Walking Dead in the Marketplace: A Bibliometric Review of the Zombie Firm Literature
通过文献计量和内容分析，梳理了160篇同行评审文章，识别出僵尸企业研究的五大主题集群，并指出该领域从日本转向全球（尤其中国和欧洲）的趋势，为学者和政策制定者提供了研究基础。
ABSTRACT Zombie firms—businesses that persist despite chronic financial underperformance—have become a growing focus of economic research. Yet, the literature remains conceptually fragmented and methodologically diverse. This study offers a structured and comprehensive overview of zombie firm scholarship by combining bibliometric analysis with qualitative content analysis. Using a dataset of 160 peer‐reviewed articles, we map the intellectual landscape of the field, identifying publication trends, key research clusters, influential authors, and patterns of collaboration. Our analysis reveals five dominant thematic clusters: zombie lending and banking behavior, resource misallocation and productivity traps, firm performance and capital structure, government intervention and policy design, and regional and sectoral case studies. We find that the field has shifted from Japan‐centric studies to more globally dispersed research, particularly in China and parts of Europe, with a notable increase in publications following the COVID‐19 crisis. The findings highlight gaps in definitional standardization, methodological convergence, and interdisciplinary integration. The study also identifies emerging trends, outlines directions for future research, and provides a valuable foundation for policymakers seeking a deeper understanding of zombie firm dynamics.