New trends and directions in local government finance research: A bibliometric analysis

The business process management (BPM) approach enhances organizational competitiveness and facilitates digital business transformations. Successful implementation of BPM necessitates a comprehensive understanding of its conceptual foundations and developmental trajectory. This study aims to investigate BPM studies in social sciences, unraveling the evolution and main pillars of the BPM concept. The research methodology comprises a bibliometric analysis of 95 articles indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection from 1997 to 2023 using the Biblioshiny App, followed by a narrative literature review of the most highly cited publications.
The results unveil a notable shift in BPM research to information technologies, reflecting an interdisciplinary nature of the BPM concept (going beyond management itself). However, the analysis indicates that BPM research in social sciences tends to be specialized and localized, characterized by limited collaboration among scholars, research teams, institutions, and countries. The study identifies a diverse range of relevant research topics encompassing the maturity concept, business process, process orientation, process performance, success factors, and data and knowledge management. Process modeling and improvement emerge as central but underexplored areas, while strategic management, complexity theory, and organizational processes display declining thematic trends. The most frequently cited research papers primarily focus on enriching BPM practices through integrating digital tools and innovations, emphasizing the role of organizational culture in facilitating BPM implementation and investigating the relationship between BPM and supply chain integration and performance.

Acknowledgment
This study is funded by a grant, “Restructuring of the national economy in the direction of digital transformations for sustainable development” (№0122U001232) (Inna Koblianska’s contribution).

Data Envelopment Analysis is a crucial tool for evaluating the performance of insurance companies, considering its ability to handle multiple inputs and outputs. This study provides a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) application in the insurance industry from 2010 to 2023, examining 405 documents from 432 sources. Materials from academic databases (Web of Science and Scopus) were used for the analysis. The methodological flow included three stages. For analysis, two sets of keywords were identified: one set oriented toward DEA and the other tailored to the Insurance Industry domain. To analyze and visualize the data, VOSviewer software, version 1.6.19, and RSTUDIO were used. This paper highlights the evolution of DEA methodologies, incorporating advanced techniques like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and addresses emerging trends such as digital transformation, customer-centric assessments, and sustainability. The analysis reveals significant geographical and sectoral differences in efficiency assessments, with higher efficiency levels typically found in developed markets such as North America and Europe compared to emerging markets in Asia and Africa. It also notes the distinctive efficiency patterns between life and non-life insurance firms, influenced by product complexity and market competition. The findings indicate that DEA remains versatile and essential for performance evaluation in the insurance industry, adapting to challenges through methodological advancements.

Studying public-private partnership practices in textbook publishing and distribution in Nepal offers insights into effective strategies for improving education quality through collaboration between government and private sectors. The objective of the study is to assess the effectiveness of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in enhancing education quality through improved textbook publishing and distribution mechanisms. The methodology employed in this study integrates descriptive and explanatory research approaches. It utilizes a structured questionnaire comprising 40 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale to evaluate different dimensions of PPPs concerning school textbook publication and distribution in Nepal. In this study, representatives from private organizations involved in textbook publishing and distribution in Nepal were interviewed. Sampling is conducted through random selection from a pool of 390 private organizations, aiming to ensure representation across various sectors. The model developed from this analysis had a strong explanatory power, with the identified independent variables explaining up to 48% of the variability in improving education quality through PPPs. The study concludes that emphasizing transparency, accountability, and effective communication within public-private partnerships significantly contributes to enhancing education quality through improved textbook publishing and distribution mechanisms, supported by strong correlations between these factors and overall education quality, as revealed by advanced statistical methods.