Innovation for Sustainability in the Global South: Bibliometric findings from management & business and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields in developing countries

TL;DR

This bibliometric study analyzes over 14,000 articles on innovation and sustainability in developing countries, highlighting research trends, key contributors, and gaps in the Global South's scholarly landscape.

Contribution

It unifies management and STEM research on sustainability in developing countries using bibliometric analysis, revealing patterns, leadership, and areas needing growth.

Findings

China leads in research output and agenda-setting.

India, Mexico, Nigeria show higher efficiency or impact.

Research in top journals is increasing modestly.

Abstract

Research on innovation and sustainability is prolific but fragmented. This study integrates the research on innovation in management and business and STEM fields for sustainability in a unified framework for the case of developing countries (i.e., the Global South). It presents and discusses the output, impact, and structure of such research based on a sample of 14,000+ articles and conference proceedings extracted from the bibliographic database Scopus. The findings reveal research output inflections after global announcements such as UN-Earth Summits. The study also reveals the indisputable leadership of China in overall output and research agenda-setting. Nonetheless, countries such as India, Mexico, and Nigeria are either more efficient or impactful. GS research published in highly reputable journals is still scarce but increasing modestly. Central topic clusters (e.g., knowledge management) remain peripheral to the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) research landscape. Finally, academic-corporate collaboration is in its infancy and limited to particular economic sectors: energy, pharmaceuticals, and high-tech.