Mapping Research on European Structural and Investment Funds, Innovation and Economic Growth: A Bibliometric Analysis

Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.57017/jaes.v21.4(94).06

Author(s):

Tatiana TANKOSOVA Department of Finance, Faculty of Economics, Technical University of Kosice, Slovak Republic
Marek PEKARCIK Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics, Technical University of Kosice, Slovak Republic
Jan BULECA Department of Finance, Faculty of Economics, Technical University of Košice, Košice, Slovak Republic
Leoš ŠAFÁR Department of Banking and Investment, Faculty of Economics, Technical University of Košice, Slovakia

Abstract:

European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) are the primary financial instrument of EU cohesion policy. Despite their central role in supporting innovation activity and economic growth, the literature remains fragmented across four distinct research traditions, namely evaluative-econometric, macroeconomic, regional-innovation and institutional-political. This paper employs bibliometric analysis to examine the intellectual foundations, thematic structure and developmental dynamics of the ESIF, innovation and economic growth research field. Bibliometric analysis of 305 documents (Web of Science, 1991 to 2026) was conducted using Bibliometrix and Biblioshiny, integrating performance analysis with science mapping. We identify four intellectual traditions that, despite sharing a common object of inquiry, operate in largely separate citation networks.

This intellectual fragmentation may contribute to the persistence of heterogeneous and hard to compare findings regarding ESIF effectiveness. The absence of a dominant motor theme suggests that the field is methodologically mature yet thematically unconsolidated, underscoring the urgent need for deeper synthesis of accumulated knowledge. We further find a geographical asymmetry in the analysed dataset, with research on ESIF concentrated on countries where the funds carry comparatively limited direct economic consequences, while Central and Eastern European countries, where ESIF have the most immediate impact, have a relatively limited presence. The analysis further identifies a phased developmental trajectory that coincides with EU cohesion policy programming cycles (annual growth rate of 4.04%), suggesting that research production may be partly responsive to EU cohesion-policy programming cycles rather than driven solely by endogenous scientific inquiry.

Copyright© 2026 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the license CC-BY 4.0., which permits any further distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article's History: Received 29th of May, 2026; Revised 9th of July, 2026; Accepted 30th of July, 2026; Available online: 30th of September, 2026. Published as research article in the Volume XXI, Fall, Issue 4(94), 2026.

How to cite:

Tankosova, T., Pekarcik, M., Buleca, J., & Safar, L. (2026). Mapping Research on European Structural and Investment Funds, Innovation and Economic Growth: A Bibliometric Analysis. Journal of Applied Economic Sciences, Volume XXI, Fall, 4(94), 1191 – 1213. https://doi.org/10.57017/jaes.v21.4(94).06

CRediT Authorship Contribution Statement: Tankosova, T: Conceptualization, writing original draft, Data Curation, Methodology; Pekarcik, M: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Methodology; Buleca, J: Writing original draft (theoretical part), Review and Editing; Safar, L: Writing original draft (theoretical part), Review and Editing.

Acknowledgments/Funding: This research was supported by Grant No. P13/2025 within the Grant Programme of the Faculty of Economics, Technical University of Kosice.

Conflict of Interest Statement: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationship that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Data Availability Statement: The bibliometric records used in this study were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection, subject to institutional access. The cleaned dataset, search strategy and analysis code are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Ethical Approval Statement: This study is based on bibliometric and publicly available data obtained from the Web of Science database and other institutional sources. No human participants, personal data, survey, interviews, or experimental procedures were involved. Therefore, formal ethical approval was not required for this study.

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