Exploring the Domain of Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) for Sustainable Future Panorama: A Bibliometric and Content Analysis

Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) is one of the most widely used techniques in identifying the complex structural relationship between various elements. It is commonly used in multiple disciplines but hardly explored its all-encompassing scientific productivities. Hence, this paper has endeavoured to scrutinize 1480 documents using the ISM technique from 2000 to 2020 in the Scopus database. A systematic two-tier approach comprising bibliometric analysis and visualization review has been made with VOSviewer and Biblioshiny software. Extensive data mining has been done to collect required information with certain filters containing document type, language, author, subject, publication status, source title, affiliation, country, and source type. The study has generated information regarding ISM documents, their types, publications, citations, and predictions. The citation analysis is used to ascertain the most prolific and dominant authors, sources, articles, countries, and organizations. The author-keywords, index-keywords, and text data content analysis is conducted to find ISM's hotspots and progress trends. The study has found a rapid exponential pace in annual publications using the ISM technique since 2000. The most prolific and dominant articles based on total citation include Diabat and Govindan, 2011; the top source is the Journal of Cleaner Production. The chief author is Shankar R., the leading organization IIT New Delhi, India, and the leading country is India. The study has explored many research hotspots and less explored areas using ISM techniques. The present research is the first paper that has utilized bibliometric analysis to analyze the ISM publications widely. This bibliometric review has further contributed to the ISM technique, usability, and exploitation areas and future scope for scholars working in this area through its research hotspots and valuable findings.