[Excellent Master’s Thesis]Study on the Business Model Research Focus and Development Trend: A Bibliometric Analysis Based on CiteSpace

ABSTRACT: 

In recent years, the business model has attracted constant concern of the business community, and become the core competency with which enterprises deal with environmental uncertainty and continue to gain competitive advantage. With the commercialization of Internet technology and the development of global e-commerce, the application of business model has become more and more extensive, and the business model have been increasingly valued by business and academia circles. However, as the business model has developed for more than half a century, the “jungle” development trend of research and application has appeared. With the upgrading concerning on business model focused by academia circles and business circles over the past few years, it is of great significance to clarify the research hotspots of business models and explore the development trend of business models, which is essential in promoting further research on business models.
Taking the business models as the study object, the “basic visualized analysis – co-occurrence analysis – co-citation analysis – dual graph overlay analysis of journals” of business model research as the main line of research, and the “business model and bibliometric theory” as the theoretical support, this paper studies the preliminary analysis of the business model data of Web of Science by basic visualized analysis, including overall growth trend, research direction, global thermal analysis and national cooperation network, cooperation network of high level scientific research institutions, source publications and author-cooperated network, applying co-occurrence analysis to explore the research hot spots in business model and to compare with China and foreign countries, using co-citation analysis and dual graph overlay analysis of journals to study the new development trend of business models and comparing with China and foreign countries by co-citation analysis to come into the conclusion.
The main achievements and innovations of this research are embodied in the following aspects:
1) It makes a basic visualization analysis on the current research achievements of business model, and it combs the research status of business model from 5 perspectives, including overall growth trends, research directions, global thermal analysis and national cooperation networks, cooperation networks of high-level scientific research institutions, source publications and author cooperation networks. Moreover, it clarified the overall trend of business model research, popular research direction, cooperation network of countries, institutions and authors, providing useful references and revelations for the research and development of the business model in China.
2) This paper studies the research hotspots of business model by co-occurrence analysis. Explored the hot spots and thematic distribution of business model between 1960 and 2018.It also classified and analyzed the research purpose, theoretical basis, research method, macro content, micro content and application area. Taking a comparative approach, the thesis examines the hotspots in the study of the business model between 2010 and 2017 at the interval of two years, and points out the differences between China and foreign countries in terms of the hotspots in the research on the business model in different time periods.
3) It combs the innovative development tendency of business model by using the co-citation analysis and dual graph overlay analysis of journals. This paper explores and summarizes the development trend of the business model and analyzes the causes. At the same time, it draws three characteristics of the innovation trend. This paper explores and summarizes the development trend of the business model and analyzes the causes. At the same time, it draws three characteristics of the innovation trend and obtains the dual graph overlay maps of the 1960-2018 journals. Finally, a comparative study of the development trend of Chinese and foreign business models was conducted.
4) It has a positive effect on researchers’ comprehensive understanding of existing business model literature, improving research efficiency and promoting research outputs. Typically, the literature review of business models was based on the intensive reading of a few high-level research results, and there is not enough energy to study all the core documents carefully. This study is based on the grasp of the connotation of the business model. It also draws on the guidance of the methodology of bibliometric theory and sorts out the macro-cognition and development trend of the business model from the quantitative perspective of the researcher. This paper reduces the cost of deepening research in this area, enhances the research efficiency of researchers, and increases the possibility of scientific research output.

KEYWORDS: Business Model; Bibliometrics; Research Hotspots; Development Trend; Data Mining; Big Data

CLC NUMBER: F270

CONTENTS

1  Preface

  1.1  Research Background and Significance

  1.2  Literature Review

1.2.1  Business Model

1.2.2  Bibliometric Theory

  1.3  Content and Logical Structure

1.3.1  Content of the Paper

1.3.2  Logical Structure

2  Research Methods, Tool and Data

  2.1  Research Methods

2.1.1  Content Analysis

2.1.2  Citation Analysis

2.1.3  Visual Analysis and Mapping Knowledge Domain

2.1.4  Co-occurrence Analysis

2.1.5  Co-Citation Analysis

  2.2  CiteSpace and Related Indicators

2.2.1  Introduction to CiteSpace

2.2.2  Links Strength

2.2.3  Centrality

2.2.4  Eigenvector Centrality

2.2.5  Log-Likelihood Ratio

  2.3  Data Sources and Preprocessing

2.3.1  Web of Science Core Collection

2.3.2  Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index

2.3.3  Data Preprocessing

3  Basic Visual Analysis of Business Model Research

  3.1  Analysis of Overall Trends

  3.2  Research Area Analysis

  3.3  Analysis of Global Heatmap and National Cooperation Network

  3.4  Analysis of Cooperation Network of High-level Research Institutions

  3.5  Analysis of Source Publications and Scientific Co-authorship Network

4  Business Model Research Focus Based on Co-occurrence Analysis

  4.1  Business Model Research Focus

  4.2  Comparison of Business Model Research Focuses in China and Abroad

5  Business Model Research Development Trend

  5.1  Co-Citation Analysis

  5.2  Dual-Map Overlays

  5.3  Comparison of Business Model Research Trends in China and Abroad

6  Research Conclusions and Outlook

  6.1  Research Conclusions and Innovations

6.1.1  Research Contents and Conclusions

6.1.2  Research Innovations

  6.2  Research Limitations and Outlook

References

Appendix

Achievements

Acknowledgements

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Study on the Business Model Research Focus and Development Trend: A Bibliometric Analysis Based on CiteSpace

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