Adoption Pathways in Blockchain: A Managerial Bibliometric Overview

Blockchain research in management has expanded rapidly but remains conceptually fragmented. This paper integrates that discourse by conducting a science-mapping bibliometric review of 356 peer-reviewed studies indexed in Scopus. A keyword co-occurrence network reveals three dominant themes that trace a sequential route of adoption. The first theme tests trust and institutional legitimacy; the second evaluates cost, incentives and governance; the third records operational and sustainability outcomes. These themes parallel Rogers’s innovation-decision curve and resonate with Teece’s dynamic-capability logic, allowing the derivation of an Adoption Pathway that positions sectors along discrete stages. When mapped, public and health organisations concentrate at the legitimacy stage, restrained by regulation, whereas manufacturing and logistics have progressed to performance verification. The pathway offers scholars a structured agenda for theory development and provides managers with a diagnostic compass for advancing blockchain projects from concept to measurable impact.