Table 7. Summary of key findings across...

Table 7.

Summary of key findings across the three research questions

Criteria	1. How has empirical research on RD developed from 2000 to 2025?	2. What is the focus and critique of the empirical research on RD?	3. What is the future of RD empirical research?
Timeframe	Consistent upward trend in the number of studies, with a notable peak in 2025	Academic interest in RD amplified by high-impact risk events, macroeconomic uncertainty, evolving regulations and stakeholder demand for transparency	Enhanced risk awareness and strengthened regulations expected to drive increased attention to RD, especially environmental and IT RD
Location	Steady geographical expansion to cover 30 countries	Steady concentration in developed economies and a few dominant countries (the USA and the UK)	Expand geographic scope, prioritizing neglected regions
	Output leadership from Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas, while developing countries underrepresented	Many developed and developing countries underexplored	Focus on comparative and cross-regional designs to capture contextual differences in RD practices
	Rising number of cross-national studies, especially post-2020	Scarce cross-regional comparative research, uncertain generalizability across different institutional contexts
Risk type	Dominant focus on overall RD throughout the period	Early research lacked granularity, with most studies addressing undifferentiated risk categories	Further deepen the analysis of specific risk categories (ESG- and IT-related risks) and explore their interdependencies in relation to policy and market forces, driven by strong practical significance
	Extension of the scope of RD research from overall to specific risk types	Gradual research diversification, yet still lacking a systematic investigation to date
	Recent marked shift from financial RD toward nonfinancial RD, especially environmental RD	Regional concentration of studies on specific risks – IT RD in the USA, lacking in developing countries
RD regulation	Mainly voluntary RD across timeframes, with a notable rise in mandatory RD since 2020	Prevailing interest in firm-initiated voluntary RD, often overlooking regulatory contexts	Expand comparative research across regulatory environments to address geographic gaps and strengthen the contextual validity of RD findings
RD regulation		Mandatory RD remains underexplored and regionally concentrated in developed countries
RD dimension	Dominant research focus on RD volume over time	Evolving trend in RD research toward content-based analysis to provide more granular insights on RD	Develop integrated metrics and explore the interplay between volume and textual features
	Gradual increase and differentiation of textual analyses of RD, with a focus on readability, time orientation and tone	RD dimensions mainly treated as isolated, alternative metrics in cause-and-effect designs	Greater emphasis on multidimensional and context-sensitive analysis to enhance explanatory power
	Scarce multidimensional approaches, yet gaining momentum recently	Rare composite approach to RD measurement
Research method	Dominant quantitative methods, growing steadily, especially in the USA, UK and cross-national studies	Limited diversification, with prevailing and increasingly analytical quantitative approaches	Opt for methodological pluralism for a better understanding of RD practices
	Recent rise of experimental designs, especially in the USA since 2020	Qualitative and mixed-method contributions primarily focused on exploring RD textual features	Expand experimental RD research geographically and cross-country replication for higher external validity
	Qualitative and mixed-method approaches underrepresented	Experimental studies geographically concentrated and rarely replicated across regions
Data source	Annual reports as the primary data source	Limited scope of RD exploration, with strong anchorage to the annual report and specific sections therein	Expand to include other disclosure channels (e.g. social media)
	Modest diversification recently, with growing use of sustainability and governance reports and other sources	Alternative sources underused	Greater use of multisource data for enhancing completeness, granularity and comparability of RD assessments
	Gradually increasing use of multichannel data	Restricted depth of empirical insights, with few attempts to triangulate multiple sources
Data collection	Prevailing manual data collection, with a shift to automated software-based collection, or a combination of both, since 2012	Although manual coding still prevailing in number, evolution to automated data collection	Leverage advanced AI tools for integration of multisource RD data and comparability
Data collection	Recent employment of AI to explore textual features	Shift to AI technologies in connection with the shift from RD volume to text-feature-based analysis
Research question	Evolution from a focus on RD determinants to more differentiated focus including consequences and multiple research questions	RD determinants most researched topic, investigating both internal and external factors	Deepen the analysis of RD behavior and expand consequences categories beyond capital markets
Research question	Limited research on RD choices per se along the entire period	RD consequences main focus on capital market outcomes, yet increasing attention to operating outcomes recently	Integrative designs that connect choices, drivers and outcomes for enhancing knowledge and practical relevance
Research finding	Significant associations prevail, with positive findings increasing over time	Emphasis on positive effects of RD, especially on capital markets	Deepen conditional analysis and clarify mechanisms behind mixed or adverse outcomes
	Decline in neutral findings over time	Negative and mixed findings reveal underexplored complexities tied to governance, managerial power or textual features	Expand beyond firm-level effects to institutional and behavioral dynamics to enhance explanatory depth
	Increased conditional analyses since 2020
Research implication	Implications expanded across micro, meso and macro levels, with the latter consistently dominant	Emphasized macrolevel recommendations, often reiterating similar regulatory suggestions	Bridge the gap between analytical depth and practical relevance, especially by translating advanced methods into stakeholder-oriented insights
	Mesolevel peaking in 2020-2025, alongside growing microlevel relevance	Growing meso- and micro-level implications	Develop more context-sensitive implications across all levels
		Practical insights lag behind methodological innovation

Criteria	1. How has empirical research on RD developed from 2000 to 2025?	2. What is the focus and critique of the empirical research on RD?	3. What is the future of RD empirical research?
Timeframe	Consistent upward trend in the number of studies, with a notable peak in 2025	Academic interest in RD amplified by high-impact risk events, macroeconomic uncertainty, evolving regulations and stakeholder demand for transparency	Enhanced risk awareness and strengthened regulations expected to drive increased attention to RD, especially environmental and IT RD
Location	Steady geographical expansion to cover 30 countries	Steady concentration in developed economies and a few dominant countries (the USA and the UK)	Expand geographic scope, prioritizing neglected regions
	Output leadership from Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas, while developing countries underrepresented	Many developed and developing countries underexplored	Focus on comparative and cross-regional designs to capture contextual differences in RD practices
	Rising number of cross-national studies, especially post-2020	Scarce cross-regional comparative research, uncertain generalizability across different institutional contexts
Risk type	Dominant focus on overall RD throughout the period	Early research lacked granularity, with most studies addressing undifferentiated risk categories	Further deepen the analysis of specific risk categories (ESG- and IT-related risks) and explore their interdependencies in relation to policy and market forces, driven by strong practical significance
	Extension of the scope of RD research from overall to specific risk types	Gradual research diversification, yet still lacking a systematic investigation to date
	Recent marked shift from financial RD toward nonfinancial RD, especially environmental RD	Regional concentration of studies on specific risks – IT RD in the USA, lacking in developing countries
RD regulation	Mainly voluntary RD across timeframes, with a notable rise in mandatory RD since 2020	Prevailing interest in firm-initiated voluntary RD, often overlooking regulatory contexts	Expand comparative research across regulatory environments to address geographic gaps and strengthen the contextual validity of RD findings
RD regulation		Mandatory RD remains underexplored and regionally concentrated in developed countries
RD dimension	Dominant research focus on RD volume over time	Evolving trend in RD research toward content-based analysis to provide more granular insights on RD	Develop integrated metrics and explore the interplay between volume and textual features
	Gradual increase and differentiation of textual analyses of RD, with a focus on readability, time orientation and tone	RD dimensions mainly treated as isolated, alternative metrics in cause-and-effect designs	Greater emphasis on multidimensional and context-sensitive analysis to enhance explanatory power
	Scarce multidimensional approaches, yet gaining momentum recently	Rare composite approach to RD measurement
Research method	Dominant quantitative methods, growing steadily, especially in the USA, UK and cross-national studies	Limited diversification, with prevailing and increasingly analytical quantitative approaches	Opt for methodological pluralism for a better understanding of RD practices
	Recent rise of experimental designs, especially in the USA since 2020	Qualitative and mixed-method contributions primarily focused on exploring RD textual features	Expand experimental RD research geographically and cross-country replication for higher external validity
	Qualitative and mixed-method approaches underrepresented	Experimental studies geographically concentrated and rarely replicated across regions
Data source	Annual reports as the primary data source	Limited scope of RD exploration, with strong anchorage to the annual report and specific sections therein	Expand to include other disclosure channels (e.g. social media)
	Modest diversification recently, with growing use of sustainability and governance reports and other sources	Alternative sources underused	Greater use of multisource data for enhancing completeness, granularity and comparability of RD assessments
	Gradually increasing use of multichannel data	Restricted depth of empirical insights, with few attempts to triangulate multiple sources
Data collection	Prevailing manual data collection, with a shift to automated software-based collection, or a combination of both, since 2012	Although manual coding still prevailing in number, evolution to automated data collection	Leverage advanced AI tools for integration of multisource RD data and comparability
Data collection	Recent employment of AI to explore textual features	Shift to AI technologies in connection with the shift from RD volume to text-feature-based analysis
Research question	Evolution from a focus on RD determinants to more differentiated focus including consequences and multiple research questions	RD determinants most researched topic, investigating both internal and external factors	Deepen the analysis of RD behavior and expand consequences categories beyond capital markets
Research question	Limited research on RD choices per se along the entire period	RD consequences main focus on capital market outcomes, yet increasing attention to operating outcomes recently	Integrative designs that connect choices, drivers and outcomes for enhancing knowledge and practical relevance
Research finding	Significant associations prevail, with positive findings increasing over time	Emphasis on positive effects of RD, especially on capital markets	Deepen conditional analysis and clarify mechanisms behind mixed or adverse outcomes
	Decline in neutral findings over time	Negative and mixed findings reveal underexplored complexities tied to governance, managerial power or textual features	Expand beyond firm-level effects to institutional and behavioral dynamics to enhance explanatory depth
	Increased conditional analyses since 2020
Research implication	Implications expanded across micro, meso and macro levels, with the latter consistently dominant	Emphasized macrolevel recommendations, often reiterating similar regulatory suggestions	Bridge the gap between analytical depth and practical relevance, especially by translating advanced methods into stakeholder-oriented insights
	Mesolevel peaking in 2020-2025, alongside growing microlevel relevance	Growing meso- and micro-level implications	Develop more context-sensitive implications across all levels
		Practical insights lag behind methodological innovation

Note(s):

This table synthesizes the main findings of the SLR by mapping each criterion to the three research questions on RD development, focus and critique and future research directions

Source(s): Authors’ own work

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