Search Results (38)

Smart cities leverage digital marketing to promote sustainability and build a distinctive global branding. Despite its growing significance, the role digital marketing in smart city development remains underexplored. This study aims to fill this gap by employing bibliometric analysis of 1908 articles indexed in the Scopus database (2000–2024), using the Bibliometrix R-Studio (version 1.4.1743) and VOSviewer (version 1.6.20). The analysis reveals two thematic clusters: (1) “Digital Innovation and Sustainability”, which emphasizes technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and big data for energy efficiency and green urban development; and (2) “Governance and Policy”, which highlights digital marketing’s role in enabling participatory governance, citizen engagement, and inclusive urban policies. Findings underscore that digital marketing is not only a strategic communication channel but also a driver of sustainable urban transformation. By synthesizing insights from urban planning, technology, and sustainability, this paper provides a novel perspective on the intersection of digital marketing and smart cities. The results provide valuable guidance for policymakers, city planners, and researchers to harness digital marketing in promoting sustainability and further develop the smart city concept. Full article

As various sectors of the world are grappling with various sustainability challenges, there is an urgent need to seek ways to find sustainable ways of dealing with some of these global challenges. Ecotourism has been seen as an avenue for addressing some of the sustainability challenges facing the tourism industry. Most tourism enterprises have adopted ecotourism principles. This study examines the evolution of ecotourism marketing to identify the key concepts and critical debates within this terrain. In this regard, this study also seeks to identify knowledge gaps and future research directions. Using bibliometric data from Web of Science-indexed publications between 2003 and 2025, this study found that ecotourism marketing has been a growing field of research, which is highly cited across fields. The study found that ecotourism marketing covers a wide range of aspects, including digital marketing, destination branding, sustainable marketing, and demand-side considerations in ecotourism marketing. Ecotourism marketing, in many respects, is equally concerned with how ecotourism establishments embrace the current challenges of climate change from a climate change mitigation, adaptation, and resilience perspective to ensure sustainability. There are several research gaps and directions with respect to ecotourism marketing, some of which could cover various aspects in the future, such as examining the role of new technologies, social influencers, and funding in ecotourism marketing. There is an equal need to understand how various generations view the whole concept of green tourism to inform segmentation and better market positioning. Full article

The field of sustainable finance has grown rapidly in response to escalating climate and economic challenges, yet its intellectual landscape, especially the connectedness between green and traditional financial systems, remains underexplored. This paper aims to systematically map the evolution, thematic structure, and intellectual linkages of the sustainable finance literature with a specific focus on risk spillovers and connectedness across financial systems. This study employs a comprehensive bibliometric methodology to map 1261 Web of Science-indexed articles (1994–2024) on the connectedness of sustainable finance, using techniques such as citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, co-citation analysis, trend cartography, collaboration network, and keyword trend analysis. The study clarifies the field’s evolution and identifies its key themes, influential authors, institutions, and networks. The findings reveal an exponential surge in sustainable finance research after 2015, coinciding with policy milestones like the Paris Agreement and rising ESG investment interest. Notably, the review uncovers how research clusters have formed around topics such as green bond market spillovers, green technology innovation, and climate risk, highlighting both well-established areas and emerging fronts. The contribution lies in providing a roadmap for future research and policy: the study pinpoints knowledge gaps (e.g., systemic risk transmission between green and conventional assets) and suggests how policymakers and investors can leverage these insights to foster a resilient, sustainable financial system. Full article

To achieve the dual carbon goals, countries are transforming their energy structures, with green electricity trading playing a pivotal role in this transition. This paper first analyzes the mechanisms and current state of green electricity trading. A bibliometric analysis was conducted using the keywords “green power” and “green electricity” on 2427 articles from the Web of Science core database (1984–2024). CiteSpace software 6.3 R1 was used to analyze publication volumes, contributing countries, and co-citation patterns of cited references, highlighting foundational research in this field. A deeper analysis of recent five-year trends reveals a focus on renewable energy, low-carbon policies, and the relationship between the green electricity economy and environmental development. This study finds that green electricity trading has become a growing theoretical research hotspot. Practically, China’s green electricity trading has made significant progress but still encounters challenges, such as insufficient operational mechanisms, technical barriers to grid integration, and obstacles in international green certificate trading. Based on the findings, targeted recommendations include enhancing market synergies, refining tariff mechanisms, and streamlining the trading process to support the sustainable growth of the green electricity market. This study highlights that green electricity trading is an emerging research focus, though its supporting infrastructure remains underdeveloped. Moving forward, enhanced policy support and increased R&D investment in renewable energy are urgently needed, particularly for advancing grid integration technologies for distributed energy. Additionally, aligning green electricity policies with broader low-carbon policies is essential. Furthermore, attention should be paid to the coordination between green electricity trading, economic development, and environmental protection. Full article

Greenwashing undermines the trustworthiness and integrity of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting. It undermines disclosure quality, confuses decision making, destabilizes financial markets, and reduces the probability that people will trust the supplied information. This research utilizes a comprehensive literature review and bibliometric analysis to investigate the scholarly dialogue around ESG disclosure and strategies to counteract corporate “greenwashing”. This study’s objectives were achieved by bibliometric analysis, using the statistical programming tools R Studio R 3.6.0+, Biblioshiny 4.2.0, and VOSviewer 1.6.20. We acquired bibliometric data from the Scopus database for the period 2012–2024. We established the optimal sample size via the PRISMA methodology, including both inclusion and exclusion criteria. Greenwashing is a multifaceted issue that manifests in many forms, shapes, and intensities, as seen by the data. This obstructs the advancement of apparatus for prevention, quantification, and detection. Moreover, the results indicate that sustainable finance is adversely affected by greenwashing, particularly for green loans and green bonds. Moreover, the findings indicate that corporate greenwashing is a distinct kind of greenwashing. Full article

This study examines the differences between the emerging new energy policy and its predecessor, offering guidelines for an integrated approach to support a rapid and sustainable energy transition. Using a bibliometric and qualitative integrative analysis of 360 scientific articles on energy policy, ecosystems, and entrepreneurship—supplemented by insights from 16 experts in the European energy sector and an in-depth analysis of 89 relevant business cases—this research identifies a significant shift in priorities. Traditional concerns, such as energy security, self-sufficiency, and market liberalization, are increasingly giving way to a focus on rapid, sustainable energy transitions and development at the macrolevel. The findings reveal that contemporary energy policies are progressively prioritizing integrated strategies across the macrolevel, mesolevel, and microlevel. At the macrolevel, policies are increasingly focused on enabling efficient transitions and promoting sustainable development within an ecosystemic framework. At the mesolevel, there is a growing emphasis on strengthening regional energy ecosystems. At the microlevel, the focus increasingly shifts toward empowering energy firms through innovative organizational strategies, technological advancements, and enhanced managerial practices. The proposed integrated energy policy aims to address these broader goals while fostering diverse energy ecosystems and communities at the mesolevel. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of empowering individual energy firms by enhancing their strategies, technological capabilities, and managerial skills. These improvements are essential for driving innovation, developing green business models, strengthening corporate social responsibility, and aligning with the principles of Resilience, Adaptability, Sustainability, and Inclusiveness (RASI). Full article

As investors increasingly incorporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into their decision-making, sustainable Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) have gained prominence in both investment portfolios and financial research. This study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the Sustainable ETF research landscape by utilizing scientometric and bibliometric methods with tools such as VOSviewer, Bibliometrix, and CiteSpace. Drawing from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, the study identifies key thematic areas, influential authors, and emerging trends. The findings highlight the conceptual evolution of Green ETFs, from early definitions focused on ESG-aligned investments to more complex instruments incorporating diversified screening criteria and advanced technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence. Practical challenges such as regulatory inconsistencies, high implementation costs, and limited investor education are underscored as critical barriers to broader adoption. Future trends reveal the growing role of blockchain technology for ESG verification, crisis-specific ETF models, and the development of more inclusive screening strategies. Strategically, Green ETFs demonstrate resilience during market volatility and support sustainability-driven investment frameworks. The study provides valuable insights for investors, policymakers, and researchers, emphasizing Green ETFs’ role in driving sustainable finance and offering actionable guidance for optimizing ESG investment strategies. Full article

Driven by growing demands for environmental protection and sustainable development, green finance has gained increasing attention, evolving from a peripheral topic to a core research area. Research in green finance primarily focuses on financial products, services, and policies, analyzing their impacts on society, markets, and listed companies. Through a systematic literature screening and analysis process, this study reviewed the existing body of literature on green finance, with a particular emphasis on key areas such as green financing, green financial technology, green financial products and derivatives, green building, financial reform and innovation in green finance, and carbon trading markets. Using keywords such as “green finance”, “green insurance”, “green securities”, and “green investment”, we identified 15,487 relevant publications from 2014 to 2023 across multiple databases. We then applied Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) to cluster these documents, identifying core subfields and conducting a detailed bibliometric analysis. Our results reveal a geographic shift in green finance research prominence from the U.S. to China, with a thematic shift from green building and energy efficiency to green bonds and climate finance. Through our analysis, we provide policy recommendations informed by these findings. This study’s unique contribution lies in its systematic extension of bibliometric analysis into emerging subfields of green finance, such as green financial technology and carbon trading markets, both of which are becoming increasingly critical. Additionally, this study offers valuable insights into the evolving landscape of green finance research, bridging the gap between academic research and industry practice and providing actionable policy recommendations for stakeholders across different sectors. Full article

This analysis provides a comprehensive overview of current research regarding prefabricated construction costs, explained under three main categories: collaboration, intellectual basis, and research trends. The collaboration network covers country, institution, and journal distribution. Intellectual basis includes a cited journal, cited reference, and cited author, while research trends cover research category, keyword and keyword cluster analysis, and cited reference cluster. Through bibliometric analysis, we find that this field has garnered significant attention in the academic community and has developed rapidly. China dominates the field of prefabricated construction, with Curtin University, Chongqing University, and Deakin University being the leading research institutions, while Automation in Construction is the most cited journal. Although technology integration is widely regarded as a key means of cost optimization, its high implementation costs and complexity have limited its widespread application. The challenges of technology integration lie in the need to address high capital costs, complex management practices, and the demand for advanced technology integration, which have become significant barriers to the promotion of prefabricated construction. Moreover, current research also focuses on how to enhance risk control and management practices in cost management to promote sustainable development. Future research will focus on green and sustainable technologies, multidisciplinary engineering, energy and fuel, construction technologies to optimize prefabricated construction techniques, advance low-carbon building practices, and improve decision analysis and risk management. The key factors influencing costs include technological factor, policy factors, market and environmental factors, and organizational management. By systematically controlling these factors, cost pressures can be effectively alleviated, construction efficiency improved, and the sustainability of prefabricated buildings enhanced. This study not only provides a comprehensive analysis of the current state and trends in research on the costs of prefabricated construction but also highlights the critical role of technological innovation, policy optimization, and interdisciplinary collaboration in promoting the sustainable development of prefabricated construction globally. Full article

Despite numerous concerns about climate change and the deterioration of nature, the construction industry is still one of the largest consumers of minerals and natural resources. In recent decades, sustainable construction using renewable and recyclable materials, reducing energy, and the adoption of more green technologies with the aim of reducing harmful impacts on the environment have received profound worldwide attention. The more key stakeholders involved strive to achieve sustainability, the more barriers they may face, which requires investigating them to have an effective plan to recognize, prevent, and control them. This paper reviews, classifies, and analyzes the major barriers of sustainable construction between January 2000 and April 2023. In this scientometric study, 153 articles were selected from the Web of Science database. Then, bibliometrics, the creation of maps from network data, as well as the illustration and exploration of those maps were conducted with the HistCite 12.03.1 and VOSviewer 1.6.20 software programs. The analytical results showed that the most profound barriers of sustainable construction are classified into 12 groups: price, economic parameters, awareness, technical, policy and regulations, design, management and government, environmental, social, materials, planning, and market. Full article

With the increasing pollution caused by plastic products, people’s awareness of environmental protection has gradually increased. Based on the advantages of China’s bamboo resources and bamboo industry, the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan launched the ‘Utilizing bamboo as a sustainable alternative to plastic’ initiative in November 2022 to accelerate the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This initiative provides a nature-based solution for global sustainable development, which will have a profound impact on promoting global green development, industrial science and technology, social services, cultural exchanges, and other fields. It has a huge market capacity and application potential. This study aims to understand the research status, hotspots, development trends, and prospects of this initiative. WoS and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) were searched for the relevant literature on ‘utilizing bamboo as a sustainable alternative to plastic bamboo as plastic’ and ‘bamboo resources’ from the establishment of the database to 2024. Bibliometric methods and VOSviewer were used to analyze 1855 literatures with the above two keywords published in the Web of Science core set database from 2000 to 2024. A visual analysis was performed on the number of publications, national research institutions, researchers, number of citations, and research topics of the literature. For example, China, the United States, and India ranked in the top three in terms of the number of articles published, with 1103, 267, and 167, respectively. China had the highest number of citations, reaching 26,607. At the same time, the literature with ‘bamboo’ as the keyword in CNKI was analyzed to understand the species of bamboo currently studied. A literature investigation was carried out around the resource cultivation of the bamboo industry in our country, and it was found that the research on ‘use bamboo as plastic’ and ‘bamboo resources’ had been valued by scholars at home and abroad, and had formed a relatively stable research group. Using scientific and technological innovation to improve the product quality of ‘bamboo instead of plastic’, expanding its application scope and market demand, and realizeing the sustainable industry development of ‘bamboo instead of plastic’ is the current research hotspot and the future development direction. Full article

This paper navigates the critical role of hydrogen in catalyzing a sustainable energy transformation. This review delves into hydrogen production methodologies, spotlighting green and blue hydrogen as pivotal for future energy systems because of their potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Through a comprehensive literature review and a bibliometric analysis, this study underscores the importance of technological advancements, policy support, and market incentives in promoting hydrogen as a key energy vector. It also explores the necessity of expanding renewable energy sources and international cooperation to secure a sustainable, low-carbon future. The analysis highlights the importance of scalable and cost-effective hydrogen production methods, such as solar-thermochemical and photo-electrochemical processes, and addresses the challenges posed by resource availability and geopolitical factors in establishing a hydrogen economy. This paper serves as a guide for policy and innovation toward achieving global sustainability goals, illustrating the essential role of hydrogen in the energy transition. Full article

This paper offers an overview of circular economy strategies applied to the aquaculture sector. The growing challenges imposed on the sector by the strategies of the Green Deal impose new growth strategies in the name of sustainability. The scalability of these strategies is increasingly hampered by regulatory voids and by the absence of a universally accepted assessment method for measuring the impacts of current aquaculture systems. More than ever, a review of knowledge in the circular economy field is required to comprehend where the aquaculture sector is heading, and in order to make the required transition. The present review proposes a bibliometric analysis, a network analysis and a content analysis, which highlight a very new and expanding field of research. The studies were firstly analyzed from a micro (animal metabolism) to a macro perspective (policies, markets and society), emphasizing where research is still lacking. Furthermore, a second level of classification concerns the type of circularity approach proposed for the aquaculture system, which can be divided into open-loop or closed-loop strategies. Regarding the open-loop-related studies, the focus of the evaluation is devoted to the different bioeconomic values of the circularity strategies proposed for the biological flows entering and exiting the aquaculture system. The literature review offered insights into the identification of research threads that are developing around the aquaculture sector. Full article

This review examines the technological surveillance of photovoltaic panel recycling through a bibliometric study of articles and patents. The analysis considered the number of articles and patents published per year, per country, and, in the case of patents, per applicant. This analysis revealed that panel recycling is an increasingly prominent research area. However, the number of patents filed annually has varied in recent years, averaging fewer than 200 per year. The state-of-the-art review identified three main types of treatment for photovoltaic panel recycling: mechanical, chemical, and thermal. Among these, mechanical treatment serves as a preliminary stage before the recovery of valuable elements, which is achieved through chemical or thermal processes. The articles reviewed cover a range of processes, including hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical methods, and explore various classification processes, solvents, and oxidizing agents. In contrast, patents predominantly focus on pyrometallurgical processes. This analysis is supplemented by a survey of market-ready technologies, many of which include stages such as size reduction or delamination followed by pyrometallurgical processes. Additionally, the review highlights the collection processes implemented by some companies, noting that the volume of panels considered waste is currently insufficient to maintain a continuous and year-round operational process. This study identifies key challenges such as (i) reducing solar panel size due to the EVA polymer complicating conventional machinery use, (ii) high process costs from the need for high temperatures and costly additives, (iii) the environmental impact of thermal treatments with high energy consumption and air pollution, and (iv) the necessity for environmentally friendly solvents in hydrometallurgical treatments to reduce contamination during recycling. Future directions include developing specific machinery for panel size reduction, either creating or modifying a polymer to replace EVA for easier treatment, adopting hydrometallurgical treatments with green solvents proven effective in recycling minerals and electronic waste, and addressing the lack of detailed information on industrial processes to make more precise recommendations. Full article

Advertising has been one of brands’ main allies in successfully promoting their products and services, creating trends and changing consumer mindsets, which allows them to increase sales and consequently achieve commercial success. The advertising medium has been evolving, increasingly encompassing new technologies as well as expanding its areas of intervention. This research article uses the Systematic Bibliometric Literature Review methodology, and its main objective is to clarify the state of the art regarding advertising and sustainability, since if advertising is one of the main allies for the success of brands, sustainability has become one of its main strategies. The starting question is whether advertising has been used to communicate sustainability. The methodology used in this study is a systematic bibliometric literature review (LRSB) to collect, analyze and synthesize data on advertising and sustainability, and covers a period of publications from the year 2007 to 2024, with the support of visual maps of the research indexed in the Scopus Database, created with VOSViewer. The aim was to give an overview of the studies published in this scientific area. The qualitative results of the analysis suggest that the theme of sustainability has been studied and associated with brands and sectors of activity such as luxury brands. The analysis leads to the suggestion of a reduced connection between sustainability and advertising, with studies on “green advertising” being mentioned, which allows us to affirm that this is an area that requires more in-depth studies, despite the fact that these initial results, on the one hand, help professionals in the field of digital marketing to make decisions, as well as clarifying the topic from a research point of view. Full article