Mapping the Landscape of Banking Mergers and Acquisitions a Bibliometric Review and Future Research Directions

This study examines the evolution of research on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the banking sector through a bibliometric analysis aimed at identifying the main con-tributors, dominant research themes, and emerging gaps in the literature. The study situates banking M&A research within broader discussions of efficiency, market structure, integration performance, and financial stability, while highlighting the need to better understand how scholarly influence and thematic development shape the field over time. Using bibliometric techniques, the analysis evaluates publication trends, journal con-centration, authorship patterns, international collaboration networks, citation struc-tures, keyword co-occurrence, and thematic mapping. The study synthesizes relation-ships among influential publications, institutions, and countries to assess how ideas circulate and which research themes remain central or underexplored within the liter-ature. The findings reveal a concentrated body of scholarship dominated by a limited number of journals, recurrent author networks, and strong transatlantic collaboration patterns, with relatively limited representation from the Global South. Research themes related to efficiency, firm performance, and market structure occupy the core of the literature, whereas technology integration, sustainability considerations, consumer outcomes, and conduct risk remain comparatively peripheral. Citation patterns are highly une-ven, reflecting a small group of highly influential studies alongside a broader set of context-specific contributions. The analysis also identifies a persistent gap between pre-merger strategic narratives and post-merger integration realities, particularly in relation to operational outcomes and systemic risk considerations. The study concludes that future research would benefit from integrating traditional finance approaches with transaction-level integration measures, governance and op-erational performance indicators, and more robust identification strategies around regulatory and policy shocks. The findings further suggest that banking practitioners should place greater emphasis on integration feasibility, risk-control capabilities, digi-tal transformation readiness, and sustainability considerations when evaluating and implementing merger strategies.