Ecodesign field of research throughout the world: mapping the territory by using an evolutionary lens
AbstractThe development of environmentally friendly products is one of the key contemporary trends in the environmental management and planning field of knowledge. Ecodesign is considered a practical mechanism for integrating environmental considerations throughout the life cycle of the product. Within this scope, the aim of this paper is to systematize the publications on ecodesign and to propose the historical evolutionary phases of this area, considering important characteristics such as geographical distribution. To this end, a bibliometric analysis was performed by identifying key papers, authors, and journals that deal with the theme and the history of the number of papers published. Among the results, a recent growth in publications was found, with a wide range of authors conducting research and publishing papers on the subject. The majority of research is conducted in European countries, especially France and Nordic region. Most journals that publish papers on ecodesign are from the environmental field as opposed to those that deal with new product development and innovation and project management. This work also identifies historical research phases; among the most recent, it is possible to notice efforts to link ecodesign with other areas of management, such as the fuzzy method, lean product development, and project management.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the state of the art in Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM), outlining the CCPM literature to date, in an effort to guide future studies.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a bibliometric analysis using Scopus and Web of Science databases. The authors identified the principal journals, articles and authors regarding the research theme, as well as the authors elaborated co-citation and co-occurrence network maps to support the analysis.
Findings
The authors described five co-citation clusters: Fundamentals of Critical Chain, Scheduling, Operations Research, Multi-project and Network, and General Project Management. The most frequently occurring keywords were: “project management,” “critical chain,” “scheduling” and “theory of constraints.” Observing the distribution, the expression “project management” occupied a central position, connecting two other clusters, represented by the keywords “scheduling” and “critical chain.” The authors proposed an evolutive framework for the CCPM state of the art in three stages, according to the most frequent topics identified: Conceptual, Deepening of Applications and Methodological Maturity.
Originality/value
This research adopts a systematic approach based on bibliometric tools, which allows a more rigorous organization of the literature. Co-citation and keyword co-occurrence maps provide evidence of how the main themes in CCPM relate. Besides, the presented historical framework allows new research in CCPM to be directed to the most recent topics of interest that have gaps to be explored.
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