The current state of brand management research: An overview of leaders and trends in branding research over the past 20 years.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify leaders and trends in branding research studies, undertaken during 2000-2019. Identification was made in the following categories: most popular subjects; most productive countries; most productive institutions; most productive scholars; most productive sources; most cited publications and most cited scholars. Design/methodology/approach: Bibliometric analysis based on data from Scopus and Dimensions. Findings: The majority of branding publications belong to business and management. The interest toward this research field, however, declines mostly in favor of cultural studies, psychology, sociology, etc. The majority of publications on branding are concentrated in the USA, UK and Australia. Griffith University has become a leader in the number of branding publications within 2000-2019. T C Melewar is a leader by the number of branding publications among scholars. Journal of Brand Management has been a leader among sources. Journal of Marketing is a leader by the number of the most cited papers. Research limitations/implications: The authors analyze the automatically formed results on search query without human meddling. Originality/value: For the first time, bibliometric analysis was carried out simultaneously upon the two bases – Scopus and Dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]