Cloud computing research in the IS discipline: A citation/co-citation analysis

Cloud computing is one of the hottest topics in the field of information systems. In this paper, we conduct a citation and co-citation analysis on cloud computing research published in the 11-year period from 2004 to 2014. A total of 214 papers were selected from 20 leading academic journals in IS and management and 2 prominent international IS conferences for our analysis. In the citation analysis, we rely on the degree centrality and betweenness centrality to identify 41 important papers. In addition, our main path analysis reveals three development stages of cloud computing research: the incubation stage, the exploration stage, and the burgeoning stage. In the co-citation analysis, we employ a principal component factor analysis of the co-citation matrix to identify six major research themes: foundations, SaaS model, security and risk, literature review, adoption and impacts, and modeling. This is among the first studies to examine the knowledge structure of cloud computing research in the IS discipline by using evidence-based analysis methods. Recommendations for future research directions in cloud computing are provided based on our analysis. (c) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.