Corporate Governance in State-Owned Enterprises: A Bibliometric Analysis of Key Theories and the Current State of Debate

Corporate governance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is an increasingly active area of research in the international literature, amid persistent concerns about their efficiency, transparency and vulnerability to political influence. In the context of administrative reforms and pressures for performance in the public sector, understanding the theoretical and geographical evolution of studies dedicated to governance in SOEs is becoming essential for researchers and decision-makers. The aim of this article is to conduct a systematic bibliometric analysis of the academic literature published in the period 2000–2024, using the Scopus database and VOSviewer software to map scientific networks and emerging themes. The study aims to identify the dominant theories used in corporate governance research in SOEs (such as agency theory, stakeholder theory and stewardship theory), to highlight influential scientific contributions and to analyze the geographical distribution of academic production. The methodology is based on the selection and coding of over 300 relevant articles, followed by the visualization of keyword co-occurrence networks and collaborations between authors and institutions. The results indicate a constant increase in interest in this topic, but also a conceptual fragmentation and limited international collaboration. The main contribution of the research consists in providing a rigorous synthesis of the current state of the literature and in formulating future research directions, with an emphasis on comparative, cross-regional and theoretically anchored studies. The direct beneficiaries are public administration researchers, government decision-makers and practitioners involved in governance reform in public enterprises. The conclusions emphasize the need to strengthen integrated approaches and transnational collaborations to increase the scientific relevance and practical impact of future research.