Research Trends Analysis by Comparing Data Mining and Customer Relationship Management through Bibliometric Methodology

Abstract

There are few comprehensive studies and categorization schemes to discuss the characteristics for both data mining and customer relationship management (CRM) although they have already become more important recently. Using a bibliometric approach, this paper analyzes data mining and CRM research trends from 1989 to 2009 by locating headings "data mining" and "customer relationship management" or "CRM" in topics in the SSCI database. The bibliometric analytical technique was used to examine these two topics in SSCI journals from 1989 to 2009, we found 1181 articles with data mining and 1145 articles with CRM. This paper implemented and classified data mining and CRM articles using the following eight categories -- publication year, citation, country/territory, document type, institute name, language, source title and subject area -- for different distribution status in order to explore the differences and how data mining and CRM technologies have developed in this period and to analyze data mining and CRM technology tendencies under the above result. Also, the paper performs the K-S test to check whether the analysis follows Lotka`s law. The research findings can be extended to investigate author productivity by analyzing variables such as chronological and academic age, number and frequency of previous publications, access to research grants, job status, etc. In such a way characteristics of high, medium and low publishing activity of authors can be identified. Besides, these findings will also help to judge scientific research trends and understand the scale of development of research in data mining and CRM through comparing the increases of the article author. Based on the above information, governments and enterprises may infer collective tendencies and demands for scientific researcher in data mining and CRM to formulate appropriate training strategies and policies in the future. This analysis provides a roadmap for future research, abstracts technology trends and facilitates knowledge accumulations so that data mining and CRM researchers can save some time since core knowledge will be concentrated in core categories. This implies that the phenomenon "success breeds success" is more common in higher quality publications. Adapted from the source document.