Alexandr Zagrebin

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
The relationship between corruption and investment has attracted growing scholarly attention amid global concerns over governance quality, institutional efficiency, and capital mobility. This paper aims to systematize and critically assess how the relationship between corruption and investment has been explored in academic literature from 2015 to 2024, without limiting either concept to specific forms or levels. A bibliometric analysis was conducted based on 1,535 journal articles indexed in the Scopus database. The study identifies publication trends, dominant keywords, and seven thematic clusters, which reflect major research areas such as institutional quality, foreign direct investment, sustainable development, public policy, and social outcomes. A focused subset of 184 articles, containing both corruption- and investment-related terms in their titles, served as the basis for thematic classification. Three main research approaches are identified: (1) investment-type studies, which overwhelmingly focus on foreign direct investment (FDI), while domestic and informal investments are rarely addressed; (2) causal-explanatory models, which emphasize economic and institutional determinants but largely omit cultural and behavioral variables; and (3) case-based empirical analyses, which are often concentrated on single-country contexts. China is the most frequently studied country, whereas Central Asia, the Middle East, the CIS region, Western Europe, and the Commonwealth are all significantly underrepresented. The findings reveal thematic fragmentation, conceptual bias toward FDI, and persistent geographical imbalance. The study provides a foundation for future research and supports the development of more diversified, context-sensitive approaches to understanding the corruption-investment nexus.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
Inclusive governance has attracted growing scholarly attention as both a normative principle and a practical approach. This paper aims to conduct a bibliometric and science-mapping analysis of the academic literature on inclusive governance and related concepts. The analysis is based on 1,990 documents indexed in the Scopus database, covering the available period from 1976 to 2025. Data processing and analysis were conducted using the Bibliometrix package in R. The results reveal a pronounced growth trajectory of inclusive governance research, with a sharp acceleration after 2013 and particularly strong expansion in the post-2020 period. Citation dynamics highlight the enduring influence of foundational works on participatory and democratic governance, alongside the rising prominence of sustainability-oriented and decision-making frameworks. Keyword co-occurrence and thematic mapping identify a strong conceptual core centered on participatory governance and governance approaches, complemented by more specialized human- and community-centered themes. A domain-based thematic analysis further demonstrates that inclusive governance is conceptualized differently across research areas. Public governance emphasizes participation and normative sustainability principles, environmental governance focuses on resource management and issue-specific challenges, while economic and organizational governance integrates institutional, innovation-driven, and stakeholder-oriented perspectives. The findings confirm inclusive governance as a conceptually plural yet increasingly coherent research field, while also pointing to persistent gaps in geographical representation and contextual diversity, and offering directions for future research and policy-oriented inquiry.

Acknowledgments
This research has been funded by the Committee of Science of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Grant No. BR27100377).