Analyzing the intellectual structure of research on simulation-based learning in management education, 1960-2019: A bibliometric review

Purpose: This review used science mapping to document and analyze the use of simulation-based learning in management education. Design: The authors used bibliometric tools to analyze 1200 relevant Scopus-indexed documents published between 1960 and 2019. Descriptive statistics, co-citation analysis and co-word analysis were employed in this quantitative review. Findings: The review found a rapidly growing publication trajectory with 81% of documents published since 2000 and 57% since 2010. While this literature is worldwide in scope, publications authored in Anglo-American-European societies accounted for 85% of this corpus. Topical analysis verified that simulation-based learning is being used to teach a wide range of functional management subjects. Co-citation analysis identified four 'schools of thought' that define the intellectual structure of this literature: Theoretical Foundations of Simulation-Based Learning, Simulation-Based Learning in Business Education, Organizational Theory and Complex Systems, Simulation-Based Learning in the Professions. Originality/value: The review empirically affirms the impact that theories of human learning have had on the design and use of simulation-based learning and highlights the importance of framing the lessons drawn from simulations when used across different cultural contexts.