Hotspots and Trends of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Research: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

This paper examines environmental, social, and governance literature using bibliometrics. The analysis uses Scopus documents. Bibliometric analysis helps researchers understand a study domain's theoretical foundations, identify earlier research findings, and identify future research directions. This study used bibliometric methods like authors' citation analysis, papers' co-citation analysis, references' co-citation analysis, journals' co-citation analysis, co-occurrence keyword cartography analysis, and ESG publication trend and evolution analyses. This study evaluates 201 Scopus-indexed ESG studies. The researchers conducted bibliometric analysis using VOS viewer. This study found and identified seven key clusters: environmental, ESG, sustainability disclosure, corporate social responsibility, social, ESG performance, and company performance. It also highlights the rise in ESG citations and papers. Due to its considerable publication output and citation impact, "Business Strategy and the Environment" contributes to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) research. This report also suggests various research possibilities in this area. The study's findings have practical implications for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, notably addressing how adopting ESG principles into a firm's plan of action affects its corporate and financial strategies. This article covers significant environmental, social, and governance (ESG) topics and their relation to ESG activities. This study synthesizes influential authors, countries, organizations, and journal sources in the ESG disclosure literature to analyze its evolution. This presents a potential avenue for future scholarly investigations to concentrate on this subject matter.