The Intellectual Evolution of Digital Skills and Competitive Advantage Research: A Scientometric Analysis
Keywords:
Digital skills, Competitive advantage, Organizational capability, Digital transformation, Scientometric analysisAbstract
Digital skills have become a strategic organizational capability for enabling digital transformation and sustaining competitive advantage. Despite the rapid growth of research in this area, the literature remains fragmented across business, management, innovation, and information systems, limiting a comprehensive understanding of its intellectual development. This study conducts a scientometric analysis of research on digital skills and competitive advantage in business and management. A total of 288 English-language journal articles published between 2015 and 2025 were retrieved from the Scopus database and analysed using bibliometric performance analysis and science mapping techniques. The analysis examined publication trends, influential publication sources, keyword co-occurrence, thematic evolution, and conceptual structure. The findings reveal that the field has evolved from an emerging research topic into a mature and interdisciplinary research domain organized around five major thematic clusters: digital transformation, artificial intelligence, innovation, human capital, and sustainability. More importantly, the results demonstrate that digital skills have progressively evolved from individual competencies into strategic organizational capabilities that link digital transformation with innovation and competitive advantage. Unlike previous narrative reviews, this study provides a systematic scientometric perspective on the intellectual evolution of the field, offering valuable insights for future research and managerial practice.References
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Copyright (c) 2025 Nan Zhuang, Mui Yee Cheok
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Published by University Tun Abdul Razak (UNIRAZAK)
