Mapping Global Research Landscape of Celebrity Endorsement: A Bibliometric Analysis using Biblioshiny and VOSviewer (1984–2026)

Abstract

Celebrity endorsement has emerged as one of the most researched constructs in marketing communication, driven by multi-billion-dollar investments that make brands worldwide influential in leveraging celebrities to shape consumer attitudes, purchase intentions, and brand equity. Despite the considerable growth of the field, no comprehensive bibliometric synthesis has mapped the complete intellectual structure, geographical contributions and thematic evolution of this research domain from its foundational years to the present. This study addresses this gap by carrying out a systematic bibliometric analysis of 1,004 Scopus-indexed documents published between 1984 and 2026. The analysis used the bibliometric R package (Biblioshiny) for performance analysis and VOSviewer for network visualisation, guided by the seven-stage bibliometric framework of Passas (2024). Results show a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.0% in the publication edition from 2000 to 2024, recording the highest annual productivity in 2024 (n = 105). The United States has led the world with 424 publications, followed by India (303) and China (213). Roy S. was the most productive author (17 publications; h-index = 12), while Psychology and Marketing dominated all other journals (23 articles; TC = 3.094). The keyword co-occurrence network (37 nodes and 7 clusters) revealed the field’s evolution from credibility-focused source characteristics to digital influencer marketing, parasocial relationships and real-time social commerce. The thematic evolution analysis presents the transition of research from traditional advertising paradigms to platform-specific strategies. These findings provide researchers and marketing practitioners with a comprehensive roadmap of the intellectual terrain of celebrity endorsement works and identify critical future research directions, including underexplored geographical contexts, emerging digital platforms, and unused theoretical frameworks.