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Digital entrepreneurship: global maps and trends of research

Yuming Zhai (School of Economics and Management, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai, China)
Kaibo Yang (School of Economics and Management, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai, China)
Lu Chen (School of Engineering Audit, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Public Project Audit, Nanjing Audit University, Nanjing, China)
Han Lin (School of Engineering Audit, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Public Project Audit, Nanjing Audit University, Nanjing, China)
Mingchuan Yu (School of Finance and Business, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China)
Ruoyu Jin (School of Built Environment and Architecture, London South Bank University, London, UK)

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing

ISSN: 0885-8624

Article publication date: 3 May 2022

Issue publication date: 22 January 2023

1509

Abstract

Purpose

Digital technologies, such as big data and artificial intelligence, significantly impact entrepreneurial activities worldwide. However, research on entrepreneurial activities enabled by digital technologies is fragmented, divergent and delayed. This study aims to provide a structured review of digital entrepreneurship (DE) to identify status, hotspots, knowledge structure, dynamic trends and future developments in this field.

Design/methodology/approach

The bibliometric analysis was applied to offer a technological review on DE. In total 704 publications and their 34,083 references from Web of Science were retrieved as the sample set. Basic characteristics of publications, including the most influential documents, authors, journals and countries, were obtained. Then, co-citation and co-occurrence analyses were conducted to sketch the contours of the structure and evolution of DE.

Findings

DE has attracted increasing attention in the past three decades, especially after 2013. There are dozens of countries, hundreds of journals and more than 1,000 authors that have contributed to this field. Based on keyword co-occurrence clustering and co-citation clustering, the authors proposed a 3E (empower, evolution and ecosystem) framework of DE to facilitate an interdisciplinary dialogue for evidence-based policymaking and practice. In the future, researchers need to pay more attention to theoretical research and study DE from a holistic and dynamic perspective with consideration to the negative impact of digital technology on entrepreneurial activities.

Originality/value

This study draws an outline of the global advance on DE research. It presents an opportunity to comprehensively understand the contemporary achievements, the march of knowledge and the logical venation underlying academic developments as well as foundations for policymaking.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos 717711257 and 71802134) and Major Project of Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Education Department (19KJA180002 and 21KJA630001).

Citation

Zhai, Y., Yang, K., Chen, L., Lin, H., Yu, M. and Jin, R. (2023), "Digital entrepreneurship: global maps and trends of research", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 38 No. 3, pp. 637-655. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-05-2021-0244

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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