Emotions are an inextricable part of human existence that must be managed. As a result, researchers from a variety of disciplines (health, psychology, management, and social science) have investigated a wide-ranging application of emotional intelligence (EI). In this study, using HistCite, BibExcel, and CiteSpace software, a total of 1,026 articles published on EI in the field of business and management from 2002 to 2022 were evaluated for performance analysis and co-citation analysis. Performance analysis results showed that the United States alone published about 38% of all publications. Institutes in Australia topped the list of institutions with the most articles published on EI. Co-citation analysis results found that in the first decade (2002–2012), major concepts/constructs studied with EI were transformational leadership, organization behaviour, cultural intelligence, exploring leadership capability, personal wisdom, team performance, subordinate perception, employee creativity and leadership competencies whereas in the second decade (2012–2022), major themes studied were and being studied are social intelligence competencies, job satisfaction, holistic perspective, meta-analytic review and entrepreneurial intention. Additionally, three emerging research hotspots (mindfulness, COVID-19 and artificial intelligence) that have been studied with EI but not identified by bibliometric techniques have also been discussed. Finally, this study offers useful theoretical and practical implications, as well as key future recommendations.