Mapping the Evidence Landscape of Platform-Based E-Commerce Innovation: A PRISMA-ScR Scoping Review

Abstract

Today, e-commerce innovation comes from platforms as well as social commerce, group purchasing, Consumer-to-Manufacturer (C2M) models, and platform ecosystems, but the evidence is scattered across disciplines and contexts. Characteristics and findings from the studies, platform and stakeholder context, theoretical perspective, research methodology, geographic scope, and gaps in evidence were mapped in this scoping review. PRISMA-ScR and Population-Concept-Context framework were used in the search process and SciSpace Deep Search, SciSpace Full-Text Search, and Google Scholar yielded 2,602 records. A total of 2158 records were screened after the removal of the 444 duplicate records; 61 reports were sought, 49 full texts were assessed, 28 were excluded for documented reasons and 21 sources were included. The studies included were mainly journal articles, mainly focusing on the country of China, analytical modelling and case-study research, all published between 2013 and 2025. The theory of platform ecosystems and C2M were the most widely discussed topics, and topics like sustainability, governance, policy, cross-cultural consumer evidence and emerging-market contexts were all relatively under-researched. The review features a clear evidence map and suggests geographic, methodological, theoretical and contextual priorities for future research.