Thirty years of sustainability reporting research: a scientometric analysis

The growing relevance of sustainability reporting (SR) has dramatically surged advocacy and interest among both academicians and practitioners. However, few studies have attempted to holistically encapsulate global research on sustainability reporting. The present study employed scientometric analysis on sustainability reporting based 1434 articles extracted from the Web of Science database, published between 1992 and 2022, to comprehensively map the intellectual structure of this field. Domain visualizations were constructed using CiteSpace software to identify networks of co-authorship, keywords, subject categories, institutions, and countries engaged in publishing on SR along with co-citation and cluster analysis. The findings revealed that significant contributions in SR research have originated primarily from developed countries, underscoring the necessity for more research in the context of developing and emerging countries. SR field was found characterized by cohesive research sub-communities but lacked global cooperation. Existing studies in the SR research domain focused mainly on subject categories of business, management, environmental studies, green and sustainable science technology, environmental sciences, and business finance. Analysis of most co-cited authors and content analysis of highly co-cited articles were performed, detailing pioneer works in the field. The principal topics in the body of literature were identified via clusters of co-citations between documents and keywords. Future research focus areas include exploring the link between circular economy and SR, the role of social media, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and other digital technologies in SR, attention on the MSME sector, mandatory reporting, assessment of real impact of SR on investor sentiments and financial analysts’ valuations, assurance, standardization, financial-sector inclusive research, materiality issues, and understanding niche themes of SR, inclusive of monothematic reporting. Implications of the study for policymakers, companies, society, and academia were examined.