Discovering Themes and Trends in Digital Transformation and Innovation Research

Abstract

In recent years, the relationship between digital transformation and innovation became very popular topics, attracting extensive attention, and inspiring a number of documents. Although much literature discusses the intersection of both fields, most works offer neither a complete nor a truly objective overview of the current state of research. Therefore, there is a need for a comprehensive and objective review of research themes to analyze the intersection. For this purpose, based on the literature collected from the Web of Science (WoS) database published between 1994 and 2021, co-word analysis was carried out to explore research themes and identify the most salient themes in digital transformation and innovation research. The results of scientific output show that digital transformation and innovation is attracting increasing academic interest of scholars from many countries and different fields. The distribution of high-frequency keywords shows that the research in this field is multidisciplinary, including not only many economic and management fields, but also many classical theories and research methods. The clustering results of keywords reveal five clusters of themes: diffusion and adoption of technology and innovation, digital innovation management, digital transformation management, digital platform and ecosystem, and digital entrepreneurship and economy. According to the results of strategic diagram and performance analysis, digital innovation management and digital transformation management are the mainstream of research, while digital platform and ecosystem and digital entrepreneurship and economy have strong development potential. This study provides a snapshot of the thematic development of digital transformation and innovation research, enabling researchers to better master the current situation and suggesting the development trend in the future.