Mapping Destructive Leadership Research: Intellectual Foundations, Thematic Evolution, and Global Trends (1966 to 2025)

Mapping the intellectual evolution of global soft power research: A longitudinal bibliometric analysis (1991–2025)

Since the end of the Cold War, Joseph S. Nye’s concept of soft power has become a central analytical framework for understanding national attraction and non-coercive influence in international relations. Despite the rapid expansion of both theoretical and empirical research, the field still lacks systematic bibliometric evidence concerning its knowledge structure, thematic evolution, and patterns of scholarly collaboration. To address this gap, this study constructs a comprehensive bibliometric map of global soft power research based on 2,772 English-language social science articles indexed in the Scopus database from 1991 to 2025. Using VOSviewer and RStudio (Biblioshiny), the analysis examines publication trends, citation structures, country collaboration networks, author co-citation relationships, keyword co-occurrence patterns, and thematic evolution pathways. The findings indicate that soft power research experienced steady growth after 2005, followed by a pronounced acceleration after 2015. While the United States, China, and the United Kingdom remain the principal research hubs, Australia emerges as an important cross-regional bridge, suggesting a shift toward a more multi-center structure of knowledge production. Keyword co-occurrence and thematic evolution further reveal a transition from early concept-oriented debates to a more diversified and policy-focused research agenda. In addition, soft power is increasingly conceptualized as an observable and comparable form of international influence, with growing attention to practical domains such as higher education cooperation, sports diplomacy, digital diplomacy, vaccine diplomacy, and the Belt and Road Initiative. Overall, this study systematically maps the intellectual structure and emerging frontiers of global soft power research, highlighting the rise of multipolar soft power and a shift toward policy-oriented and interdisciplinary inquiry, while providing a bibliometric foundation for developing measurable soft power assessment frameworks.

A bibliometric mapping of global research trends and future directions in entrepreneurial training

Human resource information systems research in transition: A global bibliometric mapping of knowledge, collaboration, and future direction

This study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the intellectual and thematic evolution of human resource information systems (HRIS) research within the context of digital transformation. Despite its growing strategic importance, HRIS literature remains fragmented across theoretical, methodological, and geographical dimensions. This study seeks to map the structural dynamics, emerging themes, and future research trajectories shaping the field. A bibliometric and science mapping approach was employed using data extracted from 303 peer-reviewed articles (1990–2025) indexed in the Scopus database. The analysis utilized VOSviewer and Biblioshiny (R Bibliometrix) to examine publication performance, co-authorship networks, citation patterns, and keyword co-occurrences, offering an evidence-based assessment of the intellectual landscape of HRIS research. Results reveal the transition of HRIS from a technology-centric system to a strategic and human-centered digital capability, emphasizing themes such as digital transformation, HR analytics, employee trust, and organizational agility. The study identifies key theoretical clusters, influential authors, and global collaboration patterns while exposing persistent gaps related to conceptual integration, methodological diversity, and regional representation. The findings provide valuable insights for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to strengthen theoretical coherence, promote interdisciplinary collaboration, and enhance HRIS-driven digital capability within organizations. This study is among the first to offer a global, longitudinal bibliometric synthesis of HRIS research, presenting an integrative framework that links technological innovation, strategic human resource management, and knowledge-based organizational development.

Corporate Governance and ESG Research, 1976–2025: A Systematic Review and Science Mapping, with an International Comparative Research Agenda

Purpose: This study maps the intellectual structure of corporate governance (CG) and environmental, social and governance (ESG) research between 1976 and 2025, identifies the conditional mechanisms through which governance affects firm outcomes across institutional settings, and derives a comparative research agenda for transition and resource-dependent economies, using Mongolia as a focal case. Design/Methodology/Approach: Following the PRISMA 2020 protocol, the review employs a three-tier corpus architecture. A mapping corpus of ⟨D1⟩ indexed records retrieved from Scopus, Web of Science, Dimensions and EBSCO Business Source is analysed with dedicated bibliometric software (Bibliometrix/biblioshiny in R and VOSviewer) to generate co-authorship networks, keyword co-occurrence maps, co-citation and bibliographic-coupling clusters, and thematic-evolution trajectories. A stratified depth-coded corpus of ⟨D2⟩ works is then coded manually on six dimensions — journal ranking, citation impact, region, methodology, variable selection and theoretical foundation — by two independent coders (Cohen’s κ = ⟨D4⟩). A separately reported supplementary tier of ⟨D3⟩ Mongolian grey and local-language sources supports the country-level gap analysis and is excluded from all citation-impact metrics. Findings: Agency theory remains the dominant primary framework (37.9% of depth-coded studies), but stakeholder, institutional, resource-dependence and legitimacy theories have grown rapidly since 2018, and 13.8% of studies now combine two or more frameworks explicitly. Panel regression remains the leading method (50.7% of method codes), while quasi-experimental designs (PSM+DiD, event studies, natural experiments) are expanding. The empirical frontier has shifted from the United States and Western Europe toward emerging and frontier markets, which jointly exceed 40% of the corpus. Science mapping confirms ⟨D11⟩ distinct thematic clusters and a keyword trajectory moving from board structure–agency cost toward ESG disclosure–assurance–sustainability committee. Mongolia-focused research reveals a formal legal framework with weak enforcement, a narrow set of measurement constructs, and very limited presence in the international citation network. Conclusion: CG research is shifting from a single-theory paradigm toward multi-theory, ESG-oriented frameworks that require credible causal identification. Governance effects are conditional on legal origin, ownership concentration and enforcement capacity, so evidence generated in developed markets cannot be transferred uncritically to transition economies. Practical Implications: The findings inform securities regulators, stock exchanges and listed firms in transition and resource-dependent economies — and in Mongolia specifically — on the design of audit and sustainability committees, ESG disclosure rules aligned with GRI and IFRS S1/S2, and resource-governance transparency mechanisms. Originality: The study combines PRISMA-based systematic screening with software-based science mapping, and it is the first review to position Mongolia explicitly within a comparative class of transition, resource-dependent, thin-market economies rather than treating it as an isolated national case.

A bibliometric investigation of research trends in environmental, social, and governance research using VOSviewer and Biblioshiny

This study analyses the development, conceptual foundations, and emerging directions of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) research, with particular emphasis on its contribution to business sustainability and financial performance. It aims to map the dominant research themes in the ESG literature, examine the contributions of prominent authors, institutions, journals, and countries, and identify promising avenues for future research. The study adopts a quantitative bibliometric approach based on secondary data drawn from the Scopus database. A structured screening procedure was applied to peer reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, and review papers published in English between 2015 and 2025 that explicitly addressed ESG concepts, yielding a final sample of 2,878 publications from 607 journals. Bibliometric indicators, including authorship patterns, citation structures, institutional and country contributions, journal sources, and keyword co occurrences, were examined using VOSviewer and R Studio (Biblioshiny). The findings indicate significant expansion and diversification of ESG research over the study period, organised around six core thematic clusters: sustainable development, business values, corporate social responsibility, ESG disclosure, ESG investment, and corporate strategy. The study identifies the most influential contributors and sources shaping ESG scholarship and points to growing research opportunities in the strategic and financial integration of ESG factors.

Mapping Global Internal Control Research: A Bibliometric Analysis of Publication Trends, Emerging Themes, and Collaboration Patterns in Scopus (2022–2025)

Internal control has become increasingly important as organizations integrate governance, enterprise risk management, and digital transformation into organizational decision making. The COSO Integrated Framework establishes internal control as the foundation of governance and risk management, while digital transformation has fundamentally reshaped organizational processes and control systems (COSO, 2013 ; Vial, 2019). This study maps the global development of internal control research using a bibliometric approach based on Scopus-indexed publications from 2022 to 2025. Data were analyzed using Biblioshiny after a systematic screening process that resulted in 934 eligible articles in the Business, Management and Accounting subject area. The analysis examined publication growth, influential authors, source journals, country collaboration, citation performance, and keyword evolution. The findings reveal a substantial increase in global research productivity during the study period, accompanied by stronger international collaboration and the emergence of new thematic areas. China emerged as the leading contributor to global internal control research, while corporate governance, digital transformation, risk management, audit quality, environmental, social and governance (ESG), and artificial intelligence emerged as the dominant research themes. The bibliometric evidence further demonstrates a clear shift from conventional internal control systems toward digitally enabled governance and intelligent control mechanisms. This study contributes by providing a comprehensive knowledge map of recent internal control research, identifying emerging research directions, and offering practical references for researchers interested in governance, auditing, and organizational control systems.