Mapping the research fronts of sustainable marketing a bibliometric review from 1900 to 2025 a systematic literature review using analysis of co-citation

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to integrate, and assess current research on sustainable marketing management, unveil tendencies, and suggest further research directions. Specifically, the paper focuses on (1) describing the time evolution, the most impactful journals, and leading authors; (2) clarifying predominant thematic areas and their sub-themes and main perspectives and (3) exploring the current sustainability marketing trend and the future research direction. Design/methodology/approach – Articles collected from the Web of Science were identified using both automatic and manual bibliographic analysis. Then, 606 articles from the WOS were accessed from 10,771 academic journals published until 2025. The systematic literature review was then compiled using the VOS viewer algorithm. Findings – The main themes explored comprise document distribution among the most highly cited publications identifying the most influential scholars. The study further highlights the bibliographic coupling analysis result forming four clusters related to the following topics (1) The effects of environmental and social sustainability on economic performance; (2) CSR in a dynamic mechanism; (3) Corporate environmentalism, theoretical issues, and methodological foundations; (4) Reframing sustainable marketing strategy from an institution and system perspective. Research limitations/implications – Limitations of data from Web of Science journals from 1900 to 2025. Originality/value – This is the first study to utilize co-citation analysis for articles concerning the sustainability marketing field from a firm perspective.