Service quality in local public administration: a bibliometric review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22115539Keywords:
local administration, public administration, quality controlAbstract
This study analyzed the structure and evolution of the scientific output on service quality in local public administration through a bibliometric analysis of 1,040 documents indexed in Scopus between 1977 and 2025, processed with Biblioshiny after author disambiguation based on a unique identifier and keyword normalization. The results show a relatively young and rapidly expanding research field: close to two thirds of the output is concentrated in the last decade, with a compound annual growth rate of 8.87%. Thirty-five journals account for roughly one third of the publications, and Local Government Studies leads the specialized core, which confirms that the local level has consolidated as a research object in its own right. The social structure of the field, however, remains fragile: the Lotka exponent (β = 3.25) shows that about 90% of the authors contribute a single work, and the co-authorship network stays fragmented into national schools with few links between them. SERVQUAL-derived terms sit on the periphery of the conceptual network and in the niche-theme quadrant; they are developed, but encapsulated. Citizen satisfaction, the fifth node by betweenness centrality, shows low density and co-occurs with performance measurement rather than with participation.
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