Bridging past and present entrepreneurial marketing research: A co-citation and bibliographic coupling analysis

Literature in entrepreneurial marketing (EM) continues to grow in volume and diversity. This paper aims to examine the topical structure of EM’s literature toward guiding research in the field.

A four-phase bibliometric research design is implemented, encompassing co-citation and bibliographic-coupling analyses, network analysis, factor analysis and correspondence analysis.

In total, 14 EM literature clusters, comprising 7 topical meta-clusters, are mapped and discussed: the 7 clusters are resources and capabilities, entrepreneurial orientation (EO), measurement, EO/marketing orientation (MO) integration, MO, international entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship.

These topical streams confirm, refine and extend prior bibliometric studies. A more comprehensive, extensive and reliable picture of EM’s literature is provided, the result of using over twice as many references as prior studies and peer-reviewed journals only. Results will help guide EM research, contributing toward the field’s empirical/theoretical development.