ESG Signals, Investor Psychology and Corporate Financial Policy: A Bibliometric Study

This study undertakes a systematic literature review combined with bibliometric analysis to examine how abnormal returns are studied in relation to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, investor sentiment, and dividend policy. Using RStudio version 2025.09.0+387 and VOSviewer version 1.6.20, we conduct a bibliometric study that integrates performance analysis, science mapping, and network analysis. The dataset consists of 532 publications published between 2000 and 2025 and indexed in the Web of Science and Scopus databases. Our results show that scholarly work on abnormal returns is organised around three main thematic areas. First, investor sentiment is closely linked with event study applications, behavioural finance explanations, and sentiment analysis, which underscores the importance of psychological influences in understanding market anomalies. Second, prior studies on dividend policy continue to rely heavily on event study designs to evaluate how markets react to dividend announcements. Third, investor sentiment and dividend policy are connected through their common focus on abnormal returns, which operate as a central conceptual link between these strands of literature. Although interest in behavioural and policy-related determinants of abnormal returns has grown over time, work that explicitly incorporates ESG considerations remains relatively marginal. This peripheral position points to an important gap, suggesting that the dynamic relationships among ESG performance, investor sentiment, dividend decisions, and abnormal returns are still not fully explored. The contribution of this study lies in bringing these elements together by mapping research on event studies while treating ESG performance as a potential market signal that may shape both investor sentiment and corporate financial policy.