Application of IT Governance in E-Commerce: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

The rapid growth of global e-commerce has positioned information technology (IT) governance as a strategic necessity for organizations operating in the digital commerce landscape. This study conducts a systematic literature review (SLR) to identify, evaluate, and synthesize scientific literature on the application of IT governance in e-commerce. Following the Kitchenham & Charters guidelines and the PRISMA 2020 reporting protocol, 40 primary studies published between 2014 and 2025 were selected from four major academic databases: Scopus, SpringerLink, ScienceDirect, and IEEE Xplore. The review is guided by three research questions addressing the frameworks applied, their impacts on e-commerce performance, and existing research gaps. The findings reveal that COBIT is the most widely adopted framework (25%), followed by the TOE Framework (15%) and ITIL (12.5%). The reviewed studies generally report positive impacts across six categories: information security, operational efficiency, innovation capability, organizational agility, business performance, and customer trust and loyalty, while several studies identify strategic IT alignment as an important mediating factor. Several COBIT-based studies in Indonesian e-commerce contexts report IT governance maturity levels of 2–3, suggesting opportunities to strengthen proactive and strategic governance practices. Significant research gaps include limited geographic coverage, insufficient representation of SMEs, a lack of longitudinal studies, low framework integration, and minimal exploration of emerging e-commerce models, such as AI-driven commerce and social commerce. These findings provide a structured evidence base for practitioners seeking to strengthen IT governance maturity and researchers identifying future research directions.