Bibliometric and content analysis of viral marketing in marketing literature

Abstract

Viral marketing is one of the most important marketing trends of today as it offers companies the opportunity to reach large masses, low cost, increases brand awareness and has higher conversion rates. In addition, more trust in the content shared by friends or family members and more interaction due to interesting, entertaining or emotional shares are among the features that make viral marketing different. Although it has so many advantages and is used extensively in the field, the lack of a bibliometric analysis on viral marketing and the fact that it does not find enough space in the literature makes the study important. The aim of this study is to identify the leading journals, authors, publications and main research themes in this field using bibliometric and thematic content analyses, to provide an overview of current viral marketing research and to prepare a conceptual framework for future research. Another aim of the study is to identify the missing areas in the viral marketing literature and to create a framework for future research in this field. In this study where quantitative research method was used, bibliometric analysis method was used through VOSviewer 1.6.18 software programme. Between 2003 and 2023, 222 studies were analysed by bibliometric map analysis method with co-citation, author and entity and bibliographic matching analysis. As a result of the content analysis, the studies in the viral marketing literature were divided into three main categories and 10 trends that make up these categories.

Keywords

• Viral marketing
• eWOM
• bibliometric analysis
• content analysis
• social media
• bibliographic matching