PurposeThe growing interest on ecosystems on both managerial and academic side reflects a vibrant field of study, nevertheless, the subject is very heterogeneous and in particular concerning a particular form of ecosystems: collaborative ecosystems, the purpose of this study is to shed light on these.Design/methodology/approachThe definition gap existent and the multiplicity of fields and composite studies on collaborative ecosystems have made it necessary to conduct a systematic literature review of the phenomenon, a bibliometric analysis and content analysis.FindingsThe research offers an overview of the phenomenon, three main cluster categories emerged: ecosystem, competition and open innovation; this cluster offers a comprehensive schematization of the research topics.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations of this research are that the investigation has been confined to specific keywords related to collaborative ecosystems that led to a strict selection of papers to be analyzed and in having confined the investigation to publications in the managerial area. Further research will be able to expand the selection of keywords or use more strings and proceed to a comparative analysis of results. Another limitation is the small number of databases assessed (only Scopus and Web of Science) and have confined the analysis to specific clusters that emerged from the quantitative analysis of papers.Practical implicationsBy proposing a taxonomy of collaborative ecosystems, the paper highlights what solutions and architectures an ecosystem manager must consider when developing collaborative ecosystems, what factors he or she must pay attention to in order to ensure their development and survival, and what elements determine the development of an ecosystem, in particular, the management of innovation and knowledge and the scarcity of resources in a hyper-competitive environment.Originality/valueA combination of research methods was used to identify the intellectual structure of collaborative ecosystems. In addition, we propose a taxonomy for collaborative ecosystems, opening the study to new lines of investigation and providing a new research agenda.
