Bibliometric analysis of organisational culture using CiteSpace

Abstract

Background: As organisational culture plays an important role in forming a sustained competitive advantage, numerous studies about organisational culture have been completed. However, few studies have been conducted by analysing the references of publications with a visual pattern. Moreover, this subject has reached a certain degree of maturity; hence, a review that analyses the trends of organisational culture is urgent.

Aim: The aim of this study was to provide broad information on organisational culture, including authors, journals, countries and references. In addition, the evolution of organisational culture is depicted and potential future research focuses are predicted.

Setting: Using the Web of Science as a data source, we captured 1479 publications in science citation index (SCI) and social science citation index (SSCI) from 2005 to 2016 with 63 682 corresponding references for analysis.

Methods: A bibliometric approach using CiteSpace software was applied to quantitatively and visually analyse organisational culture.

Results: (1) The USA is the most productive country followed by the UK and then Australia in terms of publication; (2) scholars are mainly focused on ‘performance’, ‘innovation’ and ‘knowledge management’ aspects; (3) most fundamental theories and frameworks were created from the 1980s to the 1990s; (4) the Journal of Business Ethics is the most appropriate journal for contributions, whereas the Academy of Management Review is suitable for scholars to do a literature review, construct a theoretical framework and develop a research design; and (5) future research on this field has been justified accordingly.

Conclusion: These findings not only provide basic background knowledge about organisational culture for new researchers but also provide a framework for visual and quantitative research to management scholars and fill the gap between organisational culture and bibliometric analysis.