A review of two decades of research on sustainable regional and trans-border infrastructure

Abstract

In spite of the budding interest of researchers, policymakers and practitioners, there are still differing and disjointed conceptualizations of sustainable regional and trans-border infrastructure (SRTBI) as its meadow is still emerging. In an effort to fill this research gap, the resolution of this study was to review and synthesize SRTBI research and to provide directions for future research. The author reviewed peer-reviewed theoretical and empirical journal articles published during the last two decades – from 2003 to 2023. Scopus database was the source of the journal articles collected to conduct this study. Selected keywords from a rigorous review of literature were pooled with Boolean operators and searched. Subsequently, a scrupulous screening procedure with an inclusion and exclusion criteria was adopted to select the relevant articles for the study. The selected journal articles on SRTBI were subsequently synthesized for further acumens. The field of SRTBI is bitty and has advanced in the passage of the last two decades in diverse ways. This study identified core publication vents and papers, key theoretical and methodological approaches and key variables of interest that exist in the SRTBI literature. The findings also suggested a few research themes for future studies. The study can significantly impact academia and organisational research literature, and it can extend conceptual perspectives of implications of resolutions made to adopt a SRTBI. Adding to its theoretical value, the study has significant implications for policy and practise, as it would expand viewpoints on decisions to adopt SRTBI. The study was based on documents retrieved from Scopus and any limitations of the database may have implications for the findings. This inquiry filled a need to review the current state of the SRTBI literature and spelt out research issues that may be addressed by researchers in future.