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Bibliometric analysis of corporate governance research in German-speaking countries: applying bibliometrics to business research using a custom-made database

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Abstract

The objective of the present study on corporate governance research in German-speaking countries is to portray the networks in this field, identify the central sources and actors, and establish the relations between individual subdisciplines. The present paper therefore uses bibliometric and network analysis to investigate business research literature in the leading journals in German-speaking countries. As none of the major citation databases could be used for the bibliometric analysis given the subject area under investigation, the first step was to create a bibliometric database for the planned evaluation. Using this as a basis, bibliometric evaluations were then carried out with a focus on co-citation analysis. This analysis was based on an evaluation of over 10,000 references in 267 source documents. This identified the key publications on business research in German-speaking countries that have a particularly strong influence on the subject of corporate governance. The various key areas were clustered according to similarity and visualized in a network.

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Notes

  1. At the heart of the corporate governance discussion lies the separation of ownership and (corporate) control/power of disposition, which arose as a result of the spread of large publicly owned corporations from 1850 onwards and in the 20th century in particular. As a consequence of this separation, conflicts of interest and differences in discretionary powers developed between owners and managers, fostering opportunistic conduct on the part of the managers. As a result, corporate governance research focuses primarily on finding solutions to these problems. This is partly achieved on a theoretical basis, for instance through explanations provided by principal–agent theory or stewardship theory. Otherwise, attempts are made to address the lack of monitoring by introducing appropriate regulatory provisions and legislation, such as the Sarbanes–Oxley Act in the USA, or, in Germany, the Corporate Sector Supervision and Transparency Act (KonTraG), Company Transparency and Disclosure Act (TransPuG), and Accounting Law Modernization Act (BilMoG). Furthermore, codes of conduct known as “soft laws”, such as the German Corporate Governance Code (DCGK), also address this issue. Thus, overall, corporate governance can be regarded as a legal and de facto regulatory framework for managing, controlling, and monitoring a company. This regulatory framework comprises regulatory provisions, recommendations for conduct, as well as conduct at an individual, personal level.

  2. Only German-language journals covering the entire spectrum of business administration are included in the database in order to obtain a holistic view of corporate governance research.

  3. VOSviewer is a software program for visualizing clusters and network structures that was developed specifically for bibliometric purposes.

  4. In order to ensure that a clear analysis was achieved, the document analysis level had to be reduced to the dimension of first authors for technical reasons.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Central Library and Project Management, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425, Jülich, Germany

    Dirk Tunger

  2. Mercator School of Management, University of Duisburg-Essen, Lotharstr. 65, Duisburg, Germany

    Marc Eulerich

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  1. Dirk Tunger
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  2. Marc Eulerich
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Correspondence to Dirk Tunger.

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Tunger, D., Eulerich, M. Bibliometric analysis of corporate governance research in German-speaking countries: applying bibliometrics to business research using a custom-made database. Scientometrics 117, 2041–2059 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-018-2919-z

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