Adaptive Reconfiguration in Complex E-Commerce Systems: Flow and Stock Adjustment Under the COVID-19 Shock

E-commerce has reshaped short-term financial management by altering transaction speed, payment structures, and supply chain coordination. This study examines how large publicly listed e-commerce firms, viewed as complex digital business systems, adjusted their working capital policies during and after the COVID-19 shock. The sample is based on the 100 largest e-commerce companies worldwide by market capitalization, as reported by CompaniesMarketCap (February 2026), and is reduced to 76 firms from 23 countries due to data availability, yielding 802 firm-year observations. Firm-level data are obtained from LSEG Datastream, while macroeconomic variables are sourced from the World Bank. The analysis distinguishes between two dimensions of working capital: flow-based operational adjustment, measured by the cash conversion cycle (CCC), and stock-based balance-sheet adjustment, captured by net working capital relative to total assets (WC/TA). Fixed-effects models with firm-clustered standard errors are employed. The results indicate a substantial contraction of the CCC during the pandemic, followed by partial persistence of that contraction rather than a return to pre-pandemic norms. In contrast, WC/TA remains broadly stable during the crisis but declines in the post-pandemic period, suggesting a delayed balance-sheet adjustment. Business-model heterogeneity is not statistically significant, which may reflect a common system-level response across e-commerce firm types. Leverage and supply-chain pressures are associated with working capital intensity (WC/TA), while inflation shapes operate cycle duration (CCC). The findings are consistent with a two-stage adaptive response to systemic disruption.