CfP: Focus Theme Section on 'Internet of Things' (19-3)

Guest Editors of the focus theme section:

• Elgar Fleisch (ETH Zurich & University of St. Gallen, Switzerland),
• Sanjay Sarma (MIT, USA),
• Frédéric Thiesse (University of St. Gallen, Switzerland).

Over the last decades, the use of information technology in firms has made a major contribution toward the speed, efficiency, and accuracy of intra- as well as interorganisational processes. However, to date it has only been able to provide very limited solutions to a series of entrepreneurial problems related to the visibility and management of physical processes, e.g. shrinkage along the entire supply chain, inventory inaccuracy, and product counterfeits. The common denominator in all these problems is the persisting lack of integration between the real, physical world or the reality of molecules on the one hand, and the digital world of information systems, the internet or the reality of data and bits on the other hand.

In recent years, however, perpetual miniaturization and price decline lead to an ever increasing pervasion of the physical world by tiny microelectronic devices in the form of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) transponders, NFC mobile phones, location systems using UWB communication, ZigBee-based wireless sensors, and other ubiquitous computing technologies that permanently collect and process data on their environment. From a managerial perspective, such technologies bring along the next evolutionary step of integration that bridges the before-mentioned gap between information systems and physical processes. Unlike conventional data feeds by means of keyboards or barcode scans, these devices generate a continuous and dense stream of real-time data that grants an information system eyes and ears, thus shaping an ‘Internet of Things (IoT)’ that reflects events in the physical world. This focus theme section of Electronic Markets seeks original articles that explore how the internet can take the next step in its evolution: the integration of real-world objects into its virtual fabric.

The development of the IoT is an ongoing process that will need to overcome various challenges to realize this vision. The first refers to the development and adoption of technologies and standards that are required to deploy industry-wide infrastructures to handle billions of sensor-equipped items. Integrating the plethora of data streams and events generated by these with existing enterprise systems poses another major challenge to user companies. Secondly, the economic value of real-time information for physical supply chain operations or even a firm's entire business model is still not fully understood. In recent years, for example, numerous white papers, trade publications, and research reports have discussed the benefits of RFID technologies in the supply chain and beyond. However, most of the estimates stated therein were not substantiated and some of the business cases that try to justify according technology deployments not even require RFID. Thirdly, companies, which make use of IoT technologies might sooner or later be facing a variety of security and privacy issues, e.g. in the form of campaigns of privacy activists, who have been warning against omnipresent surveillance for years. Not least, the IoT might have a deep impact on consumer behavior and societal structures in a similar way as the traditional Internet had in recent years.

Potential topics for submissions to this focus theme section include, but are not limited to:

• Emerging IoT-induced business models and process changes
• Technology adoption and the evolution of standards
• Analytical models and simulation studies of operational benefits
• Strategic impact of visibility over events in the physical world
• Case studies from real-world deployments in retail, logistics, healthcare, etc.
• Enterprise systems integration and data analytics
• Security & privacy aspects of the IoT
• Societal implications of the IoT

Additional topic suggestions are welcome. All papers will be peer reviewed and should conform to Electronic Markets’ publication standards. Methodological and theoretical pluralism (empirical or theoretical work, qualitative research, design science, prototypes …) is welcomed by the journal.

Full papers are invited to be submitted by 07 December 2008. All papers must be original, not published or under review elsewhere. If you would like to discuss any aspect of the focus theme section, please contact the Editor for the focus theme section.

Contact address: frederic.thiesse@unisg.ch or editors@electronicmarkets.org

Papers must be submitted via our online submission system. Instructions are available at http://www.electronicmarkets.org/authors.

Important deadlines:

• Submission deadline: 07 December 2008
• Acceptance decision: 15 February 2009
• Issue: Vol. 19, No. 3, August 2009
  

For further author instructions please go to the Authors section.