ESG measurement: an interdisciplinary review using scientometric analysis

The measurement of ESG has become essential for companies to determine the return on investment (ROI) of their ESG initiatives, and for stakeholders to assess companies' commitment and hold them accountable. Despite approximately $30 trillion of professionally managed assets being subject to ESG criteria, comprehensive literature reviews encompassing this research domain is scarce. The present study conducted a scientometric analysis to systematically synthesise the extant research in the ESG measurement field using a corpus of 2,387 articles from WoS and Scopus, published between 1992-2021, employing CiteSpace software. Domain visualisations were created to identify co-authorship networks, subject categories, and country and institution analysis, and content analysis was performed to identify the significant research areas, trends, and patterns of ESG measurement research globally. The findings revealed exponential increase in publications on ESG measurements over the past three decades. Emerging research themes and implications for policymakers, society, managers, and academia have been detailed.