Corporate water risk: A new research hotspot under climate change

Abstract

Abstract In the context of intensified climate change and resource scarcity, the impact of water risk on corporate sustainable operation is increasingly prominent; firms must not only be aware of corporate water risks but also take actions in its comprehensive management. For the purpose of integrating literature on corporate water risk and to find research deficiencies and point out future research directions, based on the definition of corporate water risk proposed by the Carbon Disclosure Project, bibliometrics was performed to study the research focus, research hotspots, and research trends in this field by using CITESPACE software. Results showed: (1) researches mainly focus on corporate adaptation under climate change, and corporate environmental management and social responsibility; (2) research hotspots include corporate performance under climate change, supply chain sustainability under water scarcity, environmental regulation and firm performance, environmental strategy and stakeholder management, and so forth; (3) research focuses have gradually changed from the study of corporate behavior under regulatory policies to the physical risk management under climate change, until the comprehensive corporate water risk management. Based on the relationships between water and firms, this paper discussed sources, impact and theories of corporate water risk, and further proposed a new research perspective of value chain. This work not only helps researches understand corporate water risk and further study on it, but also helps enterprises be aware of corporate water risk so as to take actions to deal with it and achieve corporate sustainable development.