Competitiveness in Public Institutions: A Bibliometric Analysis

The competition among public organizations has been an increasingly popular area of investigation in recent years in the field of governance, due to the necessity for efficient, transparent, and innovative government practices. This paper studies the history of the concept’s scientific development using a bibliometric approach and an analysis of the publications recorded in the Scopus database from 2015 to 2024. For this purpose, 418 papers were selected, considering only articles and reviews. The outcomes point to the growing trends of publications over time, particularly from 2019 on, suggesting the development of competitiveness research as an academic area that includes perspectives from both management, economics, and policy studies. In this context, the most prominent position is taken by North America and Western Europe, where the highest impact can be attributed to the United States, Great Britain, and Germany. Nevertheless, some contributions from Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia can be observed, reflecting the ongoing process of globalization in this sphere. Based on keywords’ co-occurrence and bibliography analysis, four clusters of research topics were distinguished – innovations, governance, sustainability, and higher education. This study shows that research on competitiveness of public institutions has transformed from its narrow economic nature towards a more holistic framework considering other factors. The current paper is aimed at analyzing changes in academic discourse on competitiveness during the last decade.