Twenty years of efficiency research in Czech and Slovak banking – A bibliometric analysis

The article is a survey of 44 empirical studies that applied frontier techniques in analyzing efficiency of Czech and Slovak commercial banks in a hope to summarize the state of the art of efficiency research in Czech and Slovak banking. A sample of 44 journal articles was extracted from the Web of Science™ database, and a bibliometric analysis was conducted to identify the most active authors and most influential works to establish mutual relationships between them and to sketch the main research trajectories. The paper contributes to the extant literature by providing guidance for new researchers and identifying for efficiency research on Czech and Slovak banking: (i) the most productive authors as well as the works with the most impact; (ii) the network structure amongst the authors and works; and (iii) main paths of knowledge diffusion across the surveyed works. The findings indicate that efficiency research of Czech and Slovak banks grew out of global banking efficiency research and is thus its integral part. Lotka’s law applied to Czecho-Slovak banking efficiency research does not suggest that its productivity patterns are altogether different from its global counterpart. The first identifiable wave of research was represented by foreign authors who examined issues of economic transition and its impact on the performance of banks. This wave of research endured until about 2013, when the torch passed into the hands of authors of domestic provenience. The findings are useful in bridging the gap between the accumulated knowledge in the field and the new research directions.