Strategic Management of E-Commerce in Commercial Companies: A Systematic Review (2016-2020)

Currently, electronic commerce has grown rapidly, where technology and the internet intervene to make purchases and sales in a faster and more comfortable way. This modality represents a competitive advantage for small businesses since it allows them to sell their products and/or services to any part of the world on a larger scale and at a lower cost. The objective of this research is to determine what is known about the strategic management of e-commerce in Latin American commercial companies in the scientific literature between 2016 and 2020. Therefore, a systematic review of the literature was carried out following the PRISMA statement, for which four databases were used, such as: Scopus, Redalyc, and ProQuest; after the inclusion process, 24 scientific articles were selected for this work. The main results are related to definition, context in general, adoption of electronic commerce in Latin America, and fundamental strategies for the purchase decision in e-commerce. It is concluded that electronic commerce generates new opportunities to penetrate national and international markets, reducing costs and increasing sales; however, despite its benefits, it has not yet surpassed traditional purchases and this is because the purchase decision in the online context is determined by factors such as the level of trust, the level of technology management and reputation of the company. Likewise, it was shown that Latin America is below the first world countries in the use of this new purchase process as a consequence of the moderating variable of the digital gap. On the other hand, Latin American countries are presented as a potential market with positive growth. It is recommended to continue with empirical research related to e-commerce focused on Latin America and its evolution and adaptation within this new business model. It is important to mention that there were no impediments to this investigation.