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Past, present, and future of sustainable finance: insights from big data analytics through machine learning of scholarly research

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A Correction to this article was published on 10 February 2022

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Abstract

Sustainable finance is a rich field of research. Yet, existing reviews remain limited due to the piecemeal insights offered through a sub-set rather than the entire corpus of sustainable finance. To address this gap, this study aims to conduct a large-scale review that would provide a state-of-the-art overview of the performance and intellectual structure of sustainable finance. To do so, this study engages in a review of sustainable finance research using big data analytics through machine learning of scholarly research. In doing so, this study unpacks the most influential articles and top contributing journals, authors, institutions, and countries, as well as the methodological choices and research contexts for sustainable finance research. In addition, this study reveals insights into seven major themes of sustainable finance research, namely socially responsible investing, climate financing, green financing, impact investing, carbon financing, energy financing, and governance of sustainable financing and investing. To drive the field forward, this study proposes several suggestions for future sustainable finance research, which include developing and diffusing innovative sustainable financing instruments, magnifying and managing the profitability and returns of sustainable financing, making sustainable finance more sustainable, devising and unifying policies and frameworks for sustainable finance, tackling greenwashing of corporate sustainability reporting in sustainable finance, shining behavioral finance on sustainable finance, and leveraging the power of new-age technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, internet of things, and machine learning for sustainable finance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management Studies, Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur, Jaipur, Rajasthan, 302017, India

    Satish Kumar

  2. School of Business, Swinburne University of Technology, Jalan Simpang Tiga, 93350, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

    Satish Kumar & Weng Marc Lim

  3. Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, India

    Dipasha Sharma

  4. DCU Business School, Dublin City University, Dublin 09, Ireland

    Sandeep Rao

  5. Swinburne Business School, Swinburne University of Technology, John Street, Hawthorn, VIC, 3122, Australia

    Weng Marc Lim

  6. Jindal Global Business School, O P Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India

    Sachin Kumar Mangla

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Kumar, S., Sharma, D., Rao, S. et al. Past, present, and future of sustainable finance: insights from big data analytics through machine learning of scholarly research. Ann Oper Res 345, 1061–1104 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-021-04410-8

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