marketing", "Social Media" and "Marketing".
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In addition, the article with the highest number of citations "The use
of Web analytics for digital marketing performance measurement"
published in 2015 in the Industrial Marketing Management journal,
highlights that the benefits obtained by organizations when exploiting
the metrics system to measure marketing performance respond to the
results of the reasoning and data processing of the chosen metrics
according to the organizational context
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