Mapping knowledge landscapes in influencer marketing and social media: A scientometric perspective

This study examines influencer marketing on social media from a bibliometric perspective, using the SPAR-4-SLR framework. It provides a quantitative evaluation of productivity, authorship, citation sources, and research domains by analyzing 1,067 peer-reviewed articles from the Scopus database. Additionally, the study offers a scientometric analysis of key indicators related to influencer marketing on social media, such as the domain's evolution, leading authors and sources, the impact of scholarly work, and insights into the scientific production process. Performance analysis techniques, including Total Publications, Productivity per Active Year, Total Citations, Average Citations (AC), Collaboration Index (CI), h-index, g-index, and h-10 index, were used to identify research trends. To decompose the intellectual structure of the topic, science mapping techniques such as co-word analysis, co-citation analysis, and thematic mapping were employed, following the SPAR-4-SLR framework. The study’s findings offer transparent and systematic insights into the intellectual dynamics and conceptual foundations of influencer marketing on social media, highlighting the cumulative advancements in this field. Emerging topics like virtual influencers and influencer credibility were identified as trends for future research. This comprehensive understanding of influencer marketing, its conceptual dynamics, and structural perspective will assist marketers (brands), policymakers (governments), academics, and social media service providers in shaping policies and guiding future research through the quantitative analysis of existing literature in this field.