Mapping the Intellectual Architecture of Digital Technologies and Business Model Innovation: A Bibliometric Analysis of Scopus-Indexed Publications, 2004–2026

Abstract

Research at the intersection of digital technologies and business model innovation (BMI) has expanded rapidly since the mid-2010s, yet its intellectual architecture—the conceptual foundations, influential scholars, citation anchors, and thematic clusters that give it coherence—remains poorly charted. Narrative and systematic reviews have proven insufficient to map a field now generating more than 260 peer-reviewed publications per year across at least twenty-seven disciplinary categories. This paper addresses that gap by conducting a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 1,707 Scopus-indexed journal articles published between 2004 and early 2026. Drawing on publication trend analysis, author and institutional productivity mapping, citation and co-citation analysis, and keyword co-occurrence examination—all executed through the Biblioshiny interface of R Studio—we delineate four distinct developmental epochs that trace the field's evolution from pre-paradigmatic exploration to consolidation. Citation analysis identifies a compact set of foundational texts, anchored by Verhoef et al. (2021), Chesbrough (2010), and Ghobakhloo (2020), that continue to organise scholarly discourse across sub-fields. Keyword analysis reveals business model innovation, digital transformation, artificial intelligence, and sustainability as the field's dominant conceptual pillars, while also exposing theoretical fault lines at the boundaries of these clusters. The findings offer an empirically grounded road map for future research and establish a replicable methodological benchmark for ongoing monitoring of this rapidly evolving domain.