Digital Entrepreneurship: A review, research synthesis, and development of a framework

The global rise of digital technologies has ushered in a new era of entrepreneurship, fundamentally reshaping traditional business models and driving economic growth and innovation. Digital entrepreneurship is highly relevant today, as advances in technology and infrastructure provide numerous opportunities for entrepreneurs in the modern digital economy. This study maps and synthesizes the field of digital entrepreneurship using two methods: a bibliometric analysis of research articles to identify key clusters, and an umbrella review of peer-reviewed review papers to integrate prior syntheses. Together, these methods surface 13 core themes covering enablers, challenges, mediators, and outcomes in digital entrepreneurship. Based on these consolidated themes, this study proposes the Digital Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Model (DEEM). • Maps digital entrepreneurship via co-citation and bibliographic coupling (2014–2024). • Synthesizes 13 themes through an umbrella review of digital-entrepreneurship reviews. • Proposes the Digital Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Model (DEEM), a 4-layer framework. • Explains how digital affordances, agency and human capital co-evolve in ecosystems. • Offers a policy-practice roadmap to build, enable, empower and evaluate ecosystems.