A RISK-BASED PERSPECTIVE ON WORK AND ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION IN E-COMMERCE: A REVIEW FOR UNDERSTANDING Research paper

While e-commerce was born with the World Wide Web and continues to be extensively studied, research on work and organizational transformations in e-commerce is scarcer and scattered. This paper offers a review of 80 papers to analyze this phenomenon through a risk-based perspective. We provide a conceptual map of the reviewed literature and identity eight research gaps that hinder a fuller understanding of these transformations. In particular, we point to the neglected role of work transformations and risk allocation among individuals in framing organizational inertia. We then put forth a corresponding research agenda. First, we suggest that research on the allocation of risks among organizations' members and the accountability mechanisms they rely on would be valuable to inform our understanding of e-commerce inertia. Second, we suggest examining the influence of work transformations on these risks, both in the organization and beyond its boundaries. Lastly, we suggest that research would benefit from further investigations on the concept of culture in e-commerce organizational transformations, on its possible roles in the face of work transformations, and on strategies to manage it.