本研究之目的為呈現內含在電子商務研究文獻之重要主題。本研究以書目計量學、多變量分析和社會網絡分析技術為研究方法;以1996年 至 2008年發表在SSCI 及SCI期刊有關電子商務議題的研究文獻為對象,共計分析了1,794篇論文及其37,101筆參考文獻資料。研究結果顯示當代電子商務研究呈現五個主要研究趨勢:電子商務之消費者行為、資訊科技與電子市集、電子商務推薦系統、電子資料交換實行及電子市場之自我服務與顧客滿意度。儘管有大量研究出現在電子商務領域,相關研究之文獻卻未受到應有的重視;本研究提出一個可以讓學術界及實務界更了解電子商務研究發展趨勢之方法;此方法可描繪出當代電子商務研究領域的重要主題及闡明其研究領域的發展及變化。
The purpose of this study is to identify the critical themes of electronic commerce research. Bibliometric techniques, multivariate analysis, and social network analysis were used to trace the development path of electronic commerce research. By analyzing 37,101 citations of 1,794 articles published in SSCI and SCI journals in electronic commerce area between 1996 and 2008, this study maps the knowledge network of electronic commerce studies. The results of this study suggest that contemporary electronic commerce research is organized along different concentration of interests: consumer behavior in electronic commerce, information technology and marketplaces, recommender systems in electronic commerce, implementation of electronic data interchange, e-satisfaction and self-service technology. The research themes of electronic commerce literature have received little attention is spite that a large number of studies have done on electronic commerce. This study exposes researchers a new way of profiling critical themes and their relationships in electronic commerce area, which will help academia and practitioners better understand contemporary electronic commerce studies.