ESG Disclosure Research in Business and Management: A Bibliometric Mapping of Global Trends, Collaboration and Thematic Evolution

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@article{1722528,
      author = {Satish Kumar K, Dr. Lokanadha Reddy M},
      title = {ESG Disclosure Research in Business and Management: A Bibliometric Mapping of Global Trends, Collaboration and Thematic Evolution},
      journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
      year = {2026},
      volume = {10},
      number = {2},
      pages = {2399-2409},
      issn = {2456-8880},
      url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1722528.pdf},
      abstract = {Environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure has become a central mechanism through which firms communicate sustainability risks, governance practices and strategic responses to investors and other stakeholders. This study maps the development, collaboration structure and conceptual evolution of ESG disclosure research using a verified Scopus corpus of 941 English-language journal articles published between 2013 and 2024. Performance analysis and science-mapping techniques were applied using bibliometrix/Biblioshiny and VOSviewer. The corpus shows a pronounced acceleration after 2020, with 399 articles published in 2024 alone. Business, management and accounting form the largest subject-area base, followed by economics and finance, social sciences and environmental science. China is the largest national contributor and a prominent collaboration node, while India, the United States, Italy and the United Kingdom also account for substantial output. The intellectual structure is concentrated around sustainability, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, investment and performance, whereas blockchain and environmental technology remain more specialised themes. The findings show that ESG disclosure research has moved beyond a narrow reporting perspective toward a strategic-information problem connecting governance, legitimacy, capital allocation and stakeholder accountability. The study contributes by distinguishing disclosure from the wider ESG-performance literature and by translating bibliometric patterns into implications for managers, investors, regulators and researchers. Future work should strengthen construct clarity, cross-country comparability, digital assurance, greenwashing detection, supply-chain disclosure and sector-specific materiality, particularly in heterogeneous emerging-market settings.},
      keywords = {ESG disclosure; sustainability reporting; bibliometric analysis; corporate governance; green finance; business strategy; digital reporting},
      month = {August},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV10I2-1722528}
  }