Integrated management systems: a content and bibliometric analysis

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the simultaneous implementation of an integrated management system (IMS) in a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) and its impact on costs.Design/methodology/approachBased on a case study, the paper presents and analyzes the implementation of the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 management system (MS) standards. The organization analyzed is an SME of the heating and air conditioning sector that had no MSs implemented (common in the sector) and decided to implement an IMS based on both function-specific MS standards (MSSs) and also achieving the separated certification. The analysis of expected and real costs is also presented.FindingsThe results show that a simultaneous integration is possible and the cost analysis evidences the improvement of the organization’s efficiency. The certificates for both MSSs were also achieved. These findings help in confirming theoretical statement posed in the literature of the integration of MSs: integration strategy, methodology and level. The organization values this integrated implementation as very positive internally and externally, as this is one of the first organizations of the sector implementing and integrating the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.Originality/valueAlthough studies analyzing empirically the integration of MSs have been widely published in recent years, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first papers analyzing the implementation of an IMS directly and analyzing its costs. In addition, this paper provides evidence that those organizations implementing integration later than others, can learn from the beginners’ experience.

PurposeThis work aims to present existing management system standards (MSSs) published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) through a bibliometric analysis, thereby outlining their academic research status and highlighting their relation to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as to environmental, social and governance (ESG) themes.Design/methodology/approachThe study firstly retrieves a preliminary set of MSSs standards from ISO and filters it in accordance with certain exclusion/inclusion criteria. Secondly, a bibliometric search is performed in the database Scopus. Thirdly, performance analysis is conducted to quantitatively measure the scientific output in academia, and science mapping of co-occurrences of keywords is applied to identify related topics. Thereby, the standards’ relationships to sustainability are outlined. Eventually, the work discusses future research opportunities.FindingsThe findings reveal that whereas research on MSSs focuses predominantly on only a few standards by now, there are actually numerous further standards that address sustainability-relevant topics, which are getting increasing attention among scholars as measured by the number of publications. Therefore, an action plan for future research is derived. Moreover, the findings support the argument of integrating MSSs to cover a broad range of corporate sustainability issues.Originality/valueThe paper connects the concepts of MSSs and sustainability, an upcoming research branch yet characterized by shortage of academic studies (given that research continues to focus on a few standards such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001). The work therefore opens up the line for more in-detail research on less known but nevertheless sustainability-relevant ISO MSSs.

Purpose The aim is to reveal contemporary research trends and patterns in Internet of Things (IoTs) so that social scientists who are new to the discipline may be steered towards rightful directions when examining this phenomenon. Design/methodology/approach A total of 169 IoT articles indexed in the Web of Science database were analyzed via bibliometric analysis and content analysis. The VOSViewer software was used to identify popular keywords of the IoT topics, its publication productivity, the most relevant journals, and the most prolific authors within. Content analysis was conducted manually to determine the most popular research methods used, the most frequently studied contexts, the most popular IoT application areas, the most highly examined user perspectives, and the most often employed theories. Findings The synthesis of both the bibliometric and content analysis results suggest the necessity of investigating the post-adoption technology usage behavior of IoT technology in developing countries, particularly in smart home. This is especially so from new landscapes using other theories or models, apart from the overwhelmed Technology Adoption Model (TAM) and its variants. Originality/value With a focus on addressing the state-of-the-art of IoT in social science, and to synthesize its future research directions systematically, this study was conducted with both bibliometric and content analysis, in order to enhance the overall analysis for higher accuracy and more reliable results.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to carry out the systematic literature review, bibliometric analysis and content analysis of extant literature of service supply chain (SSC).Design/methodology/approachSystematic literature review (SLR) technique was used for identifying the research papers. In the first step after reading titles, abstracts and keywords and, full-length articles wherever required, papers not related to SSC were removed. In second steps papers were read more critically and papers not related to SSC were removed. Finally on 502 papers bibliometric and content analysis was further carried out. Content analysis was based on the clusters formed by bibliographic coupling. Further, content analysis of the recent articles revealed the current research trends and research gaps.FindingsThis paper identified the six existing research diversifications in SSC as (1) logistics SSC, (2) model, framework and conceptual papers, (3) third-party logistics service providers, (4) articles from various perspective, (5) measurement of quality and performance on services and (6) impact of adoption of technology, cooperation and branding on logistics service providers. Further, six future research directions are also provided.Practical implicationsThis research provides a clear view of the progression of publication, research diversification, research themes of six identified clusters, sub-themes of clusters and content analysis of each cluster. Content analysis of recent articles reveals the current research trend and future research directions.Originality/valueThis is a first of its kind of study which presents the diversification of research areas within SSC, bibliometric analysis, content analysis and provides actionable future research direction.

Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) pose significant health and economic burdens, yet underreporting and inconsistent standards persist. Digital health innovations, particularly mobile and web-based ADR reporting applications, offer potential to enhance pharmacovigilance by improving data accuracy and patient-reported outcomes. The study provides a comprehensive mapping of ADR mobile and web application literature, analysing publication trends, key contributors, and core themes through bibliometric and NLP-based content analysis. A systematic two-stage approach was applied to 289 Web of Science articles on ADR reporting applications. Bibliometric analysis explored publication trends, co-authorship networks, and keyword occurrences, while NLP-based topic modelling identified prevalent themes, ensuring thematic coherence and interpretability. Bibliometric analysis showed a rise in ADR application-related publications, primarily from the United Kingdom, United States of America, and Switzerland. Content analysis identified ten key themes, including pharmacovigilance, chemotherapy adherence, and psychiatry research. A distinct focus on digital tools in ADR reporting and management was evident, with keywords such as "mobile," "application," and "patient" becoming increasingly prominent in recent years. Co-authorship and collaboration networks, however, showed limited cross-national research partnerships. The study highlights the transformative role of digital solutions in pharmacovigilance, demonstrating the potential of ADR applications to enhance reporting accuracy and improve patient safety. However, adoption remains early-stage and fragmented by regional affiliations. Future research should focus on patient-centric app development, effectiveness assessment, and fostering global collaboration. Strengthening digital literacy and robust investment in ADR reporting applications is crucial for optimizing their impact in healthcare.

This study conducts a bibliometric analysis of publications in the context of satisfaction in public procurement research, as retrieved from the Scopus database on 8th July 2024. The study includes publications that link aspects of satisfaction and public procurement. Data were analysed using VOSviewer and Harzing’s Publish or Perish software to conduct both performance analysis and science mapping. These are relevant for analysing performance metrics and visualisation of patterns from keyword co-occurrence analysis and bibliographic coupling. The findings reveal limited research publications related to satisfaction in the context of public procurement, with only 54 publications retrieved during the search. The trend shows fluctuations in the number of publications from 1997 to 2024. Key contributors include authors such as Kalinzi, C.; Muhwezi, M.; Munene, J.K.; and Warman, G., and institutions like Universitas Indonesia, alongside global participation from countries like China, Indonesia, and the United States. Keyword analysis highlights themes related to customer satisfaction, public procurement, and e-Government, emphasizing the pursuit of enhanced service quality and efficiency. Bibliographic coupling reveals interconnected research clusters focusing on impact of e-procurement system on satisfaction, influence of technology on performance, and user satisfaction with e-procurement system implementation. This structured analysis underscores diverse global contributions and identifies pathways for future research in the research domains of satisfaction in public procurement undertakings.

The banking sector plays an indispensable role in the global economy by facilitating economic growth, providing financial services, and ensuring the stability of the financial system. The banking industry is one of the most dynamic sectors, where financial institutions are constantly striving to achieve a strategic advantage over their peers. One such effective strategy is mergers and acquisitions (M&A), where banks consolidate their operations through either a merger or an acquisition to achieve strategic objectives. The purpose of this paper is to undertake a review of mergers and acquisitions in the banking industry using bibliometric analysis to identify their technical reasons, significance, and effects and to offer thematic and methodological directions for further studies to move forward on the topic. Bibliometric analysis, including citation, bibliographic coupling, coauthorship, and co-occurrence analysis, was utilized to discover trends in and conduct descriptive analysis of articles. The study used keyword and reference search methods to discover 616 research articles from the Scopus database between 1994 and 2022. Publication trends, highly influential authors, leading nations, and top journals are addressed. Hence, the systematic review of the most cited articles has been performed significantly. The study summarizes the significance, effects, and performance evaluation of mergers and acquisitions in the banking sector using both bibliometric and systematic analysis, which will enable academicians and researchers to make significant contributions to future research directions on mergers and acquisitions in the banking sector.

PurposeThis study reviews scholarly work in sustainable green logistics and remanufacturing (SGLR) and their subdisciplines, in combination with bibliometric, thematic and content analyses that provide a viewpoint on categorization and a future research agenda. This paper provides insight into current research trends in the subjects of interest by examining the most essential and most referenced articles promoting sustainability and climate-neutral logistics.Design/methodology/approachFor the literature review, the authors extracted and sifted 2180 research and review papers for the period 2008–2023 from the Scopus database. The authors performed bibliometric and content analyses using multiple software programs such as Gephi, VOSviewer and R programming.FindingsThe SGLR papers can be grouped into seven clusters: (1) The circular economy facets; (2) Decarbonization of operations to nurture a climate-neutral business; (3) Green sustainable supply chain management; (4) Drivers and barriers of reverse logistics and the circular economy; (5) Business models for sustainable logistics and the circular economy; (6) Transportation problems in sustainable green logistics and (7) Digitalization of logistics and supply chain management.Practical implicationsIn this review, fundamental ideas are established, research gaps are identified and multiple future research subjects are proposed. These propositions are categorized into three main research streams, i.e. (1) Digitalization of SGLR, (2) Enhancing scopes, sectors and industries in the context of SGLR and (3) Developing more efficient and effective climate-neutral and climate change-related solutions and promoting more environmental-related and sustainability research concerning SGLR. In addition, two conceptual models concerning SGLR and climate-neutral strategies are developed and presented for managers and practitioners to consider when adopting green and sustainability principles in supply chains. This review also highlights the need for academics to go beyond frameworks and build new techniques and instruments for monitoring SGLR performance in the real world.Originality/valueThis study provides an overview of the evolution of SGLR; it also clarifies concepts, environmental concerns and climate change practices, particularly those directed to supply chain management.

This study presents a framework and viewpoint on the intellectual structure and evolution of customer experience research in the service literature. Using the Scopus database, journal articles on customer experience have been extracted and examined to unearth the source knowledge and main themes via a two-step approach of bibliometric (citation and co-citation) and content analyses. The bibliometric analysis has revealed five main clusters of the knowledge domain: (1) methodology and information technology, (2) customer co-creation of value, (3) service quality and customer satisfaction, (4) tourist experience, (5) customer perception in service environments. Based on the literature review, content analysis was subsequently performed to reveal recent articles from each cluster. Overall, this article comprehensively examines customer experience literature in the service industries. Results present a holistic comprehension of the knowledge domain, reveal scientific progress, and provide main directions and questions for further academic efforts.

This paper discusses how a systems approach to management can be used to facilitate the development and implementation of an integrated management system (IMS) in an organization. It is argued that any solution to address the rapidly growing need for the integration of function‐specific management systems requires two elements: a conceptual model and a supporting methodology. While the research on IMS modelling is fairly advanced, evidenced by a number of existing models that would probably qualify to provide the basis for integration, development of methodologies to achieve fully‐integrated systems is still lacking. This paper therefore provides a set of criteria for selection of the most appropriate IMS model, followed by a discussion of one such model based on the systems approach. The presented model can be used to integrate the requirements of existing and upcoming function‐specific management system standards, and provide a foundation for the top‐down integration of internal systems that these standards describe. Subsequently, a short discussion on the issue of the IMS methodology is given, and the paper concludes with a list of questions that will help researchers design a comprehensive IMS methodology.

BackgroundLow Back Pain (LBP) is a pervasive and complex musculoskeletal condition affecting over 80% of the global population. Lumbar Disc Degeneration (LDD) significantly contributes to LBP, and MRI is crucial for its diagnosis and understanding. This study aimes to provide a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of MRI research on LDD with LBP, shedding light on research patterns, collaborations, and potential knowledge gaps.MethodsA comprehensive online search was conducted in the Scopus database to retrieve published literature on LDD with LBP. Bibliometric analysis was conducted to assess publication patterns, co-authorship networks, keyword co-occurrence, and co-citation analysis within the MRI applications for LDD research domain. Bibliometric analysis tools such as VOSviewer and the R package “bibliometrix” were utilized for quantitative assessments.ResultsA total of 1,619 publications related to MRI and LDD were analyzed. The analysis indicated a consistent annual growth rate of 4.62% in publications related to MRI and lumbar disc degeneration, reflecting a steady increase in research output over the past two decades. The USA, China, and Japan emerged as leading contributors. “SPINE“, “European Spine Journal“, and “Spine Journal” were the most productive journals in this domain. Key research themes identified included lumbar spine, low back pain, and magnetic resonance imaging. Network visualization shows that low back pain and magnetic resonance imaging were the most widely used keywords.ConclusionThe comprehensive bibliometric analysis of MRI applications for Lumbar Disc Degeneration offers insights into prevailing research patterns, highlights key contributors and journals, and identifies significant research themes. This study provides a foundation for future research efforts and clinical practices in the field, ultimately contributing to the advancement of patient care for individuals suffering from LDD and associated Low Back Pain.

The board of directors of a firm are the principal decision-makers of all activities conducted by the firm, and hence, their composition demands attention. Diversity on boards can bring about varied sets of knowledge, perspectives, and abilities and can help the firm in solving a multitude of problems. By employing Bibliometric Analysis, this study aims to critically examine the intellectual development and geographical evolution in the domain of gender diversity and financial performance. A total of 463 research articles, extracted from the Scopus Database, are analyzed through various techniques such as citation analysis, co-citation analysis, content analysis and keyword co-occurrence analysis through the software VOSviewer. The study led to the identification of growth trends, prominent countries, authors, seminal articles, journals, major themes of study as well as emerging themes for future research. The study shall help the scholars working in this domain to have a comprehensive understanding of the topic and explore the relevant research gaps in the future.

Implementing environmental with other standardized management systems: Scope, sequence, time and integration

Research on behavioural biases has witnessed a momentous growth in the last two decades, supported by rising interest and publication thrust shown by academic scholars. Present study maps the academic literature on the role of behavioural biases in investment decision-making. With the help of bibliometric tools, the paper highlights the current state-of-the-art and identifies significant gaps in the existing literature on behavioural biases. Through keyword and reference searching approaches, the study retrieved 212 research papers from the Scopus database. Application of performance analysis techniques has helped in identification of influential journals, prolific authors, countries and affiliations enriching the literature on behavioural biases. Scientific mapping approaches such as bibliographic coupling and thematic mapping has provided valuable insights about the conceptual and intellectual structure of the field. Finally, the research directions proposed in this review will provide a roadmap for future research.

This article provides a bibliometric overview of publications on eLearning trends in STE(A)M teaching and learning to give readers a better understanding of the current state of research in the field. The main objective of this study is to provide bibliometric data on publications on online teaching and learning trends for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education (STEM) teaching and learning purposes printed in journals included in the Scopus database in the years 2011-2023. For the bibliometric analysis, STEM learning, STEM teaching, online education, bibliometric review keywords were used, and 136 documents from the Scopus database were chosen. The collected data of the publications scanned and published in the parameters of the study were subjected to a bibliometric analysis based on seven categories: number of articles and citations per year, most influential countries, most prolific author, most prominent affiliations, funding institutions, publication source, and subject areas. Network diagrams and bibliometric analyses were created using the Scopus database analysis. Most of the articles were published between 2016 and 2022. The United States of America, the United Kingdom, and China were among the top-three most productive countries, and the United States of America produced the most publications. The number of citations to publications indexed in the Scopus database is growing steadily and reached its peak in 2022 (178 citations). The most prolific author on this subject is Minichiello, A., with four publications. In addition, Stanford University and Utah State University have maximum publishing partners. By funding 16 publications for online STEM teaching and learning, the National Science Foundation has shown leadership. The topic areas of the publications’ distribution were looked at. The articles’ respective fields of study were social sciences and computer science. This study offers a vision for future research as well as a worldwide view of online learning for STEM teaching and learning.