Green light for business sustainability: A bibliometric analysis on the integration of green technologies within business strategy

Abstract

The integration of green technologies into business strategies has become crucial for advancing sustainability and fostering innovation. This study aims to explore how sustainability intersects with strategic business practices, offering actionable insights for aligning environmental sustainability with economic growth. Using 922 scientific publications from the Web of Science Core Collection (1990–2023), advanced bibliometric tools—co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, and keyword co-occurrence mapping—were employed to identify global research trends, collaborative networks, and thematic developments. These methods facilitated an in-depth exploration of the evolution and impact of green technologies on business strategies over the past three decades. The analysis highlights a sharp increase in publications after 2015, attributed to global initiatives such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. Three key research areas were identified: (1) the role of green innovation in sustainability, (2) economic models enabling green practices, and (3) the influence of environmental regulations on business strategies. China has emerged as a global leader in green technology research, fostering extensive international collaborations and contributing significantly to the field’s advancement. This study bridges existing gaps by providing actionable insights into how green technologies drive business transformation, offering value to researchers, policymakers, and business leaders seeking to integrate environmental sustainability with economic growth.