Optimization in supply chain management, the current state and future directions: A systematic review and bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is finding the current state of research and identifies high-potential area for future investigation in optimization in supply chain management.

Design/methodology/approach: In this paper we present Bibliometric and Network analysis to examine current state research on optimization in supply chain management to identify established and emergent research field for future investigation. The systematic research review which we used in our study have not grasp or assess by other researchers on this topic. Firstly, based on our methodology Bibliometric analysis began by identifying 1610 publications raised from scientific journals, included literatures from 1994 to March of 2016. Secondly, we applied PageRank algorithm in our data for citation analysis to indicate the significance of a publication. Thirdly, the topological decision variables analysis is done based on Louvain method for network data clustering, for this proposes we used the rigorous tools.

Finding: Based on our Network analysis result, the optimization in supply chain management research can be divided into four clusters /modules that introduced fundamental skill, knowledge, theory, application and method.

Research limitations/implications: We presented some limitation in our research in some fields which could allow new researchers and practitioners conduct the future research to grow up in different dimensions.

Practical implications: Practitioners or policy maker usually are not familiar with these type researches so this is why mush of these survey remain in theatrical and conceptual .Future investigation needs to play in practical application  domain instead stop merely in opinion.   

Originality/value: Based on our research, the researchers have more attention to work in conceptual analysis due to other fields but we believe that in facility location problem there many remarkable rooms still exist for future research to development. We also contributed more details in the papers.