Abstract
Entrepreneurship research in emerging and developing economies has traditionally prioritised the individual entrepreneur and organisation-level outcomes, often overlooking the collective and community-based nature of entrepreneurial activity. In BRICS Plus economies, however, entrepreneurship frequently emerges as a collective response to shared socioeconomic challenges, including unemployment, poverty, spatial marginalisation, and institutional exclusion. Community-based enterprises, cooperatives, solidarity economy initiatives, and informal collective arrangements play a central role in livelihood creation, social cohesion, and local economic resilience, yet remain conceptually fragmented and under-theorised within mainstream entrepreneurship literature. This study conducts a systematic literature review of community and collective entrepreneurship in BRICS Plus economies to critically examine how collective entrepreneurial forms are conceptualised, organised, and embedded within local ecosystems. The study identifies analytical frameworks, organisational forms and institutional dynamics shaping collective entrepreneurship across diverse contexts. The findings reveal an over-reliance on individual-centric entrepreneurship models, limited integration of ecosystem and embeddedness perspectives, and weak conceptual alignment between collective entrepreneurship and inclusive development objectives. In response, the study proposes an ecosystem-based conceptual framework that positions community and collective entrepreneurship as institutionally embedded, socially grounded, and development-oriented entrepreneurial processes.