[AISWorld] Call for Papers - Extended Deadline

[Electronic Markets]

***Apologies for cross-postings***

 

Electronic Markets – The International Journal
on Networked Business

Call for Papers

Research Advances in Multi-sided Platforms

 

Dear all,

we have extended the submission deadline for our Special Issue until March
31, 2018.

 

Guest Editors

* Nizar Abdelkafi, Fraunhofer Center for International Management and
Knowledge Economy IMW, Germany, nizar.abdelkafi at imw.fraunhofer.de

* Christina Raasch, Kühne Logistics University, Germany,
Christina.Raasch at the-klu.org

* Angela Roth, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany,
angela.roth at fau.de

* R. Srinivasan, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India,
srini at iimb.ac.in

 

Theme

Multi-sided platforms (MSPs) have been around for several centuries. Only
recently, however, MSPs have become prominent in the economy. MSPs connect
two or more interdependent user or customer groups, and support interactions
and transactions among them. Platform users in one group are more likely to
join when more members of the other group use the platform. For example, the
growth of the number of potential buyers can make the platform more
attractive to additional sellers. These sellers can improve the level of
service by extending the product portfolio on the platform, making it even
more interesting to buyers, thus producing a self-reinforcing effect.
However, these network effects are usually difficult to achieve in practice.
Therefore, more research should be conducted to improve our understanding of
them.

There is a growing interest in MSPs in the scholarly literature. This is due
to two key factors. First, platforms play an important role throughout the
economy, as they minimize transactions costs between market sides. Second,
MSPs appear to be the most powerful business models in the digital economy
due to their potential for enabling value capture and rapid scale-up.
Airbnb, eBay, Uber, Google, and Apple are spectacular success examples of
MSPs. Such businesses have demonstrated remarkable growth and achieved high
financial valuations. According to a recent study, more than 30 firms
operating multi-sided platforms are currently valued at more than a billion
dollars. Nevertheless, despite many companies opting for MSP business
models, to date only a few have been successful. Consequently, there is a
need for understanding the factors that enable MSPs to thrive. For instance,
getting the first set of users to affiliate with the platform is a key
challenge for MSPs. In the presence of indirect network effects, users on
one side join only when there are sufficient numbers and quality of users on
the other side, leading to a situation where “no one joins until everyone
joins”. Strategies for resolving such “chicken-and-egg” problems still
require further theoretical and empirical investigation.

The success of MSPs depends on several economic and technological factors,
which need to be examined in detail. For instance, the value propositions
offered to every side of the platform, the easiness by which users can
connect to it, and the platform’s fundamental services are critical
determinants of platform success. Thus, platform launch should be supported
by mechanisms and strategies as well as technological solutions enabling
MSPs to embark on a self-reinforcing path in order to achieve sustainable
growth. This special issue invites original contributions that capture best
practices and advance the state of the art, thus contributing to better
understand the economic mechanisms and technological solutions propelling
MSPs to succeed. We also seek to provide valuable advice and support for
practitioners wishing to develop successful MSPs. We encourage researchers
to submit papers with an economic and/or technological focus.

 

 

Central issues and topics

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

*       Technological challenges and solutions of multi-sided platforms

*       Technological infrastructure for multi-sided platforms

*       Big data and machine learning in the context of multi-sided
platforms

*       Technological solutions for building multi-sided platform ecosystems

*       The economics of multi-sided platforms

*       Multi-sided platform case studies in specific sectors, such as
logistics, health care, etc. 

*       Success factors and design principles of multi-sided platforms

*       Exploration of multi-sided platforms as digital business models 

*       User behavior on platforms and incentives to all parties

*       Factors creating network effects on multi-sided platform

*       Value capture strategies on multi-sided platforms

*       Potential for service innovation with multi-sided platforms

 

We encourage contributions with a broad range of methodological approaches –
conceptual, qualitative and quantitative. All papers should be within the
scope of Electronic Markets (
<http://www.electronicmarkets.org/about-em/scope/>
http://www.electronicmarkets.org/about-em/scope/) and We encourage
contributions with a broad range of methodological approaches, including
conceptual, qualitative and quantitative research. All papers should fit the
scope of Electronic Markets (for more information see
http://www.electronicmarkets.org/about-em/scope/) and will undergo a
double-blind peer review process. If you would like to discuss any aspect of
the special issue, please contact the guest editors.

 

Submission

Electronic Markets is a SSCI-listed journal (IF 1.864) and requires that all
papers must be original and not published or under review elsewhere. Papers
must be submitted via our electronic submission system at
<http://elma.edmgr.com> http://elma.edmgr.com and conform to Electronic
Markets publication standards (see instructions and templates at
http://www.electronicmarkets.org/authors). Please note that the preferred
article length is around. 6,500 to 8,000 words.

 

Important deadline

* Submission Deadline: March 31, 2018

 

 

Rainer Alt and Hans-Dieter Zimmermann

 

Editors-in-Chief

Electronic Markets - The International Journal on Networked Business

 

c/o Information Systems Institute

University of Leipzig

Grimmaische Str. 12, 

04109 Leipzig, Germany

 

http://www.electronicmarkets.org/

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