Platformization in operations and supply chain management: A bibliometric-systematic literature review with content analyses

Abstract

Platformization, the integration of Internet-driven platforms into the fabric of an application ecosystem, has gained substantial momentum across economic, governance, and infrastructure domains. However, research topics and directions in platformization are scattered and lack a systematic framework, which hinders the progress of platformization research in an era of rapid technological innovation. This paper comprehensively reviews the platformization literature in operations and supply chain management (OSCM), identifying research gaps, addressing the fragmented state of platformization literature, and promoting platformization innovation. Using bibliometric knowledge mapping, we analyze 402 journal articles and identify 13 key research areas. An in-depth content analysis based on 168 papers is conducted to identify five research themes: platformization in collaborative manufacturing, platformization in operational decisions, platformization in sustainability in supply chains, platformization in e-commerce supply chains, and platformization in technology innovation in supply chains. Using CiteSpace, we conduct author analysis, institution analysis, keyword co-occurrence network-based cluster analysis, and trend analysis to reveal keywords at the forefront of platform research. The study reveals the temporal evolution of keywords and emerging research trends and concludes with actionable directions for future exploration. This research establishes a robust roadmap for the evolving field and provides a foundational bibliometric knowledge structure map for platformization in OSCM.