Contracting and managerial decision-making: a bibliometric mapping of the field and the place of Morocco

Abstract

Contracts are now regarded as a major coordination instrument in organizations, and their influence on managerial decision-making constitutes an active yet dispersed research field. To the best of our knowledge, no previous bibliometric study has provided an integrated mapping of research on contracting and managerial decision-making while simultaneously examining the Moroccan context. Following a PRISMA-compliant selection protocol applied to Scopus and Web of Science, a corpus of 533 articles published between 1984 and 2026 (partial year) was assembled, including 171 related to the Moroccan and North African context, and analyzed with VOSviewer and Python. The results reveal a fast-growing field, structured into seven thematic clusters mirroring two distinct theoretical paradigms, namely the contract as a control device and the contract as a social relationship, and driven by a three-wave temporal dynamic. Most notably, they highlight a structural disconnection between the Moroccan cluster, centred on corporate governance in emerging markets, and the decision-making and behavioural clusters, with trust appearing as the only bridging concept between these sets. The article thereby documents a precise literature gap and derives a research agenda for studying the link between contracting and managerial decision behaviour in Moroccan firms.