*5.2. Limitations and Future Work*

This paper applies a transparent scoping review methodology through the entire process. To ensure a broad search of the literature, the search strategy includes four online databases, resulting in over

1400 articles. However, the search result may still not identify all relevant articles in the literature despite this paper attempts to be as comprehensive as possible. Ontology is a recently established word in information science [71], therefore, an extension of the literature search including the terms "domain knowledge" and "knowledge representation" may result in additional literature in the field of MAS and ontology.

Furthermore, the fields of organizational theory and business ecosystem are not included in this paper because the literature search only focuses on the energy domain. The energy domain consists of multiple agents and can be considered as an ecosystem in which a community of organisms interacts with each other and the surrounding inorganic environment. This biological definition of an ecosystem is first introduced in [136] and is later adopted in the business domain [137–141]. A business ecosystem is a network of players that are bound together through collective activities to produce an entity that offers value for customers and meet their requirements. MAS in the smart energy domain is similar to this since all types of stakeholders, e.g., electricity traders, building managers, and commercial heat pump providers are connected and interact with each other to offer value for the entire system. Meanwhile, the economic globalization, increasing number of transnational organizations, and rapidly information technology changes increase the complexity of the energy domain, and computational models provide opportunities to understand and respond to these changes [142]. Therefore, a review of the organizational research and business ecosystem in the MAS-orientated energy domain should be considered for future work.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, M.J.S. and Z.M.; Methodology, Z.M.; writing—Z.M. and M.J.S.; Review and editing, K.C., M.V., Y.D. and B.N.J.; supervision, Z.M., B.N.J. and Y.D.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.


**Appendix A**


**Table A1.** *Cont*.
