Asian mobile communication research: current status, enduring issues and future trends

Abstract

With a total of 2.5 billion subscribers, Asia’s leadership in worldwide mobile communication calls for a systematic review of the academic research on mobile communication in Asian countries. By reviewing 120 articles published in 18 top-ranking refereed journals from 1995 to 2015, this study identified a prominent increase in research output covering multiple subfields over the past 20 years, marked by accelerated growth beginning from 2005. This rise appears to be a product of global scholarship. Limitations in the current Asian mobile communication literature were also discussed, regarding the overemphasis on East Asian countries, the lack of a unified theoretical framework, and the reliance on one-shot research designs. Directions are provided for future research to refine the scholarly understanding of Asian mobile communication.