Sustainable development goals and corporate sustainability reporting: a bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Objective: This study analyses corporate sustainability reporting on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) since 2016, identifying trends, gaps, and areas for development in corporate practices and academic research. It addresses five research questions concerning the development of research, productive authors, emerging subtopics, relevant regions and institutions, and conceptual gaps in this field. Methodology: A bibliometric analysis of 589 publications from 2017 to 2022 was conducted using the Web of Science Core Collection to map the research community and citation trends. Results: The analysis revealed a highly interconnected research community with significant citation growth, indicating expanding interest, especially in regions like Wales, Denmark, and Switzerland. Interdisciplinary engagement is increasing with contributions from environmental sciences and health research. Limitations: The study is limited to publications within the Clarivate database and may not capture all global research activities. Rapid changes in corporate reporting may outpace academic documentation. Practical implications: Corporations need more integrated and empirically supported sustainability indicators. Exploring blockchain technology to enhance reporting reliability offers a novel approach. The study serves as a reference for practitioners aligning corporate strategies with SDG targets and for policymakers strengthening reporting frameworks.

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Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.