Visualizing the stranded assets research landscape: A decade of trends, themes, and future pathways

Stranded assets have been recognized as one of the most severe economic ramifications of climate change affecting nations, global economic powers, corporations, and communities. Undoubtedly, there has been a considerable level of research from various scholars and experts on its identification, determinants, estimated losses, and disclosures from diverse perspectives and contexts. While recognising the extensive knowledge in the field due to the expansion of study, it is equally essential for researchers to comprehend the state-of-the-art of the existing literature by analysing the evolutionary nuances of this emerging topic. This study aimed to conduct a bibliometric analysis of contributions addressing pertinent issues, examine trends, and recommend prospective future research directions. This paper employed a bibliometric approach utilizing two analytical tools: Biblioshiny and VOSviewer, and analyzed a dataset of 252 documents sourced from the Web of Science database. The study's results indicate a 15.27% annual growth in publications, highlighting the rising scholarly interest in stranded assets and the need for further research, particularly their potential effects on corporate operations. Again, our analysis reveals a significant shift in research towards solution-oriented themes such as renewable energy, management models, and just transition, signalling transition and mitigation pathways. In addition, the findings suggest a wide geographical imbalance between advanced economies and emerging countries in the stranded assets scholarship. Moreover, the analysis identifies six key thematic areas with critical implications for policymakers and potential avenues for future research.