Global Evolution of Research on Sustainable Finance from 2000 to 2021: A Bibliometric Analysis on WoS Database

Abstract

The expanding international influence of sustainable finance has made it one of the most cutting-edge development trends in the financial field. Learning about the global evolution of research on sustainable finance can improve the understanding and evaluation of sustainable finance by scholars and practitioners. Based on the ISI Web of Science database, this paper used bibliometric methods to analyze 3786 articles related to sustainable finance published between 2000 and 2021, mastering their discipline co-occurrence, publication characteristics, partnership, influence, keyword co-occurrence, co-citations, and structural variation. The highlights of the results: socially responsible investment, climate change, corporate social responsibility, green finance, carbon credits, and renewable energy were the hotspots between 2000 and 2021; responsible investment, green bond, low-carbon transition, vulnerable countries, low-carbon investment, business model, financial development, supply chain, conventional investment dilemma, sustainable financing, environmental investment, and green credit policy were the hot research topics between 2016 and 2021; papers related to socially responsible investment were an important knowledge base for sustainable financial research between 2000 and 2021; the research topics of the articles with the strongest transformative potentials between 2016 and 2021 mainly involved green bonds, socially responsible mutual funds, ESG investors’ preferences, and the impact of COVID-19.

New insights on social finance research in the sustainable development context

“…Scopus, the largest research database, offers extensive coverage across a wide range of disciplines, including a comprehensive selection of relevant social science journals (Hallinger & Kovačevi c, 2019;Mongeon & Paul-Hus, 2016). Moreover, both databases have been used to conduct sustainable finance studies (Alshater et al, 2021;Hassanein & Mostafa, 2023;Jain & Tripathi, 2023;Luo et al, 2022;Naeem et al, 2023;Singhania & Swami, 2023).…”

Promoting sustainability in finance with AI: A review of current practices and future potential

“…This expansion reflects a deeper understanding of sustainability, not just as an environmental concern but as a comprehensive framework incorporating ethical, social, and economic dimensions. Luo et al (2022) bibliometric analysis sheds light on the significant growth in sustainable finance research from 2000 to 2021, indicating an expanding international influence and recognition of its importance. This surge in scholarly interest underscores the field's evolution from a peripheral topic to a central academic and practical significance subject.…”

“…The theoretical landscape of sustainable finance has been profoundly enriched by the advent of AI, as evidenced by the evolution of sustainable finance practices and the burgeoning role of AI in reshaping these practices (Dimmelmeier, 2021;Luo et al, 2022). The application of AI, exemplified by the Financial Maximally Filtered Graph (FMFG) algorithm discussed by Duraivelu et al (2022), underscores a significant leap in processing and analyzing financial data through the lens of sustainability.…”

ESG Indices Efficiency in Five MENA Countries: Application of the Hurst Exponent

“…Some researches focus on analyzing the evolution of ESG investing (Luo et al, 2022;Krishnamoorthy, 2021;Ait El Mekki, 2020). Other researches analyze CSR and debt (Goss & Roberts, 2011;Xu et al, 2021;Cooper & Uzun, 2015;Hamrouni et al, 2019), the return and risk of socially responsible investments (Rudd, 1981;Diltz, 1995;de Souza Cunha & Samanez, 2013), the performance of sustainable funds (Mervelskemper et al, 2014;Allevi et al, 2019;Yue et al, 2020), etc.…”