Concept mapping of human capital management in the renewable energy transition: A bibliometric analysis and divergence gap assessment

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Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
The transition toward climate neutrality is reshaping economic systems and increasing the importance of human capital in green modernization. However, a significant gap persists between technological advances and the strategic management of the workforce. This study aims to systematize and conceptually map the contemporary scholarly landscape of human capital management research within the renewable energy transition. Using the PRISMA 2020 protocol, the study analyzed 2,258 Scopus-indexed documents published between 1994 and 2026 through bibliometric and science mapping methods. The methodology combined descriptive statistics, keyword frequency analysis, multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), and network co-occurrence cluster analysis using the Bibliometrix R-package and VOSviewer. The results show a rapid increase in publication activity, with an annual growth rate of 18.01%, with China, the United States, and India leading global output and the international collaboration rate reaches 28.6%. Science mapping showed that the term “human capital” entered this field more actively only after 2020 (297 occurrences), still lagging behind technological topics. MCA indicated a clear conceptual separation between knowledge domains: the relative distance between the educational and workforce clusters suggests that these themes are still weakly integrated in the literature. Network analysis identified five thematic clusters: the technological and educational foundation, macroeconomic environment and resources, strategic management and innovative transformation, the socio-labor dimension and labor market, and eco-technological regulation. These results point to the need for a more integrated approach to adaptive human capital development that connects technological change, professional mobility, and institutional learning and strengthens the role of human capital in supporting green transformation.

Acknowledgment
This paper was supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine as part of the research project Adaptive Human Capital Management in the Renewable Energy Sector: Synergy of Innovation and Social Sustainability” (Grant/Project No. 0126U000453).

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    • Figure 1. PRISMA flow diagram of the literature search and selection process
    • Figure 2. Annual dynamics of publication activity and citation trends in HCM within the renewable energy transition (1994–2026)
    • Figure 3. Geographical distribution of scientific output and citation impact in HCM within the renewable energy transition (1994–2026)
    • Figure 4. International co-authorship network based on country co-occurrence in HCM within the renewable energy transition
    • Figure 5. Most relevant sources of scientific publications in HCM within the renewable energy transition (1994–2026)
    • Figure 6. Semantic mapping of the research field by keywords frequency
    • Figure 7. Mapping the evolution of the research field: keywords frequency dynamics (2000–2026)
    • Figure 8. Conceptual structure map of the scholarly discourse: keyword factor analysis
    • Figure 9. Network map of key concepts in the scholarly discourse: cluster analysis of keywords based on their co-occurrence
    • Table 1. Summary of the bibliometric dataset (1994–2026)
    • Table 2. General characteristics of the primary thematic research clusters
    • Conceptualization
      Nataliya Stoyanets, Alvina Oriekhova, Inna Sokhan, Tetyana Kharchenko, Anita Serbina
    • Formal Analysis
      Nataliya Stoyanets, Tetyana Kharchenko
    • Funding acquisition
      Nataliya Stoyanets, Alvina Oriekhova, Inna Sokhan, Tetyana Kharchenko, Viktoriia Tkachenko, Lyudmyla Khromushyna, Anita Serbina
    • Investigation
      Nataliya Stoyanets, Alvina Oriekhova, Inna Sokhan, Tetyana Kharchenko, Viktoriia Tkachenko
    • Methodology
      Nataliya Stoyanets, Alvina Oriekhova, Inna Sokhan
    • Project administration
      Nataliya Stoyanets
    • Resources
      Nataliya Stoyanets, Alvina Oriekhova, Viktoriia Tkachenko, Anita Serbina
    • Supervision
      Nataliya Stoyanets
    • Writing – original draft
      Nataliya Stoyanets, Alvina Oriekhova, Inna Sokhan, Tetyana Kharchenko, Anita Serbina
    • Writing – review & editing
      Nataliya Stoyanets, Alvina Oriekhova, Inna Sokhan, Tetyana Kharchenko, Lyudmyla Khromushyna, Anita Serbina
    • Software
      Tetyana Kharchenko, Viktoriia Tkachenko, Lyudmyla Khromushyna
    • Visualization
      Tetyana Kharchenko, Viktoriia Tkachenko, Lyudmyla Khromushyna
    • Data curation
      Viktoriia Tkachenko, Lyudmyla Khromushyna, Anita Serbina