Call for Papers

CfP special ssue "Digitization of the individual"

No longer accepting submissions

Guest Editors

  • Christian Matt, University of Bern, Switzerland
  • Manuel Trenz, University of Augsburg, Germany
  • Christy M.K. Cheung, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China
  • Ofir Turel, California State University, Fullerton, USA

Theme

As our lives become immersed by powerful digital devices and services, questions of implications for individuals’ lives as well as their social interactions and structures arise. IS research has traditionally focused rather on institutional contexts (Baskerville 2011). However, the digitization of individuals' private contexts offers manifold important research questions to be solved (Hess et al. 2014). In everyone’s life outside the organizational context these pertain individual behavior and decision making and the positive and negative consequences thereof, but also communication and interactions with other individuals as well as firms. The emerging fully digitized and connected environment implies changes to the development, exploitation and management of personal IS. While particular scenarios (e.g. smart home, connected cars, social networks) have received partial attention in different fields, this special issue seeks to gather these fragmented views and bring together researchers interested in the impact of digitization on individuals.

Research in this area is beneficial in two ways. First, understanding the implications, opportunities and threats of the digitization of private lives enables suppliers of digital technologies to form closer and stronger connections with their customers and to build services and devices that better match their expectations and improve their everyday lives. Second, this research can help to develop policies and practices that improve the usage and exploitation of digital technologies on a societal level. By encouraging a systematic focus on the individual, this special issue strives for a common understanding of the role of the individual and the challenges and opportunities owing to novel digital technologies.

Central issues and topics

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

  • Individual behavior in connected digital environments, such as
    • Choice making in digital environments
    • Individual behavior in social networks and the sharing economy
    • Individual communication and consumption patterns
    • Digital collaboration among individuals
  • Positive and negative outcomes of digitization and connectivity, such as
    • Effects of usage of digital devices and ubiquitous connectivity on individuals’ attitudes, behaviors and performance
    • Techno-overload and techno-stress
    • Privacy and IT-security issues for individuals’ private lives
    • The impact of quantification on the self
  • Development, exploitation and management of personal IS
    • IT-facilitated learning
    • Individual’s information system architectures and connected environments
    • Development of solutions for individual use
    • Personal health devices

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).

All papers will be peer reviewed and should conform to Electronic Markets’ publication standards. Electronic Markets is a SSCI-listed journal (IF 1.404) and supports methodological and theoretical pluralism, i.e. empirical or theoretical work, qualitative research and design science are all welcome by the journal. If you would like to discuss any aspect of the special issue, please contact the guest editors. Additionally, please check the scope of Electronic Markets before submitting your paper.

Submission

All papers must be original, not published or under review elsewhere. Papers must be submitted via our electronic submission system at elma.edmgr.com.

Instructions, templates and general information are available at www.electronicmarkets.org/authors.

Please note that the preferred article length is approx. 6,500 words.

 

Submission Deadline: Aprl 15, 2017

Special Note - Pre-ICIS Workshop

The guest-editors organized a Pre-ICIS workshop to present authors with an opportunity to receive developmental feedback on their papers and suggestions for how best to prepare their paper for submission. Attending the Pre-ICIS workshop was recommended, but not a requirement for submitting papers to the special issue. The Pre-ICIS workshop took place on December 11, 2016.

Program Committee for the Pre-ICIS Workshop

  • Alexander Benlian, TU Darmstadt
  • Andrew Burton-Jones, UQ Business School
  • Yulin Fang, City University of Hong Kong
  • Thomas Hess, LMU Munich
  • Hanna Krasnova, University of Potsdam
  • Christoph Peters, University of St. Gallen
  • Jella Pfeiffer, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
  • René Riedl, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria
  • Yongqiang Sun, Wuhan University 
  • Juliana Sutanto, Lancaster University Management School
  • Chuan Hoo Tan, National University of Singapore
  • Monideepa Tarafdar, Lancaster University Management School
  • Jason Thatcher, Clemson University 
  • Virpi Tuunainen, Aalto University
  • Daniel Veit, University of Augsburg
  • Bo Sophia Xiao, University of Hawaii at Manoa

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