Regenerative Economy and Sustainable Development: A Scoping Review of Concepts, Strategies, Measurement and Gaps

Regeneration has moved into economics and management as a proposal to go beyond reducing harm and strengthen the capacity of social-ecological systems to renew themselves, but the field lacks consolidation. This scoping review (PRISMA-ScR) mapped the definitions, strategies, measurement approaches and gaps of the regenerative economy. Searches in three sources and citation chasing identified 2273 records; after screening with blind reliability checks, 165 peer-reviewed studies published between 2020 and 2026 were charted. Definitions converge on the health of living systems (59%), net positive contributions (57%) and co-evolution with place (48%), and 88% contrast regeneration with sustainability, but only 8% distinguish it from corporate social responsibility. Social regeneration and policy (50% each) are the most frequent strategies, whereas cultural aspects receive less attention. Measurement is the main weakness: 59% of documents report no measurement approach, 16% only propose metrics and only 4% (8% of empirical studies) measure observed ecological, social or economic outcomes, while baselines, thresholds and additionality are rarely declared. Developing economies host more than half of the located studies, but global frameworks come mainly from authors in developed economies. The review proposes a verifiable definition, a checklist for regenerative claims and a research agenda linked to organisational innovation.