An Analysis of the Application of WOS Data-based Bibliometrics in Corporate Social Value Research

Abstract

Social value creation has become the principle of corporate strategic transformation and an important facet of sustainable development strategy. Scholars in the field of business, management and ethics have conducted research from different perspectives and systematically resolved the development context and focus of the research into corporate social value. This approach can provide effective references for research in other disciplines, and further promote the development of research into corporate social value. In this paper, 433 articles on corporate social value and related scholarship, collected from the core collection of Web of Science (WOS) database from 2000 to 2020, are taken as sample data. The methods of bibliometric analysis, cluster analysis and co-occurrence analysis are adopted for the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the evolution path, research focus and phased frontiers of corporate social value research in the past 20 years. The results show that the research on corporate social value has experienced three stages: germination, slow development and rapid development. "Corporate power and social attributes", "value co-creation and stakeholders", "business ethics and social enterprise", and "corporate social responsibility and sustainable development" are four important topics and directions of research into corporate social value. The methods, dimensions and evaluation methods of corporate social value creation around the needs of enterprise strategic management will be the research focus in the future.