Beyond Clicks and Carts: A Comprehensive Mapping of Chatbots’ Intellectual and Social Influence in E-commerce

This study aims to conduct a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the intellectual and social structure of chatbots in e-commerce and outline future research directions using the theory, context, characteristics and methodology framework. The study utilized the SPAR-4 framework for systematic performance analysis, review and analyzing 1,165 journal articles from 1996 to 2023 using the Scopus database. The analysis indicated that chatbot integration in business studies has grown significantly in the past 20 years. Co-citation analysis reveals four prominent research themes. The co-authorship network indicated a strong e-commerce chatbot association in nations with less geographical, historical and cultural proximity, such as the USA and China.