Bibliometric insights into innovation capability: Intellectual foundations and emerging themes

Innovation capability has emerged as a critical determinant of organisational competitiveness, yet the literature remains fragmented across diverse theoretical perspectives and contexts. This study aims to consolidate existing knowledge by conducting the first comprehensive bibliometric analysis of innovation capability research.The dataset was extracted from the Scopus database on 31 st March 2026, yielding 1720 peer-reviewed journal articles indexed under Business, Management and Accounting. After preprocessing, performance analysis was undertaken to examine publication trends, influential authors, institutions, countries, and journals. Science mapping techniques, using VOSviewer, were applied to visualize co-authorship, co-citation, and keyword co-occurrence networks, enabling both descriptive and structural insights.The number of publications shows a clear upward trend over time, with a sharp increase after 2015 and a peak around 2025. Influential contributions stem primarily from Elsevier journals and leading institutions in Finland, China, and Malaysia, while collaboration networks remain fragmented. The intellectual structure is anchored in dynamic capabilities, absorptive capacity, and the resource-based view, with thematic evolution moving from internal knowledge integration toward digitalization, sustainability, and resilience. Emerging hotspots include artificial intelligence, Industry 5.0, and green innovation, though underexplored geographies and methodological diversity persist. This study represents the first large-scale bibliometric mapping of innovation capability, providing an integrative overview of its intellectual foundations, conceptual structures, and thematic evolution. By highlighting gaps in geographical coverage, sectoral applications, and methodological approaches, it sets an agenda for future research and offers actionable insights for managers and policymakers seeking to strengthen innovation capability in turbulent environments.