Unravelling the Nexus between neuroscience and leadership research A biblio-morphological analysis of the extant literature Abraham Cyril Issac Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India, and Thomas Gregor Issac Department of Neuroscience, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India Abstract Purpose – The collaboration of the field of neuroscience and leadership has invoked a general curiosity in the area of leadership studies. The discipline is giving copious amounts of inputs for the smooth functioning of the organization. Such collaborated studies attempt to establish improvements in the leadership research with the aid of thinking, feeling and knowing dimensions. Though generic understanding is available, the studies done on the neuro-leadership collaborations are far and few. The purpose of this paper mainly is to attempt to decipher the level of understanding the scientific world has on the inter-disciplinary interactions between neuroscience and leadership studies. Design/methodology/approach – A biblio-morphological analysis is carried out. This integrated methodology is being introduced for the first time in the area of a literature review. The topic of interest is a novel one and being spread across many disciplines warrants such a comprehensive approach. The bibliometric analysis is carried out with the help of VOSviewer software. Findings – The different parameters analyzed in this analysis are: mapping based on text data, index keyword, main authors who are the pioneers in the area, countries which are the leaders in the field of neuroscience and leadership studies. Such an analysis broadly outlines the present status of the research on the topic. Morphological analysis is executed by dissecting the topic into various dimensions and sub-options. These dimensions are then cross-matched in a matrix, known as the cross-consistency matrix. This matrix reflects the 174 research gaps that exist in this particular area. Originality/value – The biggest contribution of this paper would be to underline the present status of the literature on neuroscience and leadership research and to develop a reference for future opportunities. This study attempts to make this document a vade mecum for both the industry and the academia in the area of neuroscience and leadership research. Keywords Leadership, Neuroscience, Bibliometric analysis, Morphology, Semantic processing Paper type Literature review Introduction Neuroscience has started playing a vital role in defining the leadership attributes and performance (Good and Michel, 2013). The involvement of neuroscience in leadership research has evolved from personnel selection to team cohesion and organizational sustainability. The discipline is giving copious amounts of inputs for the smooth functioning of an organization (Hanganu-Opatz et al., 2015). Hyland (2013) tries to establish the improvements in the leadership research with the aid of thinking, feeling and knowing dimensions. The span of studies ranges from individual prognosis and related methodologies to technology-enhanced functional MRI predictions (Illes et al., 2006; Thomas and Issac, 2018). The neural substrates of various cognitive processes also have been identified by detailed neuropsychological studies, invasive brain electrodes stimulating specific brain Management Decision Vol. 58 No. 3, 2020 pp. 448-464 © Emerald Publishing Limited 0025-1747 DOI 10.1108/MD-01-2019-0017 Received 20 January 2019 Revised 25 April 2019 4 August 2019 Accepted 27 September 2019 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/0025-1747.htm 448 MD 58,3