Management research and the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs): A bibliometric investigation and systematic review

The comprehension of the businesses’ impact to sustainable development requires consideration of the different factors that affect firms’ behavior, such as corporate governance, non-financial regulation, and the external environment. The contribution of business and management scholars to the discussion surrounding the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their impact for business organizations has grown exponentially in the last years. This review systematically examines, through bibliometric and systematic literature review methods, the scientific knowledge about SDGs and the business sector, analyzing (after fine-tuning) 266 articles published in leading journals between 2012 and 2019. The results reveal the existence of four research themes: technological innovation (cluster 1), firms’ contributions in developing countries (cluster 2), non-financial reporting (cluster 3), and education for SDGs (cluster 4). The main insights from the analysis of the papers are discussed, future research directions and practical implications for the field of study are provided.