Mapping Audit’s Role in ESG: A Global Bibliometric Study

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-994-0_36How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Bibliometric Analysis; Audit; ESG Performance; Corporate Sustainability

Abstract

This article provides a bibliometric map of global research on how audit enhances Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance. With growing ESG demands and scattered studies, this research asks: What are the key trends and core themes in the audit-ESG literature? Its novelty is a concise, current overview of this field, pinpointing key topics like ‘ESG assurance’ and ‘internal audit’s ESG role.’ We analyzed 1,304 documents from Scopus and Web of Science from 2005 to early 2025, only including peer-reviewed articles in English to ensure high-quality and comparable data. Tools such as VOSviewer and the Bibliometrix R-package were employed for performance analysis (publication trends, influential actors) and science mapping (keyword co-occurrence, co-citation networks, thematic evolution). Findings show rapid research growth, especially after 2015, with strong focuses on ESG assurance, internal audit, and audit quality impacts, indicating a maturing field where audit’s contribution to ESG is increasingly recognized. In conclusion, this study provides a structured panorama of the audit-ESG research field, offering significant implications by guiding future scholarly inquiry towards identified gaps and informing practitioners about evidence-based best practices. The findings align with Stakeholder and Legitimacy theories, highlighting the role of audit in validating ESG disclosures for various stakeholder groups. Its main contribution is a simplified map of current knowledge, clarifying audit’s vital role in corporate sustainability. While providing a broad overview, this study is limited by its bibliometric method, suggesting future research should incorporate qualitative reviews to explore the findings’ nuanced context.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Tiara Nurpratiwi
AU  - Didik Susetyo
AU  - Luk Luk Fuadah
AU  - Ika Sasti Ferina
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/02/23
TI  - Mapping Audit’s Role in ESG: A Global Bibliometric Study
BT  - Proceedings of the 24th Malaysia-Indonesia International Conference on Economics, Management, and Accounting (The 24th MIICEMA) in conjunction with The 9th Sriwijaya Economics, Accounting, and Business Conference (The 9th SEABC) (MIICEMA-SEABC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 518
EP  - 538
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-994-0_36
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-994-0_36
ID  - Nurpratiwi2026
ER  -