Call for Papers

CfP special issue on "Dynamics of customer interaction (DCI) on social media platforms"

Guest Editors

• Ulrike Baumöl, FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany, ulrike.baumoel(at)fernuni-hagen.de
• Linda Hollebeek,University of Auckland, New Zealand, l.hollebeek(at)auckland.ac.nz
• Reinhard Jung, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, reinhard.jung(at)unisg.ch
• Christian Wagner

Theme

The nature and dynamics of the interaction between customers and organizations continue to change at a rapid pace. Specifically, while customer interactions with organizations are becoming increasingly important in terms of sales and marketing, customers are simultaneously gaining influence in the online sphere. Today’s customers, for instance, are much more likely to consider product- or brand-related information provided by other customers, rather than to rely on marketing material.

These developments create both risks and opportunities for organizations. On the one hand, the organization’s reduced level of control over customer communications has developed into an almost unavoidable risk. On the other hand, leveraging trust among customers, and tracking customers’ willingly shared product or brand-related views have the potential to provide gains over contemporary customer communications.

In the light of these recent developments, this special issue of Electronic Markets is dedicated to social media-based customer interactions with organizations, their manifestations, expressions, dynamics, and communication techniques. The issue seeks to explore the effect of the changing nature of such interactions on (inter)organizational strategies, processes, information technology (IT) infrastructure and organizational culture, as well as the identification, management and monitoring of associated organizational risks and opportunities.

Possible topics of submissions include, but are not limited to:

• Models of customer interaction including switching behavior between social media platforms and other channels (e.g. call centers)

• Organizations’ options to influence the customers’ channel switching behavior

• Role of trust among customers and in specific social media platforms

• Language and semantics in social media

• Business models leveraging DCI

• Strategic impact of DCI

• Processes for managing DCI

• IT architectures for DCI

• Social media-based communication strategies and tactics

• Social customer relationship management (Social CRM)

• Organizational change management

• Customer communication value and life time value

• Measuring and driving the performance of investments in social media-based applications

• Social customer interaction on electronic markets

We encourage contributions with a broad range of methodological approaches, including conceptual, qualitative and quantitative research. We would also like to welcome authors publishing on the topic of Dynamics of Customer Interaction (DCI) on Social Media Platforms with reference to electronic markets and networked business.

We also welcome contributions addressing related topics not listed above (please contact the special issue editors in that case to discuss the fit prior to submission).

Submission Deadline: October 31, 2014

Prior to submitting your work please make sure to follow the author guidelines of Electronic Markets available at www.electronicmarkets.org/authors.

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