Conceptual structure of balanced scorecard research: A co-word analysis

The present research aims to examine the conceptual structure of balanced scorecard (BSC) research from its inception (1992) to the end of 2020. After a review of the BSC literature, co-word analysis and social network analysis are used to analyze the data. The results show that 3742 documents have been published between 1992 and 2020 with 2638 distinctive keywords. The most frequently used keywords are "Balanced Scorecard", "Management", "Performance", "Framework" and "Strategy". Moreover, the article "The Balanced Scorecard: Measures That Drive Performance" with 4253 citations, was the most frequently cited article and "Robert Kaplan" with 16 documents and 8063 citations was the top author in terms of citation count and the number of documents. The United States is the top country with 486 documents and 18,805 citations. In addition, the journal "Total Quality Management and Business Excellence" is the most prolific journal with 50 articles, and the journal "Harvard Business Review" with 7778 citations, is the top journal in the number of citations. "Islamic Azad University of Iran" is the top university in the world with 57 documents. The most common keyword in Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Oceania is "Balanced Scorecard". The results of this study provide an overview of the state of BSC literature and can enable researchers to identify and develop ideas for future research.