A review of research on the role of emerging technologies in digital globalization

Emerging digital technologies such as blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and the metaverse, are the core pillars of Industry 4.0. Firms leverage these technologies to innovate and improve supply chain and collaboration coordination and extend their scale of operations rapidly. Existing research on the role of emerging technologies in digital globalization, however, is fragmented theoretically and empirically, making it challenging for research to discern trends. To address this gap, the current study adopts scientometrics and topic modeling to scientifically map the current state-of-the-art and chart the trends of scholarly interest. We present the social and intellectual structure of research on this topic by proving insights on prolific researchers and popular topics using topic modeling. Based on the findings, the study provides important implications for scholars and policymakers.