Innovation Ecosystem: Evolution and Trends in Scientific Literature

Innovation ecosystems (IEs) have attracted growing interest from researchers, policymakers, and practitioners due to innovation's transformative role in socioeconomic reality. The objective of this article is to conduct a comprehensive mapping of the current state of research in IEs, analyzing its evolution and outlining trends. This analysis aims to provide researchers in the field with a comprehensive guide, offering a broad review of existing studies and establishing a solid foundation for future investigations. Utilizing data from WoS and Scopus, we adopted a systematic literature review methodology, grounded in a bibliometric analysis (415 documents), followed by analysis of the most significant works. The data were analyzed using CiteSpace and Bibliometrix software. This study identified cross-cutting themes for future studies that emerge in works from different authors, interconnecting various aspects of IEs. They are the following: strategic approach and performance; dynamics of relationships among actors; governance mechanisms and adaptive capacity; digital IE; responsible IE; and research and development. The study provided an overview of the conceptual development in the area, noting changes between historical studies and recent research on IEs. The categories that reveal these elements enable scholars concerned with strategy, entrepreneurship, and public policy to make decisions through consistent analyses.