A systematic bibliometric literature review on digital finance and fintech literature: following the 2SLSS approach

Abstract Owing to the availability and easy usability of bibliometric computer tools, the number of bibliometric literature reviews has soared, especially in active and dynamic research fields such as digital finance and fintech. This leads to the paradoxical situation of a high number of bibliometric literature reviews with diverging quantitative results, which ultimately results in confusion instead of consistency and clarity. To counter this trend and make the results comprehensible and reproducible, we propose a new methodology for systematic bibliometric literature reviews that relies on a robust two-stage approach to ensure a comprehensive identification of relevant literature, especially for developed research landscapes. We apply this 2-Stage Literature Search and Selection (2SLSS) approach to the literature on digital finance and fintech, present our findings, and discuss existing research gaps. Therefore, we contribute both to the analysis of the evolution of the digital finance literature and the fintech literature and to the methodological foundation of systematic bibliometric literature reviews.