Thirty years of digital entrepreneurship research through a systematic review and bibliometric analysis

Abstract Digital entrepreneurship has significantly transformed the global business landscape, and it is a thriving field at the intersection of traditional entrepreneurial practices and digital innovation. The objective of the research is to illustrate a comprehensive, systematic, and bibliometric analysis of the themes, influential contributions, evaluation and future directions in digital entrepreneurship research. This study has analyzed 959 publications from the Scopus Database, which incorporates a span of 30 years (1993 to 2023), experimenting with multiple bibliometric tools, i.e., RStudio and VOSviewer. In particular, the full range of the performance analysis and science-mapping techniques, such as co-authorship, co-citation and keyword co-occurrence networks are utilized with the help of these two software to demonstrate the impactful contributions and the structure of themes in digital entrepreneurship studies. The analysis depicts strong geographical clustering of the digital entrepreneurship research productivity and collaboration. It also demonstrates an opportunity of global involvement in the academic field. The findings reveal the escalating scholarly attention in the field of Digital Entrepreneurship, propelled by the integration of digital technologies in ongoing digital transformation and business processes catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In spite of the considerable breakthroughs, this study recognizes substantial gaps in the existing literature and particularly the need for inclusive theoretical frameworks. The results offer theoretical contribution by identifying technology-enabled business model innovation as the central conceptual foundation. They also provide practical insights by outlining promising directions for policymakers and entrepreneurs. The future research approaches are recommended, emphasizing the necessity of reconnoitering under-researched areas, i.e., the role of digital entrepreneurship in sustainable progress, cross-cultural comparisons, and the impact of emerging technologies. This research delivers a valuable perception for practitioners and scholars and also guides them through the transforming landscape of digital entrepreneurship and illustrates the critical role in progressive business standards.