Corporate governance and volatility research – What do we know and what should we know?

Purpose Research on corporate governance and volatility has recently become a buzzword. This paper aims to seek to explore the social, conceptual and intellectual structure of corporate governance and volatility topic through bibliometric lenses, and pinpoint future research avenues to enhance the current body of literature on this selected subject. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a bibliometric analysis taking a dataset comprising 577 articles sourced from the Scopus database. Utilizing tools such as the Bibliometrix R package and Vosviewer, the research conducts both performance analysis and science mapping. Findings The findings pinpoint prominent academic authors, journals, institutions, countries and documents associated with corporate governance and volatility. Hammoudeh S is a leading author and The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance is a leading journal in this field. Furthermore, Tianjin University and the USA emerge as significant contributors, publishing a substantial number of articles. Through social structure analysis, the study finds that China and the USA have the highest level of collaboration. In addition, the authors outline four primary research themes in this domain: Disclosure, Managerial behavior and risk incentives, Ownership and board diversity. Through these research themes, the paper also delineates future research agendas. Originality/value In recent decades, researchers have increasingly focused on various aspects of corporate governance. However, despite the growing volume of research, the current retrospective remains inadequate. This study offers valuable guidance by assessing existing literature and advancing the understanding of the conceptual and social structure of corporate governance and volatility.