---
title: "Mediating effect research: papers, trends and top journals"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “mediating effect” appeared in 2,102 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in management (707), finance (513) and economics (231)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/mediating-effect
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/mediating-effect.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 “mediating effect” appeared in 2,102 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in management (707), finance (513) and economics (231). (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 “mediating effect”

Research on “mediating effect” 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 “mediating effect” appeared in 2,102 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in management (707), finance (513) and economics (231).
- 443 of them were published in 2025, against 83 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Renmin University of China (21), University of International Business and Economics (19) and Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (19).
- The journals publishing most of them were Finance research letters (299), International Review of Economics & Finance (82) and International Review of Financial Analysis (50).
- The most-cited of them is “Re-examining the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT): Towards a Revised Theoretical Model” (Information Systems Frontiers, 2017), with 2,133 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) | 47 | 46 | 43 | 53 | 64 | 93 | 89 | 94 | 110 | 68 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 15 | 18 | 40 | 119 | 232 | 79 |
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 4 | 6 | 8 | 23 | 27 | 25 | 30 | 47 | 29 | 32 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 10 | 10 | 23 | 31 | 14 | 24 | 16 | 14 | 14 | 9 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 9 | 7 | 14 | 12 | 22 | 19 | 21 | 22 | 17 | 8 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 3 | 8 | 7 | 12 | 14 | 8 | 23 | 22 | 11 | 9 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 5 | 10 | 13 | 10 | 15 | 13 | 8 | 12 | 17 | 9 |
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 5 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 9 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 2 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| [Health Economics and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/health-economics-and-policy.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| [Statistics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/statistics.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| All categories | 83 | 99 | 115 | 153 | 183 | 213 | 240 | 344 | 443 | 229 |

## 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) | 299 |
| 2 | [International Review of Economics & Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-economics-finance.md) | 82 |
| 3 | [International Review of Financial Analysis](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-financial-analysis.md) | 50 |
| 4 | [Future Business Journal](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/future-business-journal.md) | 46 |
| 5 | [Technological Forecasting and Social Change](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technological-forecasting-and-social-change.md) | 43 |
| 6 | [Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-open-innovation-technology-market-and-complexity.md) | 35 |
| 7 | [Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-innovation-and-entrepreneurship.md) | 31 |
| 8 | [Journal of Business Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-research.md) | 29 |
| 9 | [The International Journal of Management Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/the-international-journal-of-management-education.md) | 29 |
| 10 | [Journal of Innovation & Knowledge](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-innovation-knowledge.md) | 26 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Renmin University of China](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/renmin-university-of-china.md) | 21 |
| 2 | [University of International Business and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-international-business-and-economics.md) | 19 |
| 3 | [Zhongnan University of Economics and Law](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/zhongnan-university-of-economics-and-law.md) | 19 |
| 4 | [Anhui University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/anhui-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 13 |
| 5 | [Jilin University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/jilin-university.md) | 13 |
| 6 | [Zhejiang Gongshang University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/zhejiang-gongshang-university.md) | 13 |
| 7 | [Xi'an Jiaotong University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/xi-an-jiaotong-university.md) | 12 |
| 8 | [City University of Macau](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/city-university-of-macau.md) | 11 |
| 9 | [Hong Kong Polytechnic University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/hong-kong-polytechnic-university.md) | 11 |
| 10 | [Liaoning University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/liaoning-university.md) | 11 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 678 |
| 2 | United Kingdom | 93 |
| 3 | United States | 78 |
| 4 | India | 61 |
| 5 | Malaysia | 57 |
| 6 | Australia | 47 |
| 7 | Spain | 43 |
| 8 | Pakistan | 42 |
| 9 | South Korea | 35 |
| 10 | Vietnam | 33 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [moderating effect](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/moderating-effect.md) | 191 |
| 2 | [Chinese listed companies](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/chinese-listed-companies.md) | 124 |
| 3 | [regional heterogeneity](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/regional-heterogeneity.md) | 100 |
| 4 | [China](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/china.md) | 98 |
| 5 | [listed companies](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/listed-companies.md) | 80 |
| 6 | [digital transformation](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/digital-transformation.md) | 79 |
| 7 | [firm performance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/firm-performance.md) | 64 |
| 8 | [state-owned enterprises](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/state-owned-enterprises.md) | 62 |
| 9 | [financial constraints](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/financial-constraints.md) | 56 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,133 | 18.9 | [Re-examining the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT): Towards a Revised Theoretical Model](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-017-9774-y) | [Information Systems Frontiers](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/information-systems-frontiers.md) | 2017-06-07 | Yogesh Kumar Dwivedi, Nripendra Pratap Rana, Anand Jeyaraj et al. |
| 2 | 1,380 | 14.7 | [Green process innovation, green product innovation, and corporate financial performance: A content analysis method](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.01.010) | [Journal of Business Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-research.md) | 2019-01-15 | Xuemei Xie, Jiage Huo, Zou Hailiang |
| 3 | 1,116 | 15.0 | [Corporate social responsibility and environmental performance: The mediating role of environmental strategy and green innovation](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120262) | [Technological Forecasting and Social Change](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technological-forecasting-and-social-change.md) | 2020-08-21 | Sascha Kraus, Shafique Ur Rehman, F. Javier Sendra García |
| 4 | 1,101 | 12.3 | [Exploring the relationship between big data analytics capability and competitive performance: The mediating roles of dynamic and operational capabilities](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2019.05.004) | [Information & Management](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/information-management.md) | 2019-05-29 | Patrick Mikalef, John Krogstie, Ilias O. Pappas et al. |
| 5 | 851 | 10.7 | [Antecedents, consequences, and challenges of small and medium-sized enterprise digitalization](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.03.004) | [Journal of Business Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-research.md) | 2020-03-14 | Robert Eller, Philip Alford, Andreas Kallmuenzer et al. |

## Research ideas that follow this keyword

- [Moderators and mediators everywhere](https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/moderators-and-mediators-everywhere.md)

## Cite this page

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

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