Past and future of sustainability indicator research in agribusiness: a bibliometric and forecasting analysis

This study offers a forward-looking assessment of sustainability indicator research in agribusiness by integrating bibliometric mapping with ARIMA-based forecasting. Analysing 403 Scopus-indexed articles, bibliographic-coupling analysis identifies three contemporary thematic domains: Techno-Managerial Sustainability, Systemic and Agroecological Assessment and Normative Indicator Frameworks. Co-citation analysis reveals four intellectual foundations that connect this field to strategic management research, including resource-based perspectives, multi-criteria evaluation approaches, farm-level assessment tools and normative sustainability frameworks. Forecasts indicate the continued dominance of environmental and economic indicators through 2030, alongside persistent gaps in social and governance metrics. These patterns suggest structural challenges for integrating sustainability into strategic decision-making, capability development and organizational governance. Relating thematic clusters to central constructs in strategy research such as performance measurement, differentiation and long-term resilience, the study clarifies how the literature positions and mobilises indicators in discussions of competitive positioning in agribusiness. A research agenda is proposed to strengthen methodological coherence and advance underdeveloped dimensions.