










































AGORA International Journal of Economical Sciences, http://univagora.ro/jour/index.php/aijes 

ISSN 2067-3310, E-ISSN 2067-7669 

Vol. 18, No. 2 (2024), pp. 63-72 

 

63 

 

THE INTERSECTION OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, 

INTERNAL AUDIT, AND BANKRUPTCY RISK MANAGEMENT: A 

BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS 

 

C. M. BULĂU, M. MATEI (PANĂ), A. O. MUSTĂȚEA, M. D. COMAN 

 

Carmen Mihaela Bulău¹, Mirela Matei (Pană)², Aura Oana Mustățea³, Mihaela Denisa 

Coman⁴ 

¹ ² ³ ⁴ Valahia University of Târgoviște, Romania 

¹ https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2336-5665, E-mail: carmenmihaelabulau@gmail.com 

² E-mail: mirela_matei_gr@yahoo.com 

³ https://orcid.org/0009-0002-3010-2756, E-mail: auramustatea@yahoo.com  

⁴ https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5070-5303, E-mail: cmndenisa@gmail.com  

 

Abstract: This study employs a mixed-methods approach to delve into the intricate 

interplay among corporate governance, bankruptcy risk, forensic accounting, internal 

auditing, and ethics. While prior research has highlighted the correlation between weak 

governance, increased bankruptcy risk, and ethical lapses, the synergies among these factors 

necessitate deeper investigation. The authors conducted a meticulous bibliometric analysis of 

the Scopus database, focusing on the realms of accounting, internal audit, forensics, 

bankruptcy, and ethics within the overarching domain of corporate governance. Emphasizing 

the importance of robust governance principles in mitigating risks in accounting, the study 

revealed a substantial coverage of resources across various disciplines, with accounting 

(54.6%) and ethics (25.1%) leading the distribution. The dataset, comprising 5990 resources 

from 495 publications cited 151,911 times spanning from 1978 to March 2024, serves as a 

valuable resource for scholars aiming to fortify organizational resilience by integrating 

critical concepts identified in this research. 

Keywords: Corporate governance, Bankruptcy risk, Forensic Accounting, Internal 

audit, Ethics. 

 

INTRODUCTION  

Corporate governance is the one-setting framework for business ethical behavior, which 

in turn shapes the organizational culture and guides the business operations to ensure corporate 

performance. In recent decades, corporate governance and business ethics have faced increased 

scrutiny due to high-profile corporate failures and scandals. Weak governance and unethical 

practices can pose significant risks to an organization's long-term viability, including financial 

distress, fraud, and regulatory noncompliance. However, the complex relationships between 

governance, ethics, forensic accounting controls, internal auditing, and bankruptcy outcomes 

have not been thoroughly explored as part of financial resilience within corporate governance. 

This study aims to address young researchers toward an academic approach to the 

interplay of the areas covering accounting, internal audit, forensics, bankruptcy, and ethics 

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2336-5665
mailto:carmenmihaelabulau@gmail.com
mailto:mirela_matei_gr@yahoo.com
https://orcid.org/0009-0002-3010-2756
mailto:auramustatea@yahoo.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5070-5303
mailto:cmndenisa@gmail.com


THE INTERSECTION OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, INTERNAL AUDIT, 

AND BANKRUPTCY RISK MANAGEMENT: A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS 

64 

 

throughout a complex bibliometric output from the Scopus database to define the authors' 

perspective of organizational resilience. The authors consider this as a start for further research 

within the frame of sustainability and resilience domain.  

The first step in ensuring a company can become sustainable from the financial, 

environmental, social, and risk management perspective is to ensure financial resilience. A 

struggling company that faces a lot of financial challenges may have a very hard time having 

concerns regarding environmental and social issues, no matter how important and necessary 

they may be.  

Analysing these issues through the magnifying glance of ethics, risk management, and 

internal audit processes can provide insights to help organizations strengthen resilience against 

threats to their sustainability.  

 

Literature review 

On May 2023, Dun & Bradstreet defined “resilience” in business terms as those 

organizations that can ” identify risks early, adapt to negative external changes and maintain 

business operations during difficult situations” (Dun & Bradstreet, 2023), combined with 

corporate sustainability and purpose for business continuity or long-term survival (Florez-

Jimenez, Lleo, Danvila Del Valle, & Sánchez-Marín, 2024), thus building the concept of 

”corporate sustainable development performance” (Yao & Wang, 2024) 

The economic environment has been so often impacted by globalization (Lama, 2013), 

financial distress (Otivbo & Ofuan, 2023), financial scandals and repercussions (Ajayi-Nifise, 

Olubusola, Falaiye, Mhlongo, & Daraojimba, 2024), Covid-19 pandemic supply chain 

disruptions (Mohammed, Lopes de Sousa Jabbour, & Diabat, 2021), war business conditions 

(Obłój & Voronovska, 2024), extreme environmental events (Wu & Tham, 2023), artificial 

intelligence challenges (Singh & Goyal, 2023) and made companies understand that all 

financial risk-driven decisions include a company’s ability to obtain critical information on all 

probable risks identified.  

Although many companies are following corporate governance principles, it does not 

automatically translate into becoming more sustainable or recognizing the added business value 

of a result. (Beloff, Tanzil, & Lines, 2004) 

A significant role in managing all the risk factors within a company increased the need 

for big data tools and then analysis specialists to identify and implement” ways to achieve 

improved competitive advantage and to build internal and external capabilities” (Bag, Dhamija, 

Luthra, & Huisingh, 2023) to help companies to identify, assess, mitigate, reduce, and eliminate 

risks in business resilience goals.  

“Bibliometrics is to scientific papers as epidemiology is to patients” (Lewison & Devey, 

1999) by following the trajectory of a research area of published information and the related 

data in the form of authors, citations, abstract, keywords by visualization of their relationships 

in the form of network nodes’ plots (Ninkov, Frank, & Maggio, 2022). As in accounting and 

finance, a bibliometric analysis uses quantitative and qualitative approaches (Ellili, 2023), the 

quantitative study for relationships and interconnections of the bibliographic material and the 

qualitative analysis to examine them in depth for better understanding (Charl de Villiers, 

Dumay, & Maroun, 2019). 



Carmen Mihaela BULĂU, Mirela MATEI (PANĂ), Aura Oana MUSTĂȚEA,  

Mihaela Denisa COMAN 

65 

 

Data and methodology 

Corporate governance is a vast and longtime approached subject by the academic 

community, so a Vosviewer (Van Eck & Waltman, 2009) technique was used since it is a 

popular method of measuring the dimension and the novelty of the research area. 

Vosviewer was selected as the research method due to its technical robustness and 

friendly user approach in finding correlations between concepts (Kirby, 2023) to undertake a 

useful starting approach for more complex further research. Using the Vosviewer computer 

programming for text mining for the above concepts and keywords used by authors in their 

research in the Scopus database, bibliometric research and providing a visual correlation were 

established. A search in Scopus for the keywords bankruptcy, internal audit, forensic, ethics, 

corporate governance, and accounting, separately generated impressive numbers of articles 

written. A search for all the concepts together generated through 0 results, even a mix of four 

or 3 concepts combined did not produce significant data to be analyzed. So, a mixed-methods 

study was conducted, by generating individual bibliometric queries of only two concepts 

keywords, corporate governance & accounting, corporate governance & internal audit, 

corporate governance & forensic, corporate governance & ethics, corporate governance and 

bankruptcy. Then the results exported individually in CSV file type were combined into a 

single file, transformed in xlsx file for the descriptive analysis, and also uploaded in VOS to 

create the interconnectivity of the keywords for all the concepts, thus generating the results for 

the initial query. The case studies provided context to help authors find the resources for all the 

concepts involved and to have a good perspective of the references' quantity and quality input, 

demonstrating the interconnectivity between corporate governance, accounting, internal audit, 

forensics, bankruptcy, and ethics within academic research. 

 

Results and discussions  

The data set obtained by combining the concepts was further analyzed using a mix of 

tools, like Vos Viewer, excel, and Jasp to assess what kind of analysis would help young 

researchers in their quest. Performing descriptive statistics in Excel we find that out of a total 

of 5,990 articles, 15% benefited from funding, 28% are open access and 89% have an 

identification DOI number, as per the below figure for open access frequencies analysis, 

worked in the statistical program Jasp.  

 

Figure 1: Descriptive statistics: frequencies for open access articles

 
Source: authors  



THE INTERSECTION OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, INTERNAL AUDIT, 

AND BANKRUPTCY RISK MANAGEMENT: A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS 

66 

 

Examining the number of articles written over time from 1978 to early 2024, we find 

that very few articles combine the author's keywords corporate governance and forensic (50 

articles in total representing 1%) and bankruptcy (366 articles in total representing 6%).   

 

Table 1: Breakdown of the dataset into categories 

 
Source: authors 

 

Generating a histogram for the number of articles within the time frame, we find an 

asymmetrical distribution, a left-skewed distribution (negatively-skewed), with high density 

for the years 2000 to 2024, when we have an average of 236 articles per year, comparing with 

the previous period 1978 – 1999 when we had an average of 6 published articles per year. The 

pivot table output generated in Excel can be reviewed in the Annex of this article.  

 

Figure 2: Frequencies histogram chart for the number of articles 

 
Source: authors 

 

In Excel we generated a combo chart to combine the number of articles written per year 

with the number of citations, resulting a table showing the maximum number of articles have 

been published in 2023 (a total of 574 articles) and the highest number of citations are met in 

the year 2008 (12,424), followed closely by the year 2010 (10,263). Most probably the articles 

written in the last 10 years will generate more citations within the next years, as new academic 

research will probably follow. 

 

Keywords No. of Titles % No. of Funding Details % No. of Open Access % No. of DOI %

Accounting 3,271             55% 573                                           62% 956                                     58% 2,920         55%

Bankruptcy 366                  6% 53                                              6% 94                                        6% 304              6%

Ethics 799                  13% 117                                           13% 232                                     14% 686              13%

Forensic 50                     1% 7                                                 1% 12                                        1% 44                 1%

Internal audit 1,504             25% 178                                           19% 362                                     22% 1,364         26%

Grand Total 5,990             100% 928                                           100% 1,656                               100% 5,318        100%

% 100% 15% 28% 89%



Carmen Mihaela BULĂU, Mirela MATEI (PANĂ), Aura Oana MUSTĂȚEA,  

Mihaela Denisa COMAN 

67 

 

Figure 3: Chart for articles evolution and citations 

 
Source: authors 

 

Below we can find the generated image extracted from Vos Viewer after combining all 

five .csv documents extracted from the Scopus database for co-occurrence of the authors 

keywords selection. It was expected for corporate governance to be the most visible since is it 

the common link to all the datasets and searches.  

 

Figure 4: Vosviewer co-occurrence of keywords 

 
Source: authors 

 

Vos viewer generated a number of 14 clusters for 637 items with 9505 links between 

them. Changing to density visualization we can assess better the dimension of the clusters 

connecting corporate governance with ethics, financial reporting, risk management, audit 

committee, earnings management, corporate social responsibility, and very small density for 

bankruptcy, forensic, and internal auditing.  

 -

 2.000

 4.000

 6.000

 8.000

 10.000

 12.000

 14.000

 -

 100

 200

 300

 400

 500

 600

 700

Articles evolution and citations 

No. of titles No. of citations



THE INTERSECTION OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, INTERNAL AUDIT, 

AND BANKRUPTCY RISK MANAGEMENT: A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS 

68 

 

Figure 5: Vosviewer co-occurrence of keywords by density 

 
Source: authors 

 

To have a better understanding of the Vosviewer network visualization analysis, since 

there are so many items, a clustersț review was performed, choosing for each cluster the most 

relevant keywords considered by the authors helpful for further literature review research. 

 Cluster 1 (79 items) built around the keyword corporate social responsibility brings co-

occurrence connectivity with the main keywords selected as important by the authors 

in their research: governance, business ethics, sustainability, integrated reporting, 

accountability, financial performance, accounting, transparency, sustainable 

development.  

 Cluster 2 (69 items) is built around the keyword ethics brings co-occurrence 

connectivity with the main keywords selected as important: management, fraud, risk 

management, auditing, accounting, compliance, corruption, corporate culture, 

corporate social responsability, artificial intelligence, business ethichs, decision 

making, sustainability. 

 Cluster 3 (68 items) is built around the keyword corporate governance brings 

connectivity with earnings management, accounting conservatism, accounting 

conservatism, financial regulation, earnings management, risk-taking, ceo duality. 

 Cluster 4 (61 items) is built around the keyword board of directors brings connectivity 

with audit committee, financial reporting quality, internal control, risk management, 

internal auditing, risk assessment, ethics, corporate responsibility.  

 Cluster 5 (61 items) is built around the keyword firm performance brings connectivity 

with accounting fraud, bankruptcy prediction, corporate social responsibility 

disclosure, machine learning, survival analysis, performance measures, financial ratios, 

default risk, agency problem, credit risk. 

 Cluster  6 (45 items) is built around the keyword accounting brings connectivity with: 

auditing, corporate fraud, forensic accounting, information technology, fraud triangle, 

organizational performance, fraud detection, corporate strategy, fraud prevention, 

corporate fraud. 



Carmen Mihaela BULĂU, Mirela MATEI (PANĂ), Aura Oana MUSTĂȚEA,  

Mihaela Denisa COMAN 

69 

 

 Cluster 7 (42 items) is built around the main keywords: bankruptcy risk, corporate 

governance standards, financial crisis, organizational culture, crash risk , code of best 

practice, corporate scandals, accounting standards. 

 Cluster 8 (42 items) is built around the main keywords: artificial intelligence, internal 

audit function, management accountability, financial accounting, corporate governance 

mechanisms, international financial reporting standard. 

 Cluster 9 (35 items) is built around the main keywords: bibliometric analysis, financial 

statement fraud, cybersecurity, Vosviewer, accounting and finance, audit report lag, 

control. 

 Cluster 10 (35 items) is built around the main keywords: accounting research, theory 

of the firm, corporate ethics, agency theory, Sarbanes-oxley.  

 Cluster 11 (34 items) is built around the main keywords: accounting scandals, meta-

analysis, external auditing, internal governance, audit committee independence, 

restatement.  

 Cluster 12 (34 items): codes of conduct, multinational companies, related party 

transactions, corporate social responsibility (csr), accounting disclosure, sustainable 

development goals. 

 Cluster 13 (19 items): accounting choice, international accounting, profitability, crisis 

management, income smoothing. 

 Cluster 14 (14 items): agency conflicts, external audit, management accounting, 

external audit, top management team, supervisory board. 

Further research of the nationality of the authors who published these articles brings us 

a total of 107 countries, generating 17 clusters, out of which Romania is interconnected with 

other 14 countries: Australia, Cape Verde, Colombia, Germany, Iceland, Malta, Mexico, 

Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Slovakia, Spain,  Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine.  

 

Figure 6: Vosviewer network visualization of authors per country

 
Source: authors 



THE INTERSECTION OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, INTERNAL AUDIT, 

AND BANKRUPTCY RISK MANAGEMENT: A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS 

70 

 

CONCLUSIONS 

This study extends previous research by demonstrating the complementary roles of 

internal controls, forensic accounting, credit risk management, and ethics initiatives in 

governance's influence. When integrated within an ethical culture and robust control 

environment, these functions contribute to effective governance in practice for resilience and 

sustainability.  

This research identified the gap between several limited articles written on bankruptcy, 

forensic accounting, and ethics within the area of corporate governance. The internal audit 

component can be the link of governance principles and audit procedures to better enhance the 

company's resilience in terms of risk management for financial sustainability and fraud 

detection for resilience purposes as well. 

Another aspect since the bibliometric study was performed combining accounting, 

ethics, bankruptcy risk management, internal audit, and forensic accounting was the lack of 

financial indicators and ratios involved taken into account for corporate resilience and 

sustainability except only one cluster where financial ratios had the occurrence 7 times.  In the 

authors' opinion, all techniques and tools for fraud detection, risk management, and internal 

auditing are done on the accounting information in the form of ratios, and financial indicators.     

A search involving a large amount of data can have limitations in terms of lacking the 

in-depth search of the area, going article by article, which would mean a lot of time allocation 

to identify other gaps as well, maybe having a more qualitative significance than the 

quantitative approach by using Vosviewer. Maybe artificial intelligence tools will offer shortly 

the possibility to interconnect big data analysis with qualitative information generated in an 

easier way for both the scientific committee and corporations.   

In conclusion, this study provides empirical evidence of the intricate relationship 

between corporate governance, internal controls, forensic accounting, ethics, and bankruptcy 

risk. To enhance sustainability, organizations should consider these issues holistically, 

adopting an enterprise risk management approach rather than addressing them in isolation. 

Therefore, a comprehensive examination of the interplay between soft and hard controls is 

warranted. The findings offer guidance to practitioners on strengthening organizational 

resilience through coordinated reforms in these interconnected domains.  

 

REFERENCES  

1. Ajayi-Nifise, A., Olubusola, O., Falaiye, T., Mhlongo, N., & Daraojimba, A. (2024, 

February 14). A Review of U.s. Financial Reporting Scandals and Their Economic 

Repercussions: Investigating Their Broader Impact and Preventative Measures. Finance 

& Accounting Research Journal, 6(2), 183-201. doi:10.51594/farj.v6i2.787 

2. Bag, S., Dhamija, P., Luthra, S., & Huisingh, D. (2023). How big data analytics can help 

manufacturing companies strengthen supply chain resilience in the context of the COVID-

19 pandemic. The International Journal of Logistics Management, 34(4), 1141-1164. 

doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-02-2021-0095 

3. Beloff, B., Tanzil, D., & Lines, M. (2004, November 19). Sustainable development 

performance assessment. Environmental Progress, 271-276. 

doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ep.10045 



Carmen Mihaela BULĂU, Mirela MATEI (PANĂ), Aura Oana MUSTĂȚEA,  

Mihaela Denisa COMAN 

71 

 

4. Charl de Villiers, Dumay , J., & Maroun, W. (2019). Qualitative accounting research: 

dispelling myths and developing a new research agenda. Accounting & Finance. 

doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.12487 

5. Dun & Bradstreet. (2023, May 29). How to Build Business Resilience in Times of Crisis. 

Preluat pe March 29, 2024, de pe https://www.dnb.co.uk/perspectives/master-data/how-

to-build-business-resilience-in-time-of-crisis..html 

6. Ellili, N. (2023). Bibliometric analysis on corporate governance topics published in the 

Journal of Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society. 

Corporate Governance, 23(1), 262-282. doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-03-2022-0135 

7. Florez-Jimenez, M., Lleo, A., Danvila Del Valle, I., & Sánchez-Marín, G. (2024, January 

2). Corporate sustainability, organizational resilience and corporate purpose: a triple 

concept for achieving long-term prosperity. Management Decision. 

doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-06-2023-0938 

8. Kirby , A. (2023, February 20). Exploratory Bibliometrics: Using VOSviewer as a 

Preliminary Research Tool. Social and Behavioral Sciences, Arizona State University. doi: 

https://doi.org/10.3390/publications11010010 

9. Lama, P. (2013). Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) In India-Problems and 

Prospects. Business studies, 33. 

10. Lewison, G., & Devey, M. (1999). Bibliometric methods for the evaluation of arthritis 

research. Rheumatology (Oxford, England), 13-20. 

doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/38.1.13 

11. Mohammed, A., Lopes de Sousa Jabbour, A., & Diabat, A. (2021, September 28). COVID-

19 pandemic disruption: a matter of building companies’ internal and external resilience. 

International Journal of Production Research, 2716-2737. 

doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2021.1970848 

12. Ninkov, A., Frank, J., & Maggio, L. (2022). Bibliometrics: Methods for studying academic 

publishing. Perspect Med Educ 11, 173-176. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s40037-021-

00695-4 

13. Obłój, K., & Voronovska, R. (2024). How business pivots during war: Lessons from 

Ukrainian companies’ responses to crisis. Business Horizons, 67(1), 93-105. 

doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2023.09.001. 

14. Otivbo, F., & Ofuan, J. (2023, November 2). Does Corporate Governance Cure Financial 

Distress? Case Study Analysis of Distressed Firms. Economic Thought and Practice. 

Preluat de pe https://hrcak.srce.hr/en/309402 

15. Singh, S., & Goyal, M. (2023). Enhancing climate resilience in businesses: The role of 

artificial intelligence. Journal of Cleaner Production, 418. 

doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.138228. 

16. Van Eck, N., & Waltman, L. (2009). Vosviewer: A Computer Program for Bibliometric 

Mapping. ERIM Report Series Reference No. ERS-2009-005-LIS. Preluat pe January 20, 

2024, de pe https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1346848 

17. Wu, Y., & Tham, J. (2023, September 21). The impact of environmental regulation, 

Environment, Social and Government Performance, and technological innovation on 

enterprise resilience under a green recovery. Heliyon. 

doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20278 

18. Yao, C.-L., & Wang, L.-Y. (2024, January 18). Corporate sustainable development 

performance through top management team’s transactive memory system and 

organizational resilience: A moderated mediation analysis. Heliyon. 

doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e24674  

 



THE INTERSECTION OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, INTERNAL AUDIT, 

AND BANKRUPTCY RISK MANAGEMENT: A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS 

72 

 

 

Annex 1: Pivot table analysis of the dataset 

 
Source: authors 

 

 

Year No. of ISBN No. of ISSN No. of titles No. of citations No. of DOI
No.of Open 

Access

2024 3                      129                    130                  116                            127                    64                               

2023 86                   501                    574                  970                            543                    211                            

2022 58                   413                    462                  2,392                       447                    208                            

2021 61                   373                    429                  3,784                       392                    191                            

2020 44                   381                    419                  5,186                       380                    168                            

2019 31                   302                    331                  5,125                       285                    119                            

2018 40                   251                    289                  4,142                       262                    93                               

2017 51                   225                    273                  5,050                       239                    63                               

2016 45                   228                    274                  6,431                       242                    67                               

2015 39                   276                    310                  8,710                       263                    77                               

2014 45                   205                    241                  5,161                       205                    53                               

2013 29                   231                    254                  7,492                       229                    54                               

2012 43                   178                    220                  6,249                       198                    50                               

2011 49                   200                    246                  6,442                       206                    45                               

2010 41                   164                    204                  10,263                    174                    31                               

2009 54                   207                    256                  8,023                       217                    37                               

2008 32                   194                    219                  12,424                    189                    38                               

2007 23                   129                    153                  6,831                       132                    21                               

2006 37                   119                    151                  9,350                       132                    29                               

2005 24                   137                    157                  8,755                       136                    14                               

2004 5                      86                       91                     5,046                       80                       7                                  

2003 11                   73                       84                     2,799                       52                       6                                  

2002 63                       65                     7,269                       53                       4                                  

2001 30                       30                     3,688                       29                       1                                  

2000 29                       29                     3,669                       25                       3                                  

1999 18                       18                     2,132                       15                       1                                  

1998 22                       22                     927                            20                       

1997 12                       19                     547                            12                       

1996 10                       10                     1,177                       8                          

1995 7                          7                        280                            7                          

1994 2                          2                        244                            2                          

1993 4                          5                        194                            5                          

1992 4                          4                        511                            2                          

1990 2                          2                        83                               2                          1                                  

1989 1                          1                        1                                  

1988 1                          1                        323                            1                          

1987 2                          2                        19                               2                          

1986 1                          1                        21                               1                          

1984 1                          1                        20                               1                          

1982 2                          2                        61                               2                          

1978 2                          2                        4                                  1                          

Grand Total 851               5,215              5,990             151,911                 5,318              1,656                       


