Corporate Social Responsibility, Carbon Pricing, and Corporate Performance: A Bibliometric Review of an Emerging Research Nexus

This study employs bibliometric methods to examine the structure, thematic integration, and conceptual evolution of the literature at the intersection of corporate social responsibility (CSR), carbon pricing, and corporate performance. Its primary objective is to map research streams on CSR and reporting, carbon pricing, and firm performance that have evolved relatively independently and to synthesize them within a common analytical framework that clarifies the conceptual structure of this triadic nexus and identifies areas where these streams remain insufficiently connected. Bibliographic records retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection for the period 2015–2025 were analyzed using a three-stage bibliometric design. Study 1 examines CSR and reporting in the context of carbon pricing; Study 2 investigates the relationship between carbon pricing and firm-level performance and strategic outcomes; and Study 3 examines the triadic intersection of CSR, carbon pricing, and corporate performance. Publication activity follows a nonlinear trajectory but increases markedly after 2022, particularly in studies addressing performance and strategic outcomes. The conceptual analyses show that disclosure, governance, and legitimacy are prominent along the CSR and reporting axis, whereas environmental regulation, innovation, efficiency, cost, investment, and managerial decision-making dominate the performance axis. Within the triadic nexus, disclosure–performance–determinants, climate change–legitimacy–social responsibility, and CSR–management–carbon market decisions emerge as the principal conceptual structures. Thematic analysis identifies CSR–management–cost and climate change–legitimacy–social responsibility as motor themes, while the disclosure–performance relationship constitutes a central basic theme. Viewed through the lenses of Stakeholder Theory, Legitimacy Theory, the Resource-Based View, and Institutional Theory, the findings indicate that carbon pricing is conceptualized not merely as an environmental cost or regulatory instrument but as a broader strategic governance mechanism linking disclosure, corporate legitimacy, managerial capabilities, and performance outcomes. By integrating three research streams that have largely been examined separately, this study clarifies the field's intellectual architecture and thematic integration and highlights the role of carbon pricing in connecting CSR, governance, and corporate performance.