Exploring the Academic Debate on Consumer Confusion and Product Imitation: A Systematic Literature Network Analysis

Recent research has frequently remarked the increased crowding of store shelves as a consequence of grocery manufacturers’ product expansion strategies. Consumers may find it difficult to process all the information embedded in retail assortments and may end up feeling confused. This perception is enhanced by hundreds of secondary brands imitating the appearance of successful brands on retailers’ shelves every year. Despite the relevance of the consumer confusion phenomenon, a systematic review is missing to understand it better. This paper aims to bridge this gap carrying out a Systematic Literature Network Analysis. By analyzing the citation network, the keywords co-occurrence, and the global citation score, this manuscript explores how the literature on consumer confusion has evolved, the papers that have played a key role in the knowledge progress, the main methodological approaches, and the promising research areas that have not been fully explored or that have involved scholars in recent years.