The Convergence of Corporate Sustainability and Social Responsibility in Modern Business Contexts: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Global challenges such as climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic, and geopolitical instability have driven organizations to embed sustainability into their strategies and operations, moving away from the profit-driven mindset to a broader emphasis on societal value. Sustainability, today a widespread concept in academia and business, requires balancing social, environmental, and economic responsibilities to achieve long-term success. Embracing the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) model, organizations aim for profit while also positively impacting society and the environment. However, there is a prevailing tendency to emphasize rights over responsibilities, a pattern that needs to shift in order to promote sustainability. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge on corporate sustainability by exploring its relationship with social responsibility. A bibliometric analysis was conducted on a sample of 9,378 documents processed using VOSviewer. The study examines the interplay between sustainability, social responsibility, and corporate sustainability, mapping out key concepts and visualizing their networks. Furthermore, the links to other key themes such as performance, management, innovation, strategy, governance, supply chain management, leadership, stakeholders, and others were also explored. Social-responsibility disclosure was also found to be an emergent topic in terms of organizational accountability and transparency.