Evolution and trends of core self-evaluations in business and management research: a literature review and future agenda

Purpose In recent years, scholarly interest in personality traits has grown significantly because of their potential to advance research and develop new strategies for enhancing business performance amid global uncertainty and rapid changes driven by artificial intelligence (AI). Among these traits, core self-evaluations have shown both scientific and practical relevance; however, their study remains limited due to the concept’s relative novelty and complexity. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the literature on core self-evaluations, mapping its evolution, key publications, leading authors, primary research areas, major contributions and existing collaboration networks. Design/methodology/approach This study analyses 840 documents, including review articles, conference proceedings, book chapters and books, collected from the Web of Science database, covering publications from 1997 to 2024. Bibliometric mapping is conducted using bibliometric techniques with the VOSviewer software. Findings This study identifies key research directions on core self-evaluations that are highly relevant to organisations in today’s dynamic business environment. These include their role in fostering healthy and creative work conditions essential for business survival amid growing uncertainty; their potential economic, social and emotional outcomes in the era of AI integration; the genetic and non-genetic factors shaping self-appraisals and advancements in methodological approaches in this field. In addition, the study highlights opportunities for international and interdisciplinary collaboration in future research. Research limitations/implications Firstly, the authors justify the use of the Web of Science as the main database; the scope of this research may be limited; therefore, data collected from Google Scholar, Scopus and EBSCO may provide opportunities for future research. Moreover, the articles published not only in the English language can be taken for the research. Secondly, despite the fact that a bibliometric analysis has been tested and validated by the scientific community, it can be not enough for the literature review of multi-faceted and very developed topics. Thirdly, for future research, scholars could take a broader scope of keywords, for instance, to study the self-concept in general as a key factor influencing a personality. Here the authors should mention that scholars have already stressed the necessity to take into account not only the keywords proposed by the article authors, because it may lead to difficulty in capturing all significant ideas and information, but also titles, abstracts and full texts for a more complete and thorough exploration (Zhao et al., 2023). Practical implications The authors consider that this review will help business leaders understand better the role of their core self-evaluations and leadership in times of high uncertainty. The results of the research show that core self-evaluations have a great influence on leadership success and guide leaders who are interested in tackling it. The finding can help to create different human resource management (HRM) practices ensuring positive core self-evaluations. Social implications Core self-evaluations directly influence the relationships in work and family surroundings. These in turn will have a great impact on the social life. The research shows that social implications are highly significant: it defines the possibility to create and innovate, to build relationships and to support. Originality/value This research emphasises the role of core self-evaluations in company management and organisational psychology, shedding light on the mechanisms through which they foster business development, stability and competitiveness. In addition, it identifies research avenues for future exploration, offering valuable insights for both scholars and practitioners.