Intellectual Structure of the Hospitality Literature Via Topic Modeling Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to provide a comprehensive analysis of the hidden intellectual structure of hospitality research. This study combined Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) and text-net analysis (TNA) as the topic modeling approach for 7,931 articles with approximately 290,000 references in seven top-tier hospitality journals from 1960 to 2019. A total of 10 specific research topics were identified, with their probability timelines, in hospitality research. The results showed that hospitality research is focused on the empirical testing of relationships rather than theory building. A stakeholder research approach was identified, which includes the perspectives of management, employees, and customers. These findings contribute by revealing the hidden pattern of intellectual structures and research trends in hospitality research and overcoming the weaknesses of traditional co-citation analysis. Also, the study provides evidence of a shift from narrow to diverse research topics, thereby offering useful implications for hospitality practitioners.