Performance Management: A Bibliometric Analysis From 1976 To 2022

Performance management is a topic of great interest both for academics and practitioners. Much has been written on this complex subject over time, which has led to the development of a considerable academic literature on the topic. The paper is part of a more comprehensive study that aims to explore the topic performance management from a bibliometric perspective. The objectives of the present paper are to present and analyze: (1) the scientific production over time; (2) the most prolific and influential contributors – authors, organizations, and countries; (3) the most utilized keywords. To create the research sample, a search was initiated in July 2022 by querying the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database, on the topic: "performance management". All WoS categories were included without applying any restrictions other than the English language filter. Following this procedure, 6,730 documents were retrieved, of which 6,580 in English which were then retained in the final research sample. Processing, analysis, and visualization of data related to the timespan of 1976-2022, was performed using VOSviewer, Excel and Bibliometrix/ Biblioshiny software. The main results presented and analyzed: citation report; top 15 WoS categories and publishers; source dynamics (journals, books, etc.); co-authorship with three units of analysis (authors, organizations, and countries), and the most relevant keywords (authors keywords and keywords plus). The conceptual structure: co-occurrence network analysis on keywords, thematic map, theoretical evolution, trends, future direction, etc. - are also included in the research, but will be presented in a separate paper.