Development Trends in China's E-Commerce Research Topics

China's recent performance in electronic commerce has garnered global attention, but systematic exploration of this topic remains limited. This study employs methods such as co-citation analysis and social network analysis to examine journal articles related to Chinese electronic commerce (EC) research published in the WoS database from 2001 to 2020. The findings indicate that the primary driving forces behind the development of China's EC are the strengthening of industrial growth through the digital economy, the optimization of the regulatory environment, the expansion of global collaboration, and the acceleration of new economic dynamics. The United States stands as the leading country in collaborating with China in the field of electronic commerce. Universities and institutions in Hong Kong made particularly significant contributions during the first three stages (2001-2015). Across the four stages (I-IV), the evolution of research topics can be summarized as follows: (I) a focus on the development of information technology infrastructure; (II) as cross-border e-commerce grew and trust was established, both hardware and software improved; (III-IV) further exploration of smart agent systems, trust factors, transaction intentions, perceived benefits, and the integration of artificial intelligence into smart e-commerce trends.