Research trends in innovation ecosystem and circular economy

Understanding innovation ecosystems and the circular economy is crucial for systemic change in business and industry, fostering eco-innovation and advancing sustainable development. This study uses bibliometric analysis to uncover the research trends, patterns, and collaborations, revealing a significant gap in understanding the interactions between innovation ecosystems and the circular economy and offering potential avenues for future research that align with sustainable development. The analysis was carried out with the help of Biblioshiny and VOSviewer on the final selected documents of 2981 from the Scopus database through a search query and the SPAR-4-SLR stages of filtration. The key findings of the study are as follows: collaboration among countries involves accessing countries’ resources, knowledge, markets, and location. The study explores research trends in the innovation ecosystem and circular economy, focusing on five key clusters: the circular economy for eco-innovation and resource recovery, circular business models for fostering sustainable innovation in the bioeconomy, sustainability through renewable energy and sdgs, the sustainable business model for enhancing green innovation through entrepreneurship, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the circular business model in Industry 4.0. The bibliometric analysis identifies trends, research gaps, and collaboration patterns, revealing potential avenues for future exploration in industrial symbiosis, energy transition, and the system of innovation. The study analyzed only the documents available in Scopus. The exclusion of papers based on the search period, language, document type, and incomplete details are the limitations of this research and open the scope of potential future research. The findings will help existing researchers in this field as well as new researchers interested in this field by clearly understanding trends and further research scopes. The study also offers actional recommendations and practices to policymakers. Practices, and entrepreneurs for the attainment of global sustainability goals. The novelty and originality of this study rely on a thorough literature review that describes the state of the art in the innovation ecosystem and circular economy.