PurposeThis study aims to provide an objective analysis of the state-of-the-art and intellectual development of publications related to event study methodology in business research.Design/methodology/approachThe sample includes 1,219 papers related to event study methodology, covering all business disciplines and spanning 34 years from 1983 to 2016.FindingsThrough three stages of primary analysis, namely, initial sample, citation and co-citation analyses, the authors identified the publication trends, supplementary techniques, influential publications and intellectual clusters in the area of event study methodology in business.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings serve as a benchmark for the extensive literature related to event study methodology in business and may facilitate the transference of the amassed useful techniques among disciplines and the identification of future research directions.Originality/valueThe current study represents as a pioneering effort to review event study-related publications using bibliometric analysis.