Sustainability Transitions in E-commerce Research—Academic Achievements and Impediments

Abstract

To date, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the blossoming of e-commerce, which has brought both advantages and impediments to a more sustainable future. The central aim of sustainability transitions (ST) research conceptualizes and explains how radical changes can occur in the way that societal and environmental functions are fulfilled. Embedding ST logic with e-commerce could help us understand the current standing of e-commerce, and lead to solutions applied from its implications. However, there is a lack of research that pivots ST into the context of e-commerce. Thus, this paper fills the gap by conducting a comprehensive literature review to look into how the current e-commerce research fits into the ST framework. We find that the current sustainable e-commerce research is unevenly scattered alongside different dimensions, and there is an urgency to employ government power and drive public awareness. This paper extends the scope of ST into the e-commerce context; solutions for practitioners to achieve effective governance have been particularly emphasized.