A Bibliometric Review of the Business Platforming Literature: Theoretical Cornerstones and Research Trends

Abstract

Scholarly interest in business platforms has risen consistently in the past 10 years. As a pervasive topic in the business literature, business platforms are addressed not only in the management field but also in domains, such as economics, strategy, marketing, engineering, and information technology. We provide a review of the literature on business platforms using a bibliometric methodology. In doing so, we extend the scope of research by including the closely related topic of business ecosystems. Bibliometric techniques allow consideration of a broad selection of papers with a consequent reduction in bias. We start with a selection of 1914 publications from 2009 to 2022. First, we identify the theoretical cornerstones employing cocitation analysis. This technique allows us to determine the fundamental literature, including documents that date back to previous decades. Then, we employ bibliographic coupling to determine the most recent research trends, limiting the span to the 2018–2022 period. Finally, we propose a research agenda based on the identified gaps in current research trends.