Interorganizational learning: a bibliometric review and research agenda
ISSN: 0969-6474
Article publication date: 1 May 2020
Issue publication date: 13 May 2021
Abstract
Purpose
Scholarly interest in interorganizational learning (IOL) has spiked in the past decade because of its potential to absorb, transfer and create valuable knowledge for enhanced innovative performance and sustained competitive advantage. However, only a handful of review studies exists on the topic. The evolution of IOL has not been studied explicitly and there is a lack of understanding of the field trends. To fill this gap, this paper aims to comprehensively review the literature on IOL and map its evolution and trends using bibliometric techniques. In particular, the authors use visualization of science mapping freeware to systematize the findings and interpret the results.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors synthesize the findings using “evaluative bibliometric techniques” to identify the quality and quantity indicators of the IOL research and use “relational bibliometric techniques” to determine the structural indicators of the IOL field such as the intellectual foundations and emerging research themes of IOL research.
Findings
Through an analysis of 208 journal publications obtained from the Scopus database, the authors determine the leading authors, countries, highly cited papers and their contributions to the IOL literature. By identifying the key hotspots, intellectual foundations and emerging trends of IOL, the authors provide promising avenues in IOL research.
Originality/value
To the best of the knowledge, this study is the first to systematically review the IOL literature and provide future research directions.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the Guest Editor, Editor in Chief and two anonymous referees for their useful comments, that significantly helped in improving this paper.
Citation
Anand, A., Brøns Kringelum, L., Øland Madsen, C. and Selivanovskikh, L. (2021), "Interorganizational learning: a bibliometric review and research agenda", The Learning Organization, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 111-136. https://doi.org/10.1108/TLO-02-2020-0023
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited