Open Access
Research Article
Optimizing corporate governance attributes to reduce bankruptcy risk : A comprehensive bibliometric analysis
*Shilpa ThakurCorresponding authorshilpathkr2011@gmail.comDepartment of Human Resources Amity Business School Amity UniversityNoida, Uttar Pradesh, 201303, IndiaView full profile → , Priyanka Agarwalpriyanka.agarwal0012@gmail.comDepartment of Human Resources Amity Business School Amity UniversityDepartment of Mathematics Dibrugarh University Dibrugarh, Assam, 786004, IndiaView full profile → , Anil Kumar Goyalanilgoyal20@gmail.comDepartment of Commerce Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Management StudiesRohini, New Delhi, 110086, IndiaView full profile →
* Corresponding author · click or hover a name for details
- Received:
- 01 Nov 2025
- Published Online:
- 01 Jun 2026
- Article type:
- Research Article
- Language:
- EN
- Article no.:
- JIOS-2198
- Pages:
- 2435–2452
Abstract
In the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world, there are numerous factors that leads to an organization failure, inter-se, corporate governance plays a critical role in corporate failure. Number of extant literatures have focused on the relationship between corporate governance and corporate failure. However, there is a dearth to analyze and interpret the research trend of the published literature on a subject over a time period. The aim of this paper is to present the bibliometric analysis on the research done on corporate governance attributes that lead to corporate bankruptcy. Among the other corporate governance attributes, director’s characteristics, board characteristics, audit committee and CEO duality are the most eminent factors that leads to corporate failure. The results are based on 406 research papers that are published on Scopus database. Findings show significant increase in research trends on the concerned topic since 2010. Methods used for the bibliometric analysis are descriptive analysis, citation, co-citation, co-author analysis for interpreting the trend and results. This study ought to identify research trends and predict emerging trends that would be helpful for future researchers and experts who are interested to study the relationship on corporate governance and corporate bankruptcy.
Keywords
Subject Classifications
91G4090B5068T30
References
[1] W. H. Beaver, “Financial ratios as predictors of failure,” Journal of Accounting Research, vol. 4, pp. 71–111 (1966), doi: 10.2307/2490171.[2] E. I. Altman, “Financial ratios, discriminant analysis and the prediction of corporate bankruptcy,” Journal of Finance, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 589–609 (1968).[3] E. Berkovitch and R. Israel, “Optimal bankruptcy laws across different economic systems,” Review of Financial Studies, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 347–377 (1999).[4] B. Branch and A. Khizer, “Bankruptcy practice in India,” International Review of Financial Analysis, vol. 47, pp. 1–6 (2016).[5] C. Pochet, “Institutional complementarities within corporate governance systems: A comparative study of bankruptcy rules,” Journal of Management and Governance, vol. 6, pp. 343–381 (2002).[6] B. J. Kattadiyil and C. P. Mehboob, “Corporate insolvency in India and other countries – A comparative study,” Editorial Board, vol. 9, no. 7 (2020).[7] J. A. Ohlson, “Financial ratios and the probabilistic prediction of bankruptcy,” Journal of Accounting Research, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 109–131 (1980), doi: 10.2307/2490395.[8] M. E. Zmijewski, “Methodological issues related to the estimation of financial distress prediction models,” Journal of Accounting Research, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 59–82 (1984), doi: 10.2307/2490859.[9] T. Shumway, “Forecasting bankruptcy more accurately: A simple hazard model,” Journal of Business, vol. 74, no. 1, pp. 101–124 (2001).[10] S. A. Hillegeist, E. K. Keating, D. P. Cram, and K. G. Lundstedt, “Assessing the probability of bankruptcy,” Review of Accounting Studies, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 5–34 (2004).[11] B. M. Franceschetti and C. Koschtial, “Do bankrupt companies manipulate earnings more than non-bankrupt ones?,” Journal of Finance and Accountancy, vol. 12, p. 1 (2013).[12] K. Agrawal and C. Chatterjee, “Earnings management and financial distress: Evidence from India,” Global Business Review, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 140S–154S (2015).[13] E. Séverin and D. Veganzones, “Can earnings management information improve bankruptcy prediction models?,” Annals of Operations Research, vol. 306, no. 1, pp. 247–272 (2021).[14] J. M. R. Fernando, L. Li, and Y. Hou, “Corporate governance and default prediction: A reality test,” Applied Economics, vol. 51, no. 24, pp. 2669–2686 (2019).[15] A. K. Mishra, S. Jain, and R. L. Manogna, “Does corporate governance characteristics influence firm performance in India?,” International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 71–82 (2021).[16] A. Banu, A. Aisha, A. Rahman, and M. Murari, “A study on financial performance of Nifty 50 Indian companies with strong corporate governance,” Journal of Information and Optimization Sciences, vol. 46, no. 8, pp. 2403–2412 (2025).[17] E. Acosta-González, J. Fernández-Rodríguez, and S. Sosvilla-Rivero, “Predicting corporate financial failure using macroeconomic variables and accounting data,” Computational Economics, vol. 53, pp. 227–257 (2019).[18] C. Serrano-Cinca, B. Gutiérrez-Nieto, and J. Blasco, “The use of accounting anomalies indicators to predict business failure,” European Management Journal, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 353–375 (2019).[19] N. Donthu, S. Kumar, D. Mukherjee, N. Pandey, and W. M. Lim, “How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: An overview and guidelines,” Journal of Business Research, vol. 133, pp. 285–296 (2021).[20] Y. Shi and X. Li, “A bibliometric study on intelligent techniques of bankruptcy prediction,” Heliyon, vol. 5, no. 12, p. e02997 (2019).[21] V. Grosu, A. Horodnic, and M. Bostan, “Bibliometric analysis of the literature on evaluation models of bankruptcy risk,” Strategic Management Journal, vol. 44, no. 11, pp. 2875–2899 (2023), doi: 10.1002/smj.3498.[22] A. Kücher and B. Feldbauer-Durstmüller, “Organizational failure and decline: A bibliometric study,” Journal of Business Research, vol. 98, pp. 503–516 (2019).[23] C. Țîmbalari, A. Dinu, and M. Ionescu, “Clustering corporate governance and leadership: A bibliometric analysis,” Studies in Business and Economics, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 255–275 (2024).[24] E. I. Altman and E. Hotchkiss, Corporate Financial Distress and Bankruptcy. New York, USA: Wiley (2010).[25] H. Platt and M. Platt, “Corporate board attributes and bankruptcy,” Journal of Business Research, vol. 65, no. 8, pp. 1139–1143 (2012).[26] N. Siswanto and F. Fuad, “The impact of audit committee characteristics on financial distress,” Diponegoro Journal of Accounting, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 117–125 (2017).[27] K. O. Appiah and C. Amon, “Board audit committee and corporate insolvency,” Journal of Applied Accounting Research, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 298–316 (2017).[28] A. F. Darrat, S. Gray, and B. Parkash, “Corporate governance and bankruptcy risk,” Journal of Accounting, Auditing & Finance, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 163–202 (2016).[29] Z. Li, Y. Wang, and L. Deng, “Predicting the risk of financial distress using corporate governance measures,” Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, vol. 68, p. 101334 (2021).[30] N. T. Carr, “Using Microsoft Excel to calculate descriptive statistics and create graphs,” Language Assessment Quarterly, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 43–62 (2008).[31] N. Van Eck and L. Waltman, “VOSviewer: A computer program for bibliometric mapping,” Scientometrics, vol. 84, no. 2, pp. 523–538 (2010).[32] W. Lu, J. Li, and H. Yang, “Detecting research topic trends by keyword frequency,” Information Processing & Management, vol. 58, no. 4, p. 102594 (2021).[33] S. Hasnan, R. A. Rahman, and H. Mahenthiran, “Management motive, weak governance, earnings management, and fraudulent financial reporting,” Journal of International Accounting Research, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 1–27 (2013).[34] S. Miglani, A. Ahmed, and S. Henry, “Corporate governance structure and financial distress,” Journal of Contemporary Accounting & Economics, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 18–30 (2015).[35] S. Kanojia and S. Gupta, “Bankruptcy in Indian context,” Journal of Management & Governance, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 1201–1241 (2022), doi: 10.1007/s10997-021-09582-2.[36] M. Farooq, M. A. Rauf, and S. Zaman,“Corporate social responsibility and financial distress,” Social Responsibility Journal, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 123–140 (2023).[37] L. I. Meho, “The rise of citation analysis,” Physics World, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 32–36 (2007).[38] G. Surwase, S. S. Jadhav, and R. B. Patil, “Co-citation analysis: An overview,” International Journal of Information Technology and Knowledge Management, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 229–235 (2011).[39] E. M. Fich and S. L. Slezak, “Corporate governance and bankruptcy,” Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, vol. 30, pp. 225–251 (2008).[40] M. C. Jensen, “The modern industrial revolution and failure of internal control systems,” Journal of Finance, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 831–880 (1993).[41] S. Uddin, L. Hossain, and K. Rasmussen, “Trend and efficiency analysis of co-authorship network,” Scientometrics, vol. 90, no. 2, pp. 687–699 (2012).[42] H. Liao, Z. Tang, and Y. Luo, “Bibliometric analysis of medical big data research,” Sustainability, vol. 10, no. 1, p. 166 (2018).[43] H. Liao, M. Tang, L. Luo, C. Li, F. Chiclana, and X. J. Zeng, “A bibliometric analysis and visualization of medical big data research,” Sustainability, vol. 10, no. 1, p. 166 (2018).
Views: 52Downloads: 12Citations: 0
