This study aims to comprehensively examine sustainable mutual funds (SMFs) research by conducting a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis of articles spanning 33 years from 1991 to 2023. This review seeks to uncover the principal contributors and the structural framework of knowledge within the realm of business, finance and management research concerning SMFs.
Following the “Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews (SPAR-4-SLR)” methodology, the author selected 597 documents for the analysis and collected the bibliographic information from the Scopus database. The author uses RStudio and VOSviewer software to address five research questions.
The findings indicate a notable expansion in research concerning SMFs within high-quality journals over the last 33 years. The review illuminates the principal contributors in SMFs research by using performance analysis based on journal, article, author, country and institution criteria. By using science mapping techniques, the author identifies five prevailing themes and outlines future research prospects in the domain of SMFs.
This review paper can serve as a roadmap for future researchers, aiding them in discerning the trending research topics within this domain.
To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that comprehensively provides an overview of different variants, diverse strands and research hotspots of SMFs literature. The study offers insight into the evolution of SMFs, showcasing their progression from a segmented market to a prominently specialized domain in the contemporary landscape.
