When Fake News Meets Green Markets: A Cross-Domain Bibliometric Analysis of Misinformation, Business Sustainability and Rational Consumption
Author:Marija Gombar, Tine Bertoncel, Mislav Ante Omazić, Maja Meško and Mirjana Pejić Bach
JEL:D83, M31, M14, Q01, Q56.
DOI:10.24818/EA/2026/73/1249
Keywords:fake news, green markets, business sustainability, ESG disclosure, rational consumption, bibliometric analysis, consumer trust.
Abstract:
This paper investigates how research on misinformation, green markets, and rational or sustainable consumption has evolved over the past decade and a half. Using a Scopus-based corpus of 451 documents published between 2010 and 2025, it applies a quantitative bibliometric approach to map publication dynamics, main thematic clusters, and international collaboration patterns. The analysis combines descriptive indicators with performance analysis and science-mapping techniques, including keyword co-occurrence, bibliographic coupling, and country-level co-authorship networks implemented in Bibliometrix and VOSviewer. The results reveal a marked acceleration of scientific production after 2018 and a set of interconnected clusters focused on greenwashing and sustainability communication, consumer trust and behavioural responses, fake news, and product-harm misinformation, and ESG disclosure and green finance. Together, these strands highlight the role of information asymmetries, signalling, and perceived authenticity in shaping how consumers and investors respond to environmental claims. The paper synthesises key cross-domain contributions into six thematic strands, providing an interpretive bridge between fragmented literatures on fake news, business sustainability, and rational consumption. It concludes by outlining implications for firms, regulators, and civil-society actors, and by proposing directions for future research on how misinformation and greenwashing affect the transition towards genuinely sustainable markets.