Journal of Business Research 136 (2021) 543–557

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Journal of Business Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres

Service networks for sustainable business: A dynamic evolution analysis

over half a century
Xinxin Wang a, Zeshui Xu a, *, Yong Qin a, Marinko Skare b
a
Business School, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China
b
Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, Croatia

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Scientific research on service networks for sustainable business (SN-SB) and its impact on business and eco­
Service networks nomics has been growing in recent years. The first document was published in 1968, and the SN-SB research has
Sustainable business lasted over half a century. This paper offers a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the academic literature
Bibliometric analysis
published between 1968 and 2019 with regards to the SN-SB research in 2,366 publications from Web of Science.
Business and economics
By applying different bibliometric analyses, such as performance analysis, cooperation analysis, co-occurrence
analysis, burst detection analysis, and timeline view analysis, we have presented the fundamental characteris­
tics of these publications, and identified the most influential countries/regions, institutions, and authors, as well
as the evolution of the keywords these years. More discussions including popular issues in current study, chal­
lenges and avenues for future research, implications, and limitations are conducted to address the existing gaps
in knowledge. This paper helps in understanding the evolution of the SN-SB research from the perspective of the
bibliometric and inspires researchers to think from multiple aspects in this field.

1. Introduction
Service networks for sustainable business (SN-SB) research in the big
data era have received more attention in the development of advanced
theories and new technologies for adaptation to a dynamic and turbulent
business environment (Caputo et al., 2021). At present, the research
trend has been spurred by the introduction of new innovations and sit­
uations, although service networks are not a new phenomenon. Owing
to the state of global enterprises and complex service networks, it is
necessary for firms to build the best possible value chain and overcome
many challenges and barriers through effective innovation, new
customer value creation, business model development, an agile work­
force, talent recruitment, customer relationship management, and social
networks (Childs & Jin, 2015; Kliestik et al., 2020). On the one hand, the
lack of service networks for sustainable business has been one of the
great hindrances, because traditional service models may be unsus­
tainable and unprofitable, and mobile money service is an example
(David-West, Iheanachor, & Umukoro, 2020). On the other hand,
advanced service networks facilitate decision-making and extraction of
actionable insights and knowledge from large datasets in the big data
environment (Saura, 2021). For example, digitalization is a reality for
business and contributes to value creation, and improving service net­
works, updating social networks, using social networks for corporate
purposes, having a high level of training in digital tools, can enhance
company performance (Ribeiro-Navarrete et al., 2021). The internet of
everything may alter service networks, business models and the ways in
which individuals and organizations create value (Langley et al., 2021).
Therefore, it has been gradually presented that business networks found
in firms have played a vital role in building flexible, resilient, and sus­
tainable organizations in recent years. How SN-SB research develops
and what characteristics they present are problems explored in this
study. Little attention has been paid to managing sustainable in­
novations in the current knowledge-intensive context. Thus, there is a
compelling need for more research on service networks for sustainable
businesses, and studying the evolution of the SN-SB research could help
in understanding the development and popular issues in the relevant
fields.
To comprehensively consider the present study on SN-SB research, a
bibliometric analysis is one of the suitable approaches to show the topics
and research directions visually because it can reveal the evolution with
the extensive intersection and combination of philology, information
science, mathematics, and statistics (He et al., 2017). Bibliometry is a

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: xuzeshui@263.net (Z. Xu).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.07.062
Received 15 February 2021; Received in revised form 26 July 2021; Accepted 29 July 2021
Available online 11 August 2021
0148-2963/© 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
X. Wang et al.
mature and effective way to present the evolution and relationships of
items of a subject or a journal by analyzing the relevant literature (Shang
et al., 2015). Because of these advantages and characteristics, biblio­
metrics has rapidly developed and has been widely applied in many
fields and journals. Recent studies have used a bibliometric analysis on
various subjects, including digitalization and business models (Caputo
et al., 2021), the intellectual structure of consumer complaining
behavior research (Arora & Chakraborty, 2021), mapping inclusive
innovation (Mortazavi et al., 2021), group decision-making (Wang,
Chang, et al, 2021; Wang, Xu, et al., 2021), and comparative advertising
research (del Barrio-Garcia, Munoz-Leiva, & Golden, 2020). On the
other hand, several journals have also used this approach to explore the
development and features, such as Technological and Economic Develop­
ment of Economy (Yu, Xu, & Saparauskas, 2019), Economic Research-
Ekonomska Istraživanja (Wang, Xu, & Skare, 2020), Accounting and
Finance (Linnenluecke, Marrone, & Singh, 2020), and International
Journal of Systems Science (Wang, Chang, et al, 2021; Wang, Xu, et al.,
2021).
The purpose of this article is to explore and provide an informative
overview of the existing publications through a bibliometric analysis of
SN-SB research, which is a rapidly developing field with progress made
within society. This study sets out the following objectives by employing
corresponding methods: (1) To reveal the development tendency and
distribution of publications in SN-SB research, a performance analysis
consisting of a set of accepted bibliometric indicators is conducted. For
example, annual indicators, such as the number of publications, number
of citations, average number of citations, and H-index, are used to show
the development trend, influential years, and publications in terms of
different aspects. The most influential publications and distributions,
such as categories, types, and countries, are also presented through a
performance analysis. (2) To identify the relationships between different
items (country/region and institution), and to outline the different
keywords perspectives in the SN-SB research that eventually shape
invisible clusters, we conducted network and keyword analyses. Spe­
cifically, a co-authorship analysis was conducted to show the relation­
ships among the countries/regions and institutions found in the related
publications. A co-occurrence analysis, bust detection analysis, and
timeline view analysis were conducted to reveal the keywords and fea­
tures from multiple perspectives. (3) To assess the main characteristics
and science mapping of SN-SB research, the highly cited sources/
countries/regions/institutions of publications are presented through a
citation analysis. In addition, three software programs, VoS Viewer (Van
Eck & Waltman, 2010), CiteSpace (Chen, 2006) and Bibliometrix (Aria
& Cuccurullo, 2017) are used to conduct science mapping analysis
related to SN-SB research, which have a visual and high-quality effect on
bibliometric studies when considering their evolution and cooperation,
such as a dual-map overlay and collaboration network.
In this article, the contributions to the SN-SB research are shown in at
least four ways: (1) We present a holistic assessment of the literature
related to SN-SB research during the last half century and delineate the
fundamental statistical features from the perspectives of annual in­
dicators, categories and types of publications, and highly cited publi­
cations. (2) With the identification of the influential countries/regions,
institutions, and authors within SN-SB research, we present intertwining
networks used to map the connections. (3) We highlight the keyword
perspective of SN-SB research, which is relatively important for recog­
nition in the extant literature. Further, we identify the main topics and
emerging themes and show the keyword tendencies in different clusters
from the past, present, and future. (4) SN-SB research is at a crossroads,
and is facing the challenges of maturity. We present an objective view of
this field and discuss the perspectives of popular issues, challenges, and
avenues for future research, implications, and limitations. The biblio­
metric review at this stage can rekindle interest in the domain and
inspire scholars in this area to think creatively.
The remainder of this paper is organized into four sections. We first
discuss the methodology employed in this study, including the data
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Journal of Business Research 136 (2021) 543–557
sources, search protocols, and bibliometric methods. Subsequently, we
detail the performance analysis; an analysis of the countries/regions,
institutions, and authors; and a keyword analysis conducted in this study
and present the results. We then discuss the four-pronged interpretation
of our substantive findings, its popular issues in the current study,
challenges and avenues for future research, implications, and limitations
of our approach. Finally, we provide some concluding remarks
regarding this research.
2. Methodology
This study aims to provide a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of
SN-SB. In response to this issue, we first retrieve relevant publications
based on a database that followed the systematic search protocol
(Tranfield, Denyer, & Smart, 2003). To describe the fundamental char­
acteristics of the retrieved publications, we used several statistical in­
dicators to evaluate the development of the tendency. Subsequently, we
reveal the knowledge structure of these publications, consistent with
cooperation and keywords, using complementary bibliometric methods
(Ferreira, 2018). Finally, we discuss the current study, future research,
implications, and limitations. Fig. 1 illustrates the research framework
of the methodology used in this study.
2.1. Data source and search protocol
To collect the literature data, a systematic search was launched on
the Web of Science Core Collection (WoS) database, owned by Thomson
& Reuters Co. WoS not only yields the highest quality of publications
(Raghuram, et al., 2019), it also provides reliable and multidisciplinary
bibliographic data, and has gradually become the mainstream data
source for bibliometric analysis (Zhang & Liang, 2020). Consistent with
the purpose of this study, we derived data on December 31, 2020, and
the starting search time was set to 1900, which is the earliest time in the
WoS system. To collect publications dealing with SN-SB as accurately as
possible, the terms “business network” and “business service” need to be
presented in the title to identify the boundary of the field. In addition,
the term “sustainable business,” presented in the title, abstract, or key­
words of the publication, could ensure the comprehensive nature of our
search. Therefore, the search process for data in WoS jointly combined
the search string with the Boolean operator as follows: Database = Core
Collection database; Title = business network OR Title = business ser­
vice AND Topic = sustainable business; Timespan = 1900–2020. As a
result, 2,366 publications were retrieved after removing the duplicated
data in the original dataset, and we exported them in plain text and
comma-separated values (CSV) file formats for the bibliometric analysis.
The collected data contain large amount of detailed and representative
perspective information, including the title, abstract, keywords, cita­
tions, and references (Ji et al., 2021). The first document with respect to
communications networks in a business organization structure (Wick­
esberg, 1968) was published in the Academy of Management Journal in
1968, and all collected publications are from 1968 to 2020, which is a
period of more than half a century.
2.2. Bibliometric methods
The bibliometric field, as a type of scientometric discipline, as well as
a mature subject, applies statistical methods to evaluate scientific ac­
tivities in a certain journal or field of research (Broadus, 1987), and
highlights the main features in a structured way (Mourao & Martinho
2020). Aria and Cuccurullo (2017) proposed that a performance analysis
and science mapping analysis are the two main procedures applied in
bibliometrics. Based on this, the bibliometric analysis described in this
paper is focused on two parts to present comprehensive relationships
and reveal the development of SN-SB research.
A performance analysis is the first part based on the activity in­
dicators (Mingers & Leydesdorff, 2015) used to measure the
X. Wang et al. Journal of Business Research 136 (2021) 543–557

Data source and search protocol

Database WoS
Title = business network OR
Search strategy Title = business service AND
Topic = sustainable business
2,366
Timespan 1900-2020 publications

Performance analysis Science mapping analysis

The number of publications (NP) Citation analysis

VOS viewer Cooperation Co-authorship analysis
Activity indicators
The number of citations (NC) CiteSpace networks and
Co-occurrence analysis
H-index Bibliometrix keywords
analysis Burst detection analysis
The average number of citations (AC) Timeline analysis

Discussions

Popular issues in current study

Challenges and avenues for future research
Limitations
Implications

Fig. 1. Research framework of the methodology used in this study.

productivity and influence of the publications counted through an item
analysis (e.g., country/region, institution, and author). Some accepted
bibliometric indicators can present the fundamental characteristics of
the literature. For example, the scientific community provides several
recognized and significant indicators, including the number of publi­
cations (NP), number of citations (NC), average number of citations
(AC), and H-index (Hirsch, 2005). Specifically, the H-index considers
both NP and NC to express the quality of publications excluding self-
citations, and can also evaluate countries/regions, institutions, and au­
thors. Through these specific indicators, the objective results can be
obtained, and individuals can interpret the results or rankings differ­
ently according to their interests or requirements (Hsieh & Chang,
2009).
A science mapping analysis is the second part demonstrating the
structural and dynamic organization of knowledge for a journal or field
of research (Iwami et al., 2020). This provides a spatial depiction of the
ways in which various scientific items are related to one another. The
bibliometric methods involved in this part are reflected in cooperation
networks and keyword analysis according to the data pertaining to the
volume and impact of the research.
(1) Citation analysis: This measures the similarity between publica­
tions, sources, countries/regions, or institutions through the fre­
quency in which two items are independently cited by one or
more items (Dabic, González-Loureiro, & Harvey, 2015). If items
are cited together, we assume that they are more likely to be
related (Tang et al., 2020).
(2) Co-authorship analysis: This is a type of social network analysis
(SNA), and is effective for retrieving information to indicate the
structural features of a research network. The relatedness of items
(countries/regions, institutions, and authors) is based on the
number of co-authored publications (Van Eck & Waltman, 2010),
and networks of different items can present their relationships
clearly.
(3) Co-occurrence analysis: This is a form of content analysis using
the keywords provided by authors or journals to investigate the
conceptual structure of a field (Callon et al., 1983). When the
terms of the two keywords occur together among the publica­
tions, the degree of correlation can be recorded, as revealed by
the total strengths of the keywords (Kamdem et al., 2019).
Because it presents the relationship among keywords in the
literature, it has become a powerful and appropriate way to assist
in understanding the conceptual structure of a journal or field.
(4) Burst detection analysis: This identifies the emerging trends of
items, such as keywords, authors, and references, combining the
number of citations within certain time periods. This makes it
possible to find publications that receive particular attention
from the related scientific communities within a certain period of
time, and a research cluster with a citation burst can be regarded
as a new field of research (Zhou, Chen, & Huang, 2019; Li & Xu,
2021).
(5) Timeline analysis: This reveals dynamic features, such as poten­
tially transformative changes and emerging trends over the time
slice (Yin et al., 2020). At the same time, it offers a visual way to
show the developing tendency of the keywords and presents hot
topics or research directions based on the size of the note or links.
The various clusters in the timeline network can be conducted
using different clustering algorithms, such as the least squares
method and the K-means method. From the past to the present,
these clusters may inspire scholars to think about popular topics
or the development of a journal or field.
When considering the bibliometric software tools used for mining
and analyzing the data, in accord with the practices in bibliometrics
published in top journals (Griffin & Grote, 2020), we adopted three
powerful visual software tools, i.e., VOS viewer (Van Eck & Waltman,
2010), CiteSpace (Chen, 2006), and Bibliometrix (Aria & Cuccurullo,
2017). It is noted that there are other available tools that are also

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suitable to make bibliometric analysis, such as Bibexcel, Pajek, and
SALSA, and each tool has its characteristics and applicable scene. For
example, Bibexcel is suitable to make citation analysis, but cannot make
timeline analysis. Pajek is more applied to social network analysis
because of complex network nodes. Considering that bibliometric
methods used in this study are focused on the evolution and the con­
nections between items of documents, like authors, countries/regions,
and keywords, these three bibliometric software tools are complemen­
tary and take advantage of literature data to better explore the features
and development of the SN-SB research than other tools. To be specific,
the VOS viewer is an excellent knowledge mapping tool for scientific
landscapes reflected in network and density visualizations. According to
these networks used for various items based on adopted metric links (e.
g., citation, bibliographic coupling, and co-authorship), the relation­
ships and cooperation of items can be clearly presented (Stopar & Bartol,
2019). CiteSpace is another popular mapping tool for searching for
emerging trends and transient patterns in the scientific literature (Yu &
Xu, 2017). As a complementary tool, CiteSpace emphasizes expanding
the understanding of scholars regarding the status and dynamics of a
certain knowledge domain. Bibliometrix is an open-source instrument
based on the R language for a science mapping analysis. This is a newer
tool compared with VOS viewer and CiteSpace, and provides more
graphic figures, such as the distribution and cooperation of countries/
regions on the global map, to help researchers understand the features of
the studied publications.
To summarize, this study provides a comprehensive bibliometric
analysis of SN-SB research using the above bibliometric methods. Spe­
cifically, the fundamental characteristics are first presented based on a
performance analysis. An analysis of a bibliometric network, mainly
reflected in cooperation networks to show the features and relationships
of countries/regions and institutions, is then described. Next, a keyword
analysis revealing the evolution trend and knowledge mapping in SN-SB
research is detailed. Finally, a further discussion is provided based on
the above-mentioned analysis.
3. Results
A comprehensive bibliometric analysis of publications is conducted
with respect to the service networks for SN-SB research regarding the
evolution of the scientific field. Using the data and bibliometric methods
described in Section 2, the results of this analysis, as well as those of a
cooperation network analysis and a keyword analysis, are provided to
present the development and characteristics in terms of the past, pre­
sent, and future of the SN-SB field.
3.1. Performance analysis
Considering several bibliometric indicators, a performance analysis
provides the development and distribution in the field of SN-SB research
from three statistical analysis perspectives: the annual tendency in terms

180 8.00% 3500 12.00%

160 7.00%
3000 10.00%
140 6.00%
120 2500
5.00% 8.00%
100 2000
4.00% 6.00%
80 1500
3.00%
60 4.00%
2.00% 1000
40
500 2.00%
20 1.00%
0 0.00% 0 0.00%
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016
2020
1968
1971
1974
1977
1980
1983
1986
1989
1992
1995
1998
2001
2004
2007
2010
2013
2016
2019

The number of publications Percentage The number of citations Percentage

(a) Tendency in the number of publications (b) Tendency in the number of citations

90 25
80
70 20
60
50 15
40
30 10
20
5
10
0
0
1968
1971
1974
1977
1980
1983
1986
1989
1992
1995
1998
2001
2004
2007
2010
2013
2016
2019

19681973197819831988199319982003200820132018

(c) Tendency in the number of ACs. (d) Tendency in the H-index.

Fig. 2. Trends of statistical indicators of publications regarding SN-SB research from 1968 to 2020.

546
X. Wang et al.
of productivity and influence, distributions of the type and research
categories, and detailed information of highly cited publications.
3.1.1. Annual indicators of publications
In this section, we evaluate the publications of the SN-SB research by
using four statistical indicators: NP, NC, AC, and H-index. The dataset
consists of 2,366 publications from 1968 to 2020, and Fig. 2 shows the
evolution of these publication indicators regarding SN-SB research
during more than half a century. As shown in Fig. 2 (a), the trend of NP
continues to increase. To be specific, there were fewer than 10 publi­
cations before 1990, and there was an obvious increasing trend with
slight fluctuations from 1990 to 2018, which later showed a small
downward trend from 2018 to 2020. The publications related to SN-SB
research reached the maximum number (169) in 2018. This might occur
because, in recent years, firms have increasingly recognized the vital
role of business networks with partner organizations in building agile,
flexible, resilient, and sustainable organizations (Lee & Trimi, 2018).
Hence, researchers have paid more attention to SN-SB research in recent
years. Fig. 2 (b) shows the tendency of NC, which has exhibited a high
volatility since 1990. There are several obvious peaks in 1994, 2001,
2002, 2004, 2005, and 2013. Among them, the publications in 2001
received the most citations (2,955), followed by 1,723 citations in 2002,
1,671 citations in 2013, 1,664 citations in 2005, 1,599 citations in 2004,
and 1,586 citations in 1994. Overall, there are three stages in which the
publications on SN-SB research have a strong influence. The stages are
the early phase in 1994, the medium phase from 2001 to 2015, and the
latest phase in 2013. It should be noted that the falloff of NC since 2016
might be influenced by the immediacy and time delay that is usually
incurred in recent publications that are widely read, recognized, and
cited, as well as by the AC and H-index. In Fig. 2 (c), the tendency of the
number of ACs presents a sharp fluctuation and shows an obvious jagged
graph. The AC considers both indicators of NP and NC, objectively
revealing the importance and popularity of the publications. The results
indicate that the publications in 1994 have the highest AC at 79.3, fol­
lowed by 65.67 in 2001, 54.85 in 1999, and 38.29 in 2002. At the same
time, the publications during these years are almost in line with the high
NC, as shown in Fig. 2 (b). There is a bigger gap in the AC around the
peak year 1994, and later, the gap decreases. The reason for this may be
that the publications in 1994 have made significant contributions to SN-
SB research with a far-reaching influence. In recent years, SN-SB
research has developed rapidly, and an increasing number of scholars
Business
Management
Computer science information
140
171 systems
614
172 Engineering electrical
electronic
184 Telecommunications
190
Computer science theory
561 methods
215
Economics
243
354
Computer science artifical
intelligence
Computer science
interdisciplinary applications
Operations research
management science
(a) Distribution of the top-10 categories
Fig. 3. Distributions of the top-10 categories and all types of publications regarding SN-SB research.
547
Journal of Business Research 136 (2021) 543–557
have reached a consensus for recognized publications. Fig. 2 (d) shows
the tendency in terms of the H-index, which shows an increasing trend
with fluctuations until 2013. The highest H-index was 22 in 2013, fol­
lowed by 21 in 2012, and 19 in 2010. During the last 15 years, except for
2019 and 2020, H-indexes have been higher than in other years, indi­
cating that SN-SB research in these years has been studied more, which
is reflected in both the productivity and citation impact. Overall, SN-SB
research has been focused on for a long time, with the publications in
1994 having the highest AC, indicating that this topic has a solid
research foundation. Owing to the rapid development of society, SN-SB
research has become more productive and has been recognized more
during the last 20 years than during the first 30 years in terms of the NP
and H-index.
3.1.2. Categories and types of publications
In the WoS, 2,366 publications regarding SN-SB research refer to 147
categories and 14 types over the past half century. Fig. 3 shows the
distribution of the top-10 categories and all types. The three largest
numbers of categories are business (614 publications), management
(561 publications), and computer science information systems (354
publications), which have obvious strengths compared with the other
categories. The remaining seven categories are electrical and electronic
engineering (243 publications), telecommunications (215 publications),
computer science theory methods (190 publications), economics (184
publications), artificial intelligence in computer science (172 publica­
tions), interdisciplinary applications in computer science (171 publica­
tions), and operations research management science (140 publications).
These appear to be the most popular research directions in both theory
and application at present, and indicate that SN-SB research has been
involved in a wide range of business management, computer science,
engineering, and economics studies. Fig. 3 (b) presents all types of
publications, with 1,194 articles accounting for almost half of the pub­
lications, followed by 927 proceedings papers, 175 book reviews, 69
editorial materials, 36 reviews, 32 early accesses, 23 meeting abstracts,
and 13 news items. In addition, there are a few other types: corrections
(4), letters (3), bibliography (1), database review (1), and software re­
view (1). This shows that studies on SN-SB research involve multiple
forms, the main types of which are articles, proceedings papers, and
reviews.
927 175
1194
Article Proceedings papers Book review
Editorial material Review Early access
Meeting abstract News item Correction
Letter Note Bibliography
Database review Software review
(b) Distribution of all types.
X. Wang et al. Journal of Business Research 136 (2021) 543–557

3.1.3. Highly cited publications
When a publication is read and recognized, it is cited by another
publication. Hence, the number of citations is a vital indicator for
measuring the quality and influence of the publication. Table 1 provides
a list of the top-12 highly cited publications related to SN-SB research
within the dataset, ranked according to the NC, and Table 2 lists the top-
12 highly cited publications ranked in terms of the AC. Tables 1 and 2
contain detailed information including the source, type, year, NC, AC,
number of authors (AN), number of institutions (IN), and number of
countries/regions (CN). The citation analysis suggests that the most
influential document was published by Tsai (2001), with the highest NC
(2,063) and AC (98.24), which are far ahead of the second-most influ­
ential document. In Table 2, the highly cited publications are all articles
published in the most impactful journals and ranged from the years 1994
to 2007. These studies on SN-SB research are mainly focused on
knowledge transfer (Bettencourt et al., 2002), dyadic and complex
networks (Anderson, Hakansson, & Johanson, 1994; Ritter, Wilkinson,
& Johnston, 2004; Rauch, 2001), coopetition and interaction (Bengtsson
& Kock, 2000; Håkansson & Ford, 2002), a network approach to
entrepreneurship (Bruderl & Preisendorfer, 1998; Kochan et al., 2003;
Andersson, Forsgren, & Holm, 2007), and empirical research (Halinen &
Tomroos, 2005; Ulaga & Eggert 2006). As an interesting phenomenon,
more than half of the publications were accomplished through cooper­
ation. Specifically, almost half of them were achieved through domestic
cooperation, whereas the others were achieved through transnational
cooperation. This feature shows that cooperation seems to be an effec­
tive way to make significant contributions to academic research because
of the cross-disciplinary and convenient international communication.
Considering the AC indicator, there are three new publications in
Table 2 that differ from the publications in Table 1. As common points,
these three publications were published during the last 10 years and
have higher ACs, although the NCs are not as noticeable. Concretely,
Reim et al. (2015) conducted a systematic literature review regarding
product-service systems business models and tactics to combine eco­
nomic prosperity and sustainable resource management. Visnjic Kastalli
and Van Looy (2013) analyzed the impact of service business model
innovation on the performance of a manufacturing firm and suggested
pathways to sustainable growth through servitization. Oskam and Bos­
wijk (2016) studied the networked hospitality business through Airbnb
and analyzed the nature of this phenomenon, as well as the impact of
this development on tourism, hotels, and city destinations. Because
these publications have been cited many times, their topics may be
interesting and popular in the current studies on SN-SB research and
scholars might pay more attention to them within this field.
The journal dual-map overlay, developed by Chen and Leydesdorff
(2014), allows us to conduct a publication portfolio analysis that can
further reveal the type or focus of the journal. As a result, Fig. 4 presents
a knowledge panorama of the dual-map overlay in the SN-SB research
through the “JCR Journal Maps” function embedded in CiteSpace.
Clearly, two base maps are present in the diagram. The left base map is
produced by citing journals, and the cited journals create the base map
on the right. Through the citation relation, these two base maps are
linked together to display the citation structure as well as the discipline
distribution of SN-SB journals. Moreover, the ovals in the diagram
represent the journal groups, and the size of these ovals matches the
total number of journals in a discipline domain (Jin & Li, 2019). After
calculating the z-score-scaled frequency of the citations, some compel­
ling observations were obtained through the perusal shown in Fig. 4.
First, four main citation trajectories in our dataset were detected. The
frontier research results are mainly distributed in 10. economics, eco­
nomic, political and 6. psychology, education, health. This indicates that
these disciplines are actively involved in research into the SN-SB field.
By contrast, the knowledge foundations that frontier researches rely on
mainly originated from 12. economics, economic, political and 7. psy­
chology, education, social. Then, powerful and productive publication
journals with reference to the study of the SN-SB domain are also
identified. In terms of cited journals, Industrial Marking Management and
Journal of Business Research published the most articles on SN-SB.
Correspondingly, cited journals, such as Industrial Marking Manage­
ment, Strategic Management Journal, and Academy of Management Review,
provide a robust source of knowledge for SN-SB research. Finally, based
on our observations, we argue that SN-SB research is still relatively
conservative, covering only three main areas as set forth. Therefore,
researchers should actively absorb theories and ideas from other disci­
plines to break this deadlock.

Table 1
Top-12 highly cited publications related to SN-SB research.
Rank Title Source Type Year NC AC AN IN CN

1 Knowledge transfer in intraorganizational networks: Effects of network Academy of Article 2001 2,063 98.24 1 1 1
position and absorptive capacity on business unit innovation and Management Journal
performance
2 Dyadic business relationships within a business network context Journal of Marketing Article 1994 967 34.54 3 3 2
3 “Coopetition” in business networks - to cooperate and compete Industrial Marketing Article 2000 758 34.45 2 2 2
simultaneously Management
4 How should companies interact in business networks? Journal of Business Article 2002 701 35.05 2 2 2
Research
5 Network support and the success of newly founded businesses Small Business Article 1998 586 24.42 2 2 1
Economics
6 Using case methods in the study of contemporary business networks Journal of Business Article 2005 461 27.12 2 2 1
Research
7 Business and social networks in international trade Journal of Economic Article 2001 447 21.29 1 1 1
Literature
8 The effects of diversity on business performance: Report of the diversity Human Resource Article 2003 416 21.89 9 6 1
research network Management
9 Client co-production in knowledge-intensive business services California Management Article 2002 371 18.55 4 3 1
Review
10 Managing in complex business networks Industrial Marking Article; 2004 338 18.78 3 3 3
Management Proceedings
paper
11 Relationship value and relationship quality - Broadening the European Journal of Article 2006 328 20.50 2 2 2
nomological network of business-to-business relationships Marketing
12 Balancing subsidiary influence in the federative MNC: A business Journal of International Article 2007 286 19.07 1 1 1
network view Business Studies

Sources: Authors’ own research.

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X. Wang et al. Journal of Business Research 136 (2021) 543–557

Table 2
Top-12 average cited publications related to SN-SB research.
Rank Title Source Type Year NC AC AN IN CN

1 Knowledge transfer in intraorganizational networks: Effects of network position Academy of Article 2001 2,063 98.24 1 1 1
and absorptive capacity on business unit innovation and performance Management Journal
2 Product-Service Systems (PSS) business models and tactics - a systematic literature Journal of Cleaner Review 2015 280 40.00 3 2 2
review Production
3 How should companies interact in business networks? Journal of Business Article 2002 701 35.05 2 2 2
Research
4 Dyadic business relationships within a business network context Journal of Marketing Article 1994 967 34.54 3 3 2
5 “Coopetition” in business networks - to cooperate and compete simultaneously Industrial Marketing Article 2000 758 34.45 2 2 2
Management
6 Servitization: Disentangling the impact of service business model innovation on Journal of Operations Article 2013 283 31.44 2 3 3
manufacturing firm performance Management
7 Airbnb: the future of networked hospitality businesses Journal of Tourism Article 2016 173 28.83 2 2 1
Futures
8 Using case methods in the study of contemporary business networks Journal of Business Article 2005 461 27.12 2 2 1
Research
9 Network support and the success of newly founded businesses Small Business Article 1998 586 24.42 2 2 1
Economics
10 The effects of diversity on business performance: Report of the diversity research Human Resource Article 2003 416 21.89 9 6 1
network Management
11 Business and social networks in international trade Journal of Economic Article 2001 447 21.29 1 1 1
Literature
12 Relationship value and relationship quality - Broadening the nomological network European Journal of Article 2006 328 20.50 2 2 2
of business-to-business relationships Marketing

Sources: Authors’ own research.

Fig. 4. Dual-map overlay of SN-SB research.

Table 3
Top-10 highly cited sources/countries/regions/institutions of publications related to SN-SB research.
Rank Source NC Country/Region NC Institution NC

1 Industrial Marketing Management 3,772 USA 8,173 Uppsala Univ. 2,114

2 Academy of Management Journal 2,072 England 4,432 Penn. State Univ. 2,068
3 Journal of Business Research 1,671 Sweden 3,943 Turku Univ. 1,011
4 Journal of Cleaner Production 980 Finland 3,718 Stockholm Sch. Econ. 1,008
5 Journal of Marketing 967 Germany 2,040 Copenhagen Business Sch. 836
6 Small Business Economics 732 Netherlands 1,903 Swedish Sch. Econ & Business Adm. 781
7 Expert Systems with Applications 726 Australia 1,500 Umea Univ. 772
8 Journal of Small Business Management 595 Denmark 1,457 Univ. Bath. 717
9 Journal of International Business Studies 587 France 1,221 Norwegian Sch. Management 701
10 Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 582 Norway 1,181 Univ. Twente 668

Sources: Authors’ own research.

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X. Wang et al.
3.2. Analysis of countries/regions, institutions, and authors
To identify the most influential sources, countries/regions, and in­
stitutions of SN-SB research, we adopted a citation analysis for com­
parison, contrast, and integration. Furthermore, cooperation networks
are provided to show the relationships and connections between coun­
tries/regions and institutions through science mapping analysis.
3.2.1. Citation analysis
Table 3 provides the top-10 highly cited sources, countries/regions,
and institutions of publications related to the SN-SB research, ranked
also in terms of NC. Based on this, we can further understand what
scholars studying SN-SB research are paying attention to.
The largest number of citations are for Industrial Marketing Manage­
ment (3,772), Academy of Management Journal (2,072), Journal of Busi­
ness Research (1,671), Journal of Cleaner Production (980), and Journal of
Marketing (967). These appear to be the most influential journals in the
fields of business and economics. With regard to the countries/regions,
publications from the United States have received the most citations
(8,173), followed by England (4,432), Sweden (3,943), Finland (3,718),
and Germany (2,040). The NCs of the five remaining countries
(Netherlands, Australia, Denmark, France, and Norway) numbered less
than 2000. Obviously, countries from Europe have made significant
contributions to SN-SB research. Considering the institutions, Uppsala
University in Sweden ranks first with 2,114 citations, followed by Penn
State University in USA with 2,068 citations, Turku University in
Finland with 1,011 citations, Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden
with 1,008 citations, and the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark
with 836 citations. Among the top-10 institutions, four institutions are
from Sweden, which is ahead of other countries in the field of SN-SB
research. One institution is from the USA, Finland, Denmark, England,
Norway, and the Netherlands each. This result is consistent with the
influential countries and confirms the contribution of the authors from
these institutions in the field of SN-SB research.
3.2.2. Most productive countries/regions
Another practical diagram to consider is the collaboration network of
countries/regions, which displays the production distribution and the
cooperative relationship among various countries/regions, as depicted
in Fig. 5.
Specifically, Fig. 5 (a) sheds light on the scientific production dis­
tribution of countries/regions at the geographical level, as well as their
collaborative trajectories. Obviously, SN-SB research has spread across
the world, particularly in the USA, China, England, Germany, Australia,
Finland, and some African countries/regions. In particular, the USA
dominates the number of publications in this area, with a staggering
(a) Collaboration paths of countries/regions
Fig. 5. Global geographic distribution and collaboration network of documents related to the research topic.
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Journal of Business Research 136 (2021) 543–557
372, followed by China (287) and England (242). In addition, the line
between the different countries/regions and its thickness clarifies the
existence and intensity of the cooperation relationship between them. It
is apparent that China, the USA, and Australia maintain their closest
cooperative ties with each other. Surprisingly, several countries or re­
gions, such as Russia and Canada, demonstrate a weak willingness to
communicate externally despite their considerable scientific output.
Thus, scholars from diverse countries/regions, particularly for high-
yielding areas, should break down their geographical barriers to facili­
tate the full development of SN-SB research. Matching the collaboration
trends in Fig. 5 (a), a more intuitive cooperation network is generated by
CiteSpace, as shown in Fig. 5 (b). More importantly, Fig. 5 (b) reports the
centrality information of each node in the graph, which is a measure of
its importance within the network. In general, a node with a high value
of betweenness centrality has a greater impact on the diffusion of in­
formation in the network (Zhu, Kim, & Chen, 2017). As shown in Fig. 5
(b), the nodes with high betweenness centrality are marked in the purple
outer ring, which clearly demonstrates the influential countries/regions
with regard to the SN-SB field (Qin et al., 2020).
According to the statistics from CiteSpace, the USA has the highest
betweenness centrality of 0.29. Other countries/regions with values of
greater than 0.1 include England, France, Australia, and the
Netherlands. This indicates that extensive research has been conducted
in these countries on SN-SB, and that publications in this research area
are highly recognized by national and international scholars. Moreover,
we also found that the USA was the first country to conduct research on
SN-SB (1968), which makes it easy to explain why it has a leading voice
in the field.
3.2.3. Most productive institutions
This section analyzes the cooperation of various contributing in­
stitutions in publishing SN-SB literature. Our bibliometric data initially
show that more than 2000 institutions have teams engaged in SN-SB
research. Among these active institutions, the most productive institu­
tion is Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands (20 ar­
ticles), followed by the University of Manchester in England (20
articles), Uppsala University in Sweden (19 articles), and the National
University of Singapore (18 articles). To further investigate the main
structure of the network of institutional cooperation, a knowledge map
was generated using the VOS viewer after setting the minimum number
of documents of an institution at 5.
As shown in Fig. 6, 83 institutions from different countries/regions
formed a relatively close cooperation network. According to their
pattern of collaboration, the VOS viewer clusters institutions into 12
categories labeled with diverse colors. The largest category is in red and
has 11 institutes, wherein the National University of Singapore occupies
(b) Collaboration network of countries/regions
X. Wang et al.
Fig. 6. Institution cooperation network of SN-SB research.
a central position. The second largest category of contributing in­
stitutions is for green, yellow, and blue items, at nine institutions each.
The remaining categories include eight or fewer research institutions
from different countries and regions. It is worth mentioning that in­
stitutions under different clusters usually come from multiple countries
or regions, which to some extent suggest that cross-institutional patterns
of cooperation are emerging. By scrutinizing the collaboration network,
we find that Eindhoven University of Technology, which has the highest
scientific output, is unsurprisingly the core node in the entire graph;
however, it is not located in the largest cluster. This likely stems from the
fact that this institution’s external communication and interaction are
still insufficient. In addition, although China is a late entrant into this
field, there are considerable institutions that have made outstanding
contributions to SN-SB research, such as Tsinghua University, Beijing
(a) Co-occurrence network of keywords.
Fig. 7. Visualization map of the keyword co-occurrence network concerning SN-SB research.
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Journal of Business Research 136 (2021) 543–557
University of Posts and Telecommunications, and Harbin Institute of
Technology.
3.3. Keyword analysis
To identify emerging themes and describe and visualize the in­
teractions between topics related to SN-SB research, a keyword analysis
was conducted using VoS viewer and CiteSpace. We reveal the features
of the publications from co-occurrence, burst-detection, and timeline-
view analyses.
3.3.1. Co-occurrence analysis
The keyword co-occurrence analysis provides a visualization of the
collective interconnection of terms based on the presence of pairs in
(b) Overlay of co-occurrence network of keywords.
X. Wang et al.
keywords (Altarturi, Saadoon, & Anuar, 2020). To complete this anal­
ysis, VOS viewer software was employed to visualize the co-occurrence
network of high-frequency keywords in the SN-SB literature, as pre­
sented in Fig. 7.
In Fig. 7 (a), each node represents a keyword, and the larger the
node, the higher the frequency of the keyword. In addition, the distance
between keywords directly reflects their relevance. Moreover, the
shorter the distance, the stronger the relationship between them (Shi
et al., 2020; van Nunen et al., 2018). From this perspective, there is a
high degree of correlation between several prevailing research themes,
such as “innovation,” “performance,” “management,” and “business
networks.” At the same time, it is easy to see that keywords are divided
into nine categories, which are illustrated by different colors. The red
group contains the highest number of keywords, of which, “business
model” and “systems” received a high level of attention. The second
category is shown in the green color and formed with the general words
related to social networks and governance in SN-SB, as represented by
the keywords “networks,” “policy,” “network analysis,” and “corporate
governance.” However, the smallest category contains six keywords, i.e.,
“business models,” “business value networks,” “e-service,” “service,”
“service engineering,” and “web service.” Notably, this cluster focuses
more on business value and service innovation. From the angle of
keyword co-occurrence frequency, the topics in Clusters 4 and 8 are the
most popular and favored by researchers. A summary of the co-
occurrence network reveals that a rich variety of research directions
are rapidly evolving and intersecting within the field.
Moreover, Fig. 7 (b) shows the overlay co-occurrence network for
keywords, which illustrates the temporal distribution of the keyword in
different groups. The VOS viewer colored each keyword in the diagram
based on a score. This score is determined by the average published year
for each keyword (Caputo et al., 2021). The final visualization shows
that a dramatic change in keywords appeared between 2010 and 2016.
Keywords used more in 2010 are denoted in purple, whereas those used
more in 2016 are denoted in yellow. From a temporal view of a co-
occurrence network, most studies concentrated on “e-business,” “neu­
ral networks,” “business relationships,” and so on in previous years. In
the most recent years, however, some burgeoning research themes
seemed to have gain more attention, such as “value creation,” “business
model innovation,” and “sustainability.” Taken together, the field of
Table 4
Top-14 keywords on citation burst over time.
Sources: Authors’ own research.
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research on SN-SB has evolved from the previous focus on service
network topics to more practical and business-oriented topics at present.
3.3.2. Burst detection analysis
The burstness of a document is a valuable indicator of the most active
research themes at diverse levels of granularity (Chen, Dubin, & Kim,
2014). Burstness in keywords is characterized by a sudden increase in
the number of citations for a term within a certain period of time. A
stronger burst indicates that the research topic is more popular, which
could be interpreted as a research frontier during this period (Hou, Yang,
& Chen, 2018). With the help of the burst detection function in Cite­
Space, the research frontiers and emerging trends in the field of SN-SB in
various periods are examined. As a result, Table 4 reveals what was new
in the SN-SB research from 1968 onward at a finer-grained level. The
blue lines in the list indicate the observed time intervals. Keywords that
have a burstness period are marked with a red line segment, which in­
dicates the duration of the topic outbreak. Overall, 14 keywords
received the strongest attention from 1968 to 2020. Based on the tem­
poral patterns, the keyword with the earliest citation burst is “organi­
zation” (5.59), and this topic lasted for 11 consecutive years
(2000–2010). This is partly indicative of the fact that research in this
area flourished during the early 21st century. It is followed by “e-busi­
ness” (2001–2010), “business network,” (2002–2012), and “growth”
(2004–2009). Obviously, with the rapid development and popularity of
the Internet during the early stages, more attention has been focused on
the development of business operational modes. In addition, more
recently, the burst pattern of keywords shows that the research themes
related to “sustainable business model” (2018–2020) and “entrepre­
neurial orientation” (2018–2020) gained the upper hand. In terms of
burst strength, the keyword “e-business” had the strongest burst strength
of 6.89. A keyword that also scored above 6 is “business model.” Thus,
research on these themes has made profound contributions to the field of
SN-SB. In summary, analyzing the burst of keywords provides a deeper
insight into the emerging trends of the SN-SB field.
3.3.3. Timeline view analysis
A timeline view of distinct clusters is presented in Fig. 8, which can
help in understanding the origins and development tendencies of the SN-
SB field. By clustering the keywords, ten major clusters were generated
X. Wang et al.
Fig. 8. Timeline view of keywords in different clusters.
with core labels. The “internationalization” (Cluster #0) stands out,
followed by “sustainability,” “web service,” “business networks,” “net­
works,” “sustainable business model,” “Bangalore,” “neural networks,”
“power,” and “business engineering.” In the map, clusters are displayed
horizontally along a timeline, with points on the timeline representing
important keywords. In addition, the size of a keyword node is deter­
mined by its frequency of occurrence (Yin et al., 2020). Finally, the large
number of connected curves signifies the symbiotic relationship of the
keywords, indicating the advent of hotspots (Jin & Li, 2019).
As can be seen, most of the clusters are concentrated from 1995
onward. We can easily find that the duration of cluster #4 is the longest,
and after a 30-year period, the cluster is still active. Admittedly, this
result is in line with the expectations because the core of the SN-SB field
is the construction and optimization of networks. Cluster #0 and cluster
#1, which followed closely behind, span a period of 29 years. However,
several clusters are relatively short-lived and do not carry over to the
present. For example, cluster #7 (neural networks) died out by
approximately 2013. It is difficult to explain this result, but it might be
related to the fact that neural network algorithms are not well integrated
or applied in the field of SN-SB. Focusing on cluster #5, research related
on a sustainable business model emerged after approximately 1995 and
formed the largest node (i.e., keyword “innovation”) in the diagram.
Thus far, innovation-driven business model exploration in this cluster
continues to endure, as evidenced by a surge of research connected to
“innovation” in recent years. Through a further analysis of the specific
terms in each cluster, we found that the research facets in the early
stages are relatively macro and generalized, such as “economics,” “sys­
tem,” and “engineering.” However, specific issues such as “mechanism,”
“business elite,” and “entrepreneurial network” gradually came into
focus during the middle and later periods.
4. Discussion
In this section, we further discuss the SN-SB research based on the
results of the above-mentioned analysis from four aspects: popular issues
in the current study, challenges and avenues for future research,
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implications, and limitations.
4.1. Popular issues in current study
SN-SB research is not a new phenomenon and can be regarded as a
complex framework. Prior bibliometric results have shown several
popular issues from the perspectives of theories, empirical studies, and
futuristic views on advanced technologies. A dual-map overlay reveals
that SN-SB research has recently shown an interdisciplinary trend. It
focuses on “economics, economic, political” and “psychology, educa­
tion, health” in terms of citing papers, and “economics, economic, po­
litical,” “psychology, education, health,” and “systems, computing,
computer” when considering the cited papers. As a result, SN-SB
research refers to multiple fields and contains content in science and
the humanities. Keyword clusters based on a burst detection analysis
show a degree of popularity to a certain extent, and we summarize four
hot issues in the current study within SN-SB research.
“Internationalization and web service” is the biggest research topic
linking most keywords. Almost all business firms, regardless of their size
or industry type, can be regarded as a global enterprise. Thus, firms
compete globally through their value chains, which defines their orga­
nizational competence. Even a world-class firm does not possess word-
class competence throughout its value chain. The challenges of effec­
tively managing professional services at a global scale is a common issue
in most firms under the advanced information age (Zhang, Gregory, &
Neely, 2016). For example, how can network resources and deeply
dispersed resources be accessed globally? What is the optimal plan when
considering network coordination and integrating network activities,
particularly for web services? Which types of network learning and
knowledge management learning are most suitable to the features of a
business that further promote the development of a firm? Recent studies
have conducted analyses in relevant areas; for example, Herstad and
Ebersberger (2015) conducted research on the link between urban
location and the involvement of knowledge-intensive business service
firms in collaboration networks and the internationalization process,
which considered whether the diversity of partner types used locally,
X. Wang et al.
domestically, and abroad differ between locations. Firm factors that
influence the internationalization and subsequent financial performance
of fashion service retailers were studied and contributed knowledge of
how variations in specific factors of a firm produce different outcomes in
terms of internationalization, market policy, and financial performance
(Childs & Jin, 2015).
“Sustainable business model” is the second focused topic that ad­
dresses the intention of management and is also the basic necessary of
enterprises and society. For example, Ouhimmou et al. (2021) estab­
lished a generic decision support model composed of divergent
manufacturing processes, bills of materials, distribution nodes, and a
circular business-to-business economy, to assess the value chain of the
sustainable integration of new products. Donner and de Vries (2021)
studied how to innovate business models for a circular bio-economy and
obtained insight into the uncharted research field of business model
innovation for a circular and sustainable bio-economy. It can be seen
that the sustainability business model refers to multiple fields and is still
dominant owing to economic viability.
“Business networks” is the third popular topic, and is far more than
the business itself, incorporating suppliers, customers, third-party de­
velopers, distributors, and others. A business network is a complex
network of companies that work together to accomplish certain goals.
For more than 20 years, researchers have been looking into the specific
field of industrial markets searching for answers to the many questions
raised by such markets. With the increasing interest in business net­
works, there is also an increasing interest in the notion of “network
pictures” among researchers in the field of business-to-business mar­
keting (Henneberg, Mouzas, & Naude, 2006). In recent years, re­
searchers have studied business networks to promote the development
of society in relevant areas, including business continuity-inspired
resilient supply chain network design (Namdar et al., 2020), a radical
constructivist approach to boundaries in business network research
(Guercini & Medlin, 2020), and implications of the interorganizational
perspective of solutions in business networks (Hedvall, Jagstedt, &
Dubois, 2019).
“Business engineering” is the final hot topic, and is an interdisci­
plinary field of engineering that focuses on how complex businesses
should be designed and managed. During the past half a century,
attention has been paid to keywords such as “parallel processing,”
“artificial neural network,” “e-business,” and “enterprise architecture.”
As we can see, business engineering involves both technical and appli­
cation levels. In recent studies, Sachs et al. (2019) framed the microgrid
design from a business and information systems engineering perspec­
tive. Chang et al. (2019) explored the use of blockchain technology in
international trade business process re-engineering for letters of credit,
and suggested devoting blockchain research and application across
different sectors to improve the performance of business process oper­
ations. There have also been some blind spots in business and infor­
mation systems engineering (Hinz, van der Aalst, & Weinhardt, 2019)
for researchers to consider.
Overall, we created an initial classification to present the most
popular issues of SN-SB research, which are literally spread throughout a
wide variety of different areas in both theory and application, are
important, and could be far-reaching in the era big data.
4.2. Challenges and avenues for future research
In the current business landscape, traditional small and medium-
sized enterprises (SMEs) have faced certain challenges owing to a lack
of resources, such as technological advances, globalization, and inno­
vation requirements (Hughes et al., 2019). To overcome these chal­
lenges, a growing number of SMEs have attempted to join or create
networks to build scale and economic capabilities in recent years
(Gronum, Verreynne, & Kastelle, 2012). Therefore, business networks
may be an effective framework for SMEs to manage a shortage of re­
sources, and is just one of the goals that business networks can deal with.
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Journal of Business Research 136 (2021) 543–557
For example, some of the most prevalent goals can be obtained by
business networks, including securing a stronger position in the power
dynamics between suppliers and buyers, innovation collaboration,
market share expansion, cost reduction through bulk purchasing,
knowledge and workforce sharing, and securing larger contracts
(Håkansson & Ford, 2002). In the future, research on business networks
for SMEs will still be a hot topic in line with the dynamic business
environment, particularly for co-innovation.
Considering collaborative relationships in organizational networks,
the traditional issues in the strategy and innovation literature are stra­
tegic alliances, technology licensing arrangements, joint ventures, and
marketing partnerships. In today’s big data and digital era, the method
and aim of organizational networks are different from past phenomena
(Hedvall, Jagstedt, & Dubois, 2019). More advanced technologies,
including artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and big data ana­
lytics, have allowed organizations to quickly sense the trajectory of
market changes and identify candidate organizations as network part­
ners (Afuah & Tucci, 2013). Excluding technical updates, the aim of
business networks is not only value creation for the organization but also
more aspirational goals “for the greater good” of all stakeholders.
Overall, open innovation, collaborative innovation, and living innova­
tion ideas have emerged as core strengths of business networks.
As for digital transformation and business models, testing various
theoretical and conceptual frameworks is an important avenue for future
research, not just for improving existing business processes with
advanced technologies (Kraus, Roig-Tierno, & Bouncken, 2019), but
also involving a fundamental reinvention of the way things are done by
an organization. An emerging management approach in this process
involves the integration of service-dominant logic and stakeholder the­
ory (Reim, Sjodin, & Parida, 2019). Thus far, little attention has been
given to managing sustainable innovation in the current knowledge-
intensive context (Veronica et al., 2020). Therefore, service networks
for sustainable business research may compel more scholars to research
this topic.
In general, these possible challenges and avenues can expand upon
existing research areas and identify new topics related to the different
forms of service networks that have developed in recent years. Future
studies can assess the impact of SN-SB research in social enterprises and
media marketing, considering service-dominant logic, stakeholder the­
ory, virtual networks, and knowledge management. In addition, through
further research, we can move on from our bibliometric analysis and
extend the identified clusters in more depth.
5. Implications and limitations
SN-SB research is an integrative direction of significant managerial
importance, referring to empirical research and theoretical methods,
and there are some factors affecting SN-SB in various fields. For
example, the time-expanded network reduction problem is an important
factor for a logistics service network because planning cost-effective
logistics operations involves the integration of multiple decision-
making levels, and realistic instances are too large for on-the-shelf
optimization solvers to solve within acceptable run-times (Belieres
et al., 2021). Another factor is the need for efficient embedding of
network services to meet the requirements of virtualized cellular net­
works and emerging 5G services, and the diversity of resource demands
across dimensions, such as CPU, memory, and storage, has increased
(Pentelas et al., 2021). Considering that the social relationships among
users are often extremely sparse in a service network, which signifi­
cantly impedes the effective extension of the users’ social circle, it is
necessary to build trust relationships and predict new links in the
network (Kou et al., 2021). Therefore, a service network for sustainable
business is required by social actuality, and represents the general trend
of the times. Moreover, our study benefits researchers, policymakers,
and practitioners in several ways. In the field of SN-SB research, this
work provides researchers with a comprehensive review and intellectual
X. Wang et al.
structure over the past century through a bibliometric analysis. Based on
performance and keyword analyses, we present the evolution of this
field and summarize popular topics during these years. Evidence in­
dicates that researchers can augment the existing efforts at stressing the
development view of SN-SB research and adapt to a dynamic environ­
ment. In addition to portraying the topics emphasized in the existing
literature, this exercise identifies multiple directions in both service and
virtual networks, such as collaborative innovation, supply chain man­
agement, digital technologies, platform-to-platform methods, and social
enterprise. These research fronts and popular issues have important
implications for academics, companies, and policymakers.
Despite the adoption of this relatively comprehensive bibliometric
approach to minimize the drawbacks as much as possible, some limi­
tations remain. One limitation lies in the data source that focuses on SN-
SB research in the Web of Science database. On the one hand, a single
citation database may lead to missed publications. On the other hand, it
may not be completely involved in all relative publications by using
specific research streams, particularly for younger fields. In further
studies, more loosely defined terms and various databases, such as
Google Scholars and Scopus, will be considered for collecting data. As
another limitation, our methods used in this study are prevalent,
demonstrating a wider panoramic view of the field, instead of an in-
depth analysis of the content. This is characteristic of bibliometric
analysis, as well as a tradeoff, and further studies will build upon the
results and expand these findings. Despite these limitations, this study
provides a multidimensional view of the evolution of SN-SB research
and can inspire some important implications for related researchers,
policy makers, and practitioners.
6. Conclusions
The insights and contributions provided in this paper pertain to
revealing the fundamental characteristics, knowledge structure, and
hot-keyword tendency of documents with regard to service networks for
sustainable business (SN-SB) by conducting a bibliometric analysis from
different perspectives. Such analyses can integrate the results of the past,
present, and future of SN-SB research. The main findings are listed as
follows: (1) Evidence from a performance analysis shows that, not only
has SN-SB research increased, it has also referenced more research di­
rections in recent years. (2) Industrial Marketing Management, Academy of
Management Journal, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Cleaner
Production, and Journal of Marketing are the most influential journals in
the field of SN-SB research. (3) The USA, China, and England are the
most productive countries, whereas Eindhoven University of Technol­
ogy (Netherlands), the University of Manchester (England), Uppsala
University (Sweden), and the National University of Singapore
(Singapore) are the most productive institutions. (4) A keyword analysis
has revealed that nine important research sub-areas are taking shape in
SN-SB research, with focus on “innovation,” “performance,” “manage­
ment,” and “business networks.” (5) According to a timeline analysis,
ten dimensions have been conducted through half a century worth of
literature, and could be the core research direction of the current phase
in SN-SB research.
Based on the results of the analyses, popular issues in the current
study, challenges and avenues for future research, and implications have
been discussed, confirming that SN-SB research is a vital technology in
many aspects, such as entrepreneurship, platform-to-platform, and so­
cial media marketing. In terms of policy implications, evidences show
that it is important to establish framework or take measures to improve
service networks for sustainable business, such as sustainable innovation
and management, and nonprofit business services. Facing the age of
information technology and a dynamic environment, especially going
through Covid 19 pandemic crisis, the effects of business activities
depending on service networks would be improved from the socio-
economic perspective, and sustainable business and business coopera­
tion is necessary for the success of service networks. These implications
555
Journal of Business Research 136 (2021) 543–557
are critical not only in the context of the Covid 19 pandemic, but also
remain valid for the sustained development of business in light of
complex environment. For researchers, this study provides a compre­
hensive review and intellectual structure over the past century through a
bibliometric analysis, and identifies multiple directions in both service
and virtual networks, such as collaborative innovation, supply chain
management, digital technologies, platform-to-platform methods, and
social enterprise. This helps scholars who are interested in SN-SB
research better understand the evolution of this field. Overall, this
study presents important implications for academics, companies, and
policymakers.
In the future, we will focus on the development of SN-SB research
from the perspectives of both theory and application. Except for quan­
titative indicators, we will pay more attention to qualitative indicators
for future scientific research, such as publication results, contents, lin­
guistic assessment information. Combined with qualitative indicators,
we could make in-deep analysis and obtain more objective and inter­
esting findings. In addition, more advanced approaches, such as ma­
chine learning algorithms and text mining, will be used to conduct a
comprehensive analysis.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
Funding
The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (Nos. 71571123, and 71771155), and the Fundamental
Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. YJ202063).
Author contributions
Xinxin Wang, Zeshui Xu,*, Yong Qin, Marinko Skare conceived the
study and were responsible for the data collection, design and devel­
opment of the data analysis as well as for data interpretation. Xinxin
Wang, Zeshui Xu, Yong Qin wrote the first draft of the article.
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Xinxin Wang is an associate research fellow in Business School, Sichuan University. She
received the Ph.D degree in Management Science and Engineering at Sichuan University,
Sichuan, China. Her research interests include decision analysis, optimization, computing
with words. She has published more than 20 papers, and her research works has been
published in IEEE Transaction on Fuzzy Systems, Information Sciences and Knowledge-
Based Systems, Applied Intelligence and International Journal of Fuzzy Systems, etc.
She has received numerous honors and awards, including the First Prize in National Post-
Graduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling in 2015 and 2016, the 2015 and 2016 Na­
tional scholarship for graduate students, 2017 Presidential Scholarship at Southwest Pe­
troleum University, etc.
Zeshui Xu received the Ph.D. degree in management science and engineering from
Southeast University, Nanjing, China, in 2003. From October 2005 to December 2007, he
was a Postdoctoral Researcher with School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua
University, Beijing, China. He was a Distinguished Young Scholar of the National Natural
Science Foundation of China and the Chang Jiang Scholar of the Ministry of Education of
China. He is currently a Professor with the Business School, Sichuan University, Chengdu.
He has been elected as Academician of IASCYS (International academy for systems and
cybernetic sciences), Fellow of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers),
Fellow of IFSA (International Fuzzy Systems Association), Fellow of RSA (Royal Society of
Arts), Fellow of IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology), Fellow of BCS (British
Computer Society), Fellow of VEBLEO, Fellow of IAAM (International Association of
Advanced Materials), and ranked 431th among World’s Top 100,000 Scientists in 2019.
He has contributed more than 600 SCI/SSCI articles to professional journals, and is among
the world’s top 1% most highly cited researchers with about 64,000 citations, his h-index
is 126. He is currently the Co-Editor of conomic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja; the
Associate Editor-in-Chief of Applied Intelligence, the Senior Editor of IEEE Access, and the
Associate Editors of IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Sys­
tems, Information Sciences, Artificial Intelligence Review, Fuzzy Optimization and Deci­
sion Making, Journal of the Operational Research Society, etc. His current research
interests include decision making, information fusion, data analysis, fuzzy systems and
applications.
Yong Qin is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in Business School, Sichuan
University, China. His research interests include decision making, optimization, infor­
mation fusion and bibliometrics. His research works have been published in International
Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Technological and Economic Development of
Economy, Economic Research-Ekonomska Istrazivanja, Journal of Cleaner Production,
International Journal of Fuzzy Systems, Symmetry, etc.
Marinko Škare, PhD, is Professor of Economics, Economic Research Journal Editor in
Chief, Vice Rector for Research and Art, Member of Editorial Board of several international
journals, Department Economics and Tourism “Dr. Mijo Mirković” in Pula, Juraj Dobrila
University of Pula. He served as Assistant Dean for Education, Faculty of Economics
&Tourism, Pula, Assistant Dean for International Cooperation, Faculty of Economics &
Tourism, Pula, Main and Team Researcher on several scientific projects, Former Dean of
the Faculty of Economics & Tourism, Pula and Former Vice President for International
Cooperation, Juraj Dobrila University of Pula. He has published several books and many
scientific papers about economic growth, welfare economics and poverty, human capital
economics in transition, economic philosophy and monetary economics.