Social structure of social media research in tourism and hospitality

ABSTRACT

In recent years, the number of publications on social media has increased exponentially. Although several attempts have been made to review social media studies in tourism and hospitality, the social structure of collaborative networks has yet to be analysed. By performing authorship and co-authorship analyses of 385 articles, this study explored the progress of social media research and analysed key authors’ productivity, educational background and centrality in research communities. Regional differences in socially constructed social media knowledge were investigated. Networks between universities were also analysed and compared based on region. Findings suggest future research directions for various regions and provide important implications to the academia and industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media
• bibliometric study
• co-authorship analysis
• social structure
• collaboration network

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Fuad Mehraliyev is a PhD candidate in the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests include management and marketing implications of new/emerging information technologies in tourism and hospitality. His particular focus is in social media, big data analytics and smart tourism.

Youngjoon Choi is an assistant professor in the School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His main research interests include social media marketing, the application of media technology in tourism and hospitality, and sustainable tourism.

Mehmet Ali Koseoglu is an assistant professor in the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His main research interests are in strategic management and bibliometric analysis in tourism and hospitality.