Entrepreneurship and the gig economy: A bibliometric analysis

Abstract

There is an increasing number of academic publications on studying the impact of the gig economy and digital platforms. Some of them involve entrepreneurship and business models. However, there is a lack of a global picture depicting the scientific structure of knowledge regarding the gig economy and entrepreneurship. This paper presents a conceptual, intellectual, and social bibliometric overview, using Bibliometrix and Biblioshiny (R-packages). To this end, total of 345 published articles were analyzed, covering 245 sources, 44 countries and 751 authors. There are several important findings: five main clusters emerged from the study (Self-employment and social economy; Sharing economy and sustainable development; Entrepreneurship and innovation; Gig economy and platform economy; and Digitalization); the main themes that emerge deal with sharing, gig, and platform economy, digitalization, teleworking, career participation and platforms; finally, gig workers are key for developing strategies, policies, and actions to achieve a social welfare through entrepreneurship in the platform ecosystem. It is also important to highlight the role of communities and social capital in the development of sustainable collaborative initiatives through digital entrepreneurship.