Business Ecosystems, Actors, and Roles: A Review, Synthesis, and Research Agenda

This paper aims to review the substantial and growing literature on business ecosystems. Using a systematic approach, we identify all articles in the web of science database that includes the term “ecosystem” from the year 1995 to 2023 and further narrow down to identify 270 relevant articles. Despite its importance, ecosystem literature is still in the early stages and is highly fragmented across multiple business fields with many important research questions remaining unanswered. This research seeks to unpack how ecosystems have been classified within the business field and then understand the mechanisms for how various ecosystem types evolve through a specific focus on actors in the ecosystem and the roles played. We conclude by offering new theoretical directions and providing an agenda for future research