A bibliometric analysis of governance policy and institutional pathways for sustainability transitions in South Asia

The realization of sustainable development in South Asia is constrained less by technical deficits than by a persistent governance gap. This study provides a comprehensive bibliometric mapping of the research landscape concerning institutional pathways to sustainability in the region. Analyzing a curated dataset of 200 high-impact documents from the Scopus database (2000–2025), the study utilizes segmented regression and network analysis to trace the field's evolutionary trajectory. Results confirm a statistically significant structural break in scientific production following the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), marking a paradigm shift from diagnostic environmental science to solution-oriented governance research. However, the collaborative architecture remains heavily stratified; while South Asian institutions lead in empirical data generation, theoretical influence is dominated by “North–South” knowledge bridges rather than intra-regional cooperation. Thematic clustering identifies four divergent institutional pathways: corporate governance in energy sectors, national policy integration, community-based adaptive governance, and the nascent domain of green finance. The findings suggest that bridging the implementation gap requires shifting from centralized planning to adaptive, polycentric governance models and fostering robust South-South research networks to overcome epistemic dependencies.