A Bibliometric and Visual Analysis in the Field of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) Between 2004 and 2021

Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) has attracted increasing research interest for sustainable management and decision-making in recent years. In order to further understand the research status and trend, the purpose of this study is to adopt bibliometric and visual methods to analyze the knowledge structure and the evolution path in the research field of ESG. Based on 1735 papers on ESG in the Web of Science Collection database from 2004 to 2021, this study uses CiteSpace and VOSviewer to present a bibliometric overview of publications, citation structure, authors, universities, countries/regions, journals, and keywords that work on this Topic. Results indicate that scholars are increasingly regarding ESG as an integrated sustainability analysis framework and paying more attention to the connection among its different dimensions. According to the growth trend, ESG may remain a hot research topic for the next few years. The USA is the most productive country followed by England and China. Journals on ESG research with higher effective factors have higher co-citation frequency and higher publications. Sustainable development, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, ESG, and ESG ratings as the research hotspots are presented. Additionally, this study provides an overview of the ESG research trends for future researchers. This may aid researchers in understanding current patterns and future study paths, allowing future authors to perform their studies more successfully

ESG Rating and Northbound Capital Shareholding Preferences: Evidence from China

In the context of achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals and the opening of a capital market in China, an emerging country, the relationship between an ESG rating and northbound capital shareholding preferences (NCSP) is a topic worthy of discussion. In this research, we selected CSI 300-listed companies from 2015 to 2020 as the research object and examined the influence and mechanism of the ESG rating on the NCSP. Our findings showed that the ESG rating is significantly correlated with NCSP, that the ESG rating can dramatically enhance corporate accounting conservatism, and that accounting conservatism has a partial mediating effect between an ESG rating and the NCSP. Furthermore, we noticed that the positive effect of ESG ratings on NCSP among non-state (non-SOE) corporations is more pronounced. The most prominent of the three perspectives of ESG ratings was governance (G). We found that the ESG rating had a stronger impact on the NCSP during the post-COVID-19 period than in the pre-COVID-19 period. In this paper, based on the perspective of accounting conservatism, we enrich the study of ESG ratings in the capital market, provide empirical evidence for the theoretical study of NCSP, and offer a reference for the optimization of the ESG concept and its positioning in corporations. In future studies, expanding the sample range may lead to different interesting findings

ESG Rating and Northbound Capital Shareholding Preferences: Evidence from China

In the context of achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals and the opening of a capital market in China, an emerging country, the relationship between an ESG rating and northbound capital shareholding preferences (NCSP) is a topic worthy of discussion. In this research, we selected CSI 300-listed companies from 2015 to 2020 as the research object and examined the influence and mechanism of the ESG rating on the NCSP. Our findings showed that the ESG rating is significantly correlated with NCSP, that the ESG rating can dramatically enhance corporate accounting conservatism, and that accounting conservatism has a partial mediating effect between an ESG rating and the NCSP. Furthermore, we noticed that the positive effect of ESG ratings on NCSP among non-state (non-SOE) corporations is more pronounced. The most prominent of the three perspectives of ESG ratings was governance (G). We found that the ESG rating had a stronger impact on the NCSP during the post-COVID-19 period than in the pre-COVID-19 period. In this paper, based on the perspective of accounting conservatism, we enrich the study of ESG ratings in the capital market, provide empirical evidence for the theoretical study of NCSP, and offer a reference for the optimization of the ESG concept and its positioning in corporations. In future studies, expanding the sample range may lead to different interesting findings

Hotspots and trends of environmental, social and governance (ESG) research: a bibliometric analysis

This study examines paper-level metrics in the literature on topics related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) to provide a research agenda for hotspots and trends. Based on 755 papers on ESG in the Web of Science Core Collection database from 2004 to 2021, we use VOSviewer and CiteSpace to present a bibliometric review of publications, citation structure, authors, universities, countries, journals, and keywords on the topic. Additionally, the philosophy of the ESG system, factors affecting ESG, the financial outcomes of ESG, the association between ESG and corporate social responsibility (CSR), and ESG investing are presented as research hotspots. Furthermore, three research trends are identified: research on the influencing factors and economic consequences of ESG in the context of emerging markets, mechanism analysis of ESG’s impact on the capital market, and further research on ESG information disclosure and ESG ratings. Our study enriches ESG theory and provides new paths for researchers and practitioners

Clinicopathological and Demographical Characteristics of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients with ALK Rearrangements: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

<div><p>Objective</p><p>This meta-analysis aimed to comprehensively examine the relationship between the clinicopathological and demographical characteristics and ALK rearrangements in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).</p><p>Methods and Main Findings</p><p>In total, 62 qualified articles including 1178 ALK rearranged cases from 20541 NSCLC patients were analyzed, and the data were extracted independently by two investigators. NSCLC patients with ALK rearrangements tended to be younger than those without (mean difference: −7.16 years; 95% confidence interval (95% CI): −9.35 to −4.96; P<0.00001), even across subgroups by race. Compared with female NSCLC patients, the odds ratio (OR) of carrying ALK rearrangements was reduced by 28% (95% CI: 0.58–0.90; P = 0.004) in males, and this reduction was potentiated in Asians, yet in opposite direction in Caucasians. Likewise, smokers were less likely to have ALK rearrangements than never-smokers (OR = 0.33; 95% CI: 0.25–0.44; P<0.00001), even in race-stratified subgroups. Moreover, compared with NSCLC patients with tumor stage IV, ALK rearrangements were underrepresented in those with tumor stage I–III (OR = 0.58; 95% CI: 0.44–0.78; P = 0.0002). Patients with lung adenocarcinomas had a significantly higher rate of ALK rearrangements (7.2%) than patients with non-adenocarcinoma (2.0%) (OR = 2.25; 95% CI: 1.54–3.27; P<0.0001).</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>Our findings demonstrate that ALK rearrangements tended to be present in NSCLC patients with no smoking habit, younger age and tumor stage IV. Moreover, race, age, gender, smoking status, tumor stage and histology might be potential sources of heterogeneity.</p></div

Forest plots of the mean difference of age between NSCLC patients with and without ALK rearrangements by race.

<p>Forest plots of the mean difference of age between NSCLC patients with and without ALK rearrangements by race.</p

Flow diagram of search strategy and study selection.

<p>Flow diagram of search strategy and study selection.</p

Forest plots of gender difference between NSCLC patients with and without ALK rearrangements by race.

<p>Forest plots of gender difference between NSCLC patients with and without ALK rearrangements by race.</p

Clinicopathological and demographical characteristics of NSCLC patients with ALK rearrangements.

<p><i>Abbreviations:</i> NSCLC, non-small-cell lung cancer; Ad, adenocarcinoma; SCC, squamous cell carcinoma; OR, odds ratio; WMD, weighted mean difference; CI, confidence interval.</p