---
title: "Firm performance research: papers, trends and top journals"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “firm performance” appeared in 3,111 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in management (1,140), finance (788) and economics (539)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/firm-performance
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/firm-performance.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “firm performance” appeared in 3,111 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in management (1,140), finance (788) and economics (539). (as of 2026-11-03)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-03T18:03:37+09:00
window: 2026-10-05 to 2026-11-03
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “firm performance”

Research on “firm performance” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “firm performance” appeared in 3,111 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in management (1,140), finance (788) and economics (539).
- 385 of them were published in 2025, against 265 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (22), Sun Yat-sen University (20) and Renmin University of China (16).
- The journals publishing most of them were Finance research letters (94), Journal of Business Research (89) and International Review of Economics & Finance (49).
- The most-cited of them is “Firms and social responsibility: A review of ESG and CSR research in corporate finance” (Journal of Corporate Finance, 2021), with 2,888 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 95 | 107 | 113 | 123 | 124 | 131 | 119 | 112 | 114 | 102 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 64 | 59 | 43 | 54 | 82 | 74 | 88 | 112 | 133 | 79 |
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 41 | 57 | 45 | 56 | 49 | 55 | 66 | 62 | 73 | 35 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 15 | 14 | 17 | 17 | 13 | 16 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 7 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 21 | 17 | 17 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 7 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 13 | 20 | 7 | 11 | 8 | 13 | 18 | 17 | 21 | 18 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 8 | 13 | 6 | 14 | 7 | 18 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 9 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 6 | 9 | 6 | 12 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 12 | 8 | 3 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| All categories | 265 | 296 | 256 | 311 | 314 | 334 | 333 | 356 | 385 | 261 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Finance research letters](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/finance-research-letters.md) | 94 |
| 2 | [Journal of Business Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-research.md) | 89 |
| 3 | [International Review of Economics & Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-economics-finance.md) | 49 |
| 4 | [International Review of Financial Analysis](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-financial-analysis.md) | 47 |
| 5 | [Research in International Business and Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/research-in-international-business-and-finance.md) | 40 |
| 6 | [Technological Forecasting and Social Change](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technological-forecasting-and-social-change.md) | 38 |
| 7 | [Pacific-Basin Finance Journal](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/pacific-basin-finance-journal.md) | 27 |
| 8 | [Industrial Marketing Management](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/industrial-marketing-management.md) | 26 |
| 9 | [International Journal of Disclosure and Governance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-disclosure-and-governance.md) | 24 |
| 10 | [Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-open-innovation-technology-market-and-complexity.md) | 24 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Southwestern University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/southwestern-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 22 |
| 2 | [Sun Yat-sen University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/sun-yat-sen-university.md) | 20 |
| 3 | [Renmin University of China](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/renmin-university-of-china.md) | 16 |
| 4 | [Huazhong University of Science and Technology](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/huazhong-university-of-science-and-technology.md) | 15 |
| 5 | [Zhejiang University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/zhejiang-university.md) | 15 |
| 6 | [Shanghai University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/shanghai-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 14 |
| 7 | [University of International Business and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-international-business-and-economics.md) | 14 |
| 8 | [Zhongnan University of Economics and Law](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/zhongnan-university-of-economics-and-law.md) | 14 |
| 9 | [Capital University of Economics and Business](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/capital-university-of-economics-and-business.md) | 13 |
| 10 | [Hong Kong Polytechnic University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/hong-kong-polytechnic-university.md) | 12 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 412 |
| 2 | United States | 288 |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 165 |
| 4 | India | 85 |
| 5 | Italy | 83 |
| 6 | Australia | 75 |
| 7 | France | 70 |
| 8 | Spain | 68 |
| 9 | Germany | 66 |
| 10 | Canada | 52 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [corporate governance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/corporate-governance.md) | 149 |
| 2 | [Chinese listed companies](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/chinese-listed-companies.md) | 123 |
| 3 | [moderating effect](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/moderating-effect.md) | 97 |
| 4 | [small and medium-sized enterprises](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/small-and-medium-sized-enterprises.md) | 85 |
| 5 | [China](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/china.md) | 72 |
| 6 | [dynamic capabilities](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/dynamic-capabilities.md) | 71 |
| 7 | [financial constraints](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/financial-constraints.md) | 68 |
| 8 | [state-owned enterprises](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/state-owned-enterprises.md) | 67 |
| 9 | [COVID-19 pandemic](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/covid-19-pandemic.md) | 66 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,888 | 41.8 | [Firms and social responsibility: A review of ESG and CSR research in corporate finance](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2021.101889) | [Journal of Corporate Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-corporate-finance.md) | 2021-01-30 | Stuart Gillan, Andrew Koch, Laura T. Starks |
| 2 | 1,706 | 24.6 | [Artificial intelligence capability: Conceptualization, measurement calibration, and empirical study on its impact on organizational creativity and firm performance](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2021.103434) | [Information & Management](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/information-management.md) | 2021-01-24 | Patrick Mikalef, Manjul Gupta |
| 3 | 1,101 | 10.4 | [Dealing with endogeneity bias: The generalized method of moments (GMM) for panel data](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2017.11.010) | [Industrial Marketing Management](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/industrial-marketing-management.md) | 2018-01-09 | Subhan Ullah, Pervaiz Akhtar, Ghasem Zaefarian |
| 4 | 1,038 | 9.4 | [Relationship between innovation capability, innovation type, and firm performance](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2017.06.002) | [Journal of Innovation & Knowledge](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-innovation-knowledge.md) | 2017-08-31 | R.P. Jayani Rajapathirana, Yan Hui |
| 5 | 1,038 | 9.8 | [Board diversity, firm risk, and corporate policies](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2017.12.009) | [Journal of Financial Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-financial-economics.md) | 2017-12-24 | Gennaro Bernile, Vineet Bhagwat, Scott E. Yonker |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “firm performance”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/firm-performance

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-firm-performance,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “firm performance”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/firm-performance}},
  urldate = {2026-11-03},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).