Mapping brand community research from 2001 to 2021: Assessing the field's stage of development and a research agenda

Since the first paper on brand communities published in 2001, academic research on the area has accumulated substantially. To gain insight into the status and dynamics of this field, this study draws data from the Scopus database and uses bibliometrics and systematic review to analyse this body of knowledge and assess its stage of development. The results show that brand community research is rapidly growing and dynamic, attracting attention from an increasing number of scholars and journals. Most output originates from the United States and China, and adopts a survey approach. Prominent field topics include social media-based brand community, the impact of brand community on brand relationship, consumer behavior and brand management, and brand engagement. This research concludes that brand community research is in the late growth or early maturity stage in most aspects, and discusses the future research directions that can benefit the area.