Title: Taking stock of empirical research on business ecosystems: a literature review

Authors: Kati Järvi; Samuli Kortelainen

Addresses: Hanken School of Economics, Arkadiankatu 22, 00100 Helsinki, Finland ' Lappeenranta University of Technology, Skinnarilankatu 34, 53850 Lappeenranta, Finland

Abstract: The current state of empirical research on ecosystems is reviewed, including business, innovation and platform ecosystems. A systematic literature review identifies several units of analysis: the individual actor, the relationship between actors and the ecosystem as a whole. Taking these units of analysis into account, various theoretical perspectives in ecosystem research are analysed. A number of methodologies utilised in previous empirical research on ecosystems of different types are also described. The paper contributes to emerging theory on ecosystems in the field of business and management.

Keywords: business ecosystem; innovation ecosystem; technology ecosystem; platform ecosystem; literature review.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBSR.2017.085469

International Journal of Business and Systems Research, 2017 Vol.11 No.3, pp.215 - 228

Received: 16 Dec 2014
Accepted: 20 Oct 2015
Published online: 28 Jul 2017 *

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