Mapping of research on corporate social responsibility and firm performance: a bibliometric analysis

Purpose Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm performance have been extensively examined by past studies, yet there is a dearth of comprehensive and bibliometric review of CSR–firm performance. Therefore, this study aims to comprehensively review the CSR–firm performance literature. Design/methodology/approach The contemporary review technique, bibliometric analysis, is used to analyse academic articles. This study used the Scopus database to retrieve the articles or review papers that are published only in journals and are in the English language. Findings The bibliometric analysis uncovered four clusters in the literature: Cluster 1, Intervening variables in the CSR and firm performance relationship; Cluster 2, Drivers of CSR and its disclosure; Cluster 3, Market orientation (MO), environmental initiatives and performance; and Cluster 4, Industrial insights. Originality/value The originality of this study lies in the results section, which presents the state-of-the-art of CSR and firm performance from the latest articles and unravels future directions in the same domain.