International corporate governance: a science mapping approach

Abstract

Studies on International Corporate Governance (ICG) have attracted attention among researchers and managers. The aim of this study was to investigate the major themes and the evolution observed in the scientific production of the ICG discipline. The bibliometric software tool SciMAT was used to perform a conceptual science mapping analysis based on co-word bibliographic networks. This review examined 262 scientific articles listed on the Web of Science from the year 1974 to 2019. It was revealed that, in the field of ICG, themes and theories have significantly evolved. Thus, while, under Agency Theory, risk-taking was the predominant theme in the initial stages, recent research is rather focused on the importance of the human and social aspects of both the board and top management teams, under theories such as Upper Echelons and Dependence Theory. The results presented in this study will enable authors to identify new lines of research.