Social media and e-commerce: A scientometrics analysis

Abstract

he purpose of this research is to investigate the status and the evolution of the scientific studies on the effect of social networks on e-commerce. The study seeks to address the status of a set of scientific productions of researchers in the world indexed in Scopus based on scientometrics indicators. In total, 1926 articles were found and the collected data were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative indicators of scientometrics with bibliometrix R software package. The findings show that researches have grown exponentially since 2009 and the trend has continued at relatively stable rates. Thematic analysis shows that the subject had a significant but not well-developed research field. There is a high rate of cooperation with a rich research network among institutions in United States, European and Asian countries. Studies also show that research interest in this area is prevalent in developed countries. In addition, the lack of funds and complex analytical tools may be due to lack of studies in developing countries, especially in Africa. The study of the global trend of research through scientometrics helps managers and researchers in identifying countries and institutions with the greatest potential for scientific production, which allows them to develop their professions.

Keywords

• Social media
• Social networking
• E-commerce
• Electronic commerce
• Social commerce
• Social media marketing
• Scientometric