Abstract This study applied the bibliometric method and leveraged the analysis of general descriptive statistics, co-citation literature and co-word to reveal the process of innovation ecosystem development and evolution, the theoretical knowledge and research themes. The results indicate that for nearly a decade the related research have increased rapidly, which mainly focused on Europe, the United States and other developed countries. Management, economics and business research are found to be the core fields of innovation ecosystem. Ecological system theory, competition theory, dynamic development theory, network structure theory and modularity theory jointly constitute the core theory base of innovation ecosystem. The development and evolution of research topics have mainly experienced three phases, with themes of sustainable development, open innovation, value creation and collaborative innovation respectively.
