Global Evolution of Research on Sustainable Finance from 2000 to 2021: A Bibliometric Analysis on WoS Database

Abstract

The expanding international influence of sustainable finance has made it one of the most cutting-edge development trends in the financial field. Learning about the global evolution of research on sustainable finance can improve the understanding and evaluation of sustainable finance by scholars and practitioners. Based on the ISI Web of Science database, this paper used bibliometric methods to analyze 3786 articles related to sustainable finance published between 2000 and 2021, mastering their discipline co-occurrence, publication characteristics, partnership, influence, keyword co-occurrence, co-citations, and structural variation. The highlights of the results: socially responsible investment, climate change, corporate social responsibility, green finance, carbon credits, and renewable energy were the hotspots between 2000 and 2021; responsible investment, green bond, low-carbon transition, vulnerable countries, low-carbon investment, business model, financial development, supply chain, conventional investment dilemma, sustainable financing, environmental investment, and green credit policy were the hot research topics between 2016 and 2021; papers related to socially responsible investment were an important knowledge base for sustainable financial research between 2000 and 2021; the research topics of the articles with the strongest transformative potentials between 2016 and 2021 mainly involved green bonds, socially responsible mutual funds, ESG investors’ preferences, and the impact of COVID-19.