Before the results of the co-citation analysis are discussed, some basic features of our data have been described. As stated above, the initial database included 2,205 articles published in the period from 19993 to 2022. Table 1A in the appendix shows the details of this dataset.
As mentioned earlier, the initial data set retrieved from Web of Science (2022) contains 1,844 articles. Table 2A in the Appendix shows the most influential journals in terms of citations and the number of articles. As shown in Table2A, based on the total number of citations, “Strategic Management Journal” with 26 articles and 4,209 citations is in the first rank among all journals published articles in this field. After that, “Journal of Business Research” with 3,667 citations is in the second rank, and “Harvard Business Review” with 22 articles and 3,205 citations is in the third rank.
Business Review (1993) has received 1,218 citations and placed third in the field.
The results of historiographic analysis are shown in Fig. 1. This figure provide information about direct citations of how the core papers in the ecosystem literature have influenced one another. The article represented in this figure are extensively cited by other leading articles on ecosystem theory in business and management. According to this results, the article written by Adner and Kapoor (2010) with 205 local citations, Moore (1993) with 193 local citations, Vargo and Lusch (2016) with 160 local citations and also Jacobides et al. (2018) with 153 local citations stand out as the focal points of the research domain.
4.1. Results of the co-citation analysis and pathfinding
In order to find the intellectual structure of ecosystem literature in business and management fields of study, we used co-citation network analysis. The initial network contains 2,859 nodes (documents) and 351,142 links. As we discussed in section 3, in order to reduce the links and find pathways in this literature we used a path-finding algorithm. By employing the MST- Path finder algorithm, we reduced links to 2,858. Then, we calculated the network measures such as degree centrality, Betweenness centrality, and closeness centrality to find the most important documents in each path. In addition, we used a community detection algorithm to identify communities in the network. Figure 1 illustrates the co-citation network, pathways, and related communities.
As shown in Fig. 2 and according to the results of the community detection and pathfinding algorithm, 11 communities has identified. According to this network, the size of nodes are determined by the BC value of nodes, and Links indicate significant connections between documents, while communities denote documents that are highly related in terms of topical similarity. Table 1 illustrates the structure of ecosystem literature according to the results of a path-finding algorithm, including the most influential works, Betweenness Centrality, Degree Centrality, closeness centrality, and their related communities.
Table 1
Top 20 documents based on BC value in the ecosystem literature.
Rank
|
Author/s
|
Year
|
BC
|
DC
|
CC
|
Topic
|
Community
|
1
|
Adner and Kapoor
|
2010
|
0.791
|
234
|
0.246
|
Value creation/Innovation ecosystem
|
0-Light Blue
|
2
|
Adner
|
2017
|
0.516
|
119
|
0.224
|
Ecosystem as structure
|
9- Gray
|
3
|
Moore
|
1993
|
0.417
|
51
|
0.222
|
Business Ecosystem
|
10-Purple
|
4
|
Stam
|
2015
|
0.402
|
58
|
0.200
|
Entrepreneurial ecosystem/Regional policy
|
5-green
|
5
|
Vargo and Lusch
|
2016
|
0.386
|
113
|
0.184
|
Service-Dominant logic
|
8-Blue
|
6
|
Lusch and Nambisan
|
2015
|
0.356
|
16
|
0.204
|
Service Innovation
|
8-Blue
|
7
|
Spigel
|
2017
|
0.330
|
98
|
0.177
|
Entrepreneurial ecosystem
|
4-Orange
|
8
|
Vargo and Lusch
|
2004
|
0.204
|
136
|
0.160
|
Dominant logic for marketing
|
11-Brown
|
9
|
Isenberg
|
2010
|
0.136
|
67
|
0.154
|
Entrepreneurial revolution
|
3-Pink
|
10
|
Teece
|
2007
|
0.125
|
25
|
0.203
|
Dynamic Capability
|
12-Dark red
|
11
|
Gawer and Cusumano
|
2014
|
0.103
|
18
|
0.202
|
Industry Platforms
|
6-Magenta
|
12
|
Adner
|
2006
|
0.092
|
47
|
0.201
|
Innovation ecosystem
|
7-Cyan
|
13
|
Gawer
|
2014
|
0.086
|
39
|
0.170
|
Technological platform
|
6-Magenta
|
14
|
Chesbrough
|
2003
|
0.075
|
52
|
0.201
|
Open Innovation
|
2-red
|
15
|
Sklyar et al
|
2019
|
0.066
|
12
|
0.188
|
Digital Servitization
|
9-Gray
|
16
|
Teece et al
|
1997
|
0.051
|
22
|
0.170
|
Dynamic Capability
|
12-Dark red
|
17
|
Teece
|
2010
|
0.047
|
13
|
0.170
|
Business model/Business strategy
|
12-Dark red
|
18
|
Chandler and Vargo
|
2011
|
0.044
|
43
|
0.156
|
The context in service provision
|
8-Blue
|
19
|
Jacobides et al
|
2018
|
0.043
|
52
|
0.188
|
Ecosystem Theory
|
9-Gray
|
20
|
Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff
|
2000
|
0.041
|
6
|
0.134
|
Triple Helix
|
3-Pink
|
Note: Degree centrality (DC) indicates the number of connections (connectivity); Betweenness centrality (BC) indicates the amount of influence or control a node has over the flow between nodes and networks (similar to a bridge); Closeness centrality (CC) indicates the easiest access to all other nodes in a network or sub-network (shortest distance from nodes). Documents are sorted based on the Betweenness centrality.
As shown in Table 1, the article written by Adner and Kapoor (2010) about value creation in the innovation ecosystems is at the center of the network and plays a bridging role in connecting all other nodes. After that, the article written by Adner (2017) about the ecosystem as a structure with BC value 0.516 is the second rank. According to the BC value, the third influential article in this literature is the article that wrote by Moore (1993) with BC value 0.417. The result of the community detection algorithm suggested that documents in the co-citation network of ecosystem studies might be categorized in 12 communities, as follows:
Community 0. This community is the biggest community in the studies related to the ecosystem literature. In this community, there are 479 documents (nodes) and 478 links. The article that has written by Adner and Kapoor (2010) about the value creation of actors as they collaborate for innovation at the center of this community. Table 2 provides information about the most influential documents that shape the structure of this community. “Absorptive capacity theory” (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990), “organizational legitimacy” (Suchman, 1990), “disruptive innovation” (Ansari et al., 2016), profiting from technological innovation (Teece, 1986), “internationalization process of the firm” (Johanson and Vahlne, 1977), “organizational learning” (March, 1991), “Institutional context of industry creation” (Aldrich and Fiol, 1994), “Strategy and innovation in the context of the business ecosystems” (Iansiti, & Levien, 2004) and “Disruptive innovation” (Christensen, 1997) are the roots of this constructs and mainly related to the theoretical background of innovation ecosystem theory.
Table 2
Most influential documents shapes the structure of community 0.
Rank
|
Author/s
|
Year
|
Journal
|
BC
|
Degree
|
CC
|
Topic
|
1
|
Adner and Kpaoor
|
2010
|
strategic management journal
|
0.791
|
234
|
0.246
|
Innovation ecosystem
|
2
|
Cohen and Levinthal
|
1990
|
Administrative Science Quarterly
|
0.025
|
21
|
0.198
|
Absorptive Capacity
|
3
|
Suchman
|
1995
|
Academy of management review
|
0.018
|
10
|
0.197
|
organizational legitimacy
|
4
|
Ansari et al
|
2016
|
Strategic management journal
|
0.017
|
14
|
0.198
|
Disruptive innovation
|
5
|
Teece
|
1986
|
Research Policy
|
0.012
|
14
|
0.198
|
Innovating firms/technological innovation
|
6
|
Johanson and Vahlne
|
1977
|
Journal of International Business Studies
|
0.125
|
7
|
0.198
|
internationalization process of the firm
|
7
|
March
|
1991
|
Organization science
|
0.011
|
13
|
0.198
|
organizational learning
|
8
|
Aldrich, and Fiol
|
1994
|
Academy of management review
|
0.008
|
11
|
0.166
|
Institutional context of industry creation
|
9
|
Iansiti, & Levien
|
2004
|
Harvard Business Press
|
0.007
|
11
|
0.198
|
Strategy and innovation
in the context of the business ecosystems
|
10
|
Christensen
|
1997
|
Harvard Business School Press
|
0.007
|
10
|
0.165
|
Disruptive innovation
|
Community 1. In this community that is directly derived from community 0 (innovation ecosystem), there are 105 nodes (documents) and 104 links among nodes. The book has been written by Chesbrough (2003) open innovation theory at the focal point of this community. The other important documents in this community (i.e., Chesbrough and Bogers, 2014; Chesbrough, and Vanhaverbeke, 2006; Dahlander and Gann, 2010; Vrontis et al.) are derived from this seminal work of Chesbrough (2003) and shapes this community. According to the results, this community is mainly related to the open innovation theory. Table 3 shows the most important documents in community 1.
Table 3
Most influential documents shapes the structure of community 1.
Rank
|
Author/s
|
Year
|
Journal
|
BC
|
Degree
|
CC
|
Topic
|
1
|
Chesbrough
|
2003
|
Harvard Business Press
|
0.075
|
52
|
0.201
|
Open Innovation
|
2
|
Chesbrough and Bogers
|
2014
|
New Frontiers in Open Innovation
|
0.013
|
15
|
0.167
|
Clarification of open innovation paradigm
|
3
|
Chesbrough, and Vanhaverbeke
|
2006
|
Oxford University Press
|
0.006
|
10
|
0.167
|
Open innovation
|
4
|
Dahlander and Gann
|
2010
|
Research policy
|
0.005
|
9
|
0.167
|
Open innovation
|
5
|
Vrontis et al.
|
2017
|
Journal of Technology Transfer
|
0.002
|
2
|
0.143
|
Organizational ambidexterity/ knowledge-intensive firms’ performance
|
Community 2. This community includes 204 nodes (documents) and 203 links. The article is by Isenberg (2010) about the Entrepreneurial revolution at the center of this community. The most influential documents related to this community are presented in Table 4. This community has structured by the concepts of Academic entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial university (Etzkowitz et al, 2000; Siegel and Wright, 2015; Guerrero et al., 2016), entrepreneurship education (Bae et al., 2014; Kuratko, 2005), and social entrepreneurship (Austin et al., 2006; Mair and Marti, 2006).
Table 4
Most influential documents shapes the structure of community 2.
Rank
|
Author/s
|
Year
|
Journal
|
BC
|
Degree
|
CC
|
Topic
|
1
|
Isenberg
|
2010
|
Harvard Business Review
|
0.136
|
67
|
0.154
|
Entrepreneurial revolution
|
2
|
Etzkowitz et al.
|
2000
|
Research Policy
|
0.041
|
6
|
0.134
|
entrepreneurial university
|
3
|
Siegel and Wright
|
2015
|
British journal of management
|
0.037
|
6
|
0.119
|
Academic entrepreneurship
|
4
|
Bae et al.
|
2014
|
Entrepreneurship theory and practice
|
0.027
|
11
|
0.167
|
entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intentions
|
5
|
Austin et al.
|
2006
|
Entrepreneurship theory and practice
|
0.027
|
16
|
0.134
|
Social and commercial entrepreneurship
|
6
|
Mair and Marti
|
2006
|
Journal of world business
|
0.011
|
12
|
0. 118
|
Social entrepreneurship
|
7
|
Kuratko
|
2005
|
Entrepreneurship theory and practice
|
0.011
|
9
|
0.096
|
entrepreneurship education
|
8
|
Guerrero et al.
|
2016
|
Small business economics
|
0.01
|
4
|
0.134
|
entrepreneurial university
|
Community 3. This community contains 327 nodes (documents) and 326 links. The article written by Spigel (2017) about the Entrepreneurial ecosystem with a BC value of 0.330 is at the center of this community. In general, this community is mainly related to the entrepreneurial ecosystem theory. Table 5 shows the most important documents in this community. Some concepts such as incubations (Pauwels et al., 2014; Bergek and Norrman, 2008), Entrepreneurial finance (Audretsch et al., 2016), the role of context in entrepreneurial innovation (Autio et al., 2014), and sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem (Cohen, 2006) are the most important documents that shape this community.
Table 5
Most influential documents shapes the structure of community 2.
Rank
|
Author/s
|
Year
|
Journal
|
BC
|
Degree
|
CC
|
Topic
|
1
|
Spigel
|
2017
|
Entrepreneurship theory and practice
|
0.330
|
98
|
0.177
|
Entrepreneurial ecosystem
|
2
|
Acs et al.
|
2014
|
Research policy
|
0.031
|
35
|
0.151
|
National systems of entrepreneurship
|
3
|
Pauwels et al.
|
2016
|
Technovation
|
0.026
|
13
|
0.151
|
new generation incubation model: accelerator
|
4
|
Alvedalen and Boschma
|
2017
|
European planning studies
|
0.022
|
23
|
0.151
|
Entrepreneurial ecosystem (critical review)
|
5
|
Audretsch et al.
|
2016
|
Journal of Technology Transfer
|
0.017
|
12
|
0.151
|
Entrepreneurial finance
|
6
|
Autio et al.
|
2014
|
Research policy
|
0.014
|
16
|
0.150
|
Entrepreneurial innovation
|
7
|
Bergek and Norman
|
2008
|
Technovation
|
0.012
|
14
|
0.131
|
Incubators
|
Community 4. This community contains 158 nodes (documents) and 184 links. The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and regional policy article that wrote by Stam (2015) is at the center of this community. This article provides a framework in order to analyze the interactions between the elements of the ecosystem as well as an explanation of how the framework and systemic conditions of the ecosystem lead to particular entrepreneurial activities (Stam, 2015). Table 6 provides information about the structure of this community. The most important concepts and theories that shape this community are the reviews on the entrepreneurial ecosystem and explanation of contributions to this theory (Acs et al., 2017), entrepreneurial intentions by Krueger et al., 2000, and the classic works of Ajzen on planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991).
Table 6
Most influential documents shapes the structure of community 4.
Rank
|
Author/s
|
Year
|
Journal
|
BC
|
Degree
|
CC
|
Topic
|
1
|
Stam
|
2015
|
European Planning Studies
|
0.402
|
58
|
0.200
|
Entrepreneurial ecosystem and regional policy
|
2
|
Acs et al.
|
2017
|
Small Business Economics
|
0.040
|
41
|
0.1688
|
Lineages of entrepreneurial ecosystem
|
3
|
Krueger et al.
|
2000
|
Journal of business venturing
|
0.017
|
5
|
0.167
|
Entrepreneurial intentions
|
4
|
Ajzen
|
1991
|
Organizational behavior and human decision processes
|
0.013
|
11
|
0.143
|
Planned behavior
|
5
|
Granovetter
|
1985
|
American Journal of Sociology
|
0.013
|
6
|
0.167
|
Economic action and social structure
|
Community 5. This community contains 156 nodes and 155 links. Based on the BC value, the most important document in this community is the article that wrote by Gawer and Cusumano (2014). This article is mainly about Industry platforms and the authors argue about distinct types of platforms and identify practices associated with effective platform leadership and avenues for future research. Table 7 shows the top five influential document that shapes this community. Technological platforms (Gawer, 2014), Platform competition (Rochet and Tirole, 2004; Cennamo and Santalo, 2013), and the study by Boudreau (2012) about the effect of the number of producers on the platform and the number of software varieties that were generated have shaped this community.
Table 7
Most influential documents shapes the structure of community 5.
Rank
|
Author/s
|
Year
|
Journal
|
BC
|
Degree
|
CC
|
Topic
|
1
|
Gawer and Cusumano
|
2014
|
Journal of product innovation management
|
0.103
|
18
|
0.202
|
Industry platforms
|
2
|
Gawer
|
2014
|
Research policy
|
0.086
|
39
|
0.170
|
Technological platforms
|
3
|
Rochet and Tirole
|
2004
|
Journal of the European economic association
|
0.020
|
13
|
0.146
|
Platform competition
|
4
|
Cennamo and Santalo
|
2013
|
Strategic management journal
|
0.016
|
11
|
0.146
|
Platform competition
|
5
|
Boudreau
|
2012
|
Organization Science
|
0.008
|
11
|
0.127
|
Computer platforms/patterns of innovation
|
Community 6. In this community, there are 110 nodes (documents) and 109 links between them. The article that wrote by Adner (2006) is at the heart of this community. This article is about the innovation ecosystem and introduces this concept for the first time. Table 8 provides information about this community. The most important articles that shape this community are mainly related to the Triple-Helix theory and interaction between university, industry, and government (Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff, 2009), the relational view to competitive advantage by Dyer and Singh (1998), and Quadruple Helix (Carayannis and Campbell, 2009).
Table 8
Most influential documents shapes the structure of community 6.
Rank
|
Author/s
|
Year
|
Journal
|
BC
|
Degree
|
CC
|
Topic
|
1
|
Adner
|
2006
|
Harvard Business Review
|
0.092
|
47
|
0.201
|
Innovation Ecosystem
|
2
|
Carayannis and Campbell
|
2009
|
International journal of technology management
|
0.019
|
7
|
0.168
|
'Mode 3'and'Quadruple Helix'/ Innovation ecosystem
|
3
|
Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff
|
2000
|
Research policy
|
0.015
|
19
|
0.144
|
“Mode 2” to a Triple Helix
|
4
|
Dyer and Singh
|
1998
|
Academy of management review
|
0.011
|
4
|
0.168
|
relational view of competitive advantage
|
Community 7. In this community, there are 283 nodes (documents) and 282 Links. The most important document in this community based on the BC value is the article published by Vargo and Lusch (2016) about Service-dominant logic. According to the results, this community is mainly concerned with service research. Table 9 provides information about the most important documents in this community. This community is primarily shaped by articles about service innovation (Lusch and Nambisan, 2015), the context in service provision (Chandler and Vargo, 2011), priorities in service research (Ostrom et al., 2015), transformative service research (Anderson et al., 2013), and customer engagement (Brodie et al., 2011).
Table 9
Most influential documents shapes the structure of community 7.
Rank
|
Author/s
|
Year
|
Journal
|
BC
|
Degree
|
CC
|
Topic
|
1
|
Vargo and Lusch
|
2016
|
Journal of the Academy of marketing Science
|
0.386
|
113
|
0.183
|
Service-dominate Logic
|
2
|
Lusch and Nambisan
|
2015
|
MIS Quarterly
|
0.356
|
16
|
0.204
|
Service Innovation
|
3
|
Chandler and Vargo
|
2011
|
Marketing theory
|
0.044
|
43
|
0.156
|
Context in service provision
|
4
|
Ostrom et al.
|
2015
|
Journal of service research
|
0.024
|
5
|
0.155
|
Service research priorities
|
5
|
Anderson et al.
|
2013
|
Journal of Business Research
|
0.021
|
28
|
0.135
|
Transformative service research
|
6
|
Brodie et al.
|
2011
|
Journal of service research
|
0.018
|
23
|
0.155
|
Customer engagement
|
Community 8. In this community, there are 250 nodes (documents) and 249 Links. The most important document in this community based on the BC value is the article published by Adner (2017) and about ecosystem structure. This community is primarily shaped by articles about Digital Servitization (Sklyar et al., 2019), Boosting servitization through digitization (Coreynen et al., 2017), Platform approach in servitization (Cenamor et al., 2017), and Digital servitization business models (Kohtamäki et al. 2019). Table 10 shows the most influential documents in this community.
Table 10
Most influential documents shapes the structure of community 8.
Rank
|
Author/s
|
Year
|
Journal
|
BC
|
Degree
|
CC
|
Topic
|
1
|
Adner
|
2017
|
Journal of management
|
0.516
|
119
|
0.229
|
ecosystem structure
|
2
|
Sklyar et al.
|
2019
|
Journal of Business Research
|
0.066
|
12
|
0.188
|
digital servitization
|
3
|
Jacobides et al., 2018
|
2018
|
Strategic management journal
|
0.043
|
52
|
0.188
|
Ecosystem theory
|
4
|
Coreynen et al.
|
2017
|
Industrial marketing management
|
0.043
|
17
|
0.160
|
Boosting servitization through digitization
|
5
|
Cenamor et al.
|
2017
|
International Journal of Production Economics
|
0.027
|
12
|
0.138
|
Platform approach in servitization
|
6
|
Kohtamäki et al.
|
2019
|
Journal of Business Research
|
0.016
|
12
|
0.159
|
Digital servitization business models
|
7
|
Baines et al.
|
|
International Journal of Operations & Production Management
|
0.015
|
12
|
0.121
|
Servitization (review)
|
Community 9. This community contains 83 nodes (documents) and 82 links. The most influential article in this community is by Moore (1993) about the business ecosystem. The other important article is about value creation in ecosystems that was published by Clarysse et al. (2014). This community is the smallest community among all others and just one of its documents has a BC value greater than 0.01.
Community 10. In this community, there are 311 nodes (documents) and 310 links. The most influential document in this community is the article published by Vargo and Lusch (2004) about dominant logic for marketing. According to the results, this community is strongly related to the service-dominant logic (Vargo and Lusch, 2004, 2008, 2011; Lusch and Vargo, 2014). Table 11 shows the most important documents in this community based on the BC value.
Table 11
Most influential documents shapes the structure of community 10.
Rank
|
Author/s
|
Year
|
Journal
|
BC
|
Degree
|
CC
|
Topic
|
1
|
Vargo and Lusch
|
2004
|
Journal of marketing
|
0.02
|
136
|
0.160
|
Dominant logic for marketing
|
2
|
Vargo and Lusch
|
2008
|
Journal of the Academy of marketing Science
|
0.029
|
36
|
0.138
|
Service-dominant logic
|
3
|
Vargo and Lusch
|
2011
|
Industrial marketing management
|
0.026
|
20
|
0.138
|
systems perspective of the market
|
4
|
Lsuch and Vargo
|
2014
|
Cambridge University Press
|
0.024
|
|
0.138
|
Service-dominant logic
|
5
|
Kjellberg and Helgesson
|
2006
|
Industrial Marketing Management
|
0.01
|
10
|
0.122
|
Multiple versions of markets
|
Community 11. This community contains 185 nodes (documents) and 148 links. Teece's (2007) article explicates the dynamic capability theory at the heart of this community. This community is shaped by articles about Dynamic capability theory and strategic management (Teece, 1997, 2007), Business Model (Teece, 2010; Zott et al., 2011; Zott and Amit, 2010), firm resources, and competitive advantage (Barney, 1991), Value creation in e-business (Amitt and Zott, 2011) and social capital (Adler and Kwon, 2002). Table 12 provides information about this community.
Table 12
Most influential documents shapes the structure of community 11.
Rank
|
Author/s
|
Year
|
Journal
|
BC
|
Degree
|
CC
|
Topic
|
1
|
Teece
|
2007
|
Strategic management journal
|
0.125
|
25
|
0.203
|
Dynamic Capability
|
2
|
Teece et al.
|
1997
|
Strategic management journal
|
0.051
|
22
|
0.170
|
Dynamic Capability
|
3
|
Teece
|
2010
|
Long range planning
|
0.047
|
13
|
0.170
|
Business Model
|
4
|
Barney
|
1991
|
Journal of management
|
0.034
|
39
|
0.146
|
Firm resources/ Competitive advantage
|
5
|
Zott et al.,
|
2011
|
Journal of management
|
0.034
|
5
|
0.146
|
Business Model
|
6
|
Zott and Amit
|
2010
|
Long range planning
|
0.028
|
5
|
0.128
|
Business Model
|
7
|
Amitt and Zott
|
2011
|
Strategic management journal
|
0.024
|
25
|
0.113
|
Value creation in e-business
|
8
|
Adler and Kwon
|
2002
|
Academy of management review
|
0.010
|
4
|
0.169
|
Social capital
|