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This is a Bibliometric Analysis study.

September 24, 2025Open Access

Sustainability and Data Envelopment Analysis: A bibliometric review

GBGeovanna Bernardino BelloUniversidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)FFFernanda Pereira Sartori FalgueraUniversidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)DFDiogo FerrazUniversity of Hohenheim

Key Points

A bibliometric review identified 10 clusters emphasizing diverse publications in DEA and sustainability, yet dominance in few journals.
The CRS model is highlighted, accounting for 24% of analyzed publications, with VRS noted at 12% significance in DEA studies.
Recent trends reveal innovation, empirical evidence, and urbanization as key topics over the last four years within the literature.
This review underscores an urgent need for consensus on effective models and variables to enhance sustainability indicators.

Abstract

Environmental management is important for all nations in terms of sustainable development. Several methods were created to analyze the environmental sustainability, being the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) one of the main approaches. However, there is no consensus on the best models and variables to build sustainable indicators. This article aims to map the literature of DEA sustainable indicators through a bibliometric analysis, searching 6,330 articles on the Web of Science. Our main finding revealed 10 clusters and the existence of several authors and journals, although the publications are concentrated on few relevant ones. Also, the DEA models analysis reveals the model CRS stands out, representing 24% of the sample, followed by CRS and VRS with 12%. We also observed that the trend topics “innovation”, “empirical evidence” and “urbanization” were the most approached in the last four years. This study provides a platform for future research in Sustainability and DEA.

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