Insights on financial literacy: a bibliometric analysis

PurposeThe study aims to analyze, realize and identify the extent of research on financial literacy (FL) and to reveal the study trends, growth and evolution in the Scopus database from a bibliometric analysis. Principally, the primary purpose of this study is to conduct a comprehensive bibliometric review of studies focusing on the use, identification, network structure and conceptual structure of FL.Design/methodology/approachThe most relevant articles were found using an electronic search. The studies that would be reviewed were sourced from the Scopus database. A total of 1,211 articles were found and refined to 768 papers between 1997 and 2021. Every composition has been analyzed in different dimensions such as co-authorship, co-citation, conceptual structure, co-word occurrence, trend topics analysis, thematic map, topic dendrogram, three field plot diagram and visualization analysis with the help of R programming language and VOSviewer software.FindingsMotor themes, basic transverse, niche, and emerging and declining themes were identified using (Callon, 1991) a strategic thematic map. The analysis’s results showed that, over the past 20 years, FL literature has advanced remarkably. It also acts as a reference means for future researchers. This study adopted relational techniques such as co-word, co-author, co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling and thematic map analysis revealing the emerging topics for future research. The relational approach indicates that “FL” and “human” are two central parts that connect to other frequently used words in the studies examined.Research limitations/implicationsThe study deploys bibliometric analysis appropriate for deriving insights from the vast extant literature. However, a meta-analysis might offer deeper insights into specific dimensions of the research topic. It expands the previous literature and shows study topics that are more focused by examining the abstracts and contents of articles published in journals in different Scopus categories. For future researchers to derive a solid theoretical framework, a systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis would be helpful. Science mapping for this study is limited to the Scopus database owing to its more comprehensive coverage of good-quality journals.Practical implicationsFor future researchers to derive a solid theoretical framework, a systematic review of literature and meta-analysis would be helpful. Science mapping for this study is limited to the Scopus database owing to its more comprehensive coverage of good-quality journals. The authors offer suggestions for promising directions for future research that could address some of the inconsistencies found from the bibliometric analysis study.Social implicationsThis study can help both budding and established researchers to find new research focus, relevant sources, and collaboration opportunities and make informed decisions. Findings related to evaluative and relational techniques can serve as helpful information for researchers who are new to the field.Originality/valueIt shows the indicators used to benchmark institutes, authors, journals or articles. The increase in researchers’ collaborative, multi-authored and interdisciplinary efforts also revealed an annual growth rate of 23.77%. Overall, this study enhanced the understanding of the FL phenomenon and provided an experience and interpret a wide range of publication- and citation-based statistics. This study contributes to understanding the collaborative networks of various researchers and institutions and the benefits/detriments of collaborating cross-disciplinary, internationally, or with industry or corporate institutions.