A Systematic Analysis of Structural and Theoretical Trends in Nepotism Research

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Abstract This study presents a bibliometric analysis of scientific publications in the WoS and Scopus databases using the keyword "nepotism." A systematic content analysis was applied to evaluate the theoretical and methodological orientations of the literature. The aim of the study is to reveal the structure, geographical distribution, research trends, and main themes of academic output on nepotism. The analysis results show that nepotism is extensively addressed in multidisciplinary fields such as social sciences, business, economics, psychology, and political science. The prominence of concepts such as “corruption,” “favoritism,” and “family business” in Scopus data reflects the research focus on nepotism in institutional and ethical contexts, while the prevalence of terms such as “organizational justice” and “ethical value” in WoS data emphasizes the importance of social and ethical perspectives. When the geographical distribution is examined, the USA, the United Kingdom, China, and South Africa are in the leading positions in terms of publication volume and citation rates. In systematic content analysis, 43.8% of the studies were based on an ethical climate approach, 66.7% used quantitative methods, and 79.1% preferred one-dimensional measurement. In terms of nepotism types, studies based on kinship stood out, while 59.5% of the findings associated nepotism with negative consequences. It was observed that research in the field of nepotism has increased quantitatively and gained interdisciplinary diversity; however, there are shortcomings in conceptual clarity, methodological diversity, and comparative studies specific to different geographies.