Discovering prominent themes in integrated marketing communication research from 1991 to 2012: a co-word analytic approach

Abstract

This paper analyses integrated marketing communications (IMC) research from its inception in 1991, up to 2012 (included). A bibliometric approach has been applied for the first time to detect and visualize conceptual sub-domains and identify the most salient themes within IMC research via combining co-word analysis and science mapping. The quantitative analysis of a corpus of IMC manuscripts contributes to complement the previous qualitative reviews by using the Wakita and Tsurumi agglomeration algorithm and two-dimensional graphs. The results enable the authors to provide a structure for the conceptual sub-domains, classification of the themes showing internal associations into four groups, and identification of the main research trends. This paper seeks to respond to the calls for greater theoretical clarification of the IMC discipline providing a snapshot of the thematic evolution of IMC research over time enabling researchers to better understand the current state of the art and suggesting future research directions.

Keywords:

• integrated marketing communications
• IMC
• bibliometric study
• co-word analysis
• conceptual evolution

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial help provided by the ADEMAR research group (University of Granada) under the auspices of the Campus of International Excellence CEI BioTic for R&D (20F12/43) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness Research Project (ECO2012-39576).