illustration Global trends in social responsibility accounting discourse researches: bibliometric analysis

The special place of social responsibility activities in companies has caused concerns about the quantity and quality of disclosure of this information. Due to the scientific and practical importance of research in this field, bibliometric analysis with the aim of drawing a view of its bibliographic status and relationships is a necessity that has not been addressed in detail so far.

After collecting, refining and preparing bibliographic data, 1388 articles related to the period from 1956 to 2024 were selected from the database. In this article, VOSviewer software was used to analyze synonyms and social networks.

The findings indicate that the publication of social responsibility accounting literature has been poorly reviewed until 2013, and from this year onwards, due to the necessity of the subject, it shows an upward trend in research. The research clusters were classified into 9 clusters based on the bibliometric analysis of the subject, the keyword social responsibility accounting in the central core and at a close distance to it other big nodes such as: sustainable development, sustainability reports, decision making, environmental, social and governance accounting, ESG measurement, It introduced ESG accounting, green accounting, social responsibility measurement, etc. The United States of America with 271 documents, Bucharest University of Economic Studies from Romania with 16 documents, business, management and accounting with 31.8% and Chu researchers with 9 studies were recognized as the most used in this research field.

The present study, by understanding the intellectual and conceptual structure of social responsibility accounting, reveals emerging issues such as climate change, sustainability reporting, internal control, accountability and ESG.

Contribution: 

the results, while drawing a perspective for researchers, can be the basis for the policy of scientific institutions in line with the optimal management of research activities in this field. Also, the current study can be efficient for standard-setting institutions, investors and creditors.