Walking Dead in the Marketplace: A Bibliometric Review of the Zombie Firm Literature

ABSTRACT Zombie firms—businesses that persist despite chronic financial underperformance—have become a growing focus of economic research. Yet, the literature remains conceptually fragmented and methodologically diverse. This study offers a structured and comprehensive overview of zombie firm scholarship by combining bibliometric analysis with qualitative content analysis. Using a dataset of 160 peer‐reviewed articles, we map the intellectual landscape of the field, identifying publication trends, key research clusters, influential authors, and patterns of collaboration. Our analysis reveals five dominant thematic clusters: zombie lending and banking behavior, resource misallocation and productivity traps, firm performance and capital structure, government intervention and policy design, and regional and sectoral case studies. We find that the field has shifted from Japan‐centric studies to more globally dispersed research, particularly in China and parts of Europe, with a notable increase in publications following the COVID‐19 crisis. The findings highlight gaps in definitional standardization, methodological convergence, and interdisciplinary integration. The study also identifies emerging trends, outlines directions for future research, and provides a valuable foundation for policymakers seeking a deeper understanding of zombie firm dynamics.