The hope and hype of neuromarketing: a bibliometric analysis

PurposeRecent years have witnessed a rise in interest in neuromarketing from academia and industry, as it offers practical tools for determining consumers' subconscious reactions to marketing stimuli. Despite this, the current state of neuromarketing research is not well supported by empirical data. To offer a thorough overview of the studies conducted on this discipline in the past few years, a bibliometric analysis of neuromarketing is carried out, taking into account its techniques, key areas and publication patterns trends from several viewpoints.Design/methodology/approachThis study searched 463 documents for the web of science databases published during the previous sixteen years and visualized them. The graphical display of data was created using the VOS Viewer software.FindingsElectroencephalogram (EEG) appeared as a predominantly tool used in neuromarketing research. EEG is either used alone or together with Human Eye-Tracking (HET). “Emotions” was identified in the study as a crucial area of neuromarketing, among other pertinent concepts. The study's results also showed that authors from the United States produced the most articles on neuromarketing, followed by those from the United Kingdom and Spain. The publishing trend, sources and major contributors in neuromarketing are identified using Web of Science data from 2006 to 2021. Overall, the research provides insight into neuromarketing's past, present and future as well as the most widely utilized analytical techniques.Originality/valueThe study's conclusions will be of interest to researchers in understanding the journals that publish neuromarketing research, the themes that contributors and writers have identified, and the countries where research is carried out. This is the first comprehensive study, to the authors' knowledge, that provides a general summary of the key trends in neuromarketing research throughout its history. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first thorough study that offers a broad overview of the most important developments in neuromarketing research from 2006 to 2021.