Understanding social innovation and public policy for sustainable development: a bibliometric and thematic analysis

Purpose Uncertain environments and the rising need for sustainability have compelled organizations to adopt creative solutions to solve social problems. This has attracted the attention of researchers in the field of social innovation research and public policy to address social issues. Design/methodology/approach This study performs a bibliometric review of the literature from 2020 to 2024 on social innovation and public policy to find the recent trends, themes and future scope of research. The study conducted a performance analysis and content analysis to identify the trending themes in the existing body of literature. Findings Science mapping provides insights into the existing themes and the future scope of the field under study. The study finds an increasing trend in publications, relevant journals and top-cited papers. In addition, the study provides critical point of view for themes, future research questions and conceptual model for fostering social innovation through public policy. Originality/value The study contributes to the literature by providing a conceptual model that can drive sustainable development through social innovation and its contextual policies. Moreover, it identifies various themes which could facilitate the research agenda for future studies in this field.