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In the context of triple-bottom-line dynamics, societal components grapple with multifaceted challenges, necessitating changing behaviours within business-to-business (B2B) processes. This study investigates how collaborative relations in B2B ecosystems can influence social, environmental and economic sustainability dynamics, exploring whether the former two positively impact economic results.

Validating a conceptual framework via partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modelling, a quantitative study on 262 Iranian SME stakeholders was conducted.

The research underscores the paramount role of B2B relations, emphasizing the shift towards interconnected relations between society, institutions, end-users and businesses. The findings suggest that B2B collaborative efforts within a broader ecosystem address social and environmental needs, thereby contributing to transforming the ecosystem’s business models. Innovatively, the research elicited that environmental and social effects have a positive mediating effect on economic results.

By proposing a business-social-institutional model (B2SI) grounded in relational and dynamic capabilities, this study contributes to advancing both scientific understanding and business practices, pointing to the important role of social responsibility within B2B ecosystems.

The 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.

The 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.

The 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.

Limitations 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.

By 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.

A 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.