---
title: "Firm size research: papers, trends and top journals"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “firm size” appeared in 2,280 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (819), finance (778) and management (407)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/firm-size
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/firm-size.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 size” appeared in 2,280 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (819), finance (778) and management (407). (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 size”

Research on “firm size” 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 size” appeared in 2,280 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (819), finance (778) and management (407).
- 387 of them were published in 2025, against 160 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Central University of Finance and Economics (24), Nanjing University of Finance and Economics (23) and Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (18).
- The journals publishing most of them were Finance research letters (149), International Review of Economics & Finance (84) and International Review of Financial Analysis (59).
- The most-cited of them is “The Influence of Firm Size on the ESG Score: Corporate Sustainability Ratings Under Review” (Journal of Business Ethics, 2019), with 1,551 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 65 | 68 | 70 | 82 | 74 | 78 | 88 | 90 | 113 | 91 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 42 | 41 | 51 | 50 | 51 | 58 | 79 | 119 | 197 | 90 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 29 | 36 | 28 | 25 | 47 | 47 | 56 | 48 | 48 | 43 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 13 | 10 | 8 | 15 | 11 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 9 | 14 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 2 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 10 | 5 | 11 | 10 | 5 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 1 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 0 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| [Health Economics and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/health-economics-and-policy.md) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| [Statistics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/statistics.md) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| All categories | 160 | 174 | 175 | 188 | 198 | 212 | 244 | 286 | 387 | 256 |

## 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) | 149 |
| 2 | [International Review of Economics & Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-economics-finance.md) | 84 |
| 3 | [International Review of Financial Analysis](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-financial-analysis.md) | 59 |
| 4 | [Small Business Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/small-business-economics.md) | 35 |
| 5 | [Economic Analysis and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-analysis-and-policy.md) | 33 |
| 6 | [Technological Forecasting and Social Change](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technological-forecasting-and-social-change.md) | 32 |
| 7 | [Research in International Business and Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/research-in-international-business-and-finance.md) | 32 |
| 8 | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 27 |
| 9 | [Economic Modelling](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-modelling.md) | 26 |
| 10 | [Journal of Business Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-research.md) | 25 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Central University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/central-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 24 |
| 2 | [Nanjing University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/nanjing-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 23 |
| 3 | [Zhongnan University of Economics and Law](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/zhongnan-university-of-economics-and-law.md) | 18 |
| 4 | [Xiamen University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/xiamen-university.md) | 17 |
| 5 | [Hunan University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/hunan-university.md) | 16 |
| 6 | [Southwestern University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/southwestern-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 16 |
| 7 | [Jilin University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/jilin-university.md) | 15 |
| 8 | [Renmin University of China](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/renmin-university-of-china.md) | 15 |
| 9 | [Shanghai University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/shanghai-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 15 |
| 10 | [Wuhan University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/wuhan-university.md) | 15 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 512 |
| 2 | United States | 169 |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 97 |
| 4 | Italy | 73 |
| 5 | Germany | 59 |
| 6 | India | 58 |
| 7 | Australia | 55 |
| 8 | France | 53 |
| 9 | Spain | 47 |
| 10 | Canada | 32 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Chinese listed companies](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/chinese-listed-companies.md) | 151 |
| 2 | [state-owned enterprises](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/state-owned-enterprises.md) | 132 |
| 3 | [financial constraints](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/financial-constraints.md) | 118 |
| 4 | [China](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/china.md) | 104 |
| 5 | [corporate governance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/corporate-governance.md) | 83 |
| 6 | firm age | 79 |
| 7 | leverage | 74 |
| 8 | [small and medium-sized enterprises](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/small-and-medium-sized-enterprises.md) | 71 |
| 9 | [COVID-19 pandemic](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/covid-19-pandemic.md) | 65 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,551 | 17.2 | [The Influence of Firm Size on the ESG Score: Corporate Sustainability Ratings Under Review](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04164-1) | [Journal of Business Ethics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-ethics.md) | 2019-04-27 | Samuel Drempetic, Christian Klein, Bernhard Zwergel |
| 2 | 1,481 | 18.0 | [Corporate Immunity to the COVID-19 Pandemic](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2021.03.005) | [Journal of Financial Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-financial-economics.md) | 2020-01-01 | Wenzhi Ding, Ross Eric Levine, Chen Lin et al. |
| 3 | 1,463 | 41.4 | [Artificial intelligence, firm growth, and product innovation](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2023.103745) | [Journal of Financial Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-financial-economics.md) | 2023-11-23 | Tania Babina, Anastassia Fedyk, Alex Xi He et al. |
| 4 | 822 | 7.4 | [Can big data and predictive analytics improve social and environmental sustainability?](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2017.06.020) | [Technological Forecasting and Social Change](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technological-forecasting-and-social-change.md) | 2017-07-15 | Rameshwar Dubey, Angappa Gunasekaran, Stephen J. Childe et al. |
| 5 | 810 | 7.4 | [Measuring firm size in empirical corporate finance](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2017.09.006) | [Journal of Banking & Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-banking-finance.md) | 2017-09-19 | Chongyu Dang, Zhichuan Frank Li, Chen Yang |

## Cite this page

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

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-firm-size,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “firm size”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/firm-size}},
  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/).