Traversing Knowledge Networks: An Algorithmic Historiography of Extant Literature on the Internet of Things (IoT)

Research on the Internet of Things (IoT) has been booming for the past 6 years due to technological advances and potential for application. Nonetheless, the rapid growth of IoT articles and the heterogeneous nature of IoT pose challenges to conducting a systematic review of IoT literature. This study seeks to address the abovementioned challenges by reviewing 1065 IoT articles retrieved from the International Statistical Institute Web of Science via a blend of quantitative citation analysis and qualitative content analysis. For the former, we generated a historiography of IoT research, a citation network, in which we tried to identify main paths of codification and diffusion, as well as path-dependent transitions. For the latter, we explicated the progression of knowledge through 30 central IoT articles in chronological order regarding infrastructures, enabling technologies, potential technologies, and research challenges. Findings from this study contribute to both IoT research and management.