A bibliometric analysis of political connections literature

Purpose: We present a catalogue of the influential aspects resulting from a bibliometric meta-analysis of political connection literature.

Design: We undertake a bibliometric meta-analysis review of political connections literature, covering 138 research papers from 2000 to 2020 using the visualization of similarities (VOS) viewer program.

Findings: We identify six research groups: (1) the value of political connections; (2) political connections and finance; (3) political connections in banks; (4) political connections and debt; (5) management and political connections; and (6) political connections and governance. We discuss each stream through a cartographic analysis, including co-authorship, countries, and time networks.

Originality: We make an important and novel contribution to political connection literature. So far as we are aware, it is the only bibliometric study on political connections. It is the first study to use network analysis and community detection to understand social clustering and to identify main research steams in political connection literature.