Hotspots and Trends of Engineering Bidding and Tendering in China: A Bibliometric Analysis

Recently, engineering bidding has emerged as a critical factor in driving infrastructure and economic development globally. However, the construction industry continues to grapple with numerous challenges in this area. Existing research, though encompassing diverse themes, remains highly fragmented, lacking a systematic framework and in‐depth analysis of the internal logic among various themes, making it difficult to provide comprehensive guidance. To address these gaps, this paper innovatively employs a mixed‐methods approach, integrating systematic review, bibliometrics, multiindicator comprehensive evaluation, and correlation analysis to analyze 510 pieces of literature in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Web of Science (WOS) databases from 2003 to 2023. Considering China’s legal, policy, and economic landscape, alongside a comparative analysis of international studies, this paper aims to reveal the research hot topics and evolutionary trends in engineering bidding and tendering sector, offering forward‐looking recommendations for future research directions and applications. The findings indicate that project management issues and practices, collusive behaviors, bidding management, and decision issues as well as bid evaluation methods, are poised to dominate future research endeavors in this field. China can draw on international experiences in technology, legislation, procedure, and system to enhance the transparency and efficiency of bidding and tendering activities. The research framework and methodological approaches in this paper break through a single mode of analysis, both systematic and applicable, and can offer valuable insights for bidding and tendering research in diverse national contexts.