Examining Recent Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Research in Emerging Economies – A Bibliometric Analysis

While research on entrepreneurial ecosystems is gaining popularity among researchers because of the way entrepreneurship transforms the socio-economic situation of nations, emerging economies across the world have seen fewer contributions. In the last decade, several calls have been made for researchers to prioritize contextual lenses in regions such as Africa, Latin America and Asia, where entrepreneurship is strongly driving development. To give credence to whether researchers in the field have accepted this challenge and ascertain the growth in this research area, we conduct a bibliometric analysis to provide a perspective on contributions made by authors, journals, and institutions. We further attempt to identify the thematic patterns of the field. Our sample was retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science, accounting for 321 publications. We adopted the Bibliometrix tool in the R-package to analyse and visualize figures. The findings suggest an increasing publication growth rate, averaging 16.99 per cent annually. The year 2024 recorded the highest publications, showing a growing interest among researchers. The analysis also revealed the multidisciplinary nature of the entrepreneurial ecosystem research in emerging economies. The key topics cover theory, methodology and domains like innovation, institutions, governance and sustainable development. This study provides a broader indigenous lens for entrepreneurial ecosystem research in emerging economies.