Abstract
This study examines the development of research on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), corporate sustainability, and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) within the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It analyzes 3,168 English-language research articles published from 1959 to 2025, sourced from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, utilizing Bibliometrix/Biblioshiny. Indicators such as annual publication volume, citations, sources, authors, institutions, and countries are evaluated alongside co-citation, country collaboration, co-word, thematic mapping, and thematic evolution analyses. To prevent conflating bibliometric patterns with a paradigm shift, the titles and abstracts of the ten most-cited publications in each period are reviewed for contextual support. The findings demonstrate that 83.7% of publications occur between 2016 and 2025, with no clear peak or deceleration observed within the series. Exploratory curve fitting is therefore regarded as indicative of conditional model behavior rather than a forecast of field maturity. Thematic analysis reveals that CSR language persists, while sustainability, performance, reporting, and ESG terms are added to and reweight the established conceptual core. Resource constraints, owner-manager centrality, informal responsibility practices, and limited reporting capacity characterize the SME context as distinct from that of larger firms. This study provides a reproducible data protocol while maintaining a clear distinction between bibliometric observations and conceptual or practical interpretations.