Global Evaluation of Internet Banking Research: A Scientometric Study on Trends, Growth and Impact

INTRODUCTION

Internet banking has, in very rapid development, changed the global financial sector to become more accessible, efficient and user-friendly. Such a revelation brought crucial academic interest in this wave of change that led to an ever-growing body of work on Internet banking, such as technological innovation, user adoption, security and regulatory challenges. Such scientometric analysis of Internet banking research would capture useful insights regarding the evaluation of these fields on production growth, geographical contributions and thematic areas. Thus, study is likely to map the global trajectory of Internet banking research, along with the most important contributors, influential publications and newly emerging areas, providing an adequate overview of the development of the field and future directions.

Modern-day trade demands massive payments to be settled fast over long distances with minimum transaction costs (Pandey, 2022). The study examines consumer perception toward digital payment. The e-transfer of money has been around for a few years and the country has greatly benefited from this technological advancement (M, 2022). The global spread and use of the internet and mobile phones contribute to the development new forms of money and financial payments. The global spread and use of the Internet and mobile phones contribute to the development of new forms of money and financial payments (Shi and Sun, 2020). The digital payment landscape is undergoing consumer behavior. With the expected increase in e-commerce, e-wallet, transactions and digital payment user base, it is clear that digitalization is not only a continuing trend but one that is primed for major expansion (Mohd Ishar et al., 2024). A digital payment, also called electronic payment, is the transfer of money from one payment account to another using a digital device such as a mobile phone, POS (point of Sales), or computer, a digital channel of communication such as mobile wireless data or SWIFT (Society for the worldwide interbank financial telecommunication (Veena and Epsheeba, 2023). Digital banking refers to the virtual procedure in which financial services are offered over the Internet by digital banks (Riani and Rusydiana, 2022). The use of money as a medium of exchange is an intermediary tool that makes it easier to sell and purchase. When a payment is made electronically, it is referred to as an e-payment (Verma and Gaur, 2023). Mobile payment are moving towards a cashless society (Susanti and Reza, 2023).

LITERATURE REVIEW

Over the past five years, scientometric analyses have shed light on internet banking, focusing on research trends, growth and impact. Studies have generally utilized data mining tools and citation databases like Scopus to analyze the progression of digital banking, the global spread of Internet banking adoption and its transformative role within financial systems. For instance, Alfawareh and Al-Kofahi (2021) examined the expanding FinTech domain, highlighting diversification in services like peer-to-peer lending and mobile payments, often mapped through co-occurrence networks via VOSviewer, which visualize key research connections.

Recent research emphasizes digital banking’s role in economic shifts, operational efficiency and its broader financial impact. By examining thematic areas and keyword networks, these studies provide insights into collaboration trends and publication growth, revealing emerging gaps and future research avenues within global banking systems.

Recent literature on internet banking and financial technology highlights multiple trends through scientometric analyses. Researchers, using tools like VOSviewer, have mapped keywords and collaborations, showcasing growth in digital finance topics such as open banking and FinTech. A bibliometric study by van Zeeland and Pierson (2021) explored open banking definitions, highlighting its significance in financial ecosystems and regulatory variations across regions. Another study focused on mobile banking, observing increased research output related to technological acceptance and data security in Internet banking, with implications for customer engagement and policy frameworks.

OBJECTIVES

The main objectives of the study are to study the performance of Global Internet banking publications output from 2005 to 2024, based on publications output covered in the Web of Science citation database. In particular, the study focuses on the following objectives. To study the global research output in Internet banking. To study the document type of research output. To study international collaboration, share the most productive countries. To study the Source of publications in Internet banking. To study the top 20 most productive organizations. To study the trends by identifying significant keywords.

METHODS

On October 27, 2024, the Web of Science citation database (https://clarivate.com) was queried to identify and download published articles in the field of Internet banking. We restricted the publication years from 2005 to 2024. The articles from the database were sorted from the most to least publications, year-wise, document type, sources-wise, institution of origin, authors, country collaborations and significant keywords identified were exported into a spreadsheet and analyzed using Microsoft Excel Software. The VOSViewer software (version 1.6.15, Leiden University Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Leiden, Netherlands) was used to construct networks of force-authorship among countries, institutions, authors and occurrence of keywords.

RESULTS

Main Information of the study

Table 1 and Figure 1 provide an overview of data on Internet banking research years from 2005 to 2024. The dataset includes 922 documents from 385 sources, with an annual growth rate of 8.15% and an average document age of 6.27 years. Each document averages 37.42 citations, indicating significant research impact. In terms of content, 1150 keywords plus and 2453 authors keywords enhance topic specificity. Authorship includes 2353 researchers, with 29.39% of works involving international collaboration. Document types are predominantly articles (804), available reviews, editorials and conference proceedings, reflecting a robust and diverse research field.

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Publications and citations Trends

Table 2 provides a comprehensive of research publications on trends in Internet banking from 2005 to 2024. Over these years, the research output has increased, with notable peaks from 2022 (110 publications,11.94% of total) and 2023 (92 publications). The Total Citations (TC) metric highlights impactful research, especially from 2009 (2,728 citations) and 2010 (2,774 citations), indicating significant contributions in these years. Average Citations per Paper (ACP) revealed the highest influence per paper in 2014 (116.47 ACP). The h-index gradually grows, reaching a peak of 27 in 2017 and 2019, reflecting rising productivity and impact. More recent publications (2023-24) show lower citation counts due to recency, which is typical for new publications. This overall trend shows steady growth in research output and influence, with key impactful period in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

Document Types

Table 3 provides an overview of the types of documents in Internet banking research Articles dominate the field, accounting for 93.38% (86 out of 922) of the total publications, underscoring a strong emphasis on original research Early Access publications, representing 3.80%, indicate recent interest in timely publications. Proceeding papers comprise 2.06% reflecting conference contributions, while Review articles comprise 1.95%, offering syntheses of existing research. Other document types, such as Editorial material, Corrections and Meeting Abstracts, have lower representation, each constituting less than 1% of the total, suggesting a primary focus on original studies in the domain.

Top 20 most productive countries

Table 4 highlights the global collaboration in Internet banking research publications across various countries. People’s Republic of China and the USA lead with the highest number of publications (184 and 183, respectively), making up nearly 20% of total records each. The USA also stands out with the highest Total Citations (TC) at 6,944 and the highest h-index of 38, indicating significant impact and quality of research. Taiwan boasts the highest Average Citations per Paper (ACP) at 62.68, reflecting the high quality of its fewer publications. Portugal, although contributing only 16 papers, has an exceptionally high ACP of 149.69. Other significant contributors include India, South Korea and England, all showing strong research outputs. Additionally, Total Link Strength (TLS) values indicate notable collaborations, with the USA (151), England (71) and South Korea (55) as top collaborative hubs.

Figure 2 shows the international collaborative landscape of this field of research can be observed from the VOSviewer visualization. The major collaborating countries, represented by larger nodes, include the USA, fostered by China, South Korea, England and India forming multiple links with other countries. The bigger the node of the country, the more power it possesses and the strongest this retention has the USA and China. Between nodes, some linkages show the existence of relations, where thicker lines joined two nodes, indicating a stronger relationship. It is noteworthy that intercontinental collaborations of the USA and countries of developing Asia and Europe are well witnessed indicating that the international research network is distributed.

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Top 20 Most Productive Journals

Table 5 shows the Important findings are revealed when contributions to journal articles in the Internet banking research area are analyzed. The most important article is the International Journal of Bank Marketing, with 55 articles, which accounts for 5.965% of the total. It represents a primary source in this field of research. Sustainability comes next with 31 articles, accounting for 3.362%. This means that there is a focus on the environment and social dimensions of banking. International Journal of Mobile Communications also contributes significantly with 24 articles (2.603%), showing the relevance of mobile technology in banking research. Other journals that were also of importance in this research include Electronic Commerce Research, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services and International Journal of Information Management; these journals have more than 15 articles. Internet banking research is multi-disciplinary; hence the contribution comes from e-commerce, consumer services and information management. Computers in Human Behavior and Internet Research with behavioral and technological aspects, make lesser but contributory contributions. The diversity of journals, from technical publications like IEEE Access to broader scope journals like SAGE Open and Journal of Business Research, underlines that interest in Internet banking transcends boundaries across various disciplines. In addition, specialized journals such as Technology in Society and Decision Support Systems illustrate the technological, societal and decision-making factors behind banking research. This is a variety of journals showing the interdisciplinary reach and academic interest in the subject over time.

Table 6 investigations of the most successful 20 faculty members in the field of electronic banking shows the potential of the global cooperation of a wide range of universities and scientific organizations. The Indian Institute of Management (IIM System) comes first with a substantial number of publications with authors contributing a total of 22 papers. On the other hand, Universidade Nova de Lisboa has the maximum impact with an astonishing 2,174 total citations an average of 197.64 citations per publication which indicates great impact. Likewise, Kyung Hee University has also a significant research quality h-index of 13, the highest among these institutions demonstrating both productivity and citation impact. These institutions are characterized by a definite interest to substantial research in the field and quantitative contributions from Asia, Europe and North America, outlining the international character of the studies of Internet banking.

In Figure 3 VOSviewer shows the key organizations engaged in research on Internet banking are seen to be a collaborative network among institutions from different parts of the world which is much interconnected in this field. The Indian Institute of Management (IIM System) stands as a central node, indicating its active involvement and connectedness with the other institutions. With its high average citations per publication, Universidade Nova de Lisboa connects with a select few other institutions, emphasizing the factor of influence in specialized collaboration. Other prominent institutions include Kyung Hee University and King Abdulaziz University, which are also profoundly interconnected, depicting international collaboration in the sphere of research output. The map demonstrates that cross-border collaboration is more in the limelight these days, with institutions from the West and Asia playing significant roles in advancing research on Internet banking.

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Top 10 Most Productive authors in Global Internet banking

Table 7 summarizes the contributions of key authors in Internet banking research. Tiago Oliveira from Universidade Nova de Lisboa leads with 9 publications, a remarkable Total Citation count (TC) of 2,153 and an Average Citation per Publication (ACP) of 239.22, indicating his significant contribution. Yogesh K. Dwivedi from Swansea University follows, with 6 publications and a high ACP of 249.5, which indicates influential research.

Other key contributing authors with their respective TCs of 434 and 424 are Walid Chaouali and Francisco J. Liebana-Cabanillas, respectively. TLS also displays Chaouali’s excellent collaborative network as 19; he had many research relations.

Figure 4 VOSviewer model of co-authorship based on the top 20 most productive authors’ bibliographies in Internet banking research shows the presence of cooperative networks between the authors. It is worth mentioning that each color depicts different research cluster patterns. Each color has its associated research cluster where nodes are synonymous with authors. The number of nodes, in turn, can be interpreted as the amount of research produced, meaning the author’s productivity. For instance, Dwivedi, Yogesh K. (in blue) is a prominent author who has an extensive network connecting himself to many other prolific writers such as Rana, Nripendra P. and Baabdullah, Abdullah. Other prominent clusters comprise Ooi, Keng-Boon (in green) and Alalwan, Ali Abdallah (in red) who all have done collaborative work within their respective teams. The whole map summarizes the effect brought by international collaborations on improving the state of the affairs in this field.

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Significant Keywords

Around 284 significant keywords have the potential to identify comparative research trends in Internet Banking. Figure 5 shows the VOSViewer map of keywords reflects the prominent themes and relationships among these studies on mobile and internet banking, e-commerce and technology adoption. Central to these concepts is “mobile banking” and “internet banking,” which connects very well with terms such as “consumer adoption,” “technology internet,” “behavioral intention,” and “satisfaction.” All these connect to user interactions with digital banking platforms, the acceptance factors, including “perceived usefulness,” “security,” and “risk.” Other notable clusters are related to “consumer trust,” “loyalty,” and “service quality,” indicating focus on user trust and satisfaction in the adoption of technology. Concepts of TAM, UTAUT are dominantly used which depicts how those elements have influences on the study of consumer behavior in digital finance. This analysis gives a better insight into how technology, user behavior and service quality interact within the digital banking area.

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CONCLUSION

This study ultimately offers an exhaustive account of the development and influence of internet banking research in the world. It points toward a sudden upsurge in the output of the publication, identifies influential authors, journals and institutions and maps keyword clusters representing core themes based on a scientometric method. This study underlines the fact that topics like mobile banking, consumer trust and security are the central areas that reflect not only the advance in technology but also in changing expectations from consumers. This review is very informative and will help in further suggesting directions for internet banking research into the future while putting great emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches to solving complex challenges in digital finance that concern trust.