Bibliometric analysis on corporate governance topics published in the journal of Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to highlight the current trends in the literature on corporate governance by applying a bibliometric review of papers on corporate governance topics published in the journal of Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business Society (Bingley). Design/methodology/approach Bibliometric analysis is a quantitative and qualitative approach applied to bibliographic materials that highlights the core theoretical and empirical contributions to a specific research field. This analysis was based on keyword cartography, bibliometric authors’ citation analysis, bibliometric papers’ co-citation analysis, bibliometric references’ co-citation analysis, journals’ co-citation cartography and qualitative content analysis. It reviews 353 articles on corporate governance published in the journal of Corporate Governance (Bingley). Bibliometric analysis was performed using VOSviewer, and content analysis was performed using WordStat. Findings The results identify three major clusters: corporate governance; board of directors; and firm performance. In addition, the results reveal that the journal Corporate Governance (Bingley) has experienced increasingly important growth in research papers on corporate governance topics and citations, reflecting its significant contribution to the corporate governance research field. This study also presents recommendations for future research in this field. Practical implications The findings of this study have implications for corporate governance research, such as the impact of ownership structure and the board of directors on environmental, social and governance disclosure. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the only one to review the key corporate governance research topics on which papers published in the journal of Corporate Governance (Bingley) are focused and can be largely used for corporate governance practices. Originality/value This study provides an overview of how the literature on corporate governance research has developed, as well as a summary of the most influential authors, along with countries, organizations and journal sources. This offers an opportunity for future research to focus on this topic.