Research Trends of the Internet of Things in Relation to Business Model Innovation: Results from Co-Word and Content Analyses

Abstract

In the era of the Internet of Things, innovative business model initiatives continue to deepen, and the trend of search domains continues to expand. This paper aims to scientifically analyze research trends of the Internet of Things in relation to Business Model Innovation through bibliometric studies. The data were collected using the Clarivate Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection (SSCI and SCI indexed) from 2005 to 2022 (November). However, the publications for the research domains started in 2015. The results show that scientific publications on the Internet of Things in relation to Business Model Innovation have increased gradually since 2019. The WoS database is utilized for analyses because it contains journals and conference proceedings deemed more relevant by the academic domain and highly reputable sources for bibliometric studies. The VOS viewer, R Language, and Microsoft Excel were also used to analyze and complete the study. Bibliometric and scientometric analyses were conducted to identify publication patterns, text analysis, most important keywords (co-word, word cloud, and co-occurrence), trends for the topicality, and content clustering for the publication periods. The visualization of the research trends of the Internet of Things in relation to Business Model Innovation resulted in four co-occurrence clusters leading to some of the topic areas mentioned as follows: (1) The Internet of Things, (2) Business model innovation, (3) Technology infrastructure, and (4) Digital transformation and capabilities. The results of this study will assist academics in identifying worldwide research trends related to the Internet of Things and Business Model Innovation as well as recommending future research areas.