Greenwashing Unveiled: Insights from a Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

As greenwashing is a hot topic in business, this bibliometric review aims to comprehensively analyze the greenwashing research, focusing on trends and knowledge gaps. It offers important insights for researchers and practitioners who understand the complex dynamics of corporate environmental deception. By reviewing the academic literature in the WOS database for last 25 years, this paper employs bibliometric methods to analyze publication trends in greenwashing research, notable authors, major countries contributing to the field, influential articles and noteworthy journals, and patterns of collaboration in greenwashing research. In addition, the abstracts were sentiment analyzed using Natural Language Processing to reveal the tendency of opinions in the field of greenwashing. The review identifies a growth in greenwashing research since 2021, with an upward trend in multi-authored publications, suggesting an increasing number of collaborative studies. Research on greenwashing needs to be increased in emerging economies. With a high percentage of authors publishing only one article in the field of greenwashing, there is a current need for more players to advance the field of greenwashing. This review presents the first sentiment analysis of the greenwashing literature, and although positive attitudes predominate, critical attitudes are gradually increasing. Despite the progress in greenwashing research, significant gaps remain, and this review offers possibilities for future research directions.