Digital economy research: a bibliometric analysis of its evolution and future study areas

This paper explores the research themes, hotspots, and evolution process of the global digital economy by conducting a bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer and CiteSpace visualisation tools to sort out relevant literature. Extracting source data from the Web of Science database, we analyse the knowledge mapping structure of the international digital economy research and summarise its discipline distribution, research teams, journal distributions, research hotspots and evolution process. Our findings show that the global digital economy research has gone through different evolutionary periods: embryonic (1996-2008), development (2009-2016) and acceleration (after 2016). Privacy protection, business models, financial technology, entrepreneurship, internet, and infrastructure are hot areas of digital economy research. Information technology drives the further development of the digital economy. This study provides certain enlightenment for future digital economy research.