Figure 5
The two-field plot consists of the flow of topics between two time periods. The left side is labeled “2002-2023”, and the right side is labeled “2024-2025”. Numerous rectangular nodes on each side are connected by shaded paths of varying thicknesses, where a thicker path indicates a stronger thematic transition. On the left side under “2002-2023”, the rectangular nodes from top to bottom are labeled: “accounting information system”, “a i”, “big data analytics”, “cloud”, “cloud-computing”, “corporate governance”, “cryptocurrency”, “digital transformation”, “digitalisation”, “digitization”, “resilience”, “security”, and “s m e s”. The “digital transformation” node is the largest on this side. On the right side under “2024-2025”, the rectangular nodes from top to bottom are labeled: “big data”, “digital economy”, “digital transformation”, “e-government”, “financial technology”, “fintech”, “internal control”, “machine learning”, “performance”, “smart”, and “technology acceptance model”. The “digital transformation” node on this side is significantly larger and receives the most paths from the previous period. The paths show that “digital transformation” from the first period flows into almost every topic in the second period, most notably into the second period’s “digital transformation” and “fintech” nodes. Additionally, “accounting information system” and “a i” show strong transitions into the “digital transformation” node of the 2024 to 2025 period.The Sankey diagram visualizes the flow of major research themes between two periods. Source: Authors’ visualization, 2025