One Decade Research in the Field of Business Ecosystem: A Bibliometric Analysis

The concept of a business ecosystem was first introduced by James F. Moore in 1993 in an article published by the Harvard Business Review for the May-June period with the title “Predators And Prey: A New Ecology Of Competition." The business ecosystem is defined as a perspective to understand how the economic community works. The economic community is referred to as a business ecosystem to replace the term industry [1]. As a new perspective in research, the business ecosystem has several advantages over other perspectives, including a new paradigm in innovation [2, 3] and a new concept in the field of business collaboration [4, 5].

Bibliometrics is a quantitative analysis of documents to analyze scientific publications, get an overview of the research field, obtain collaborations or co-authorship with other researchers [6], and evaluate research [7]. The bibliometric analysis provides information on measuring the productivity and quality of articles in the form of citations and is also available to support decision-making in research management. The most common types of information and studies carried out in bibliometric analysis include the number of scientific articles [8], number of citations [7], researchers or authors [9], keyword co-occurrence relations, co-authorship networks [10, 11], and journal titles [12]. In addition, this information usually does not provide exact measurements but is only an estimate. Therefore, decision-making cannot only rely on bibliometric information as the only basis [6] and still requires expert judgment from researchers.

As a new and essential stream in strategic management [13, 14], the business ecosystem has high popularity among researchers and practitioners [15, 16]. Several scientific articles have conducted a systematic literature review on the development of the business ecosystem concept [17-20]. Makinen and Dedehayir [17] explain the role of actors, evolution, change dynamics, and companies' participation in the business ecosystem. Bonamigo et al. [18] support that applying the concept of a business ecosystem can reduce potential risks in the dairy sector. At the same time, Järvi and Kortelainen [19] underlined the unit of analysis, theoretical perspectives, and methodological approaches in empirical research on business ecosystems, and Faber et al. [20] presented types of business ecosystems.

However, systematic literature reviews based on bibliometric analysis and visualization with VOSviewer in business ecosystems are rarely carried out. Bibliometric analysis needs to be done to measure output and observe developments of science and technology through the production of scientific literature in specific studies [8]. While visualization with VOSviewer is crucial because it makes it easier for researchers to build a state-of-the-art and find new research topics that are still rarely studied [21]. The application of network analysis and visualization helps make it easier to understand the interconnections and interdependencies in the business ecosystem [19].

This paper aims to perform bibliometric analysis, visualization with VOSviewer, and systematic literature reviews on 44 scientific articles indexed by Scopus quartile Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4 (then we call quartile Q1-Q4), which were retrieved from the Google Scholar database. Evaluation involves the number of scientific articles, journal titles, citation analysis, keywords analysis, and co-authorship analysis. VOSviewer is suitable for creating and viewing bibliometric maps, author maps based on co-authorship, and keyword maps based on co-occurrence data and is free for the research community [22]. In the discussion section, we also conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) of 44 articles indexed by Scopus quartile Q1-Q4.

Figure 2 shows the development of the number of scientific articles in the field of business ecosystems in 2010-2020, where the growth fluctuated greatly. The figure shows that the Q3 and Q4 quartile papers show a downward trend. Still, on the contrary, the Q1 and Q2 quartile papers have an increasing trend, wherein in 2018, the number of publications increased the most, with a growth of 400.0%, higher than the average growth over the last ten years, which is 88.33%.

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Figure 2. Trends in scientific articles

The comparison of citation metrics (Table 2) in Publish or Perish shows cites/paper metrics scientific papers quartiles Q1 and Q2 (36.07) higher than the initial search (14.41), scientific papers quartile Q3 and Q4 (7.29), and scientific papers not indexed by Scopus (5.93). This finding means that the Q1 and Q2 quartile papers have the most significant impact on research citations when compared to other quartile scientific articles. The same thing also happened to the authors/paper metrics, where the results of the Q1 and Q2 (3.15) quartile screening papers were greater than the initial search (2.61), Q3 and Q4 (2.29) quartile papers and not indexed by Scopus (2.64).

There are 19 publishers who publish scientific articles, of which the TOP 6 publishers (Figure 3) that produce the most scientific articles in Scopus quartile Q1-Q4 are Inderscienceonline.com with ten articles (22.73%), followed by Emerald with seven articles (15.91%), Elsevier with four articles (9.09%), Taylor & Francis with three articles (6.82%), and Springer and Earticle.net each with two articles (4.55%). Further, based on author keywords, the articles in the TOP 6 discuss the field of business ecosystems, including the internet of things, innovation, platform strategy, ICT, collaboration, co-evolution, and business ecosystem identity. Meanwhile, the publishers who only produced one article (2.27%) were jitm.ubalt.edu, jmir.org, journal.sagepub.com, journalsk.bupt.edu.cn, papers.ssrn.com, pertanika.upm.edu.my, ripublication.com, publications.waset.org, TAPPI press, usm.my, Wiley Online Library, and World Scientific. Overall, each publisher has produced an average of two shortest scientific articles in the last decade, Scopus quartile Q1-Q4.

Table 2. Comparison metrics

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Figure 3. TOP 6 publishers that publish articles in business ecosystems

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Figure 4. TOP 5 journals that publish scientific articles in business ecosystems

The TOP 5 (Figure 4) journals that publish the most scientific articles are the Journal of Cleaner Production (Elsevier), the Int. J. of Technology Management (Inderscienceonline), and the Int. J. of Innovation and Learning (Inderscienceonline) every three scientific articles, followed by the Journal of International Business Studies (Springer) and the European Journal of Innovation Management (Emerald) with two scientific articles each.

In contrast, the journals that only publish one scientific article are the Asian Academy of Management Journal (Q3), British Food Journal (Q1), Business Process Management Journal (Q1), Innovation (Q2), Int. J. of Applied Engineering Research (Q2), Int. J. of Business Environment (Q2), Int. J. of Control and Automation (Q4), Int. J. of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management (Q3), Int. J. of Industrial and Systems Engineering (Q2), Int. J. of Innovation and Technology Management (Q3), Int. J. of Logistics Research and Applications (Q1), Int. J. of Operation and Production Management (Q1), Int. J. of Organizational Analysis (Q2), Int. J. of Production Economics (Q1), Int. J. of Public Sector Performance Management (Q3), Int. J. of Services, Economics and Management (Q4), Int. J. of u- and e-Service, Science and Technology (Q4), J. of Advanced Oxidation Technologies (Q4), J. of Beijing University of Posts (Q4), J. of Economics and Business (Q2), J. of Heritage Tourism (Q1), J. of Information Technology Management (Q4), J. of Medical Internet Research (Q1), J. of Nanjing University of Posts (Q4), J. of Product Innovation Management (Q1), J. of Rural Development (Q4), Pertanika J. of Social Sciences and Humanities (Q3), Project Management Journal (Q1), Qualitative Research in Organization and Management: An Int. J. (Q2), J. of Hydroelectric Engineering (Q3), and Tappi Journal (Q2).

3.1 Citation analysis

The TOP 11 (Table 3) articles that generated the most citations over the past decade come from publisher Elsevier with 311 citations from articles written by Rong et al. [25] entitled "Understanding Business Ecosystem Using a 6C Framework in Internet-Of-Things-Based Sectors", and this scientific article is also the most superior in citations per year, which is 44.43. It is followed by an article written by Rong et al. [26] entitled "Linking Business Ecosystem Lifecycle with Platform Strategy: A Triple View of Technology, Application, and Organization," with 112 citations and 12.44 citations per year. The third rank is the article entitled "Co-Evolution Between Urban Sustainability and Business Ecosystem Innovation: Evidence from the Sharing Mobility Sector in Shanghai," written by Ma et al. [27], with 90 citations and 22.50 citations per year from publisher Elsevier. In these TOP 10, publisher Elsevier also contributed the most to the number of articles, consisting of three scientific papers with a total of 442 citations, followed by publishers Inderscienceonline and Springer, each with two scientific articles with a total of 143 citations and 107 citations respectively. Meanwhile, publishers Wiley Online Library, Taylor & Francis, Earticle.net, and Emerald each have one scientific article indexed by the Scopus quartile Q1-Q4.

Table 3. TOP 11 citation papers in the field of business ecosystems indexed by Scopus quartiles Q1-Q4

3.2 Keywords analysis (Co-occurrence)

Based on visualization analysis, we used VOSviewer 1.6.18 on 44 scientific articles of business ecosystem indexed by Scopus quartile Q1-Q4 using the 'author keyword' containing 1.088 keywords. With a minimum number of co-occurrence 5, we found that during the last decade, research in the field of business ecosystems is related to roles, actors, collaboration, and dominant platform capability. We found 56 keywords divided into seven clusters (Figure 5). Cluster 1 (in red) consists of 13 research topics, where the topic 'role' is the dominant topic discussed in this cluster. The topic 'customer' and 'identity', respectively, are the dominant ones discussed in Cluster 2 (in green) with 13 research topics and Cluster 3 (in blue) with nine research topics.

Based on the results of the VOSviewer visualization (Figure 6), there are several research topics in the field of business ecosystems that are still rarely discussed, including platform strategy in the business ecosystem, blockchain in the business ecosystem, business ecosystem identity, operation in the business ecosystem, originality value in the business ecosystem, and dominant platform capability in the business ecosystem. According to van Eck and Waltman [21], the colour in the map in Figure 6 showed the density of the research themes; blue indicated the lowest density and yellowed the highest density. In other words, the lowest density indicates new research themes that are still rarely studied in the study of the business ecosystem, where these topics of this research only began to be discussed in 2019, highlighted in yellow (Figure 7).

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Figure 5. Keywords co-occurence network in the field of business ecosystems

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Figure 6. Keyword density visualization in the field of business ecosystems

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Figure 7. Top keywords visualization in the field of business ecosystems

Furthermore, Cluster 4 (in yellow) consists of eight research topics, where the topic of 'business ecosystem studies' is the most discussed, indicated by the largest node. In other words, the bigger the node, the more popular nodes, the more connections [10], and the more frequently discussed than other research themes in the same cluster. Cluster 5 (in purple) consists of five research topics, where the topic of 'service’ is the dominant one being discussed. The research topics 'innovation' and 'ecosystem' are the dominant ones discussed in Cluster 6 (in light blue) and Cluster 7 (in orange), which consist of four research topics each. Overall, of the 56 keywords, the 'business ecosystem' term was the most commonly found in the title and abstract (Table 4), followed by the keywords 'ecosystem' and 'platform', respectively.

Table 4. TOP 11 terms in business ecosystem used in titles and abstracts

3.3 Co-authorship analysis

Based on visualization analysis with VOSviewer (Figure 8), there are 107 researchers in the field of business ecosystems who collaborate to produce scientific articles indexed by Scopus quartile Q1-Q4, and there are 15 co-authorships divided into 4 clusters over the past decade. Rong, K. from Cluster 3 (in blue) is the author who produces the most scientific articles in the field of business ecosystems, consisting of five documents, followed by Shi, Y. from Cluster 1 (in red) with four documents. Both of which are from the University of Cambridge, UK and Tsinghua University, China, respectively. Rong, K. and Shi, Y. also had the most significant nodes, indicating that they had the strongest relationship between authors and the most scientific articles. The node’s size indicates the number of researchers' scientific publications [6].

Next is Majava, J., from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, University of Oulu, Finland, the author who produced three scientific articles and 15 authors produced two scientific articles each (Table 5). While the rest 89 authors only published one document.

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Figure 8. Network visualization of authors collaborating to produce articles entitled 'business ecosystem

Table 5. TOP 18 authors in the field of business ecosystems indexed Scopus quartiles Q1-Q4

In this paper, we carry out a bibliometric analysis and visualization analysis with VOSviewer in the field of business ecosystems involving 44 scientific articles indexed by Scopus quartile Q1-Q4 from the Google Scholar database in the last decade. The bibliometric analysis found that scientific articles in the business ecosystem field increased in 2018, where publisher Emerald produced the most articles and publisher Elsevier was cited the most. Scientific articles quartile Q1 – Q4 became the highest cite/paper compared to other scientific articles. At the same time, visualization with VOSviewer has found the keyword 'business ecosystem' was found the most as a term in the title and abstract, compared to other terms. Rong, K. was the author who produced the most scientific articles in the business ecosystem. Visualization also found several new research topics that are still rarely researched, including platform strategy, blockchain, identity, operation, originality value, and dominant platform capability in the business ecosystem.

A literature review has found that research in business ecosystems is mostly carried out in China on large enterprises. The research method mainly uses case studies and interviews with descriptive narratives, and there is no research on business ecosystems in the plantation or forestry sector. The limitation of this research is that the use of the Google Scholar database retrieves less specific scientific articles. In the future, we need to conduct research using more powerful databases, including Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed, to retrieve more specific and high-quality scientific articles from reputable journals.