The Evolution of FinTech in Scientific Research: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

This study aims to investigate how FinTech evolved over time in research using bibliometric analysis. First, 1359 publications particularly related to the field of FinTech, from 2010 to 2021, were collected from the Scopus database. This study analyzed the fundamental issues and characteristics of FinTech in research, such as the annual contribution of publication, hot in the press, and foci, using theme analysis, concurrence analysis, and timeline analysis of authors’ keywords. Second, prolific objects, such as journals, authors, institutions, countries, regions, and corresponding pivotal cooperative relationship mapping were used to present who leads considerable attention in FinTech research. Third, the citation structures of authors and journals were investigated, and presented the burst detection analysis of cited authors, journals, and references. Finally, combining the analysis results with the current financial environment, the challenges and future development opportunities are discussed further. This bibliometric analysis revealed an increasing annual publication trend, a shifting focus on financial inclusion, a dominance of authors from the USA, and a growing number of international collaborations and publications from different sources, indicating FinTech as a lively field with potential for further scientific enrichment. Accordingly, this comprehensive study of the FinTech documents not only reviews the current research characteristics and trajectories, but also helps scholars find the appropriate research entry-point and conduct in-depth research.