The Paradigm Shift in Government Budget Management: A CiteSpace Knowledge Map based on Zero-Based Budgeting Research

Abstract

Research on the transformation of government budget paradigms, particularly Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB) reforms, holds significant theoretical and practical implications for deepening fiscal system reforms and enhancing the modernization of national governance capabilities. This study employs bibliometric methods, utilizing CiteSpace software to conduct keyword co-occurrence and clustering analysis on 247 relevant documents indexed in China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), systematically examining the publication sequence, annual distribution, core author groups, keyword clustering characteristics, emergence intensity, and evolutionary trends of the literature. The study found that the popularity of zero-based budgeting research continues to rise, and related practices have entered a stage of in-depth reform. Key factors such as the institutional environment, interest structure, and social demand constitute the current research hotspots. Future research will focus on three major directions for in-depth exploration: “digitalization” and “smartization” technology empowering budget reform, in-depth integration of the entire budget performance management process, and central-local coordination and regional resource optimization mechanisms. Based on the above analysis, the government should prioritize promoting the transformation of budget management models and exploring specific implementation pathways for deepening zero-based budget reform. The core lies in strengthening performance-oriented goals and optimizing the allocation of fiscal resources, with a focus on breaking through three structural bottlenecks: “reliance on historical data,” “policy rigidity,” and “project continuity.” This will effectively enhance the efficiency of fiscal resource allocation and the effectiveness of fiscal fund utilization.