Study goals
The objective of the study is to analyze the theoretical conceptual evolution of the communities of practice construct in the field of applied social sciences and to identify the main existing theoretical currents and the frontiers of knowledge on the subject.
Relevance / originality
The problem of this research refers to the scarcity of revision studies that make it possible to understand how the phenomenon communities of practice evolved over time in the area of applied social sciences The study contributes to the advancement of theoretical.
Methodology / approach
To achieve the objectives of this study, it was decided to carry out a bibliometric analysis of scientific articles from journals indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) database. The techniques of co-citation analysis and bibliographic pairing were used in this research.
Main results
The bibliometric analysis carried out in this study made it possible to identify the main theoretical bases that contributed to the formation of the knowledge domain of communities of practice (CoP's), as well as the current theoretical currents (borderline and emerging).
Theoretical / methodological contributions
The findings of this research can contribute to the advancement of knowledge on the subject of communities of practice through the mapping and clustering of theoretical currents on the subject and the theoretical evolution of the concept in recent decades.
Social / management contributions
Managers can use the findings of this research to implement practices that encourage employees to participate in communities of practice, since knowledge shared in communities of practice contributes to organizational innovation processes and consequently improves organizational competitiveness.