Digital entrepreneurship platforms: Mapping the field and looking towards a holistic approach

Entrepreneurship is widely advocated as a driver of innovation and economic growth. Given today's technological and digital challenges, digital entrepreneurship in particular is a phenomenon on the rise, both through the digitization of existing businesses and the creation of digital enterprises. Debates on the relevance of digital entrepreneurship have been published in a range of journals that vary in terms of their purpose and readership. As such, scholarly contributions to this topic remain largely fragmented. To address this gap, this review aims to map academic literature on digital entrepreneurship in order to facilitate a better understanding of antecedents and future work. This study combines bibliometric approaches to examine literature on digital entrepreneurship platforms, forming a holistic picture of the field's different aspects and trends. The content and thematic analysis of 97 articles allows us to identify five approaches: i) Digital Entrepreneurship Success Factors, ii) Digital Entrepreneurial Ecosystems and Smart Cities, iii) Digital Entrepeneurial Models, iv) Sharing Entrepreneurial Platforms, and v) Digital Platforms about Entrepreneurship Co-creation. Our findings further highlight the various gaps in digital entrepreneurship literature and raise some research questions that warrant future academic research. Our holistic model holds several implications for the theory and practice of the different aspects of digital entrepreneurship.

Automated summary

Entrepreneurship is advocated as a driver of innovation and economic growth, particularly in the digital age. However, the literature on digital entrepreneurship remains fragmented. This review aims to map academic literature on digital entrepreneurship, identify gaps, and provide future research directions.