Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been a key tool in responding to environmental sustainability issues, especially in developing economies whose regulatory environments and institutional capacities are yet to mature. Through this study, it is the intention to chart the intellectual structure, trends, and research frontiers of CSR and environmental sustainability practices in developing economies by conducting a bibliometric review. Based on data extracted from the Web of Science database, the research utilised the Bibliometrix R package to investigate 358 articles between 1998 and 2024. Several bibliometric metrics were used, such as yearly scientific output, most frequently cited sources, prominent authors, keyword evolution, co-citation network, thematic mapping, and collaboration structures. The findings indicate a sudden rise in publications post-2015, indicative of the increasing global and regional significance of CSR in sustainable development. Sustainability, Journal of Cleaner Production, and Business Strategy and the Environment were the key journals that surfaced, and authors like Buallay and Rezaee were shown to be highly productive and impactful. Thematic clustering revealed four prevailing streams, namely CSR and sustainability reporting, CSR and financial performance, ESG disclosure and cost of equity, and governance with capital cost. Evidence indicates that although Western nations continue to be at the forefront of CSR research, emerging economies like Malaysia and India are increasingly making a contribution, albeit networking being disintegrated. The research suggests strengthening global alliances, localizing CSR approaches to socio-economic conditions, and extending comparative studies between developed and emerging economies. The implications are for policymakers, practitioners, and scholars who wish to harness CSR as a sustainable growth and environmental resilience driver in emerging markets.
