The evolution of pro-environmental behavior research in three decades using bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Pro-environmental behavior plays a pivotal role in mitigating adverse environmental conditions like climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, the current study aims to demonstrate the evolution of pro-environmental behavior research and determine the emerging areas of this research field. This study employs a bibliometric approach encompassing temporal, co-word, citation, and bibliographic coupling ana- lyses using SciMAT and VOS Viewer to analyze 1824 articles extracted from Scopus, spanning the period from 1993 to 2022. The findings of bibliometric analysis reveal that (i) After the introduction of sustainable development goals, the research on pro- environmental behavior has considerably evolved and gained enormous diversity, (ii) the predominant research themes include ecotourism, sustainable consumption behavior, and corporate social responsibility, (iii) green behavior and green marketing are the two significant emerging research areas. This study would facilitate research practitioners and academicians in comprehending evolving trends and identifying avenues for future research.