Food and social media: a research stream analysis

Interest in food and online communication is growing fast among marketing and business scholars. Nevertheless, this interest has been not exclusive to these areas. Researchers from different disciplines have focused their research on different concepts, target populations, approaches, methodologies, and theoretical backgrounds, making this growing body of knowledge richer, but at the same time difficult to analyze. In order to have a broader overview of this topic, this study analyzes the existent literature regarding food and social media in social sciences in order to identify the main research streams and themes explored. With this purpose, the present paper uses bibliometric methods to analyze 1356 journal articles by means of factor and social network analysis. The study contributes by revealing 4 clusters containing 11 dominant research streams within the social sciences, determining the linkages among the main research discourses, and recommending new future topics of research. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11301-023-00330-y.