Bibliometric analysis of the corporate governance index

The corporate governance index (CGI) has attracted substantial academic interest; however, a deeper and more comprehensive exploration of its research science mapping and development evolution remains necessary. This study aims to build a new knowledge framework by identifying basic information and analyzing the network of coauthorship, cocitation, co-occurrence, and theme maps of CGI to predict future research trends. It analyzed 376 articles from the Scopus database via VOSviewer and Biblioshiny to conduct a bibliometric analysis. The findings indicate a steady increase in CGI-related publications since 2010; The leading journal in this field is Corporate Governance (Bingley); Bernard S. Black is the most prolific scholar with seven publications related to CGI. Moreover, the United States, the United Kingdom, and India are key contributors to CGI research, whereas Asian countries, including India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, and China, play a substantial role, reflecting the increasing scholarly focus on CGI in emerging markets. However, the coauthorship by country is relatively weak due to the limited collaboration among authors. In addition, the density connection of the cocited author shows well-established research, while the journal cocitation network reveals a fragmented yet interconnected landscape. The key research themes include CGI and its components, corporate governance, corporate governance rating, financial performance indicators, and emerging economies. Furthermore, future research is expected to focus on institutional and methodological foundations, the applications and impact of CGI, and technological frontiers in CGI research. Compared with prior studies, this paper offers both theoretical and practical contributions, establishes a new knowledge framework, and identifies key challenges and research trends, thereby advancing both academic understanding and practical application.