[AISWorld] Call for Paper: I&M Special Issue on Social Commerce and Social Media

[Xin Luo]

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Special issue: "Social Commerce and Social Media: Behaviors in the New Service Economy"
URL: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/information-and-management/call-for-papers/social-commerce-and-social-media-behaviors-in-the-new-servic

Guest Editors: 
Xin (Robert) Luo, Anderson School of Management, The University of New Mexico, USA (email: xinluo at unm.edu)
Fujun Lai, College of Business, The University of Southern Mississippi, USA (email: fujun.lai at usm.edu)

Introduction
With the ever increasing prevalence of social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, and WeChat) leveraging such innovative technologies as Web 3.0 and Internet Plus, a new social paradigm of service economy has emerged and its unprecedented new business models have become a paramount arena for researchers and practitioners.  In particular, social elements including referral, sharing, discussion, communication, and commentary assume greater importance in helping firms improve their performance (Zhou et al., 2013; Baethge et al., 2016). Social commerce is an emerging business activity in which social media mediates the activity and allows people to participate in such behaviors as marketing, selling, buying, and sharing of products and services (Chen and Shen, 2015). Social commerce, as the integration of social media and electronic commerce, has piqued mounting interest in IS research, because it provides a fresh direction for e-commerce and affects individuals and organizations in many ways (Zhang et al., 2014). In the era of social commerce, consumers offer social supports for each other to obtain interesting, valuable, and reliable information on products and services which will affect their decision-making behaviors (Liang et al., 2011). Furthermore, consumer behaviors in social commerce have become increasingly disordered and autonomous, and consumers have been empowered to generate content and help firms co-create business value (Zhang and Benyoucef, 2016). In the open network structure of social commerce, the relationship between brands and consumers is more interactive because firms can interact with potential users more deeply and widely through social media, which is beneficial to build relationship quality between them (Hajli, 2014). From a relationship management perspective, interpersonal relationship plays an important role in engaging social commerce in different cultures (Ou et al., 2014).  Also, overloaded information, negative word-of-mouth, and psychological consequences prevent the nourishing and rapid development of social commerce (Krasnova et al., 2015). Therefore, there is a need for further research to deepen and broaden the understanding of social commerce and social media.

This special issue solicits research submissions about social commerce and social media using novel theories and/or methods as well as research contexts that make a significant contribution to knowledge in social commerce. Submissions that focus on the interplay of behavioral, economic and/or organizational perspectives on social commerce are especially welcome. Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:
  New services in social commerce
  Consumer behavior in social commerce
  Relationship marketing in social commerce
  Social commerce features and their impact on user engagement
  Brand management in social commerce
  Business model innovation of social commerce
  Information overload on social media
  Negative word-of-mouth on social media
  Sharing economy in social commerce
  Impact of innovative social technologies
  Technological advancement in societal or organizational behaviors

Submission Instructions: 
Inquiries should be directed to either or both guest editors at xinluo at unm.edu and fujun.lai at usm.edu.  All papers must be submitted through the official I&M submission system at https://www.evise.com/evise/faces/pages/navigation/NavController.jspx?JRNL_ACR=INFMAN. The submission shall not reveal any authorial information for double-blind review purpose. Please read the author guidelines at http://www.elsevier.com/journals/information-and-management/0378-7206/guide-for-authors when preparing the submission. All papers will undergo the journal's standard initial screening processes.

Important dates:
  First submission date: February 15, 2017
  Initial paper submission deadline: July 15, 2017
  First round authors notification: September 15, 2017
  Invited revisions deadline: November 15, 2017
  Second round authors notification: January 15, 2018
  Final revision deadline: March 15, 2018
  Final authors notification: April 30, 2018
  Projected publication: Summer 2018

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Xin (Robert) Luo, Ph.D.
Endowed Regent's Professor
Associate Professor of MIS&IA
Anderson School of Management
University of New Mexico

Telephone: 505-277-8875
Email: xinluo at unm.edu
Web: http://www.unm.edu/~xinluo

Editor in Chief: Int'l J of Info and Computer Security
Co-Editor in Chief: Int'l J of Accounting and Info Management
Associate Editor: Decision Sciences, Europeaon J of IS, J of ECR, ECR, ICIS
Ad-hoc Associate Editor: MIS Quarterly