Sustainability Reporting in the Digital Era: Digitalization, Corporate Disclosure, and Emerging Research Trends
TL;DR
The study contributes by offering an integrated mapping of the digitalization–sustainability reporting nexus and shows that effects are context‐dependent, which provides conceptual and practical insights for organizations and future research.
Abstract
This study presents a bibliometric analysis combined with a structured literature synthesis on the evolution of sustainability reporting in the context of digital transformation. The aim is to map the field, identify emerging research streams, and highlight key gaps in digitalization and sustainability reporting research. The analysis is based on 148 peer‐reviewed articles on sustainability reporting, integrated reporting, online corporate communication, digitalization, and social media, retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science up to 2025. A systematic literature review integrated with bibliometric analysis combining publication trend analysis, citation analysis, and keyword co‐occurrence network analysis is conducted. Six interrelated clusters are identified, illustrating the evolution of the field and the growing integration between digital technologies and sustainability reporting systems. Findings show a dual role of digitalization: it enhances transparency, efficiency, stakeholder engagement, and traceability of sustainability information, while also creating challenges such as data fragmentation, lack of standardization, symbolic disclosure, algorithmic opacity, and greenwashing risks. The study contributes by offering an integrated mapping of the digitalization–sustainability reporting nexus and shows that effects are context‐dependent. It provides conceptual and practical insights for organizations and future research.