In recent years, we have witnessed a reinvigorated interest by academics, practitioners and policy makers in the ecosystem concept. Recent reviews have set out to clarify the conceptual boundaries between ecosystem concepts. Yet there is still a lack of clarity regarding which ecosystem types could best help organizations in reaching different goals. This systematic literature review advances our understanding of the conceptual boundaries between different ecosystems and, more importantly, identifies what kind of goals different types of ecosystems are suited to achieve. We focus on four commonly studied ecosystem types: business, innovation, entrepreneurship, and knowledge ecosystems. The key findings center on systematically demarcating ecosystem types by accounting for (and distinguishing between) their conceptual boundaries and the ecosystems goals. The results show how multifaceted ecosystem goals are and show several shifts in the ecosystem types’ literature over time. Our review informs a thematic agenda for future research with a practical outlook.