Exploring the relationship between innovation and corporate governance

Innovation is a significant factor for business sustainability, and, at the same time, corporate governance plays a key role in defining appropriate directions for firms addressing the challenges it implies. We try to understand which are the relevant contributions, topics, and intellectual framework in the existing research literature exploring the relationship between innovation and corporate governance to advance the research in this arena. To that aim, we use bibliometric methods to analyze 766 articles published in the last three decades. We identify different periods in the research works, showing an evolution in terms of the number of articles, the scope they cover, and the variety of related topics. Also, we identify the intellectual framework that underlays the contributions, discuss the main pillars of the research corpus concerning the core themes, identify gaps in research, and point to new avenues of study in this realm. • We use bibliometrics to analyze 766 articles published about the interplay between innovation and corporate governance. • The agency theory is the prevalent framework. However, there is a growing number of new theoretical backgrounds. • Among the main themes related to the topic, we may highlight the alignment of incentives from diverse approaches. • We discuss the impact of recent intellectual frameworks and topics, such as stakeholders governance or sustainability.