A scientometric analysis of the structure and trends in corporate fraud research: a 66-year review

Purpose This paper aims to review corporate fraud, as a concept, and the emerging research trends in corporate fraud research from 1957 to 2022 using bibliometric analysis techniques. Design/methodology/approach A total of 7,750 publications from the Scopus database were first assessed using performance analysis to explore the descriptive nature of the bibliographic data, and subsequently, citation, co-citation, co-occurrence and bibliographic coupling analyses were conducted using the VOSviewer software. Findings The results indicate there has been increasing growth in fraud research over the years, especially since the global corporate scandals of 2008. Although fraud is a global issue, the results suggest that most extant studies originate from developed economies, with a high level of collaboration amongst scholars in these countries. In addition, the co-occurrence analysis indicates that research into corporate fraud has largely focused on its determinants and corruption. The determinants identified are further clustered in the paper as individual, organizational and national-level factors. Practical implications The findings should inform practitioners and policymakers of the state of knowledge on corporate fraud which could be useful in developing strategies and policies to mitigate its occurrence. Social implications The study points to the need for research collaborations among scholars in developing economies to increase investigations into the occurrences of fraud. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to holistically assess the intellectual structure of corporate fraud studies from its inception and the trends over time.