Mapping the landscape of sustainable innovation performance: a bibliometric analysis

Document Type

Review

Publication Date

1-1-2026

Abstract

Sustainable innovation performance (SIP) represents the ability of a firm to generate innovation that simultaneously advances economic, environmental, and social objectives. Despite growing scholarly attention, the conceptual boundaries, theoretical foundations, and intellectual structure of SIP remain disintegrated. This study conducts a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 646 articles indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection to map the evolution, dominant theoretical lenses, and emerging research themes within the SIP domain. Using Bibliometrix (RStudio) and VOSviewer, the study identifies four major knowledge clusters: green innovation capabilities, environmental management and eco-efficiency, digital and technological transformation for sustainability, and stakeholder-driven and institution-driven sustainability strategies. The findings reveal that SIP research is grounded primarily in the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities, stakeholder theory, and institutional theory; where each offers complementary explanations for how firms build and deploy capabilities to achieve sustainability outcomes. The study also uncovers the key thematic gaps that include limited integration of social sustainability dimensions and underexplored capability-based mechanisms that links the green resource capabilities firms to SIP. Overall, this review offers a structured synthesis of the field, elucidates its conceptual foundations, and provides a theoretically informed agenda for future research.

Publication Title

Cogent Business and Management

DOI

10.1080/23311975.2025.2607807

Volume

13

Issue

1

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