Mapping ESG's studies in business management field: A review based on bibliographic coupling analysis

Profound changes in the economic scenario are occurring. One of these is the increase in demand for and interest in Environmental social governance (ESG) aspects that have led firms to fundamentally rethink and reshape their business model, priorities, and purposes. The ESG narrative is that it is now recognized as a key determinant of future value creation. However, no review has explored the ESG literature by applying a bibliographic coupling analysis, especially to capture current and future research trends of ESG within a business management field. Therefore, the objectives of this review are twofold: i) to identify and examine in-depth clusters representing the latest research themes in the ESG field; ii) to propose insights into avenues for further research through a review of the articles included within each thematic cluster. We achieve these objectives by conducting a bibliographic coupling to provide a prospective approach, utilizing VOSviewer software Based on an analysis of 903 papers, 4 clusters were identified. In addition, a qualitative approach was made to complete the bibliographic coupling analysis. Therefore, all articles included in each cluster were read with the aim of identifying their most outstanding contributions, as well as the main research methods and theoretical perspectives employed. Finally, the paper offers potential new areas for further exploration.