Omni-channel retailing in supply chains: a systematic literature review

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to conduct a structured literature review using advanced bibliometric tools to understand the existing knowledge base, understand the trends in omni-channel (OC) research and identify emerging research topics. Design/methodology/approach: More than 500 articles selected through a keyword combination search from reputed databases of peer-reviewed academic sources from period 2009–19 are analyzed for the purposes of this study. The study first presents an exploratory analysis to determine influential authors, sources and regions, among other key aspects. Second, several network analyses including co-citation and dynamic co-citation network analyses are conducted to identify themes. These allow identifying research clusters and emerging research topics algorithmically. Both centrality and modularity-based clustering are employed. A content analysis of the most influential groups within OC literature for each cluster is included. Findings: The findings of this paper make unique contributions by using advanced tools from network analysis along with the standard bibliometric analysis tools to explore the current status of OC research, identify existing themes and the guidance for potential areas of future research interest in OC. Practical implications: This research provides a comprehensive view of the range of topics of importance that have been discussed in the literature of OC management. These research trends can serve as a quick guide to researchers and practitioners to improve decision making and also develop strategies. Originality/value: The paper employs advanced tools for the first time to review the literature of OC retailing. The sophisticated tools include co-citation and dynamic co-citation network analysis.