Investigating Green Economy Studies Using a Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

In recent years, the number of studies on sustainable development has increased dramatically. The green economy has been positioned as a focus for future research due to the rapid growth of sustainable development studies. A green economy improves living standards and conserves and promotes the subtle utilization of natural resources. Although the concept of the green economy is continuously growing, there remains a gap in the focused research on its evolution and the conceptual landscape. In this context, a worldwide bibliometric analysis and visualization of green economy publications have been carried out to identify recent trends and hotspots using VOSviewer 1.6.10 software. A Web of Science (WoS) keyword search on “green economy” yielded 409 documents between 2002 and 2022. The documents were analyzed in terms of year of publication, countries, institutions, keywords, journals, co-authorship, and co-citations. It was revealed that there has been tremendous growth in green economy research from 2014 to 2019, with 158 published documents. Peoples R China is the forerunner and the most significant contributor to published documents, while India stands in 23rd place. Further, the most common research areas identified are green economy, transition, and energy. Although tourism is a critical driver of green transformation to facilitate global green growth, it is one of the least explored fields. India has a considerable scope for conducting green economy research through collaborations. After that, there was an investigation on a comparative understanding of the two main camps, mainstream and heterodox, toward a comprehensive analysis of sustainable development. This study recognized that limitations and biases are integral to the research approach. Finally, the policy implications of bibliometric analysis on international coalition on the green economy and suggestions on scientific reproduction.