Banking regulation, digital innovation and sustainability: a bibliometric review and conceptual framework

This study examines the connections between digital innovation, sustainability and regulation-centred banking research through a bibliometric review of 502 Scopus-indexed articles and reviews published across 267 journals between 2001 and 2 July 2026. Performance analysis, co-citation, bibliographic coupling, co-word analysis and thematic mapping distinguish thematic relationships, bibliographic proximity and shared intellectual foundations. Publication output grew at a compound annual rate of 15.61% over the complete years 2001–2025. The findings identify an established intellectual core centred on regulation, supervision, efficiency, profitability and bank risk. Sustainability-related vocabulary is closely associated with financial stability and prudential concerns, while climate-related contributions have limited connectivity in the selected co-citation network. Digital innovation forms recognisable thematic and bibliographic groups and also appears within broader regulatory research, but does not emerge as a distinct intellectual foundation among references meeting the co-citation threshold. The comparison indicates partial and uneven connections across the three analytical dimensions. Drawing on these patterns, the regulatory dialectic and institutional theory, the study develops a conceptual framework and seven testable propositions concerning regulatory adaptation, possible transmission channels and contextual conditions. These relationships remain hypotheses for empirical testing. The study contributes a differentiated assessment of integration and a research agenda linking regulation, digital capabilities, sustainability practices and banking outcomes.