Innovative cities: a literature review, research agenda, and conceptual framework

In the past 20 years, consensus has been reached regarding the conception and practice of urban development driven by innovative resources. Researchers have presented complex and colorful research findings related to the basic theory and practical experience of innovative cities, but there remains a lack of scientometric analyses and systematic reviews in this field. Based on the bibliometric and theory-context-characteristics-methodology (TCCM) framework, this paper makes comprehensive use of visualization tools to map knowledge regarding innovative city research from multiple perspectives. This paper presents an overview of the field and its intellectual structure, including deeply analyzing the annual distribution of published works, core sources, leading researchers, country collaboration networks, hotspots, theme evolution, and the knowledge base. This paper provides a method to comprehensively describe the valuable information concerning innovative city research, enriches the previous literature on innovative cities, and provides the direction and path of innovative city construction for urban planners and administrators.