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100s of Free Management Dissertation Topics and Titles

Published by Grace Graffin at January 6th, 2023 , Revised On April 16, 2024

Introduction

The subject of management involves an in-depth understanding of the various aspects of business management, such as employee management, risk management, organisational behaviour, and many more.

When choosing a topic for your management dissertation, make sure to consider diverse topics that explore both the theoretical and practical aspects of management.

We understand that getting a dissertation topic approved can be extremely challenging as academic supervisors require students to research a unique case.

This is where our team of writers comes into play. Our writers can up with exciting and manageable management dissertation topics to help get the juices flowing in your head so you can write your dissertation on a unique and engaging topic.

You may also want to start your dissertation by requesting a brief research proposal from our writers on any of these topics, which includes an introduction to the topic, research question , aim and objectives , literature review along with the proposed methodology of research to be conducted. Let us know if you need any help in getting started.

Check our dissertation examples to get an idea of how to structure your dissertation .

Review the full list of dissertation topics for here.

How to Select the Best Management Dissertation Topic?

A dissertation topic must be selected based on research interests, availability of data, time limitations, and the research’s scope and significance. The following management dissertation topics are carefully shortlisted while considering all these parameters. Please review these topics and let us know if you have any queries.

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2024 Management Research Topics

Topic 1: an evaluation of organizational change management- why do people tend to oppose change.

Research Aim: The research will aim to assess the structure of organizational change management and to find the reasons why people resist or oppose the changes in an organization. There are many reasons through which change in organization’s management becomes important but some employees’ does not accept that changes. There are many reasons why people resist changes on organization. In certain circumstances, resistance to change might be beneficial. Resistance to change is, in fact, a crucial feedback mechanism that must not be neglected.

Topic 2: Investigating the effectiveness of customer relationship management in airlines

Research Aim: The research will aim to study the efficiency of CRM in airlines. Customer relationship management has evolved into a critical technique used by every corporation to better its operations and obtain a competitive advantage over competitors. Customer relationship management has evolved into a key priority for airline firms and an integral part of airline businesses’ corporate strategy to distinguish themselves from rivals in the eyes of the consumer. The goal of facility organisations, such as airlines, is to provide services that attract and maintain satisfied, loyal customers who promote the airline.

Topic 3: How does leadership affect employees’ productivity? A case of IT firms

Research Aim: This research will focus on leadership positions in IT organisations with the goal of increasing staff productivity and performance. Leadership is essential for increasing employee retention, career drive, and efficiency. Most companies’ progress is accelerated by effective leadership. As a result, it is critical to organisational success. Employee performance, on the other hand, is a critical pillar of every firm, and companies must examine the variables that contribute to great performance. Leadership is based on confidence, which is based on skill, sincerity, ethics, transparency, reactivity, empathy, and kindness.

Topic 4: The effect of organisation advancement tools on business performance

Research Aim: The research will aim to find the effect of organization advancement on business performance. Organizational tools are objects that assist you in organising your workspace, resources, and tasks in order to make your workday more effective. Physical instruments, planners, and software platforms are examples of what they can be. Organization advancement tools are a great source to improve your business performance as they help you in managing your daily tasks and workforce.

Topic 5: The importance of leadership and social skills in new entrepreneurs: An investigative study

Research Aim: The research will aim to investigate the importance of leadership and social skills in new entrepreneurs. Developing talent, introducing innovative goods and services, delivering efficiency, and gaining market share all benefit from improved leadership qualities. If you wish to stay small, you might be able to get away with not growing your leaders. Otherwise, it will restrict your progress. Social skills enable entrepreneurs to interact with customers more effectively, resulting in more agreements and more profitability.

Covid-19 Management Research Topics

Crisis management during covd-19.

Research Aim: This study will identify crisis management aspects during COVD-19, including its challenges and solutions.

Business management during COVID-19

Research Aim: This study will review business executives’ challenges in various scale industries and how they are recovering from the loss. How far did they succeed?

Hospital and medicine management during COVID-19

Research Aim: This study will highlight the role of hospital management during COVID-19, the challenges they came across, and the ways to overcome those challenges.

Educational management during COVID-19

Research Aim: This study will address the issues faced by students and educational institutes. How are they trying to overcome the challenges of imparting education during the coronavirus pandemics?

Maternal health care management during COVID-19

Research Aim: The lockdown situation has been an issue of concern for the patients, including pregnant women. This study will address the role of Maternal health care management during COVID-19.

Management Dissertation Topics for 2023

Topic 1: analyzing the traditions and trends in public administration and management in post-wwii europe.

Research Aim: The purpose of the research will be to analyze the characteristics of cultural and national communities that have influenced public administration and management in the 1970s and 1980s in Europe. The study will be carried out using a systematic literature review.

Topic 2: The Impact of Gender-inclusive Gatekeeping and Predecessors Influence on the Success of Female CEOs

Research Aim: The purpose of the research will explore how local organisational agents and contexts can help women leaders overcome barriers and achieve success at higher levels in corporate firms. The study will focus on CEO succession events and predecessor CEOS factors and their influence on women post-succession. The research design will be developed qualitatively.

Topic 3: Analysing the Impact of Daily Psychological Power on Organisational Leaders

Research Aim: The research will use quantitative techniques to analyze power-holders relational and interdependent work contexts. The study will examine the effect of daily psychological power using the factors of abusive behaviour and perceived incivility.

Topic 4: Examining the Impact of Cultural Diversity on Interaction Process and Performance

Research Aim: Using quantitative techniques, the research will analyse the interaction process and performance factors in two groups of employees in the services industry – homogenous and culturally diverse. The effectiveness in operation and arrangements will be examined.

Topic 5: Analyzing the Impact of ‘Voice’ and ‘Silence’ on Destructive Leadership

Research Aim: The research will examine the limited and biased view of silence in management literature. The study will also analyse the impact of silence in an organisation in terms of a functional value using quantitative research techniques. Furthermore, how silence in organisations can be used as a strategic response will be discussed.

Topic 6: Examining the Relationship between Productivity, Management Practices, and Employee Ability in the UK Setting

Research Aim: Using quantitative techniques, the study will analyse a relationship between productivity, management practices, and employee ability using data from management practices surveys and employees’ longitudinal earnings records.

Topic 7: Analysing the Factors that Impact International Differences in Gender Pay Gap

Research Aim: The research will use quantitative techniques to analyse microdata from various countries between 1980 and 2010. The study will use the factors of wage structures, net supply, wage compression, collective bargaining coverage, and unionised wage setting to identify the lower gender pay gap internationally.

Topic 8: The Impact of Psychosocial Hazards on Workplace Risk Management

Research Aim: The study will investigate workplace risk management practices in industry sectors with a high risk of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and mental health disorders (MHDs) and the extent to which they may rise from psychosocial hazards. The research will be conducted using qualitative research techniques.

Strategic Management and Organisational Behavior Dissertation Topics

Strategic management and organisational behaviour can be described as the actions a firm takes to achieve its business objectives primarily derived from competitive markets’ dynamic behaviour. Following are some interesting dissertation topics under this field of study;

Topic 1: The Impact of Organisational Goals on Organisation Behavior

Research Aim: The primary focus of this research will be to combine factors from the theory of action, phases and self-determination theory to develop a motivational model that will explain the relationship between organisational goals setting process that lead to organisational behaviour. The research will be conducted using mixed methods of research techniques.

Topic 2: Integrating the Principles of Strategic Human Capital and Strategic Human Resource Management to Improve Organisational Performance

Topic 3: comparing the impact of family and non-family firm goals on strategy, family and organisational behavior.

Research Aim: This research will analyse the differences between family and non-family business goals and their impact on how businesses develop strategies. Also, the research will assess how these developed strategies would affect family and organisational behaviour. This research will use quantitative research techniques.

Topic 4: Analyzing the Effect of Strategy, Innovation, Networks and Complexity on Organisational Adaptability – The Mediating Effect of Leadership

Research Aim: The current study will use empirical analysis to examine the effects of strategy, innovation, networks, and complexity of organisational adaptability using leadership as a mediation factor.

Topic 5: Examining the Effect of Appointment of a Racial Minority Female CEO on White Male Top Manager Intrapsychic and Behavioral Responses

Research Aim: This research will examine white male managers’ behavioural responses to a female racial minority CEO’s appointment. The behaviour that the research will analyse is the amount of help that the white male top manager provides to their fellow executives. The research will be conducted using quantitative techniques.

Topic 6: Analysis of the Effectiveness of an Affect-Based Model to Portray Recipients Responses to Organisational Change Events

Research Aim: The study will use the Affect-Based Model developed by Oreg et al. (2016) to analyse if it is useful in documenting and portraying the recipient responses to organisational change events. The research will use factors of valence and activation to assess the effectiveness of the model. The study will be conducted using quantitative techniques.

Topic 7: Evaluating the Relationship between the personality of a CEO and Employee Motivation

Research Aim: This research will investigate the relationship between a CEO’s personality and employee motivation. The core of this study will be to assess whether a CEO’s character possesses the power to influence employee motivation or not. Case studies from various companies will be used in this study.

Topic 8: Assessing the Role of Managers in Bringing and Implementing Technological Change in an Organisation

Research Aim: This research will focus on how managers implement technological change in their organisations. Change management is challenging as not all employees are open to accepting change. This research will focus on various ways through which managers successfully implement technological change in their companies.

Topic 9: An Analysis of Organisational Change Management: Why Employees Resist Change?

Research Aim: This research will focus on why employees resist change in organisations, i.e., why employees dislike change. Different causes and factors will be discussed in this study, and the research will conclude why employees do not wholeheartedly accept the change.

Knowledge Management Dissertation Topics

The importance of knowledge management for organisations can’t be understated because this aspect of management enhances the workforce’s capabilities and overall productivity. It leads to a competitive advantage and provides the basis for differentiating an organisation from its competitors. Some interesting dissertation topics under this field are;

Topic 1: Examining the Impact of Enterprise Social Networking Systems (ESNS) on Knowledge Management and Organisational Learning

Research Aim: The research will investigate the effect of ESNS on knowledge management processes and organisational learning. The research will use knowledge creation and sharing to play the mediating role in analysing the proposed relationship. The proposed study will use empirical research methods.

Topic 2: A Review of Knowledge Management Research

Research Aim: The research paper will use a systematic literature review technique for the proposed study. The research will review the last twenty years of knowledge management literature to assess the presence of bias in explaining knowledge integration over research by exploring knowledge differentiation processes.

Topic 3: The Impact of the Internet of Things (IoT) on Innovation and Knowledge Management Capacity

Research Aim: The purpose of this research will be to investigate the plausible relationship between knowledge management systems, open innovation, knowledge management capacity, and innovation capacity in firms. The research will be conducted using empirical techniques to draw reliable conclusions.

Topic 4: The Impact of Strategic Knowledge Management on MNC and their Subsidiaries Performance

Research Aim: The research will develop a model to test the possibility of a relationship between strategic knowledge management (SKM) processes and organisation performance compared between multinational companies and their subsidiaries. The research will also analyse the impact of relational context on knowledge creation and transfer.

Topic 5: Analyzing the Relationship between Knowledge Management Practices and Knowledge Worker Performance - The Mediating Role of Organisational Commitment

Research Aim: The study will analyse the role of knowledge management practices to address the issues of insufficient organisational commitment and knowledge workers’ performance in the UK’s public sectors. The proposed study will use quantitative research techniques to fulfil its aim and objectives.

Topic 6: The Relationship between Knowledge Management Processes and Sustainable Competitive Advantage in Private Business Schools in the UK

Research Aim: The proposed research will explore the impact of knowledge management processes on sustainable completive advantages by using knowledge-based view (KBV) and resource-based view (RBV) as mediators in the relationship. The research will be conducted using quantitative techniques of data collection (i.e. questionnaire) and analysis (i.e. structural equation modelling).

Topic 7: The Impact of Strategic Knowledge Management on Manufacturing Firm’s Performance

Research Aim: The purpose of the study will be to empirically investigate the relationship between the availability and use of IT solutions for strategic knowledge management and a manufacturing firm’s performance, which will be measured in unit production. The research will use the resource-based view and the knowledge-based theory to develop a conceptual framework to analyze this relationship’s effect.

Topic 8: Evaluating how Knowledge Management Impacts Company Performance: A Case Study of Sainsbury

Research Aim: This research will discuss the basic concepts of knowledge management. The study will also discuss the impact knowledge management has on a company’s performance, i.e. how it helps companies achieve their goals. The main focus of this research work will be on Sainsbury’s knowledge management framework.

Topic 9: Knowledge Management as a Core Competency? Evaluating the Application and Benefits of Knowledge Management

Research Aim: This research will uncover how companies utilise knowledge management as their core competency and how it benefits their business operations. This study’s main focus will be on applying the various concepts of knowledge management and their implication for businesses.

Topic 10: Exploring the Managerial Concerns and Issues in Knowledge Management and Their Impact on Organisations

Research Aim: This research will explore the managerial concerns and issues related to knowledge management. The study will also focus on assessing the impact of these issues on businesses and how they can influence day-to-day operations. This will be an evidence-based study where evidence from different companies and various situations will be evaluated.

Leadership and Management Information System Dissertation Topics

Leadership drives the organisational agenda and is regarded as one of the most influential factors in streamlining organisations’ processes. Good leadership results in better performance of any organisation because it gives direction to the business activities under the market conditions and requirements.

Similarly, management information systems are pivotal to any organisation’s success and successfully implementing them can benefit the organisation in many ways. Following are some dissertation topics under the subject of leadership and management information systems;

Topic 1: The Role of Information Systems (IS) in Enterprise Architecture and its Impact on Business Performance

Research Aim: This study will examine the relationship between IS Enterprise Architecture and business performance using technical alignment and IS capabilities mediators. This research will be conducted using quantitative techniques to fulfil its aim.

Topic 2: Exploring The Relationship between Ethical Leadership and Employee Knowledge Sharing

Research Aim: This research will use social learning theories and self-determination to investigate the relationship between ethical learning and employee knowledge sharing. The study will be conducted using empirical research techniques.

Topic 3: Analysing the Impact of Relationship Leadership and Social Alignment on Information Security Systems Effectiveness in Private Organisations

Research Aim: This research will use social capital theory as its theoretical foundation to explore the impact of relational leadership on social alignment between business and IT executives. The relational model will study the factors of integrated knowledge, information security system effectiveness, and organisational performance. This research will use empirical techniques.

Topic 4: Examining the Relationship between Operating Room (OR) Leadership and Operating Staff Performance

Research Aim: This research will analyse the relationship between Operating Room leadership and operating staff performance. This will be done using emotional intelligence and collaboration variables to assess staff performance, using recovery numbers. The relationship will also be examined through the mediating role of leadership principles. The data will be collected and assessed using quantitative research techniques.

Topic 5: The Role of Transformational Leadership as a Mediating Variable in the DeLone and McLean Information Success Model.

Research Aim: The research will use the DeLone and McLean Information Success Model to analyse if productivity software implemented in an organisation can improve its performance. However, the research will also evaluate the model and propose modifications to include transformational leadership as a mediating factor in the information success model. The research will be quantitative in nature.

Topic 6: Assessing the Role of Leadership in an Organisation to Help Adopt Advanced Technological Systems

Research Aim: This research will assess the role of leadership in an organisation to help companies realise the importance of innovative, technologically advanced systems. Many companies today are still naive to the ever more important role of technology. Thus this research will aim to help companies adopt innovative technological systems through leadership. The research will be evidence-based in nature.

Topic 7: Evaluating How Changing Business Leadership Impacts Technological Organisational Performance

Research Aim: Changing leadership in organisations can prove a disaster if not handled properly. The transition process is extremely challenging, and companies should have the capability to handle this phase. This research will explore how their decision to change leadership impacts technological and organisational performance and how to optimise the process. This research will be quantitative in nature.

Topic 8: Can Information Systems in Organisations Be Considered a Competitive Advantage?

Research Aim: Information systems, if implemented successfully, benefit organisations immensely. The impact that an information system has and its results help companies stay ahead of their competitors. This research will assess how companies can turn their information systems into a competitive advantage, and most importantly, whether they or not information systems should be considered a competitive advantage.

Topic 9: Understanding the Leadership Challenges of Implementing and Managing an Advanced Information System in an Organisation

Research Aim: This research will help explain the challenges that managers and the entire leadership of an organisation face when implementing an advanced information system. Bringing a change in a company is challenging, and throw in a technology to implement, the process becomes even more challenging. This study will explore in detail all related challenges through quantitative research.

Topic 10: Do all Business Processes in an Organisation need Information System Management?

Research Aim: It is often argued that not all business processes require information systems. However, when talking about today’s world and the technological advancements taking place, it is recommended that business processes in organisations adopt the technology. This research will be a comparative analysis of whether companies are successful and profitable with information systems or without them.

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Organisational Culture and International Business Dissertation Topics

Organisational culture shapes the work ethics and helps in defining the professional image of organisations. Organisational culture plays a huge role in international business.

Organisations that adopt the country’s culture they are operating in are known to run their operations more successfully. The following topics are related to organisational culture and international business and help students choose an appropriate topic according to their interests.

Topic 1: The Impact of Organisational Culture of Collaborative Networks Influence on IT Governance Performance in Large Enterprises

Research Aim: This research will explore the influence of collaborative networks’ organisational culture on IT governance performance. The study will use a case study to analyse multinationals as they have a wide working network. The purpose of the research will be to determine whether or not organisational culture helps businesses effectively use IT in business operations. The research will be conducted using mixed methods research.

Topic 2: Analysing the Relationship between Supervisor’s Job insecurity and Subordinates’ Work Engagement

Research Aim: The purpose of this research is two-fold. The research will analyse the relationship between the supervisor’s job insecurity and subordinates’ work engagement using a mediator and a moderator. The research will first examine the mediating role of subordinate’s pro-social voice between supervisor job insecurity and subordinates’ work engagement. Next, the research will examine the moderating role of organisational culture between the supervisor’s job insecurity and sub-ordinates pro-social voice. The research will be conducted through quantitative techniques.

Topic 3: Analysing the Impact of Individual Perception of Organisational Culture on the Learning Transfer Environment

Research Aim: The research will be conducted empirically to assess the relationship between culture (as perceived by employees) and the work environment based learning factors (i.e. learning transfer environment [LTE]) in the organisation). LTE is measured using feedback and coaching factors that received resistance or openness to chance, personal outcomes, and supervisor and peer support.

Topic 4: The Role of Organisational Culture on the Development of Psychological Distress in the Workplace

Research Aim: The purpose of the study will be to analyse how organisational culture may cause the symptoms of psychological distress in the workforce. The study will use corporate culture and work organisation conditions as base factors to relate them to employees’ psychological distress. The research will be conducted using quantitative research techniques.

Topic 5: Analysing the Role of Leadership and Organisational Culture

Research Aim: The research will examine the relationship between organisational culture, leadership and employee outcomes. The paper will focus on the mediator of leadership processes and their impact on the relationship between culture and employee outcomes. The study will be conducted using quantitative research techniques.

Topic 6: The Role and Relationships among Strategic Orientations, Cultural Intelligence, International Diversification and Performance of Organisations

Research Aim: The research will aim to understand the drivers of the international expansion of globalised firms. The research will explore the relationship between strategic orientations and cultural intelligence as drivers and international diversification and firm performance. Strategic orientations used in the study include international market orientation (IMO) and entrepreneurial orientation (IEO). The study will be conducted using quantitative research techniques.

Topic 7: Dynamics of Corruption Culture Distance to Core Values

Research Aim: The research will examine how corporate bribery is impacted by cultural distance between multinational enterprises (MNEs) in their home and host countries. The research will also analyse the organisational distance to core value between MNE’s entry into the host country and its headquarters. The research will use empirical data collection and analysis techniques.

Topic 8: Examining Organisational Export Performance by International Business Competencies

Research Aim: The study aims to explore the relationship between international business competencies and export performance. The research will also analyse export performance by singular analysis or combined analysis of the competencies. The research will be conducted using empirical data.

Topic 9: Does Organisational Culture Influence the Leadership Type that a Company Should Adopt?

Research Aim: This research will argue whether companies should hire leaders concerning their culture or not. Organisational culture and leadership are interconnected. Thus companies that do not operate according to their culture struggle to grow exponentially. This research will aim to focus on the possible relationship between leadership and organisational culture. The research will be evidence-based.

Topic 10: Organisational Culture and International Business Competition: Are they Interrelated?

Research Aim: Organisational culture plays a huge role in making a company competitive internationally. When a business’s culture is motivating to all employees and identifies the right culture for its employees, there is every likelihood of rapid growth for both the company and the employees. The research will explore how the two concepts are interrelated.

Important Notes:

As a management student looking to get good grades, it is essential to develop new ideas and experiment with existing management theories – i.e., to add value and interest to your research topic.

The management field is vast and interrelated to many other academic disciplines like operations management , business , business administration , MBA , human resource management and more. That is why creating a management dissertation topic that is particular, sound, and actually solves a practical problem that may be rampant in the field is imperative.

We can’t stress how important it is to develop a logical research topic based on your entire research. There are several significant downfalls to getting your topic wrong; your supervisor may not be interested in working on it, the topic has no academic creditability, the research may not make logical sense, there is a possibility that the study is not viable.

This impacts your time and efforts in writing your dissertation , as you may end up in the cycle of rejection at the initial stage of the dissertation. That is why we recommend reviewing existing research to develop a topic, taking advice from your supervisor, and even asking for help in this particular stage of your dissertation.

Keeping our advice in mind while developing a research topic will allow you to pick one of the best management dissertation topics that fulfil your requirement of writing a research paper and adds to the body of knowledge.

Therefore, it is recommended that when finalizing your dissertation topic, you read recently published literature to identify gaps in the research that you may help fill.

Remember- dissertation topics need to be unique, solve an identified problem, be logical, and be practically implemented. Please look at some of our sample management dissertation topics to get an idea for your own dissertation.

How to Structure your Management Dissertation

A well-structured dissertation can help students to achieve a high overall academic grade.

A Title Page
Acknowledgements
Declaration
Abstract: A summary of the research completed
Table of Contents
Introduction : This chapter includes the project rationale, research background, key research aims and objectives, and the research problems. An outline of the structure of a dissertation can also be added to this chapter.
Literature Review : This chapter presents relevant theories and frameworks by analysing published and unpublished literature on the chosen research topic to address research questions . The purpose is to highlight and discuss the selected research area’s relative weaknesses and strengths while identifying research gaps. Break down the topic and key terms that can positively impact your dissertation and your tutor.
Methodology : The data collection and analysis methods and techniques employed by the researcher are presented in the Methodology chapter, which usually includes research design , research philosophy, research limitations, code of conduct, ethical consideration, data collection methods, and data analysis strategy .
Findings and Analysis : Findings of the research are analysed in detail under the Findings and Analysis chapter. All key findings/results are outlined in this chapter without interpreting the data or drawing any conclusions. It can be useful to include graphs, charts, and tables in this chapter to identify meaningful trends and relationships.
Discussion and Conclusion : The researcher presents his interpretation of results in this chapter and states whether the research hypothesis has been verified or not. An essential aspect of this section is establishing the link between the results and evidence from the literature. Recommendations with regards to implications of the findings and directions for the future may also be provided. Finally, a summary of the overall research, along with final judgments, opinions, and comments, must be included in the form of suggestions for improvement.
References : Make sure to complete this by your University’s requirements
Bibliography
Appendices : Any additional information, diagrams, and graphs used to complete the dissertation but not part of the dissertation should be included in the Appendices chapter. Essentially, the purpose is to expand the information/data.

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Dissertation-Msc Strategic Management

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History and future of business ecosystem: a bibliometric analysis and visualization

Open access
Published: 27 August 2024

Cite this article

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Xia Zhang 1 ,
Yue Yang 1 &
Yun Chen ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5123-1624 2

The business ecosystem theory has developed rapidly in recent years and has become a hot topic in the field of business and management. However, the use of this concept is controversial. This study systematically reviewed literature published spanning nearly three decades from 1993 to 2022. In this paper, researchers designed an improved traceability method to retrieve literature based on data sources form Web of Science. VOSviewer and CiteSpace are adopted as two scientific atlas tools for information processing and visualization to evaluate the relationship between sub fields of business ecosystem. The findings show that the four branches of business ecosystem, i.e., innovation, platform, entrepreneurship and service, absorb theoretical ideas to varying degrees. Among them, the theoretical inheritance relationship of innovation branch is most clear, and gradually grows into the backbone of ecosystem research. Major contribution of this study is reflected in three aspects: Firstly, the improved traceability method provides a repeatable quantitative description process on the basis of significantly reducing researchers’ subjective participation. Secondly, from perspective of bibliometrics, the branch direction and key nodes of theory development are identified. Thirdly, the study helps identify the future development directions of business ecosystem, including innovation, digitalization, entrepreneurship, self-organization and the strategic transformation guided by emerging technologies.

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1 Introduction

Open innovation in business models is as impactful as technological innovation (Chesbrough, 2007 ). At the end of the last century, companies like Apple and Wal-Mart achieved significant success through disruptive innovations based on open platform models. Their achievements have inspired managers and researchers to understand that, in today’s business environment, companies must transcend traditional organizational boundaries to tackle innovation challenges. They need to incorporate external supplements into their governance systems to overcome key bottlenecks that might lie outside organizational control (Adner, 2006 ). In this multi-faceted interaction structure, a system regarded as complex at one level can function as a component in a more extensive system (Christensen & Rosenbloom, 1995 ). Simple bilateral relations cannot fully explain the intricate value relationships among network members in such nested systems, necessitating a shift from existing linear value theories.

In this context, business ecosystem theory emerged. The term “ecosystem” originally described the interactions between organisms and their physical environment (Tansley, 1935 ). This concept has since expanded to encompass complex connections and dynamic evolution beyond natural sciences, profoundly influencing social science research. Business ecosystem theory, a product of interdisciplinary linkages, metaphorically bridges natural and social sciences, offering a groundbreaking business perspective: companies should be viewed not as isolated industry members but as part of a cross-industry business ecosystem (Moore, 1993 ). This theory provides a framework to bridge the gap between reality and theoretical understanding. Surprisingly, it did not gain significant research attention for a long time. Entering the new century, the concept of business ecosystems regained researchers’ interest, with the term appearing sporadically in business research fields. Significant milestones were reached a decade later with two influential studies published in Harvard Business Review (Iansiti & Levien, 2004 ; Adner, 2006 ), leading researchers to recognize the potential of business ecosystems to develop into a comprehensive theoretical knowledge system.

Business ecosystems are not naturally occurring; they are partially shaped by experimental and engineering design from various perspectives (Jacobides et al., 2018 ), reflecting the intentions of system designers. In these systems, each member occupies a unique niche, developing capabilities aligned with goals set by designers, collectively creating value for the entire network (Moore, 2016 ; Iansiti & Levien, 2004 ). System designers are typically one or more core enterprises, referred to as cornerstone companies or focal actors. They simplify complex connections among network participants by creating service, tool, or technology platforms, leveraging platform leadership to influence the innovation direction within the system (Cusumano & Gawer, 2002 ). Non-core companies usually do not rely on a single ecosystem; they benefit from cross-ecosystem operations and diversification strategies. Participation in ecosystems extends the operational scope of non-core firms, equipping them with the management capabilities and technical resources essential for innovation (Selander et al., 2013 ).

Given the diversity of stakeholders, ecosystem structures may represent some of the most extensive network structures in management research (Autio & Thomas, 2014 ). The broad membership facilitates the integration of ecosystem theory with other theoretical paradigms, evolving various ecological branches tailored to different application scenarios. This trait aided the dissemination of concepts in the early stages of theory development. However, with the rapid expansion of terminology usage and fine-grained theoretical applications, the notion of business ecosystems has shifted from being a premium to a discount, similar to a diversified entity (Khanna & Yafeh, 2007 ). Chaotic usage scenarios and blurred theoretical boundaries undermine the theory’s core values, threatening its legitimacy. Some scholars have sharply criticized this trend in recent years (Oh et al., 2016 ; Bogers et al., 2019 ), suggesting that “ecosystems” function more as a “conceptual umbrella” covering various viewpoints rather than a coherent scientific theory (Spigel, 2017 ).

The interdisciplinary nature of business ecosystem theory results in research being widely distributed across various disciplines and fields. This distribution leads to significant subjectivity in the literature review process. Consequently, our study reflects on the limitations of mainstream literature retrieval methods and proposes an improved “traceability method” for collecting literature. Our research focuses on the following three issues:

What is the main scope of relevant research on business ecosystem theory?

What is the logical relationship between the fields of ecological branching?

What are the theoretical development trends and future research directions?

The rest of this paper is structured into four parts. Section 2 introduces the research and data acquisition methods used in this study. Section 3 reveals fundamental information about the retrieved literature, such as growth trends and the distribution of disciplines and journals. Section 4 analyzes and interprets data concerning the three questions above using keyword co-occurrence, co-citation analysis, cluster distribution, burst detection, and timeline trends. Section 5 compares the traceability method used in this study with traditional search techniques and conducts cluster analysis for findings ; The final part, Sects. 6 & 7 summarizes the study, discussing future research directions in this field.

2 Methodology and data sources

The reasonable selection and filtration of literature are crucial factors that enable smooth and accurate research analysis. Traditionally, the data collection process in existing research comprises two main components: conditional restrictions (such as databases, core terms, subject areas, journals, ratings, etc.) and manual review. This study adheres to this approach for the initial phase of data collection and identifies two opposing challenges:

Subject area restrictions or stringent journal designations can compromise the integrity of research on the periphery.

Removing these restrictions risks limiting the scope to the direction of natural ecology.

This issue partly stems from the metaphorical nature of the business ecosystem concept itself.

To address this challenge, conventional methods often rely on a manual screening process, which increases the subjectivity of the investigator. A horizontal comparison of previous data collection methods highlights the prevalence of this issue. Even with the most stringent double restriction method (Tsujimoto et al., 2018 ), the screening rate for manual review exceeds 50% (see Table 1 below). Such intensive screening can introduce researchers’ personal biases, undermining the credibility of discussions on theoretical boundaries.

2.1 Improved traceability method

To address the challenges in the data collection process, this study developed a literature retrieval method based on concept traceability, using two key literatures as foundational points: (1) Moore’s article “Predators and Prey: A New Ecology of Competition” published in 1993, and (2) the monograph “The Death of Competition: Leadership and Strategy in the Age of Business Ecosystems” published in 1996. The former marks the birth of the business ecosystem concept, while the latter provides the first comprehensive explanation of the theory. Given the expanding scope of ecosystem logic, traceability helps distinguish research based on the business ecosystem concept from those that are not. When an article cites these foundational works, it indicates that the author acknowledges a logical connection between their research and the business ecosystem concept, whether positively or critically. The data samples thus obtained form a necessary subset strongly related to business ecosystem theory.

Building on this foundation, researchers employed VOSviewer and CiteSpace for information processing and visualization. Both programs are designed to construct and view bibliometric maps (Eck & Waltman, 2010 ). VOSviewer excels in speed when handling large-scale maps and balances expressive drawing and functionality, while CiteSpace offers greater operability with a unique timeline view and burst detection function. Bibliometric maps provide a systematic method for researchers to understand the evolution of scientific fields and integrate various information to capture the latest technologies (Chen, 2017 ). This study combines the advantages of both tools to mine and expand information, ensuring that gaps in the sample are filled to meet the literature combing sufficiency requirements.

In summary, this research identifies the shortcomings of traditional methods in handling literature related to business ecosystems and proposes an improved traceability method to address the challenges of the manual review process in data collection.

2.2 Adopted data sources

This study uses the Web of Science (WOS) database as the primary data source. WOS is the leading platform for scientific citation search and analysis, supporting a wide range of scientific tasks across different knowledge areas and serving as a data set for large-scale, data-intensive research. When comparing different databases, WOS is typically regarded as the most stable (Harzing & Alakangas, 2016 ; Mongeon & Paul-Hus, 2016 ; Li et al., 2018 ). Although WOS lacks coverage of social science books (Waltman, 2016 ), this does not impact the study’s content.

Using the WOS citation function “Cited References,” 1106 items were retrieved that cited the 1993 baseline literature. Standard restrictions were applied to refine the target scope: selecting the “Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI)” and “Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE)” qualification levels to enhance literature quality, restricting subject headings to include “ecosystem*” to ensure relevance, and selecting only “article” types, excluding “early access” articles. As of March 1, 2022, a total of 400 papers met these requirements. The 610 works citing the 1996 baseline monograph were similarly screened, resulting in 189 retained articles. The two literature sets were combined and deduplicated, yielding a final sample of 488 articles. Each document in the sample focuses on ecosystems and is influenced by Moore’s business ecosystem theory to varying degrees, identifying the sample as research “established on the basis of business ecosystem thinking.”

This information query process is general and traceable. For further review, two experts in related fields were invited to examine the samples and list any doubtful literature. If both experts had doubts about the same literature, it was excluded; if they disagreed, consensus was reached through discussion. The results showed that all sample documents successfully passed the review process.

3 Fundamental information of retrieved business ecosystem literatures

This section presents fundamental information about the retrieved literature to outline the contours of the business ecosystem field. It includes the distribution of publications by year, country and region, WOS field, journal, and research institution. Among these indicators, only the distribution ratios for years and journals sum to 1, while other items have cross-connections.

Figure 1 illustrates the growth trend of articles citing Moore’s foundational literature in the WOS database. The earliest related article appeared in 2004, confirming a decade-long period of relative silence for the theory. The research field entered an explosive growth phase around 2012, with the number of published papers continuing to rise after a brief fluctuation. Overall, more than half of the total published papers have been produced in the last three years. Currently, the research concept appears to have reached the mature stage of its life cycle, with the publication growth rate stabilizing.

The growth trend of articles in the field of business ecosystem

Figure 2 illustrates the distribution of documents across different countries and regions, segmented into three time periods represented by different colors. Prior to 2019, the top three countries by the number of articles were the USA, England, and China. In the subsequent two years, China’s share of published articles increased significantly, propelling it to the top rank. As of 2022, the top four countries in terms of total published documents are China, England, the USA, and Finland, with a significant gap between these and the following countries and regions.

Distribution of the sample articles in different countries and regions

Figure 3 demonstrates distribution of literature by different subject areas. “Management” and " Business” categories are the main research fields of this theory. At the same time, there are also a large number of research works involving this theory in the fields such as “Regional Urban Planning”, “Environmental Studies”, “Environmental Sciences” and “Green Sustainable Science Technology”. This suggests that ecosystem theory extends beyond stereotypes and builds bridges between multidisciplinary fields. This echoes our concern that “subject area restrictions or more aggressive designated journal restrictions undermine the integrity of the research fringes”.

The top 11 WOS categories by number of articles

In terms of journal distribution, the 488 articles in the sample are spread across 195 journals. Among these, Technological Forecasting and Social Change and Sustainability have notable quantitative advantages, with 47 and 37 papers published, respectively, accounting for 9.63% and 7.58% of the total. From the perspective of research institutions, the University of Cambridge and Tsinghua University are tied for the highest number of publications, although the University of Cambridge holds a more central position within the knowledge network.

4 Main scope of Business Ecosystem Literatures

This section further analyzes the commonalities and connections between the sample literature, describing the main scope of business ecosystem research using the bibliometric indices “co-occurrence” and “co-citation”.

4.1 Keywords co-occurrence

The full record information of 488 documents was imported into VOSviewer to analyze the co-occurrence of keywords. According to the bibliometric data, 2251 keywords were involved in the sample. To achieve better visualization, the co-occurrence threshold for keywords was set to 6 times, resulting in a visualization map with 135 items, as shown in Fig. 4 below:

Co-keyword network visualization on business ecosystem research

The 135 keywords formed 6 clusters, and the top eleven words sorted by “Total Link Strength” covered all six categories, as shown in Table 2 .

Researchers integrated high-order words calculated by frequency and centrality, categorizing them into three groups:

Initial Search Terms and Derivatives: This includes terms like ecosystem, business ecosystem, network, and business model. Here, the network is related and similar to the ecosystem, with the former being relationship-based and the latter purpose-based. An interesting distinction is that two companies within the same network structure can have vastly different business ecosystems due to differing value propositions (Adner, 2017 ).

Nominalized Verbs: This category includes words such as innovation, value creation, competition, evolution, and cooperation. These terms are highly expressive, reflecting the core of business ecosystem thought. Innovation is the most prominent word, indicating that all business ecosystem projects revolve around innovation. The concept encompasses both dynamic processes and outcomes compared to traditional ecological studies. Notably, “value creation” appeared 88 times, while terms like value distribution or value sharing were scarcely used, highlighting a preference and imbalance in theoretical development. The term competition, particularly in the context of Moore’s “death of competition,” refers to a shift from enterprise to ecosystem competition, often resulting in more intense conflicts between ecosystems.

Generic Terms: This includes words like strategy, performance, technology, knowledge, and framework. Strategy here implies a meso-level perspective, often higher than individual enterprises or industries but below the macro societal level. Performance emphasizes the effective output of ecosystem members, echoing the focus on value creation and reflecting a pursuit of research quantification by scholars.

4.2 Co-citation analysis

A key feature of science mapping is co-citation analysis. When two articles appear together in the bibliography of a third article, they form a co-citation relationship (Chen, 2006 ). The co-citation function identifies significant works in the study of inheritance relationships, isolating weakly related or unrelated literature. This process expands our focus from the 488 documents to those within their citation networks, allowing researchers to identify key research results that connect knowledge networks. Conclusions drawn from this approach are significant for discussions on boundary and genre divisions in business ecosystem theory.

According to bibliometric data, 9,725 citation sources were involved in the sample. By setting a minimum citation threshold of 20, 221 entries were included in the visual map, shown in Fig. 5 . This map highlights journals with significant attention in the field, briefly introduced as follows:

4.2.1 Harvard business review

Known for being forward-looking, it is the origin and cradle of business ecosystem theory, publishing significant works by Moore, Iansiti, and early Adner.

4.2.2 Strategic management journal

Known for outstanding works by Adner and Kapoor ( 2010 ), Jacobides et al. ( 2018 ), and Hannah and Eisenhardt ( 2018 ), these works are frequently cited and remain foundational.

4.2.3 Research policy

Notable for the number of articles published on ecosystems, significantly outperforming other journals in this index.

Using CiteSpace, co-citation analysis was conducted on key nodes. Full record information of 488 documents was imported, with the network clipping method set to “Pathfinder.” In the co-citation graph, node size represents the frequency of occurrences, and line thickness indicates co-occurrence frequency. Figure 6 shows two visualization perspectives of co-citation analysis:

Author Perspective: This map shows the shapers of theoretical foundations, key bottleneck breakthroughs, and continuous investment builders, emphasizing the historical significance of researchers.

Literature Perspective: This map observes field connections and sustained influence, emphasizing the importance of recent research results and depicting a more complex relationship structure between literature.

Co-citation analysis maps from the perspective of author (above) and literature (below)

Among the top ten authors with total citations, Moore, Iansiti, Adner, Jacobides, and Autio have been previously mentioned. Gawer and Nambisan will be introduced in clustering information and burst detection later. Porter and Teece, masters in strategic management and competitive strategy, also provide intellectual value for business ecosystem theory. Porter’s concept of creating shared value aligns with business ecosystem ideas (Porter & Kramer, 2011 ), focusing on value shared within the ecosystem. Teece’s most co-cited work explores innovative support for the digital platform ecosystem (Teece, 2018 ). Additionally, Eisenhardt stands out as a prominent node in the citation network, with her work improving the case study method being frequently cited (Eisenhardt, 2007 ).

This sector explored the scope of business ecosystem literature using co-occurrence and co-citation analyses. The analysis revealed the evolution of business ecosystem research and its integration with strategic management, highlighting the importance of shared value and digital platform ecosystems, and underscoring the historical and ongoing contributions to the field. In the following sector, we will compare the method used in this study with traditional search techniques.

5 Findings and discussion

5.1 comparison between new traceability method and traditional search techniques.

The traceability method proposed in this study offers significant advantages over traditional search techniques. Firstly, it aligns closely with the trajectory of business ecosystem theory, which has a well-documented origin and a ten-year quiescent period, effectively minimizing interference from multiple sources. Secondly, the literature sourced through this method directly links to the theoretical origin, aiding in excluding: 1) Passive fuzzing usage, where researchers use ecological concepts merely as a backdrop without engaging with the theoretical source; 2) Actively blurred usage, where authors may avoid acknowledging the theory’s historical importance for various reasons; 3) Same disciplinary usage, where the concept of ‘ecosystem’ is used differently within the same field, such as the interaction between businesses and natural ecology, without a significant inheritance relationship.

Thirdly, this method mitigates the impact of subjective biases, providing highly discriminative samples that help address contentious issues more effectively.

Although the proposed traceability method has certain limitations compared to traditional search techs, the study has effectively addressed these limitations. One limitation is that it omits documents without citation information, such as articles in the Harvard Business Review, which cannot be retrieved using citation data. Another limitation is the potential overemphasis on certain authors and their research teams, beyond the method’s intended scope. To address the first limitation, this study used bibliometrics to expand the sample and complete the knowledge network. Bibliometric methods employ quantitative approaches to describe, evaluate, and monitor published research, introducing a systematic, transparent, and repeatable review process, thereby enhancing review quality (Zupic & Čater, 2015 ). The second limitation regarding author prominence was addressed by analyzing work from Google Scholar, showing that most of Moore’s ecosystem-related work is independent, with the chosen base points having clear advantages in timelines and citation counts, suggesting that the influence of authorial weight is within acceptable limits.

This study also incorporated a control data set, applying traditional domain constraints like “Management or Business or Economics” and restricting the level to SSCI and SCIE, excluding articles with “early access”. The sample was manually reviewed, resulting in 579 out of 952 articles passing the review. Researchers further validated the new method’s unique advantages by conducting lexical clustering analysis on co-cited documents and comparing these with samples obtained via traditional searches. The analysis, supported by CiteSpace software, confirmed that clusters with a modularity (Q) value above 0.3 and a silhouette (S) value above 0.7 are considered structurally sound and efficient. The new method achieved Q values of 0.926 and S values of 0.952, surpassing traditional methods in creating more coherent and interconnected clusters. The traditional method resulted in scattered clusters with sparse connections, whereas the traceability method produced tightly integrated clusters, enhancing cross-disciplinary linkages and producing distinct cluster labels, which are illustrated in Figs. 7 and 8 .

Clustering comparison of traditional retrieval methods

Clustering comparison of traceability retrieval methods

Comparing the cluster profiles of the two groups of samples, the researchers found significant discrepancy. The clustering modules obtained under the traditional retrieval method are obviously scattered, and the connections between nodes are relatively sparse, while the modules are closely combined under the traceability method, covering more node in the intersection area. These articles serve as a key link between different fields. At the same time, the cluster labels extracted by the two methods are quite different. Tables 3 and 4 respectively list the clustering information of both two samples. The serial numbers are arranged according to the number of members in the group, and the correlation depends more on location of the cluster. With 25 members as the boundary, traceability samples form 7 categories above the scale, and this indicator is 8 in traditional samples. LSI and LLR represent two label extraction algorithms, which are carried out after the clustering ends and do not affect the shape of the clusters.

The results indicate that traditional clustering labels cover a broader range and include general terms like business model and digital platform, suggesting a less precise focus on the research field. New technology hotspots, such as digitization and the Internet of Things, have become central concepts in this theory. The traditional retrieval method often extends literature too far into adjacent disciplines. For example, the semantics of “service-dominant logic” overshadow “service ecosystem,” making it a key clustering label, while entrepreneurship literature is overrepresented, splitting the concept into “Entrepreneurial Ecosystem” and “Value Capture.” Additionally, “digital service” forms a loosely connected category, making it challenging to determine a stable relationship with business ecosystem theory. These issues highlight the negative impact of stringent field restrictions and intensive manual review on the scientific quality of literature samples.

5.2 Relationship between ecological branches and cluster analysis

Despite significant differences, both sample groups agree on basic concepts. They clearly delineate four ecosystem sub-concepts: innovation, platform, entrepreneurship, and service, aligning with mainstream business ecosystem reviews. Business, innovation, and platform clusters hold central positions, while entrepreneurship and service are relatively peripheral. The entrepreneurial ecosystem consistently forms an independent module with a stable member association structure. The following example will analyze the clusters generated according to the traceability method.

Cluster 0 is named as the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and this category has the most group members, and the top three papers with co-citation index are Spigel, 2017 ; Acs et al., 2017 ; Audretsch & Belitski, 2017 . Entrepreneurial flow is an incomplete ecosystem, which is generally limited by geography, and more consideration is given to analysis and research in conjunction with local cultural backgrounds and social systems. There are also barriers in the exchange of entrepreneurial ecosystems and external resources. Entrepreneurs often do not compete for market share, but sell an expectation to attract capital. Therefore, the entrepreneurial ecosystem is likely to lack a dominant player.

On a larger map scale, entrepreneurial ecosystems are connected to knowledge ecosystems, but their value propositions and relational structures are fundamentally different. The centers of the knowledge ecosystem are universities and public research institutions, and value flows mainly linearly along the value chain; the cornerstone of the business ecosystem is the leading company that provides key resources and business infrastructure, and the value creation process adopts an integrated approach (Clarysse et al., 2014 ). It can also be seen from the co-citation relationship that the logical connection between the two concepts is estranged and does not form a major clustering structure. It is worth noting that the process of converting knowledge to business value is still included in the field of business ecosystem research.

The label of cluster 1 is the subject word business ecosystem, and the top three documents in the co-citation index are Adner, 2017 ; Gawer & Cusumano, 2014 ; Oh et al., 2016 . According to Moore’s ( 2016 ) definition, business ecosystem is an economic community of suppliers, major producers, consumers, competitors, and other stakeholders whose members collectively develop their capabilities and tend to align with the direction set by one or more central companies. Iansiti and Levien ( 2004 ) summarized the roles of companies in the business ecosystem as cornerstone, dominant and niche; and constructed three health indicators for evaluating business ecosystems: productivity, robustness and niche creation. As can be seen from the two core literatures of business flow, the school starts from the role of stakeholders, studies the behavior and activities of the participants, and finally boils down to the value proposition of the system. Adner ( 2017 ) reads this process in reverse, starting with a value proposition, considering the activities needed to materialize it, and ending with actors that need to be adjusted. A logical deepening develops between the two schools, the former emphasizing roles and structural relationships, the latter emphasizing value propositions and changing processes. From the perspective of operational effects, starting from the value proposition helps to establish connections with potential participants and achieve multilateral interaction.

Cluster 3 is named platform ecosystem or two-sided marketplace. The top three articles in the co-citation index are Gawer, 2014 ; McIntyre & Srinivasan, 2017 ; Reuver et al., 2018 . Platform may be the fastest growing of all research streams. Under the trend of the Internet of Everything, any business form can be built on the platform, but only by focusing on platform behavior can it be regarded as a platform genre literature. Gawer ( 2014 ) defines an external platform as a product, service or technology, that is the ecological basis for an organization’s external innovators to develop their own complementary products, technologies or services. We also noticed that the platform is in a crossover zone, and its S value is only 0.852, which is in a low range. This means that its composition is more complex.

Cluster 4 is named Innovation Ecosystem, with an S-value of 0.965 being the highest in the list. This indicates a high homogeneity of the set. The top three papers in this cluster are Jacobides et al., 2018 ; Gomes et al., 2018 ; Hannah & Eisenhardt, 2018 . Jacobides et al., ( 2018 ) believes that the mainstream of ecological literature includes business flow, innovation flow and platform flow. The above-mentioned schools of business ecosystem theory have inherited the commonalities of ecosystem research. The ecological characteristics that have been agreed upon are modularity, complementarity, multilateral market relationships and common value proposition. This work by Jacobides is also the most recent explosive literature (Fig. 8 ). What deserves special attention is that the outbreak period of this document has not yet ended, and its second-ranked intensity score still has a large room for improvement.

The label of cluster 6 is service ecosystem, and the top three co-citation literatures are Vargo & Lusch, 2016 ; Lusch & Nambisan, 2015 ; Vargo et al., 2015 . Compared with the logic deepening of “role” to “structure” in the business school, the service school tends to transform from “product” to “service”. In this process, the service-dominant (S-D) logic is the core. Humorously, the research positions of Vargo and Lusch, the founders of S-D logic, may still be slightly different. Moore’s work is almost never cited in Vargo’s literature, while Lusch describes in detail the process of combining S-D logic and ecosystems: a relatively independent and self-regulating system consisting primarily of loosely coupled social and economic actors linked together by shared institutional logic and exchange of services to create common value (Lusch & Nambisan, 2015 ).

The top three co-citation literatures of other two clusters are Tsujimoto et al., 2018 ; Rong et al., 2015 ; Russell & Smorodinskaya, 2018 (cluster 3); and Adner & Kapoor, 2010 , Adner, 2012 ; Basole & Karla, 2011 (cluster 5). Due to space limitations, the introduction will not be carried out. Readers can read and refer to it by themselves. In particular, digitization has been inserted into multiple research streams and has the potential to develop into an independent digital ecosystem school. From the perspective of cohesion, the concept is only lack of landmark literature from the perspective of ecosystem.

6 Development trends and future research directions in business ecosystem

The burst detection function in CiteSpace is used to investigate the phenomenon of sudden increases in the frequency of research topics over a short period, with intensity indicating the level of attention to these hotspots. In the field of business ecosystem research, 43 outbreak literature nodes were initially identified using default parameters. By adjusting the criteria, researchers narrowed this down to the nine most significant pieces of literature.

As shown in Fig. 9 , these nine articles play a crucial role in the evolution of research directions. Business ecosystems and innovation ecosystems exhibit contrasting logical structures, forming at the intersection where a role-based perspective transitions to a structural perspective (Adner & Kapoor, 2010 ; Kapoor, 2018 ). The independence of the innovative school signifies a shift in ecosystem research from a metaphorical ecological relationship to the fundamental logic of business activities. Another critical aspect is examining the value creation and value capture processes as interconnected components (Ritala et al., 2013 ), which helps bridge the research gap resulting from an overemphasis on value creation.

The top 9 literatures by burst strength

Nambisan ( 2013 ) discussed the innovation ecosystem and entrepreneurial environment within the context of central platforms. Due to the overlapping meanings of “business ecosystem” and “innovation ecosystem,” this article serves as a bridge connecting the four main modules. The mixing of terms is common in platform research. In this context, Moore and Iansiti’s work is recognized for their research on platform-based business ecosystem innovation (Gawer & Cusumano, 2014 ). One of the figures summarizes literature related to the platform ecosystem and compares it with the literature flow of other platforms (Thomas et al., 2014 ).

Figure 10 illustrates the time axis map of the 13 main research lines. Solid lines indicate that a line has formed an emerging research area, while dotted lines suggest a cooling trend. Analysis shows that the two-sided market route transitioned to the innovation ecosystem route around 2018, with the business ecosystem branch completing this shift earlier. The convergence of these paths has fostered the growth of the innovation branch into a mainstream research line. The service path has developed steadily for a long period, though its popularity has waned in the past two years. The digital technology research series draws from multiple branches, with its influence steadily expanding, making it the route with the most development potential. Generally, the life cycles of Routes 2, 9, 10, 12, and 15 are relatively short and have been out of the spotlight for a long time. Conceptual fields such as entrepreneurship, innovation, Internet of Things, digitalization, and self-organization continue to release energy, with innovation and digitization leading the way.

Timeline map of main research routes

The research findings indicate that future development in the ecological domain will predominantly focus on innovation, digitization, entrepreneurship, self-organization, and strategic transformations driven by technologies such as the Internet of Things. Due to extensive digital scene construction and industrial digital transformation, digital ecosystem theory is well-grounded in practice and has the potential to evolve into a distinct research domain. Business ecosystem theory effectively captures the dynamic evolutionary process of value logic through three critical links: value creation, value capture, and value sharing. While there is substantial work on integrating value creation with value capture, research that intricately weaves these with value sharing remains scant.

Following the model proposed in our paper, relevant literature in the field has emerged. Consequently, we have adopted this traceable method to identify and review 17 documents published since March 2022, aiming to examine recent research developments. The key findings from this review are discussed below.

Yoon et al. ( 2022 ) examined the connection between business and biological ecosystems, suggesting that a key specie, a leader within a business ecosystem, can enhance its success by strategically managing symbiotic relationships; Shou et al. ( 2022 ) deconstructed business ecosystems into four aspects: complementarity, capabilities, co-creation, and co-evolution, noting that many of the world’s largest and most valuable companies adopt this ecosystem approach. The lack of a unified understanding of business ecosystem features and characteristics complicates the ability of business leaders to formulate and implement effective strategies; Hoeborn et al. ( 2022 ) developed a morphological framework describing all value systems and applied it to business ecosystems, linking its characteristics with ongoing inter-organizational research to aid practitioners in implementing ecosystem concepts; Chandrasekharan and Titov ( 2022 ) explored the business models within the ÜlemisteCity ecosystem to understand the conceptualization of business models and the factors influencing their creation or transformation from an ecosystem perspective, developing a conceptual framework to enhance organizational participation and value processes within ecosystems. Cui et al. ( 2022 ) explored how key enterprises govern their business ecosystems under conditions of resource abundance and resource scarcity.

Further studies have linked business ecosystems to various industries, exploring structural dimensions and standards for assessing industries. Chang et al. ( 2022 ) used fuzzy hierarchical analysis, fuzzy decision-making methods, and experimental laboratory methods to construct five evaluation dimensions and thirty-one evaluation criteria to explore the open data service industry from the perspective of the business ecosystem. Winkler et al. ( 2023 ) demonstrated how knowledge misalignment, knowledge gaps, cultural differences, insufficient building codes, frequently changing regulations, and the implementation of highly embedded innovations disrupt ecosystem coordination, by studying the challenges faced by business ecosystem coordination when implementing solar PV systems in the Swedish built environment. Zhao et al. ( 2022 ) explored the structure of the business ecosystem required for companies to achieve sustainable performance and investigated the open innovation that can be promoted on this basis. Mann et al. ( 2022 ) introduced orchestration as a concept to pursue this research opportunity, using it to observe digital transformation in business ecosystems. Fort ( 2023 ) studied productivity and fairness in the U.S. financial market from the perspective of the business ecosystem. Wei and Li ( 2023 ) researched the impact of platform strategies and niche strategies on corporate growth based on the perspective of business ecosystem positioning. Suuronen et al. ( 2022 ) revealed the significant impact of digital business ecosystems on the industry through a systematic literature review of the prerequisites, challenges, and benefits of manufacturing DBEs. Yi et al. ( 2022 ) examined stakeholder relationships, organizational learning, and business model innovation based on the perspective of business ecosystem research systems. Burström et al. ( 2022 ) integrated business and digital ecosystem literature to study the present and future of software ecosystems. Kokkonen et al. ( 2023 ) studied digital twin business ecosystems based on qualitative data collected from six case companies in the manufacturing industry. Marques-McEwan et al. ( 2023 ) investigated the transition to CE in the chemicals manufacturing industry, revealing the rules for creating circular business ecosystems. Zhu and Du ( 2023 ) investigated the impact on the value of existing business ecosystems when new innovations are introduced, through an event study of Google’s self-driving car announcement.

Collectively, these insights not only deepen academic understanding of business ecosystems but also guide enterprises in formulating and implementing effective strategies in today’s complex business landscape. As digital scene construction and industrial digital transformation continue to solidify the practical foundation for integrating digitalization with ecosystem theory, the direction is poised to evolve into an independent branch of study. However, research methodologies still require further refinement to broaden theoretical applicability. Facing these challenges, coupling business and social ecosystems offers a viable direction. Developing standards and regulatory frameworks to guide sustainable business ecosystem constructions and prevent capital-driven changes in cornerstone enterprises’ nature remain critical future research topics.

7 Conclusion

This paper designed an improved traceability method to retrieve literature related to business ecosystem theory in the WOS database, aiming to avoid interference from the stringent field restrictions and intensive manual screening typical of traditional retrieval methods. Co-occurrence, co-citation, and cluster analyses were used to outline the context of knowledge production, with research results visualized using two scientific mapping tools, VOSviewer and CiteSpace.

This study provides several key insights. Firstly, innovation, platform, entrepreneurship, and service, as main ecological branches, inherit business ecosystem theory to varying degrees. The innovation branch has a clear inheritance relationship and has become a new backbone of ecosystem research. The platform branch has a relatively loose association structure with extensive cross-links to other branches. The entrepreneurial branch’s unique theoretical application scenarios make it easily distinguishable. The service branch combines S-D logic with business ecosystem theory, but research progress on this branch’s ecosystem preference is slow due to S-D logic’s prominence. We identified the shapers of theoretical foundations, breakthroughs of key bottlenecks, and builders of continuous investment in each branch, focusing on nine key literatures that bridge different fields and play a significant role in ecosystem research development.

Although the study offers valuable references for scholars as discussed above, some limitations should be noted and addressed in future research. Firstly, the sample data is sourced from a single database, limiting journal coverage. Secondly, early literature citations are inconsistent, compounded by the impact of journal literature without citations, creating obstacles for vertical logical context and visual analysis. Finally, this article proposes a literature retrieval strategy based on the genealogy of concepts, using James Moore’s seminal works as temporal benchmarks, i.e. his1993 article “Predators and Prey: A New Ecology of Competition,” marking the inception of the business ecosystem concept; and his 1996 book, ‘The Death of Competition: Leadership and Strategy in the Age of Business Ecosystems,’ which provided the first comprehensive interpretation of the theory. However, Moore’s introduction of the concept in 1993 did not gain academic acceptance until a decade later, with significant studies emerging only in 2022. This highlights the unique aspects of studying this concept. While the traceability method is suitable for historical research of business ecological theory, its application in other research domains may introduce noise, requiring careful judgment by researchers regarding specific circumstances. Therefore, discussing the limitations and applicability of this method to other fields is essential.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are derived from public domain resources, which are available in Web of Science.

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The research leading to these results received funding from Chongqing Education Commission, under Grant Agreement No.: 23SKGH138: “Research on the relationship between the ecological dominance of chain owner enterprises, supply chain integration and supply chain innovation performance”.

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Zhang, X., Yang, Y. & Chen, Y. History and future of business ecosystem: a bibliometric analysis and visualization. Environ Dev Sustain (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-024-05318-6

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