Employee Share Ownership in the Banking Sector: A Bibliometric Analysis of Its Impact on Governance and Performance

Abstract

Employee share ownership has emerged as an important governance mechanism capable of influencing organizational alignment, employee commitment, and firm-level outcomes. In the banking sector, where governance quality, risk control, and performance are strategically interconnected, this issue remains insufficiently structured in the academic literature. This study conducts a bibliometric analysis of research on employee share ownership in the banking sector, with particular emphasis on its implications for governance and performance. Based on a scoping review of publications indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, Cairn, ScienceDirect, and Springer, the study applies explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria and follows a PRISMA-based selection process. The final corpus includes 47 studies published between 2000 and 2025. Using VOSviewer and NVivo, the analysis maps publication trends, co-authorship networks, keyword co-occurrences, journal distribution, and dominant methodological approaches. The findings show that the literature is structured around three main dimensions: corporate governance, financial and organizational performance, and employee involvement. The study also reveals the predominance of quantitative and economic approaches, while highlighting the growing importance of behavioral and governance-related perspectives. Overall, this article provides a structured overview of a fragmented field and identifies promising directions for future research in banking governance and employee ownership.