Audit and Sustainability in The Public Sector: an Analysis of International Scientific Production

Abstract

Objective: To conduct a bibliometric analysis of the international scientific literature published on the topic of auditing and sustainability in the public sector through co-citation analysis, as proposed by Small (1973), and to identify the main topics discussed (Walter & Ribière, 2013). Theoretical Framework: The emphasis on the role of auditing in analyzing sustainability practices confirms that auditing plays a significant role in highlighting sustainability as an important aspect, which can contribute to mitigating the risk related to environmental violations (Hazaea et al., 2022). Method: To build and visualize bibliometric networks, as well as text mining from articles to visualize co-occurrence networks of key terms related to the topic, using the electronic tool Vosviewer (van Eck & Waltman, 2010). Results and Discussion: The term 'audit', with the majority of co-citations, demonstrates that the audit function is related to the Sustainable Development Goals. It was found that the most influential author is Professor PhD Carolyn J. Cordery, and the journal is Sustainability (Switzerland). Research Implications: As analyzed, the number of accounting and auditing journals found on the subject of this scientific study was quite limited. For future research, it is suggested to conduct studies using other databases. Originality/Value: The topic of audit and sustainability has been little studied in the Brazilian context (which differs from other countries analyzed); thus, identifying a research gap for further discussion on this subject.