Information Technology Governance Research in the Digital Era: A Scopus-Based Bibliometric Analysis
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This study aims to map and analyze the global research landscape of information technology (IT) governance in the digital era through a bibliometric approach. Data were retrieved from the Scopus database and analyzed using VOSviewer software to examine co-authorship patterns, institutional collaborations, country contributions, keyword co-occurrence structures, and citation impact. The co-authorship network reveals that this segment of the literature is dominated by a single, tightly interconnected research team rather than a broad community of independent contributors, while institutional collaboration remains sparse and is bridged only by a public-administration-affiliated unit connecting a geospatial land-governance research community with a cross-border, financial-technology-oriented data-governance community. At the country level, China, the United States, the United Kingdom, India, and Indonesia emerge as the principal hubs of international collaboration, supported by extensive participation from Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, indicating that IT governance research constitutes a genuinely global, multipolar undertaking. The keyword co-occurrence analysis shows that the field is organized around four interconnected clusters covering cybersecurity and blockchain-based governance, artificial intelligence and digital transformation, big data-driven decision-making, and e-government and ICT-based public governance, with digital governance and information management forming the field's conceptual core. The citation analysis further shows that the field's intellectual foundation is anchored in the digital-era governance model and its subsequent extension toward artificial intelligence, alongside diverse contributions from e-government adoption, geospatial data integration, and data-driven policymaking research. Taken together, these findings indicate that IT governance research has developed into a rapidly expanding, technology-driven field, with growing convergence toward artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and data governance as its emerging frontiers.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
References
[1] P. Dunleavy, H. Margetts, S. Bastow, and J. Tinkler, “New public management is dead - Long live digital-era governance,” J. Public Adm. Res. Theory, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 467–494, 2006, doi: 10.1093/jopart/mui057.
[2] P. Dunleavy, H. Margetts, S. Bastow, and J. Tinkler, Digital Era Governance: IT Corporations, the State, and e-Government. Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2011. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199296194.001.0001.
[3] A. Ishlahuddin, P. W. Handayani, K. Hammi, and F. Azzahro, “Analysing IT Governance Maturity Level using COBIT 2019 Framework: A Case Study of Small Size Higher Education Institute (XYZ-edu),” in 2020 3rd International Conference on Computer and Informatics Engineering, IC2IE 2020, 2020, pp. 236–241. doi: 10.1109/IC2IE50715.2020.9274599.
[4] P. Widharto, Z. Suhatman, and R. F. Aji, “Measurement of information technology governance capability level: a case study of PT Bank BBS,” Telkomnika (Telecommunication Comput. Electron. Control., vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 296–306, 2022, doi: 10.12928/TELKOMNIKA.v20i2.21668.
[5] H. Rahman, “Digital Governance Worldwide: A Longitudinal Assessment of Municipal Web Sites,” Electronic Government: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications. IGI Global, SDNP Bangladesh, Bangladesh, pp. 2875–2883, 2008. doi: 10.4018/978-1-59904-947-2.ch215.
[6] D. B. Setyarto and L. Judijanto, “The role of e-government in increasing transparency and accountability of public administration in the digital era,” Edelweiss Appl. Sci. Technol., vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 1771–1783, 2025, doi: 10.55214/25768484.v9i2.4908.
[7] Q. Cai, “How does e-government development affect public trust in the government in China?,” Int. Rev. Adm. Sci., 2026, doi: 10.1177/00208523261457023.
[8] P. Dunleavy and H. Margetts, “Data science, artificial intelligence and the third wave of digital era governance,” Public Policy Adm., vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 185–214, 2025, doi: 10.1177/09520767231198737.
[9] S. Greenstein, “Preserving the rule of law in the era of artificial intelligence (AI),” Artif. Intell. Law, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 291–323, 2022, doi: 10.1007/s10506-021-09294-4.
[10] D. Ravšelj, L. Umek, L. Todorovski, and A. Aristovnik, “A Review of Digital Era Governance Research in the First Two Decades: A Bibliometric Study,” Futur. Internet, vol. 14, no. 5, 2022, doi: 10.3390/fi14050126.
[11] T. Costa, T. Borges-Tiago, F. Martins, and F. Tiago, “System interoperability and data linkage in the era of health information management: A bibliometric analysis,” Heal. Inf. Manag. J., vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 214–226, 2025, doi: 10.1177/18333583241277952.
[12] D. M. Mwanga et al., “Strengthening population and public health data governance in the era of digital technology in Africa,” Perspect. Public Health, vol. 144, no. 2, pp. 66–69, 2024, doi: 10.1177/17579139231216018.
[13] G.-H. Zhou et al., “Theoretical debates and practical development of the ‘three rural issues’ and rural revitalization in the New Era,” J. Nat. Resour., vol. 38, no. 8, pp. 1919–1940, 2023, doi: 10.31497/zrzyxb.20230801.
[14] H. Zhao, J. Chen, S. Guo, Z. Li, and L. YAN, “Constructing a Cross-border Data Governance Paradigm in the International Cooperation Mechanism of Artificial Intelligence,” J. Libr. Inf. Sci. Agric., vol. 37, no. 11, pp. 6–29, 2025, doi: 10.13998/j.cnki.issn1002-1248.25-0729.
[15] J. C. Thomas and G. Streib, “The New Face of Government: Citizen-Initiated Contacts in the Era of E-Government,” J. Public Adm. Res. Theory, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 83–102, 2003, doi: 10.1093/jpart/mug010.
[16] H. Wang, Y. Pan, and X. Luo, “Integration of BIM and GIS in sustainable built environment: A review and bibliometric analysis,” Autom. Constr., vol. 103, pp. 41–52, 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.autcon.2019.03.005.
[17] B. A. Allen, L. Juillet, G. Paquet, and J. Roy, “E-governance & government on-line in Canada: Partnerships, people & prospects,” Gov. Inf. Q., vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 93–104, 2001, doi: 10.1016/S0740-624X(01)00063-6.
[18] S. Giest, “Big data for policymaking: fad or fasttrack?,” Policy Sci., vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 367–382, 2017, doi: 10.1007/s11077-017-9293-1.
[19] S. Ribeiro-Navarrete, J. R. Saura, and D. Palacios-Marqués, “Towards a new era of mass data collection: Assessing pandemic surveillance technologies to preserve user privacy,” Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change, vol. 167, 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120681.
[20] M.-H. Ehlers, R. Huber, and R. Finger, “Agricultural policy in the era of digitalisation,” Food Policy, vol. 100, 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2020.102019.