Future research directions in carbon emissions linkage with corporate governance and earnings management: a systematic review and TCCM synthesis

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to extensively review the existing literature on corporate carbon emissions with earnings management and corporate governance. We used the PRISMA protocol, R for bibliometric analysis, VOSviewer for network visualisation and TCCM framework for systematic review. The study analysed 354 research articles from the Scopus database from 2009 to 2024. A total of 889 authors contributed to the 354 research articles. China has the highest number of papers published in selected domains, followed by Australia, the USA, and the UK. Australian papers received the highest citations. The paper also includes keyword co-occurrence analysis and network visualisation of authors international collaborations. It has been observed through the TCCM framework that while carbon emissions and corporate governance have been extensively studied, the relationship between carbon emissions and earnings management has remained unexplored. The Analysis examines global publications and finds that excluding China, research on the given area remains limited in other Asian countries, highlighting scope for future research. Overall, the paper explains various future research directions for the area under study. Additionally, it will help policymakers and practitioners understand the kind of governance required to implement sustainable practices and the role of earnings management in influencing sustainable decision-making.

Keywords

• Corporate carbon emissions
• earnings management
• corporate governance
• systematic review
• TCCM framework
• Environmental Economics