Unveiling organizational citizenship behavior toward environment (OCBE): trends and futures from bibliometric analysis

Purpose With increasing environmental issues and heightened focus on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), organizational citizenship behavior toward environment (OCBE) has occupied a central stage to promote business sustainability. But the lack of a systematic and thorough synthesis of OCBE literature, despite growing scholarly interest, hinders its theoretical consolidation and practical implementation. This study aims to critically evaluate the current literature on OCBE and to delineate prospective research avenues for academics and practitioners. Design/methodology/approach This study used bibliometric research design combined with Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) protocol to map OCBE. The content analysis of bibliographic coupling combined with keyword co-occurrence analysis produces a comprehensive understanding of the OCBE domain and provides future avenues. The SPAR-4-SLR procedure was implemented to improve methodological rigor, ensuring transparency, reproducibility and credibility in the systematic review process. Findings The bibliographic coupling and content analysis identify four predominant theme clusters that illustrate the intellectual framework and progression of OCBE research. The results elucidate the conceptual underpinnings, significant contributions and nascent research trends in this domain. The study identifies research gaps and underexplored domains that require additional scholarly focus. Research limitations/implications Publication bias exists as grey literature and unpublished works were not included in this review. Second, only literature available in English was considered; thus, future studies may examine literature available in other languages. Third, using a single database limits access; hence future studies could benefit from combining databases to access a broader range of literature on this subject area. Social implications This research highlights the significance of OCBE in promoting pro-environmental conduct among employees, augmenting environmental consciousness and reinforcing socially responsible business cultures. By promoting voluntary environmental initiatives among individuals and groups, OCBE can advance overarching societal objectives such as environmental stewardship, sustainable development and collective ecological health. Originality/value This work provides a thorough bibliometric synthesis of OCBE literature by merging SPAR-4-SLR with sophisticated bibliometric and content analysis methodologies. This study offers innovative theoretical insights and practical implications for enhancing sustainable organizational practices by delineating the intellectual environment and suggesting future research routes tailored to certain clusters.