Responsible Leadership Research: A Bibliometric Review

Abstract

Political, religious, sports and business leaders across the world have been under scrutiny regarding allegedly unethical behaviors. The current study analyzes the use of responsible leadership in management research. Using a sample of 64 articles published in SSCI-indexed journals over 10 years (2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016), we carried out a bibliometric analysis to understand the intellectual structure of the responsible leadership literature. The results of authorship, citation and co-citation, and factor analyses reveal the most prolific authors and the most notable journals writing and publishing on responsible leadership. The most cited works are theoretical, using Western frameworks and cultures, and focus on the concept of responsible leadership; only a few empirical/case study articles appear. Also, the most prevalent links are between theoretical works and highlight the conceptualization, understanding, and roles and parameters of responsible leaders. Six distinct factors emerge, denoting the groups of studies devoted to the evolution of leadership, transformational leadership, stakeholder theory and leadership, conceptualization and understanding of the topic, and roles of responsible leaders. These various research topics show the central tenets of responsible leadership, as well as the existing gaps in the existent literature.

Responsibility beyond the Board Room? A Systematic Review of Responsible Leadership: Operationalizations, Antecedents and Outcomes

“…This paints a very different picture than previous reviews (e.g., [19,20,22]) and may indicate a shift in the field. A bibliometric review including all published studies (quantitative and qualitative) on RL between the years 2006 and 2016 [19] found only a…”

“…The geographical overview and publication timeline showed a rapid increase in quantitative studies on RL during the past three years, where Asian countries are most prolific. This paints a very different picture than previous reviews (e.g., [19,20,22]) and may indicate a shift in the field. A bibliometric review including all published studies (quantitative and qualitative) on RL between the years 2006 and 2016 [19] found only a few quantitative studies.…”

“…Scholars have introduced several conceptualizations and operationalizations of RL [19][20][21][22]. The following theoretical overview is not exhaustive, but it illustrates the divergent and somewhat overlapping conceptualizations of RL in the literature.…”

Uncertainty Analysis in Life Cycle Assessments Applied to Biorefineries Systems: A Critical Review of the Literature

“…In Phase 2, bibliometric analysis was conducted to characterize, structure, and quantitatively analyze the field of research and the impact of a set of researchers, for a set of scientific journals or a given publication (Cobo et al 2011;Gutiérrez-Salcedo et al 2017;Marques et al 2018). This approach has been used in bibliographic reviews in the very different fields of knowledge.…”

Community engagement through responsible leadership in managing pandemic: insight from India using netnography

“…If a leader does not follow this approach, there is a chance of losing the confidence of the public. Hence, the very first and difficult task to initiate community engagement is to obtain the public's trust, which can be achieved through responsible leadership (Marques et al, 2018). Second, during the stage of actual action leaders need to make prompt decisions, using less information and more intuition (Helsloot and Groenendaal, 2017).…”