Business Oriented Research on Cloud Computing: Insights from a Citation Network and Content Analysis

Research on the business perspective of cloud computing (BPCC) is a promising but emerging field. The purpose of this study is to (a) map the scope and structure of existing literature, (b) identify the most influential research papers in the field, and (c) explore the level of analysis, research methodologies, hot topics and emerging frontiers. Specifically, we use visualized citation analysis of 2205 articles and 2423 citations collected from ISI Web of Knowledge to map the field from 2005 to 2012. Our results show that the citations are particularly unevenly distributed and papers on BPCC are seldom co-cited. In addition, an in-depth content analysis of 115 articles is conducted and 11 research topics are identified. Furthermore, research gaps such as lack of solid theoretical foundation, deficiency in disaggregating cloud service layer when investigating adoption issues, and scarce of indepth analysis of business value of cloud computing are identified and a research agenda is proposed. This paper can help researchers identify how they may want to contribute to the field of BPCC.