Counterintuitive, Yet Essential: Taking Stock of Organizational Unlearning Research Through a Scientometric Analysis (1976-2019)

With the growth in the literature on organisational unlearning (OU), there is a commensurate increase in the diversity of its knowledge base. Past studies have carried out narrative and systematic reviews to synthesise the research on OU. But none of them have specifically addressed the questions about leading indicators like most influential articles, authors, and journals of unlearning publications. Moreover, previous studies have not studied the inter-relationship of unlearning with other concepts/disciplines. This study addresses these shortcomings and it is also the first attempt to perform a scientometric analysis of OU. In addition, to establish the linkages between unlearning and other concepts/disciplines, co-occurrence of keyword analysis is used. Unlearning shares an intense association with organisational learning, knowledge management, organisational change, innovation, and forgetting. Later, we discuss several implications that can help improve the present arguments and simultaneously shape the future research of OU.