Methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks in research on mechanisms facilitating the transition to industrial sustainability: systematic review and bibliometric analysis
Abstract
Between 2020 and 2025, the convergence of international political objectives and global climate pledges led to a substantial growth in research on mechanisms supporting the shift to industrial sustainability. Nevertheless, this quantitative expansion was not accompanied by a methodical assessment of its conceptual and methodological underpinnings. Through a thorough review and bibliometric analysis, the study investigates the theoretical frameworks and methodological techniques that are prevalent in this corpus. Seventy-two studies selected from Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and Taylor & Francis Online were analyzed, applying the PRISMA 2020 protocol and the JBI quality assessment. The analysis combines network mapping in VOSviewer, thematic-methodological synthesis, and natural language processing using three convergent classifiers—VADER, TextBlob, and RoBERTa—on the abstracts of the corpus. The findings reveal the predominance of quantitative cross-sectional designs (63.9%) and a marked theoretical concentration around the Multilevel Perspective Framework and the Technology–Organization–Environment model. Six thematic clusters shape the intellectual structure of the field, with digital transition as the central core and distributive governance as a peripheral node. Discursive polarity analysis, validated through high inter-model agreement (Fleiss’ κ = 0,90) and case-level concordance, shows a structural positive orientation: 48 of the 72 abstracts (67%) are classified as positive, and this proportion remains invariant throughout the period analyzed, with an almost complete absence of a neutral discursive category. The geographical concentration reproduces frameworks from the Global North as if they were universally applicable. It is concluded that the methodological, theoretical, and discursive dimensions of the field are mutually conditioned, generating a configuration that tends to confirm the facilitators identified in favorable contexts, with limited corrective capacity for divergent institutional environments.