Research Fronts Research Articles

Mapping the Evolution of Green Finance Research and Development in Emerging Green Economies

Research on green and sustainable finance is increasing, crucial for advancing a green financial system and economic growth. Utilizing a Scopus database, this paper collects data and, through bibliometric analysis in R studio, visually explores research trends, hotspots, and fronts in green finance and sustainable development across top emerging green economies. From 2001 to 2022, publications in this field have grown annually, with China leading globally. Significant hotspots include urban total factor energy efficiency, reducing carbon emissions, regional economic development, climate adaptation, technological progress, green innovation, and transitioning from linear to circular economy models. The study anticipates future research to focus on refining industrial and financial structures that align sustainable, green development with superior ecological environment protection, highlighting the evolving nature of green finance research and its impact on promoting sustainable economic practices.

Wait! What’s my job? Role ambiguity and role conflict as predictors of commitment among faculty

PurposeFaculty play a unique role in universities performing duties along the three fronts of teaching, research and service. While it might be teaching that contributes most to the bottom line of a small university, it is often research by which faculty merit is judged. This study explores the relationships between role ambiguity, role conflict and commitment (affective, normative and continuance) as mediated by job satisfaction among faculty members.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 133 faculty members at a US-accredited university in Lebanon served as the basis for this study. The faculty members completed a survey covering scales on role ambiguity, role conflict, commitment and job satisfaction in addition to demographic variables.FindingsWe find that a decrease in role ambiguity strengthens affective and normative commitment but weakens continuance commitment. Structural equation modeling indicates that job satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between role ambiguity and affective commitment, while not mediating the relationship between role ambiguity and normative and continuance commitments. Similar findings hold for job satisfaction as a mediator in the relationship between role conflict and commitment.Originality/valueBased on statistical modeling, this work (1) puts forth a revised scale for organizational commitment tailored to academia and (2) provides guidance to higher education institutions in terms of the differential impacts on faculty commitment that stem from reducing role-ambiguity versus role-conflict. Managerial recommendations focus on improving normative and affective commitment through the design of policies to reduce role conflict among faculty.

Bibliometric analysis and key messages of integrating Chinese and Western Medicine for COVID-19

BackgroundThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been a global pandemic since it broke out, and integrated Chinese and Western medicine (ICWM) has played an important role in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. We aimed to analyze the published literature on ICWM for COVID-19 at home and abroad, and compare their differences on hotspots and research fronts. MethodsPublications before Oct 31, 2022 were retrieved from the Web of Science core database (WOS), PubMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure database (CNKI), Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform (Wanfang), China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP), China Biology Medicine disc (CBM), CiteSpace and VOSviewer to summarize the basic characteristics of publications, countries, institutions, keywords, and citations. ResultsWe included 580 English papers and 1727 Chinese papers in this study. The development trends in China and other countries are relatively asynchronous and show a smooth growth trend for the future. The most productive countries were China, India, and the United States, while the most productive domestic research institution was the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. The clustering analysis of high-frequency keywords showed that Chinese literature focused on clinical studies of ICWM for COVID-19, such as retrospective studies, clinical features, and traditional Chinese medicine syndrome analysis, while English literature focused on therapeutic mechanism studies and evidence-based medicine studies, such as systematic reviews and meta-analysis, and both of them paid attention to network pharmacological research and Qingfei Paidu Decoction. Sorting out the top 10 highly cited articles, Huang CL's article published in Lancet in 2020 was regarded as a cornerstone in the field. ConclusionThe treatment of COVID-19 by ICWM has become a worldwide research hotspot. Although there are differences in the specific contents among countries, the development trend of research types to the mechanism of action, and the development trend of research contents to the recovery period treatment and the prevention of COVID-19 by ICWM are consistent.

Assessing the evolution of banking reputation literature: a bibliometric analysis

PurposeThe concept of banking reputation has gained significant attention due to its relevance in the banking industry. A strong reputation has become crucial for a bank’s success, as it affects trust, credibility and stakeholders' perceptions. However, understanding and managing reputation in the banking sector involves several challenges. This study aims to analyze the field of banking reputation research through bibliometric analysis.Design/methodology/approachIt explores the evolution of research in this area, identifies key journals, articles and authors, examines the main research streams, and identifies research fronts and opportunities for future advancement.FindingsThe findings reveal that banking reputation research has evolved over time, with multiple perspectives and viewpoints. Key journals and authors in the field are identified, and leading research streams are highlighted. The study also uncovers the conceptual and intellectual structure of the research domain, providing insights into the complex and multidimensional nature of banking reputation. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the importance of corporate social responsibility, sustainability practices and gender diversity in shaping a bank’s reputation. These factors play a significant role in attracting and retaining customers, accessing financial markets and securing funding.Research limitations/implicationsThe results contribute to the existing body of knowledge and provide researchers and practitioners with valuable insights for further exploration.Originality/valueThe paper concludes by outlining potential avenues for future research in the field of banking reputation.

Mapping the research landscape of vocational education and entrepreneurship: insights and future directions

PurposeVocational education and entrepreneurship are constantly increasing in research fields. However, what is the current state of vocational education and entrepreneurial research? Where will the area go next? These questions are still unanswered; thus, this study tries to map the research landscape of the study area to get insights and provide directions for future research.Design/methodology/approachThis research collected extant literature on vocational education and entrepreneurship using Scopus scientific database. Bibliometric analysis has been performed to extract insights from 175 documents published in the study area. Content analysis on the extant literature has also been committed to getting contextual information and developing an integrated research framework for future researchers.FindingsThe bibliometric analysis revealed that training, career choice, curriculum, self-employment, student psychology, better job opportunity, learning environment and innovation are the most discussed in the vocational education and entrepreneurship literature. Developed nation’s strong presence, indicated by the number of publications in the field.Originality/valueThis study significantly contributes to entrepreneurship by disclosing advances in the literature and some of the most active research fronts in this sector, delivering insights that have yet to be wholly appreciated or appraised. The study also developed an integrated framework that could benefit various vocations, education and entrepreneurship stakeholders.

Understanding 21st century skills needed in response to industry 4.0: Exploring scholarly insights using bibliometric analysis

International policy agendas are increasingly focusing on the 21st century skills needed by future workers in response to Industry 4.0. In this study, we conduct a bibliometric analysis of 2662 articles published by 6579 authors in the last two decades to understand the structure of the scholarly knowledge in this field. We first identify influential articles, documents, journals and trends in this literature. We use co-citation analysis to identify foundational themes in the development of 21st century skills literature, then using bibliometric coupling, we identify communities in the current research front. We then use co-word analysis to identify future directions in the field. Overall, we find that research on 21st century skills has grown exponentially in the past two decades, however, few researchers focus primarily on this topic. The existing research is primarily dominated by psychologists, education researchers and technology researchers. We also find that specific disciplines such as industrial engineering and nursing are prominent contributors in the field, and that critical thinking and computational thinking are key areas of focus.

Alzheimer’s Disease and Language: Development and Prospects

Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative disease of the central nervous system characterized by progressive cognitive impairment and memory impairment. With search keywords set as “Alzheimer’s (disease)” and “language” and the publication date set from January 1, 2020 to October 30, 2022, we retrieved 61 pieces of Chinese literature from CNKI and 176 English results from the Web of Science Core Collection. Data were screened manually and processed with CiteSpace 6.1.R3 and biblioshiny. This study tries to map out the developments of research on language related to Alzheimer’s disease both in the Chinese science circle and the international academic circle during the recent two decades (2000-2022). Investigations are also conducted to identify possibilities and opportunities for research fronts. Current studies on the association between Alzheimer’s disease and language are characterized by task singularity, subject specificality, institution pluralism, and treatment locality. Future studies are suggested to incorporate neuro-scanning technologies to obtain a clearer message of the neural mechanism. Lifelong bilinguals who use language as a profession such as translators and interpreters are also possible subject groups for future investigations to grasp a both general and specific picture of the association between Alzheimer’s disease and language.To overcome our limitations, it is crucial to gather more scientific findings using non-destructive and highly sensitive technologies to understand language impairments in Alzheimer's disease more comprehensively.

A holistic literature review on entrepreneurial Intention: A scientometric approach

This paper reveals the scientific substrate underlying the literature on entrepreneurial intention (EI) tracking its diachronic evolution. It reviews the literature on EI from a holistic view over nearly 50 years (1970–2021), complementing previous reviews on this topic. We adopt a scientometric approach using bibliographic coupling, co-citation, and thematic strategic maps, enabling us to present the changing morphology of EI research over the years. Supported by VOSviewer and Bibliometrix, we analysed almost 2,000 documents, revealing how research on career choice, education, social psychology, and entrepreneurship have supported each other in developing this topic. The horizon for improving EI knowledge is still open. This paper invites researchers to add new issues to the research front and to break the ice of the intellectual base of this research field by contributing new research frameworks as well as offering ongoing improvements in psycho-social approaches to the individual.

A critical review on deformation-induced transformation kinetics of austenitic stainless steels

Deformation-induced austenite to martensite transformation is an important phenomenon during the deformation of metastable fully austenitic transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) steels. The kinetics of austenite to martensite transformation influence the deformation behaviour of austenitic stainless steels but is often neglected by the materials community. In this paper, after an initial discussion on thermodynamics and mechanism, the importance of deformation-induced transformation kinetics is briefly outlined and the influence of various parameters like grain size, deformation temperature, strain rate, stress state and prior austenite deformation on the transformation kinetics is critically assessed. Variation of transformation kinetics with various parameters has been identified and justified. These variations could act as a ready reference for designing austenitic stainless steels with the desired set of mechanical properties and deformation behaviour. Further in this paper, selected models that can predict the transformation kinetics are reviewed and compared. In the end, research fronts related to transformation kinetics that can be further explored have been identified.

Knowledge mapping on the sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence technology research: a scientometric and visualization analysis.

The sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) has received increasing attention over the past few years. This scientometric study analyzed the SIF research field, based on publications available in Web of Science Core Collection visualization, and cluster analysis enabled us to map the knowledge domain and intellectual landscape of this field and identify thematic trends, landmark articles, and emerging research themes. In this study, the software VOSviewer and CiteSpace were used to identify the intellectual base and research front using visualization and analysis. Then, we analyzed synthesized networks of co-authorship (author, institution, and country), co-citation (author, document, and journal), and co-occurring keywords. SIF has increased its publication output steadily since 2002. This study provided a visual knowledge map of the major research domains of SIF. Also, explanations and implications of the findings were explored, and the emerging trends were identified. This report provides a thorough overview of the current state and growth trends of SIF research, and it helps researchers and practitioners understand the major areas of attention in this area and provides insights into prospective areas for further study.

Farmers’ Willingness to Pay for Climate Smart Agriculture in Flood Vulnerable Areas of Assam

The current study was carried out during 2020 in flood vulnerable district of Assam to measure the farmers’ Willingness to Pay (WTP) for climate smart agriculture practices and factors likely to influence thereon. The study reveals that degree of farmers ‘willingness to pay was found high for ‘Stress Tolerance Varieties of rice (STVs)’, ‘Integrated Nutrient Management (INM)’ and ‘Integrated Pest Management (IPM)’ while low degree of WTP was found for ‘Vermicompost preparation and application (VC)’ and ‘Minimum Tillage (MT)’. The highest average bidding value was recorded for STV (Rs. 251.00) followed by INM (Rs. 185.00) and IPM (Rs. 174.13) while for VC and MT the average bidding value was Rs. 158.63 & Rs 79.75 respectively. The LMR analysis confirmed that the selected explanatory variables expressed variation in willingness to pay for CSA practices about 74% (R2=0.74). The variable ‘educational status’ (x2), ‘accessible to market’ (x7) ‘cropping intensity’ (x9), ‘adoption consistency’ (x13) and ‘preferences to CSA practices’ (x14) were found to have positive while variable ‘age’ (x1) and ‘institutional contact’ (x6) have negative and significant influence on WTP. Popularizing CSA practices available in the research front, various organizations (both public and private) in input and output chains should work together as a common entity so that farmers get necessary nurture for adoption of technologies.

Digital procurement towards new performance frontiers: a systematic literature review and future research fronts

PurposeAs digital procurement continues to transform heavily as a value center and create new business models by linking businesses with a web of external partners, the full path to achieving such an all-encompassing thing is unknown. Thus, the study aims to explore the research gap through an exhaustive bibliometric and systematic literature review on the Digital procurement theme in the supply chain domain.Design/methodology/approachThis study is a qualitative and quantitative analysis of this field, using performance analysis and science mapping to examine 583 articles published from 2002 to 2021.FindingsA systematic literature review indicated core topics on “sustainable or green procurement” and “emerging landscape of technology” in the field of study.Research limitations/implicationsThough the Scopus database used for the analysis is the largest, it may not have complete coverage of all published articles in the field of study; thus, this study is a representation of only a sample rather than its entire population.Originality/valueOutcome is based on the review of the past 20 years’ contribution on the topic starting from 2002 to 2021.

Information Security Applications in Smart Cities: A Bibliometric Analysis of Emerging Research

This paper aims to analyze the intellectual structure and research fronts in application information security in smart cities to identify research boundaries, trends, and new opportunities in the area. It applies bibliometric analyses to identify the main authors and their influences on information security and the smart city area. Moreover, this analysis focuses on journals indexed in Scopus databases. The results indicate that there is an opportunity for further advances in the adoption of information security policies in government institutions. Moreover, the production indicators presented herein are useful for the planning and implementation of information security policies and the knowledge of the scientific community about smart cities. The bibliometric analysis provides support for the visualization of the leading research technical collaboration networks among authors, co-authors, countries, and research areas. The methodology offers a broader view of the application information security in smart city areas and makes it possible to assist new research that may contribute to further advances. The smart cities topic has been receiving much attention in recent years, but to the best of our knowledge, there is no research on reporting new possibilities for advances. Therefore, this article may contribute to an emerging body of literature that explores the nature of application information security and smart cities research productivity to assist researchers in better understanding the current emerging of the area.

Research progress and hotspot analysis of soil microplastics: a bibliometrics-based review

Microplastics are ubiquitous in soil ecosystems, and they have attracted widespread attention owing to their accumulation, migration and diffusion in soil environments and their negative effects on the environment and human health. However, previous studies on microplastics have predominantly concentrated on aquatic environments, and their presence in soil ecosystems has seldom been studied systematically. This review presents a systematic analysis of the current research on soil microplastics based on the available literature from 2016 to 2023 using CiteSpace. The most influential journals, authors and countries in this field were identified. Keyword co-occurrence analysis was performed to determine research hotspots, and cluster analysis was employed to provide an accurate summary of this field. Furthermore, burst detection was used to explore research fronts. This review reveals the increasing depth and diversity of research on soil microplastics and discusses potential research fronts for future studies in this field.

Genome-wide association study in Alzheimer’s disease: a bibliometric and visualization analysis

BackgroundThousands of research studies concerning genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have been published in the last decades. However, a comprehensive understanding of the current research status and future development trends of GWAS in AD have not been clearly shown. In this study, we tried to gain a systematic overview of GWAS in AD by bibliometric and visualization analysis.MethodsThe literature search terms are: (“genome-wide analysis” or “genome-wide association study” or “whole-genome analysis”) AND (“Alzheimer’s Disease” or “Alzheimer Disease”). Relevant publications were extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database. Collected data were further analyzed using VOSviewer, CiteSpace and R package Bibliometrix. The countries, institutions, authors and scholar collaborations were investigated. The co-citation analysis of publications was visualized. In addition, research hotspots and fronts were examined.ResultsA total of 1,350 publications with 59,818 citations were identified. The number of publications and citations presented a significant rising trend since 2013. The United States was the leading country with an overwhelming number of publications (775) and citations (42,237). The University of Washington and Harvard University were the most prolific institutions with 101 publications each. Bennett DA was the most influential researcher with the highest local H-index. Neurobiology of Aging was the journal with the highest number of publications. Aβ, tau, immunity, microglia and DNA methylation were research hotspots. Disease and causal variants were research fronts.ConclusionThe most frequently studied AD pathogenesis and research hotspots are (1) Aβ and tau, (2) immunity and microglia, with TREM2 as a potential immunotherapy target, and (3) DNA methylation. The research fronts are (1) looking for genetic similarities between AD and other neurological diseases and syndromes, and (2) searching for causal variants of AD. These hotspots suggest noteworthy directions for future studies on AD pathogenesis and genetics, in which basic research regarding immunity is promising for clinical conversion. The current under-researched directions are (1) GWAS in AD biomarkers based on large sample sizes, (2) studies of causal variants of AD, and (3) GWAS in AD based on non-European populations, which need to be strengthened in the future.

Mineral Characterization Using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM): A Review of the Fundamentals, Advancements, and Research Directions

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is a powerful tool in the domains of materials science, mining, and geology owing to its enormous potential to provide unique insight into micro and nanoscale worlds. This comprehensive review discusses the background development of SEM, basic SEM operation, including specimen preparation and image processing, and the fundamental theoretical calculations underlying SEM operation. It provides a foundational understanding for engineers and scientists who have never had a chance to dig in depth into SEM, contributing to their understanding of the workings and development of this robust analytical technique. The present review covers how SEM serves as a crucial tool in mineral characterization, with specific discussion on the workings and research fronts of SEM-EDX, SEM-AM, SEM-MLA, and QEMSCAN. With automation gaining pace in the development of all spheres of technology, understanding the uncertainties in SEM measurements is very important. The constraints in mineral phase identification by EDS spectra and sample preparation are conferred. In the end, future research directions for SEM are analyzed with the possible incorporation of machine learning, deep learning, and artificial intelligence tools to automate the process of mineral identification, quantification, and efficient communication with researchers so that the robustness and objectivity of the analytical process can be improved and the analysis time and involved costs can be reduced. This review also discusses the idea of integrating robotics with SEM to make the equipment portable so that further mineral characterization insight can be gained not only on Earth but also on other terrestrial grounds.

Carotid artery stenting and endarterectomy surgery techniques: A 30‑year time‑lapse.

Carotid endarterectomy or carotid artery stenting (CAS), are the most important axes in carotid artery interventional management. A bibliometric analysis permits an easier access to the current literature trends and information to design future studies. The aim of the present study was to identify the knowledge routes on CAS and examine the research front on the topic. The search was interpreted in Scopus, from 1994 to 2023, and included only original articles and reviews. The BibTex format was used to download all citation and bibliographic data. The present analysis was conducted in two parts, a descriptive one and a network extraction process. Between 1994 and 2023, 34,503 references and 7,758 authors were recorded. The annual growth rate was 21.64%. The CAVATAS trial was the most cited article. As regards word trends, since 2017, trans-carotid stenting, risk factors and plaque characteristics are highlighted. CAS remains an area of high interest with a publication growth rate of >20% per year. As numerous questions remain to be answered, the need to determine the role of CAS may drive further research.

Space Syntax has Come of Age: A Bibliometric Review from 1976 to 2023

Despite numerous reviews of space syntax research, there has been little emphasis on the field's main characteristics and tendencies, including publication trends, geographical distribution, leading authors and institutions, collaboration networks, influential publications, research fronts, and research gaps. Bibliometric analysis techniques were employed to review nearly five decades of publications (1976–2023) drawn from multiple data sources to assess the field's annual trend of publications; its social, intellectual, and conceptual structures; and future research directions. The findings provide an overview of the landscape of space syntax studies and a valuable reference for a wide range of academics and professionals.

Uncovering university-industry collaboration: a milestone towards successful unexplored and research areas

Research collaboration between the private sector and academia is one of the core aspects to solve complex problems through science, technology and innovation. Despite this societal relevance, we still lack insights about the research topics in which both sectors intersect their agendas, particularly in middle-low-income regions. To shed light on this question, Julián D. Cortés, chaired professor at Woxsen University, applied bibliometric techniques to a sample of 13,000+ research articles and 500,000+ references to determine the research fronts in which research institutions based in Latin America and the Caribbean collaborated with knowledge-intensive companies. Fields of strategic importance for both sectors were computer science applications, genetics, health, public health, environmental and occupational health and strategy and management. Also, the author identified several unexplored research fronts, particularly in health (e.g. care planning) and the social sciences and humanities (e.g. demography).

The moderation effect of personal factors on the relationship between performance contracting and service delivery of employees in Huduma Centres in Western Kenya

The Kenyan Government mounted the following efforts to improve service delivery: privatization, voluntary early retirement, and restructuring, but the results were not good, thereby opting for performance contracting using Huduma Centers. The 30,000 customers are served at the centres daily and collected Kshs 12 billion annually as revenue, as shown in a report by Government 2020. Past studies on performance contracting influencug service delivery were mostly case studies and not surveys. There were mixed outcomes from the reviewed literature, a sign of a moderator impact yet to be tested, and there were no evidence for examining personal characteristics to demonstrate their moderation effect. The impact of personal factors on the relationship between performance contracting and service delivery, on the other hand, has not been sufficiently explored. This study aimed to establish the moderation effect of personal factors on the relationship between performance contracting and service delivery. The study utilized an ex-post factor design with quantitative aspects. A questionnaire was used to gather data from a target population of 276. The data analysis was done quantitatively to establish the moderation effect. The results showed that personal factors (R2=0.125; p=0.000) positively and significantly influenced the association by 12.5 %. The study revealed that personal characteristics positively modified the association. The study recommends that managers and policymakers consider personal factors to enhance service delivery. The implication of this study for theory is that it would result in theory refinement by emphasizing the integration of personal factors in the performance contracting framework while opening research fronts for the future by recommending cross-sectoral studies that are qualitative to be carried out to gain insights into the variations of moderations of personal factors.