B Corporations and Sustainable Development: Global Trends from a Bibliometric Analysis (1991-2023)
Abstract
Objective: This study analyzes the evolution of scientific literature on B Corporations and their five core dimensions—governance, community, workers, environment, and customers—in relation to corporate sustainability, aiming to identify research trends and knowledge gaps in this field.
Design/methodology: A scientific data mining process was conducted using the Scopus and Web of science databases. Three specialized bibliometric tools—Biblioshiny (R interface), VantagePoint, and VOSviewer—were employed to analyze 98 high-impact journal articles published between 1991 and 2023.
Findings: China and the United Kingdom lead global research on corporate social responsibility and sustainability. Keyword co-occurrence analysis revealed that sustainable development, sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and environmental performance are the predominant themes. Among these, the strongest relationships, in descending order, were observed between B Corporations and sustainable development, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility.
Conclusions: Research on B Corporations has exhibited a fragmented approach to key thematic intersections, such as corporate governance and social responsibility, stakeholder groups and their theoretical frameworks, and sustainability and sustainable development. Future studies should explore these intersections more comprehensively, particularly the relationship between corporate governance, social responsibility, and stakeholder engagement.
Originality: This study offers novel insights into the conceptual dimension of B Corporations and their alignment with corporate sustainability, contributing to the development of a future research agenda in this domain.
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