Intellectual structure of social accounting research: a co-citation analysis in business economics

Abstract

In this article, an analysis of the intellectual structure of the research field of social accounting in business economics is carried out through a bibliometric analysis of co-citation. The CiteSpace software has been applied to perform the analysis. Social accounting is an extension of traditional accounting, where a further step is taken by calculating the commitment of companies to society, identifying and recording their socially responsible activities. The review of the state of the art of social accounting research allows us to detail the evolution of scientific production and to identify new areas to explore. This study thus contributes to this field by providing a bibliometric review of the main research areas, sources of knowledge and trends. Specifically, our findings reveal 4 main areas of research on social accounting: social accounting foundations, engagement, accountability and measurement of social value. Finally, we identify the emerging research topics in the field, such as the search for social value metrics and the measurement of the impact of the disclosure of nonfinancial information on profitability. Additionality we outline future lines of research in the field of social accounting, setting a future research agenda.