Procurement fraud research landscape : A bibliometric Analysis

Purpose: The aim of the study was to review the bibliometric and intellectual structure of procurement fraud using science mapping review technique. Methodology: The study adopted a bibliometric methodology that utilises the quantitative techniques on bibliometric data. The study applied bibliometric analysis because of its ability to summarise the intellectual structure of procurement fraud globally from a pool of voluminous data. The bibliometric data was retrieved from Scopus database due to its credibility founded on large volumes of peer reviewed publications. We performed science mapping analysis to understand the structural and intellectual connections in procurement fraud through citation, co-citation, co-occurrence, and bibliographic coupling technique. Within the scientific mapping analysis, VOSviewer version 1.6.20 was used. These techniques were done combined with network visualisation to present the bibliometric and the intellectual structure of procurement fraud. Findings: Procurement fraud finds its residence in every stage of the procurement life cycle. There is no universal glue on the concept of procurement fraud. Most studies on procurement fraud are skewed towards the public sector globally. There is dearth of literature on procurement fraud in the private sector.The key emerging themes in procurement fraud bibliometric data are public procurement fraud, corruption, fraud in construction projects, collusion, forgery, bribery, application of AI to deter procurement fraud and procurement processes lacking auditability. The Journal of Public Procurement and Critical perspectives on Accounting present the highest number of publications and have the highest total link strength. Most studies on procurement fraud are from United States of America with a high total link strength followed by Australia. There are few studies on the African continent. There are social linkages among authors within different institutions in United States of America, Indonesia and Australia. Originality or Value: There is growing trend on procurement fraud research but due to the differing synonyms that are used in describing procurement fraud research has been sparse. The study is a pioneering work on understanding the intellectual structure and knowledge base of procurement fraud. This study may be used as anchor on future studies in examining the scale of the differing manifestations of procurement fraud in the private sector. Policymakers can establish and implement frameworks that deter procurement fraud both in public and private sector.