Applying an automatic approach for showing up the hidden themes in financial marketing research (1961–2010) Francisco Muñoz-Leiva a,⇑ , Juan Sánchez-Fernández a,1 , Francisco J. Liébana-Cabanillas a,2 , Antonio Gabriel López-Herrera b,3 a Department of Marketing and Market Research, University of Granada, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Campus Universitario La Cartuja, 18071 Granada, Spain b Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, University of Granada, CITIC-UGR (Research Center on Information and Communications Technology), C./Daniel Saucedo Aranda, s/n, 18071 Granada, Spain article info Keywords: Bibliometric study Conceptual evolution Emerging trends Co-word analysis Financial marketing research Bank marketing abstract This paper analyses the academic research conducted in financial marketing from 1961 to 2010. To do so, an automatic approach for detecting and visualising the hidden themes is applied. This automatic approach, based on co-word analysis, combines performance analysis and science mapping. It permits visualising the division of the financial marketing research (FMR) into several subfields, and indicate the relationships between them. These outcomes are completed with a systematic review, where a con- tent analysis is used to explore the type of methodologies and topics most frequently used. The results allow us to identifying trends that will presumably be developed in FMR in coming years. In addition, these results also help both experts and novices to understand the current state of the art of FMR and to predict where future research could lead. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In general, the financial sector did not become highly competi- tive until some 20 years ago when the liberalisation of financial services and merger and acquisition actions led to increased com- petition, particularly in sectors such as banking, savings and loans, stock market investing, insurance companies, and others (Kamak- ura, Ramaswami, & Srivastava, 1991). In this new context, sectors with a high degree of competitiveness, is where marketing as a business strategy reaches its maximum meaning and development. Discussions on the financial sector or system, and especially those from a marketing approach, usually refer solely to the bank- ing sector (banks and savings banks) as this sector virtually con- trols and dominates the entire financial system. However, it is important to distinguish between bank marketing and financial marketing. The first type of marketing basically involves credit institutions, while the second is undertaken by any entity, com- pany or agency that provides a range of financial products (Muñoz, 2011). In this paper, we have chosen this expanded vision of financial marketing. A review (Tyler & Stanley, 1999) of the scientific literature shows that in past decades the scientific community paid scant attention to service markets in general and financial markets in particular, and even less attention to the topic of sector-based marketing. In spite of the difficulties involved in these markets, the literature specialised in financial marketing should not over- look analyses of the exchange relations that occur in them, which in turn serve to complement the debates in broader areas such as services marketing. For this reason, we consider that financial marketing deserves a detailed study of its past action lines as clues of what may be its future. So, this paper analyses the research conducted in financial marketing research (FMR) by using academic publications. The analysis is organised into two parts. Part 1 of the study applies an automatic approach combining performance analysis and sci- ence mapping (Cobo, López-Herrera, Herrera-Viedma, & Herrera 2011a; Noyons, Moed, & Luwel 1999; Van Raan, 2005) for detect- ing and visualising conceptual subdomains and identifying the most prominent themes treated by FMR in the last 50 years. The analysis includes both content and citation analysis on the basis of the main academic publications on this topic from 1961 to 2010. Quantitative and qualitative measures are used to identify the most prominent themes. Quantitative data are used to put together closely related concepts (themes or clusters of topics), while qualitative indicators (i.e., those based on citations) are used to measure the quality and/or impact of the themes identified. The study also incorporates a thematic network to show, in a visual way, the associations between the main 0957-4174/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2012.03.017 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 958 241 274, +34 958 240 936; fax: +34 958 240 695. E-mail addresses: franml@ugr.es (F. Muñoz-Leiva), sanchezf@ugr.es (J. Sánchez- Fernández), franlieb@ugr.es (F.J. Liébana-Cabanillas), lopez-herrera@decsai.ugr.es (A.G. López-Herrera). 1 Tel.: +34 958 240 936; fax: +34 958 240 695. 2 Tel.: +34 958 249 600; fax: +34 958 240 695. 3 Tel.: +34 958 240 467; fax: +34 958 243 317. Expert Systems with Applications 39 (2012) 11055–11065 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Expert Systems with Applications journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa