Knowledge Structures, Progression and Emergent Areas of Corporate Bankruptcy : A Bibliometric and Topic Modelling Analyses

This paper presents bibliometric and topic modelling analyses of publications in the field of corporate bankruptcy. It shows that research on corporate bankruptcy has witnessed exponential growth in the last decade despite having 55-year-old literature. We analyse 1254 documents to unveil knowledge structures and the progression of topical trends over the period 1968-2022. We uncover conceptual, intellectual and social structures in the knowledge base and identify foremost authors, journals, documents and word occurrences using citation, co-citation and bibliographic coupling. Further, topic modelling generates five abstract topics that signify emergent areas for future research. Among these, bankruptcy prediction and forecasting surfaced as the leading emergent area. This study will aid governments, institutions and firms focus their energies and acting decisively to avert financial distress and usher in bankruptcy reforms