Diagnosing Core Topics in Digital Transformation Studies via Topic Model Approach

Year 2025, Issue: 57, 32 - 54, 30.08.2025

Hüseyin Parmaksız , Osman Akarsu

https://doi.org/10.52642/susbed.1617370

Abstract

The field of digital transformation continues to develop and expand rapidly due to technological advances. This study uses text mining techniques to analyze 5280 articles published between 2014 and 2024 using the LDA model and the Gibbs sampling method, the study identifies the most prominent topics on digital transformation research. Traditional methods, which rely on predefined categories and subjective judgment, are inadequate for identifying underlying themes in large datasets. The study identifies the most prominent topics in digital transformation research and tracks trends by tracking changes in topic rankings across different periods. It also explores sub- specialization areas across 1065 digital transformation journals and assesses how shifts in these areas impact the broader topic landscape. The findings provide valuable insights for practitioners, researchers, journal editors, and policymakers involved in digital transformation.

Keywords

Digital Transformation Research , Text Mining , Topic Model Approach

Dijital Dönüşüm Çalışmalarındaki Temel Konuların Topik Model Yaklaşımı ile Belirlenmesi

Abstract

Dijital dönüşüm alanı, teknolojik ilerlemelere bağlı olarak hızla gelişmeye ve genişlemeye devam etmektedir. Bu çalışma, LDA modeli ve Gibbs örnekleme yöntemini kullanarak 2014-2024 yılları arasında yayınlanan 5280 makaleyi analiz etmek için metin madenciliği tekniklerini kullanmakta ve dijital dönüşüm araştırmalarında en öne çıkan konuları belirlemektedir. Önceden tanımlanmış kategorilere ve öznel yargılara dayanan geleneksel yöntemler, büyük veri kümelerinde altta yatan temaları belirlemek için yetersiz kalmaktadır. Çalışma, dijital dönüşüm araştırmalarında en öne çıkan konuları belirlemekte ve farklı dönemlerdeki konu sıralamalarındaki değişiklikleri takip ederek eğilimleri izlemektedir. Ayrıca 1065 dijital dönüşüm dergisindeki alt uzmanlık alanlarını araştırıyor ve bu alanlardaki değişimlerin daha geniş konu manzarasını nasıl etkilediğini değerlendiriyor. Bulgular, dijital dönüşümle ilgilenen uygulayıcılar, araştırmacılar, dergi editörleri ve politika yapıcılar için değerli içgörüler sağlamaktadır.

Keywords

Dijital Dönüşüm Araştırması , Metin Madenciliği , Topik Model Yaklaşımı

References

• Agarwal, R., Gao, G., DesRoches, C., & Jha, A. K. (2010). Research commentary—The digital transformation of healthcare: Current status and the road ahead. Information systems research, 21(4), 796-809.
• Alnuaimi, B. K., Singh, S. K., Ren, S., Budhwar, P., & Vorobyev, D. (2022). Mastering digital transformation: The nexus between leadership, agility, and digital strategy. Journal of business research, 145, 636-648.
• Amit, R., & Han, X. (2017). Value creation through novel resource configurations in a digitally enabled world. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 11(3), 228-242.
• Andal-Ancion, A., Cartwright, P. A., & Yip, G. S. (2003). The digital transformation of traditional business. MIT Sloan Management Review, 44(4), 34.
• Arun, R., Suresh, V., Veni Madhavan, C., & Narasimha Murthy, M. (2010). On finding the natural number of topics with latent dirichlet allocation: Some observations. Paper presented at the Advances in Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining: 14th Pacific-Asia Conference, PAKDD 2010, Hyderabad, India, June 21-24, 2010. Proceedings. Part I 14.
• Avaner, T., & Çelik, M. (2021). Türkiye’de dijital dönüşüm ofisi ve yapay zeka yönetimi: Büyük Veri ve Yapay Zeka Daire Başkanlığı’nın geleceği üzerine. Medeniyet Araştırmaları Dergisi, 6(2), 1-18.
• Azagra-Caro, J. M., & Consoli, D. (2016). Knowledge flows, the influence of national R&D structure and the moderating role of public–private cooperation. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 41, 152-172.
• Bağış, M. (2021). Bibliyometrik araştırmalarda kullanılan başlıca analiz teknikleri. İçinde Bir Literatür İncelemesi Aracı Olarak Bibliyometrik Analiz, 1, 97-109.
• Bağış, M., Kryeziu, L., Akbaba, Y., Ramadani, V., Karaguezel, E. S., & Krasniqi, B. A. (2022). The micro-foundations of a dynamic technological capability in the automotive industry. Technology in Society, 70, 102060.
• Balli, A. (2022). Türkiye'de Dijital Dönüşüm ve Girişimcilik. Third Sector Social Economic Review, 57(1), 251-279.
• Barca, M., & Esen, S. (2012). Rekabet Avantajı Sağlama ve Sürdürmede Stratejik Yaklaşımlar. Social Sciences, 7(2), 89-107.
• Bastani, K., Namavari, H., & Shaffer, J. (2019). Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) for topic modeling of the CFPB consumer complaints. Expert Systems with Applications, 127, 256-271.
• Beelen, K., Thijm, T. A., Cochrane, C., Halvemaan, K., Hirst, G., Kimmins, M., . . . Rheault, L. (2017). Digitization of the Canadian parliamentary debates. Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique, 50(3), 849-864.
• Berman, S. J. (2012). Digital transformation: opportunities to create new business models. Strategy & leadership, 40(2), 16-24.
• Björkdahl, J. (2020). Strategies for digitalization in manufacturing firms. California management review, 62(4), 17-36.
• Blanka, C., Krumay, B., & Rueckel, D. (2022). The interplay of digital transformation and employee competency: A design science approach. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 178, 121575.
• Blei, D. M. (2012). Probabilistic topic models. Communications of the ACM, 55(4), 77-84.
• Blei, D. M., Ng, A. Y., & Jordan, M. I. (2003). Latent dirichlet allocation. Journal of machine Learning research, 3(Jan), 993-1022.
• Browder, R. E., Dwyer, S. M., & Koch, H. (2024). Upgrading adaptation: How digital transformation promotes organizational resilience. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 18(1), 128-164.
• Borovkov, A., Rozhdestvenskiy, O., Pavlova, E., Glazunov, A., & Savichev, K. (2021). Key barriers of digital transformation of the high-technology manufacturing: An evaluation method. Sustainability, 13(20), 11153.
• Bumann, J., & Peter, M. (2019). Action fields of digital transformation–a review and comparative analysis of digital transformation maturity models and frameworks. Digitalisierung und andere Innovationsformen im Management, 2(November), 13-40.
• Cao, J., Xia, T., Li, J., Zhang, Y., & Tang, S. (2009). A density-based method for adaptive LDA model selection. Neurocomputing, 72(7-9), 1775-1781.
• Chakravorty, T., Jha, K., Barthwal, S., & Chakraborty, S. (2020). Digital technologies as antecedents to process integration and dynamic capabilities in healthcare: an empirical investigation. Journal of International Technology and Information Management, 28(4), 84-111.
• Chen, X., Zou, D., & Xie, H. (2020). Fifty years of British Journal of Educational Technology: A topic modeling based bibliometric perspective. British Journal of Educational Technology, 51(3), 692-708.
• Civelek, M., Krajčík, V., & Ključnikov, A. (2023). The impacts of dynamic capabilities on SMEs' digital transformation process: The resource-based view perspective. Oeconomia Copernicana, 14(4), 1367-1392.
• Cobo, M. J., López‐Herrera, A. G., Herrera‐Viedma, E., & Herrera, F. (2012). SciMAT: A new science mapping analysis software tool. Journal of the American Society for information Science and Technology, 63(8), 1609-1630.
• Cosa, M. (2024). Business digital transformation: strategy adaptation, communication and future agenda. Journal of Strategy and Management, 17(2), 244-259.
• Deveaud, R., SanJuan, E., & Bellot, P. (2014). Accurate and effective latent concept modeling for ad hoc information retrieval. Document numérique, 17(1), 61-84.
• Díaz, A., Guerra, L., & Díaz, E. (2021). Digital transformation impact in security and privacy. In Developments and Advances in Defense and Security: Proceedings of MICRADS 2021 (pp. 61-70). Springer.
• DiMaggio, P., Nag, M., & Blei, D. (2013). Exploiting affinities between topic modeling and the sociological perspective on culture: Application to newspaper coverage of US government arts funding. Poetics, 41(6), 570-606.
• Döven, M. S., & Gürpınar, K. (2007). Stratejik yönetim perspektifinden Türk mobilya sektörünün rekabet durumunun analizi ve değerlendirilmesi. Afyon Kocatepe Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi, 9(1), 173-190.
• Du, W., Ge, C., Yao, S., Chen, N., & Xu, L. (2023). Applicability analysis and ensemble application of BERT with TF-IDF, TextRank, MMR, and LDA for topic classification based on flood-related VGI. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 12(6), 240.
• Ellström, D., Holtström, J., Berg, E., & Josefsson, C. (2021). Dynamic capabilities for digital transformation. Journal of Strategy and Management, 15(2), 272-286.
• Favoretto, C., Mendes, G. H. d. S., Filho, M. G., Gouvea de Oliveira, M., & Ganga, G. M. D. (2022). Digital transformation of business model in manufacturing companies: challenges and research agenda. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 37(4), 748-767.
• Fitzpatrick, M., Gill, I., Libarikian, A., Smaje, K., & Zemmel, R. (2020). The digital-led recovery from COVID-19: Five questions for CEOs. McKinsey & Company.
• Frank, A. G., Dalenogare, L. S., & Ayala, N. F. (2019). Industry 4.0 technologies: Implementation patterns in manufacturing companies. International journal of production economics, 210, 15-26.
• Furr, N., Ozcan, P., & Eisenhardt, K. M. (2022). What is digital transformation? Core tensions facing established companies on the global stage. Global Strategy Journal, 12(4), 595-618.
• Garzoni, A., De Turi, I., Secundo, G., & Del Vecchio, P. (2020). Fostering digital transformation of SMEs: a four levels approach. Management Decision, 58(8), 1543-1562.
• George, C. P., & Doss, H. (2018). Principled selection of hyperparameters in the latent Dirichlet allocation model. Journal of machine Learning research, 18(162), 1-38.
• Gollhardt, T., Halsbenning, S., Hermann, A., Karsakova, A., & Becker, J. (2020). Development of a digital transformation maturity model for IT companies. Paper presented at the 2020 IEEE 22nd Conference on Business Informatics (CBI).
• Gomes, L. A. d. V., Flechas, A., Facin, A. L. F., Borini, F. M., Stefani, B., & Leal, L. F. (2024). Entrepreneurial judgment governance adaptation for digital transformation in established firms. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 18(1), 200-225.
• Griffiths, T., & Steyvers, M. (2004). Finding scientific topics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. vol, 101, p9.
• Grimmer, J., & Stewart, B. M. (2013). Text as data: The promise and pitfalls of automatic content analysis methods for political texts. Political analysis, 21(3), 267-297.
• Gurusamy, K., Srinivasaraghavan, N., & Adikari, S. (2016). An integrated framework for design thinking and agile methods for digital transformation. Paper presented at the Design, User Experience, and Usability: Design Thinking and Methods: 5th International Conference, DUXU 2016, Held as Part of HCI International 2016, Toronto, Canada, July 17–22, 2016, Proceedings, Part I 5.
• Hanelt, A., Bohnsack, R., Marz, D., & Antunes Marante, C. (2021). A systematic review of the literature on digital transformation: Insights and implications for strategy and organizational change. Journal of Management Studies, 58(5), 1159-1197.
• Hausberg, J. P., Liere-Netheler, K., Packmohr, S., Pakura, S., & Vogelsang, K. (2019). Research streams on digital transformation from a holistic business perspective: a systematic literature review and citation network analysis. Journal of Business Economics, 89, 931-963.
• Heavin, C., & Power, D. J. (2018). Challenges for digital transformation–towards a conceptual decision support guide for managers. Journal of Decision Systems, 27(sup1), 38-45.
• Huang, Y. (2024). Digital transformation of enterprises: Job creation or job destruction? Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 208, 123733.
• Jafari-Sadeghi, V., Mahdiraji, H. A., Alam, G. M., & Mazzoleni, A. (2023). Entrepreneurs as strategic transformation managers: Exploring micro-foundations of digital transformation in small and medium internationalisers. Journal of business research, 154, 113287.
• Kammerlander, N., König, A., & Richards, M. (2018). Why do incumbents respond heterogeneously to disruptive innovations? The interplay of domain identity and role identity. Journal of Management Studies, 55(7), 1122-1165.
• Karadağ, H., Şahin, F., Karamollaoğlu, N., & Saunila, M. (2024). Disentangling the dynamic digital capability, digital transformation, and organizational performance relationships in SMEs: a configurational analysis based on fsQCA. Information Technology and Management, 1-17.
• Kensbock, J. M., & Stöckmann, C. (2021). “Big brother is watching you”: surveillance via technology undermines employees’ learning and voice behavior during digital transformation. Journal of Business Economics, 91(4), 565-594.
• Khoshroo, M., & Talari, M. (2023). Scientific mapping of digital transformation strategy research studies in the Industry 4.0: a bibliometric analysis. Nankai Business Review International, 14(1), 3-34.
• Khurana, I., Dutta, D. K., & Ghura, A. S. (2022). SMEs and digital transformation during a crisis: The emergence of resilience as a second-order dynamic capability in an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Journal of business research, 150, 623-641.
• Kim, D., Seo, D., Cho, S., & Kang, P. (2019). Multi-co-training for document classification using various document representations: TF–IDF, LDA, and Doc2Vec. Information sciences, 477, 15-29.
• Kim, S.-W., & Gil, J.-M. (2019). Research paper classification systems based on TF-IDF and LDA schemes. Human-centric Computing and Information Sciences, 9, 1-21.
• Kırmızı, M., & Kocaoglu, B. (2022). Digital transformation maturity model development framework based on design science: case studies in manufacturing industry. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 33(7), 1319-1346.
• Kotarba, M. (2018). Digital transformation of business models. Foundations of management, 10(1), 123-142.
• Kraus, S., Jones, P., Kailer, N., Weinmann, A., Chaparro-Banegas, N., & Roig-Tierno, N. (2021). Digital transformation: An overview of the current state of the art of research. Sage Open, 11(3), 21582440211047576.
• Kwilinski, A. (2023). The relationship between sustainable development and digital transformation: bibliometric analysis. Virtual Economics, 6(3), 56-69.
• Lakemond, N., Holmberg, G., & Pettersson, A. (2020). Digital Transformation in Complex Systems–Implications and Avenues for Further Research. Paper presented at the Academy of Management Proceedings.
• Lee, C.-H., Liu, C.-L., Trappey, A. J., Mo, J. P., & Desouza, K. C. (2021). Understanding digital transformation in advanced manufacturing and engineering: A bibliometric analysis, topic modeling and research trend discovery. Advanced Engineering Informatics, 50, 101428.
• Lee, S., & Peng, T.-Q. (2023). Understanding audience behavior with digital traces: past, present, and future. Digital Journalism, 1-25.
• Lesnikowski, A., Belfer, E., Rodman, E., Smith, J., Biesbroek, R., Wilkerson, J. D., . . . Berrang‐Ford, L. (2019). Frontiers in data analytics for adaptation research: Topic modeling. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 10(3), e576.
• Li, F. (2020). The digital transformation of business models in the creative industries: A holistic framework and emerging trends. Technovation, 92, 102012.
• Li, H. (2024). Smart Practice of Integrating Administrative Management and Human Resources of Chinese Local Governments under the Background of Digital Transformation. Lex localis-Journal of Local Self-Government, 22(3), 209-227.
• Li, H., Wu, Y., Cao, D., & Wang, Y. (2021). Organizational mindfulness towards digital transformation as a prerequisite of information processing capability to achieve market agility. Journal of business research, 122, 700-712.
• Li, R., Rao, J., & Wan, L. (2022). The digital economy, enterprise digital transformation, and enterprise innovation. Managerial and Decision Economics, 43(7), 2875-2886.
• Lichtenthaler, U. (2017). Shared value innovation: Linking competitiveness and societal goals in the context of digital transformation. International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management, 14(04), 1750018.
• Liu, Y., Wang, J., Qian, Y., Jiang, Y., Sun, J., & Chai, Y. (2021). Dynamic Topic Model for Tracking Topic Evolution and Measuring Popularity of Scientific Literature. Paper presented at the 2021 IEEE Sixth International Conference on Data Science in Cyberspace (DSC).
• Liu, D. Y., Chen, S. W., & Chou, T. C. (2011). Resource fit in digital transformation: Lessons learned from the CBC Bank global e‐banking project. Management Decision, 49(10), 1728-1742.
• Machado, F., Duarte, N., Amaral, A., & Araujo, M. (2022). Digital transformation in manufacturing SMEs: A bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 12th International Scientific Conference on Business and Management.
• Maier, D., Waldherr, A., Miltner, P., Wiedemann, G., Niekler, A., Keinert, A., . . . Häussler, T. (2021). Applying LDA topic modeling in communication research: Toward a valid and reliable methodology Computational methods for communication science (pp. 13-38): Routledge.
• Martins, H. (2019). Digital transformation and digital leadership. Healthcare informatics research, 25(4), 350-351.
• Matarazzo, M., Penco, L., Profumo, G., & Quaglia, R. (2021). Digital transformation and customer value creation in Made in Italy SMEs: A dynamic capabilities perspective. Journal of business research, 123, 642-656.
• Melo, I. C., Queiroz, G. A., Junior, P. N. A., de Sousa, T. B., Yushimito, W. F., & Pereira, J. (2023). Sustainable digital transformation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs): A review on performance. Heliyon, 9(3).
• Mimno, D., Wallach, H., Talley, E., Leenders, M., & McCallum, A. (2011, July). Optimizing semantic coherence in topic models. In Proceedings of the 2011 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (pp. 262–272). Association for Computational Linguistics.
• Naji, K. K., Gunduz, M., Alhenzab, F., Al-Hababi, H., & Al-Qahtani, A. (2024). Assessing the Digital Transformation Readiness of the Construction Industry Utilizing the Delphi Method. Buildings, 14(3), 601.
• Nambisan, S. (2017). Digital entrepreneurship: Toward a digital technology perspective of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship theory and practice, 41(6), 1029-1055.
• Nasiri, M., Ukko, J., Saunila, M., & Rantala, T. (2020). Managing the digital supply chain: The role of smart technologies. Technovation, 96, 102121.
• Neeley, T., & Leonardi, P. (2022). Developing a digital mindset. Harvard Business Review, 100(5-6), 50-55.
• Neuendorf, K. A. (2017). The content analysis guidebook: sage.
• Niemand, T., Rigtering, J. C., Kallmünzer, A., Kraus, S., & Maalaoui, A. (2021). Digitalization in the financial industry: A contingency approach of entrepreneurial orientation and strategic vision on digitalization. European Management Journal, 39(3), 317-326.
• Nikita, M. (2016). Select number of topics for LDA model. CRAN R Project.
• Omrani, N., Rejeb, N., Maalaoui, A., Dabić, M., & Kraus, S. (2022). Drivers of digital transformation in SMEs. IEEE transactions on engineering management.
• Pelletier, C., & Cloutier, L. M. (2019). Conceptualising digital transformation in SMEs: an ecosystemic perspective. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 26(6/7), 855-876.
• Pizzi, S., Venturelli, A., Variale, M., & Macario, G. P. (2021). Assessing the impacts of digital transformation on internal auditing: A bibliometric analysis. Technology in Society, 67, 101738.
• Plekhanov, D., Franke, H., & Netland, T. H. (2022). Digital transformation: A review and research agenda. European Management Journal.
• Poikkimäki, P. (2023). Resistance to resistance in digital transformation of an incumbent company. P. Poikkimäki.
• Porter, M. E. (2008). Competitive advantage: Creating and sustaining superior performance: simon and schuster.
• Purwanto, H., Wibowo, L. A., & Rahayu, A. (2023). Covid-19 Pandemic as a Catalyst for Digital Transformation: A Bibliometric Analysis using Vosviewer. Jurnal Manajemen Bisnis, 10(1), 120-141.
• Qin, B., & Qi, S. (2021). Digital transformation of urban governance in China: The emergence and evolution of smart cities. Digital LJ, 2, 29.
• Quinn, K. M., Monroe, B. L., Colaresi, M., Crespin, M. H., & Radev, D. R. (2010). How to analyze political attention with minimal assumptions and costs. American Journal of Political Science, 54(1), 209-228.
• Rosenbloom, R. S. (2000). Leadership, capabilities, and technological change: The transformation of NCR in the electronic era. Strategic management journal, 21(10‐11), 1083-1103.
• Saeedikiya, M., Salunke, S., & Kowalkiewicz, M. (2024). Toward a dynamic capability perspective of digital transformation in SMEs: A study of the mobility sector. Journal of cleaner production, 439, 140718.
• Schallmo, D., Williams, C. A., & Boardman, L. (2017). Digital transformation of business models—best practice, enablers, and roadmap. International journal of innovation management, 21(08), 1740014.
• Shi, L., Mai, Y., & Wu, Y. J. (2022). Digital transformation: a bibliometric analysis. Journal of Organizational and End User Computing (JOEUC), 34(7), 1-20.
• Small, H., Boyack, K. W., & Klavans, R. (2014). Identifying emerging topics in science and technology. Research policy, 43(8), 1450-1467.
• Soluk, J., & Kammerlander, N. (2021). Digital transformation in family-owned Mittelstand firms: A dynamic capabilities perspective. European Journal of Information Systems, 30(6), 676-711.
• Stich, V., Zeller, V., Hicking, J., & Kraut, A. (2020). Measures for a successful digital transformation of SMEs. Procedia Cirp, 93, 286-291.
• Teece, D. J. (2019). Strategic renewal and dynamic capabilities: Managing uncertainty, irreversibilities, and congruence Strategic Renewal (pp. 21-51): Routledge.
• Ulas, D. (2019). Digital transformation process and SMEs. Procedia Computer Science, 158, 662-671.
• Vaska, S., Massaro, M., Bagarotto, E. M., & Dal Mas, F. (2021). The digital transformation of business model innovation: A structured literature review. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 539363.
• Vendraminelli, L., Macchion, L., Nosella, A., & Vinelli, A. (2023). Design thinking: strategy for digital transformation. Journal of Business Strategy, 44(4), 200-210.
• Verhoef, P. C., Broekhuizen, T., Bart, Y., Bhattacharya, A., Dong, J. Q., Fabian, N., & Haenlein, M. (2021). Digital transformation: A multidisciplinary reflection and research agenda. Journal of business research, 122, 889-901.
• Vial, G. (2021). Understanding digital transformation: A review and a research agenda. Managing digital transformation, 13-66.
• Wang, Q. (2018). A bibliometric model for identifying emerging research topics. Journal of the association for information science and technology, 69(2), 290-304.
• Warner, K. S., & Wäger, M. (2019). Building dynamic capabilities for digital transformation: An ongoing process of strategic renewal. Long range planning, 52(3), 326-349.
• Yang, Y.-q., Li, S.-c., & Xie, T.-y. (2024). Research on the Optimization of Digital Transformation of Social Assistance Based on Entropy Change Theory. Journal of Risk Analysis and Crisis Response, 14(2).
• Zaoui, F., & Souissi, N. (2018). Onto-digital: An ontology-based model for digital transformation’s knowledge. innovation, 5, 6.
• Zaoui, F., & Souissi, N. (2020). Roadmap for digital transformation: A literature review. Procedia Computer Science, 175, 621-628.
• Zhou, F. (2019). Gaining Competitive Advantage through Digital Transformation. Technology Art Sciences TH Koln.
• Zhu, K., Dong, S., Xu, S. X., & Kraemer, K. L. (2006). Innovation diffusion in global contexts: determinants of post-adoption digital transformation of European companies. European Journal of Information Systems, 15(6), 601-616.