Bibliometric review maps women’s entrepreneurship research within the SDG framework

Women’s entrepreneurship has moved to the center of scholarship on sustainable development, with a new bibliometric review mapping how research on female entrepreneurial activity has evolved within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The study, published in Discover Sustainability, integrates quantitative mapping of the literature with a structured theory-context-characteristics-methodology assessment to chart the field’s knowledge structure and emerging trends.

The researchers, Snober Hassan and S. Sivakumar, screened peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2000 and 2025 from the Scopus database using a PRISMA-based selection process. From this screening, 340 articles were retained for analysis. The authors note that the review is among the first investigations to combine bibliometric techniques with the TCCM framework to obtain a multidimensional picture of women’s entrepreneurship research in the SDG context.

On the methodological side, the team used two established bibliometric tools, VOSviewer and Biblioshiny, to analyze publication trends, influential journals, leading countries and institutions, collaboration networks, thematic structures, and keyword co-occurrence patterns across the retained corpus.

The publication trend analysis revealed a substantial growth in research activity after 2020, which the authors interpret as evidence of growing scholarly attention toward women’s entrepreneurship within the SDG framework.

Journal-level analysis identified Sustainability, published in Switzerland, as the most influential outlet in the field. At the country level, India recorded the highest publication output and occupied a central position in global collaboration networks.

Thematic mapping showed a clear evolution in the field’s focus. Earlier work centered on poverty alleviation and empowerment, while more recent scholarship has shifted toward SDG-oriented themes including innovation, financial inclusion, climate change, social entrepreneurship, and corporate governance.

The TCCM component of the review examined the dominant theories, contextual settings, key characteristics, and methodological approaches across the 340 articles. It found that the Theory of Planned Behavior dominates the theoretical landscape of the field.

Contextually, the TCCM analysis showed that research is concentrated in emerging economies. Methodologically, the field is dominated by quantitative approaches, meaning that surveys and statistical modeling outweigh qualitative, mixed-method, and longitudinal designs in the current evidence base.

By consolidating the field’s knowledge structure, influential contributors, collaboration patterns, and thematic trajectories, the review offers researchers an evidence-based map of where women’s entrepreneurship scholarship stands within the SDG framework, documenting both the quantitative growth after 2020 and the shift toward themes from financial inclusion to climate-related entrepreneurship.

Subject of Research: The evolving landscape of women’s entrepreneurship in the SDG framework based on bibliometric and TCCM analysis

Article Title: The evolving landscape of women’s entrepreneurship in the SDG framework based on bibliometric and TCCM analysis

Article References: Hassan, S., & Sivakumar, S. (2026). The evolving landscape of women’s entrepreneurship in the SDG framework based on bibliometric and TCCM analysis. Discover Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-04512-y

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s43621-026-04512-y

Keywords: evolving, landscape, women, entrepreneurship, framework, based, bibliometric, TCCM, analysis, scientific research