Mapping the scholarly research on restaurants: a bibliometric analysis

Given the recent surge in restaurant research, there is a need for timely reviews employing quantitative methods to portray the intellectual structure of the field. This paper aims to address this gap by carrying out a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of restaurant research on the Web of Science database. The research investigates the dynamic evolution of the restaurant literature during three critical stages between 1995 and 2021. Based on 1146 journal articles published by 1849 authors, the paper analyzes different bibliometric networks, including co-citation, keyword co-occurrence, and collaboration networks. The study additionally highlights the most influential scholars and publications in the restaurant field. Results indicate that restaurant research has been growing exponentially during the last five years. Findings also show that consumer behavior, consumer satisfaction, consumer-brand relationships, corporate social responsibility, and green restaurants represent the contemporary hotspots in restaurant research. Finally, the study provides practical implications and some opportunities for future research.