[AISWorld] Double Special Issue on Digital Platforms for Development in ISJ and EJISDC

[Petter Nielsen]

:: Double Special issue in the Information Systems Journal (ISJ) & Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries (EJISDC) on DIGITAL PLATFORMS FOR DEVELOPMENT

* Introduction and Background
Portrayed as a key component in the new digital economy, platforms have received significant attention. Digital platforms are restructuring how companies and industries operate, and failure to adopt platforms impacts competitiveness and future growth. A common perspective on platforms is to understand them as multi-sided markets based on enabling value-creating interactions between external producers and consumers. Recent information systems literature has improved our understanding of key drivers, business models and impacts of digital platforms (e.g. Constantinides, Henfridsson and Parker 2018; Parker, Van Alstyne and Choudary 2016).

The aim of this special issue is to identify and foster a relatively unexplored research area of the significance and impact of digital platforms in developing countries in relation to socio-economic development. Increasingly, discourses around digitalization have become central to research and practice concerning ICT for development (ICT4D), with an emergent research agenda that centres on exploring the significance of software platforms and digital innovation in relation to socio-economic development (see Nielsen 2017 and Koskinen et al 2018). We are seeking contributions on digital platforms from developmental, social, economic, technical, organizational, personal and environmental perspectives. While platforms can facilitate transactions, their significance correspondingly relates to facilitating innovation and providing organizational flexibility. Moreover, while existing research on digital platforms primarily focuses on the private sector, platforms may be equally significant in public and not-for-profit sectors.

* Based on empirical research and rooted in a concrete developing country context, we expect contributions to offer new empirical insights, develop new concepts and theories, and offer directions for practice and policy. Exemplar topics and types of contributions include:

- Examples and implications of how developing countries participate in and take relevant roles in digital platform innovation. This can include examples of digital innovation by developing countries; theorizing digital innovation within developing country contexts, and how digital innovation relates to development.
- Explorations of digital platforms in private, public and informal sectors.
- Theoretical and conceptual developments related to what digital platforms are in the context of developing countries and related key concepts such as digital innovation, platform architecture, and software and innovation ecosystems.
- Explorations of the potential gap and tensions between digital platforms developed in, for and by the global North and the global South.  
- Examples and implications of Southern countries emerging as important innovators in digital platforms. 
- Critical implications of digital platforms related to ethics, privacy, and security in the context of developing countries.
- Case studies of digital platforms and business models emerging in the development context and how they as alternative models can foster development and sustainable livelihoods.

* Paper Development Workshop
A paper development workshop will be organized at the 15th International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries (IFIP 9.4) conference in Dar es Salam, Tanzania, May 1-3, 2019. We will organise this workshop around papers submitted to the conference track on Digital Platforms and Development, but it will also be open for all to participate.  

* Submission procedure
This is a double Special Issue for the Information Systems Journal (ISJ) and the Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries (EJISDC). Authors can submit their paper to the special issue in either ISJ or EJISDC. 

ISJ is a premier international journal promoting the study of, and interest in, information systems. It welcomes articles on research, practice, experience, current issues and debates. The ISJ encourages submissions that reflect the wide and interdisciplinary nature of the subject and articles that integrate technological disciplines with social, contextual and management issues, based on research using appropriate research methods. The ISJ has particularly built its reputation by publishing qualitative research and it continues to welcome such papers. 

EJISDC is one of the foremost international forums for practitioners, teachers, researchers and policy makers to share their knowledge and experience in design, development, implementation, management and evaluation of information systems in developing countries. EJISDC focuses on the digital divide. Its aim is to situation contemporary trends in ICTs within a fully global context. Outside of North America, Western Europe, Australasia and Japan, diverse societies are making sense of technological advances in ways unique to their cultures and histories.

When deciding whether to submit to ISJ and EJISDC, please consider the following. We expect submissions to the special issue in ISJ to offer a substantial theoretical contribution to the Information Systems research field (we expect authors to make this explicit in their cover letter). Submissions to EJISDC must have a broader audience than the information systems field, including practitioners and policy makers (we expect the authors to make this explicit in their cover letter). 

Submissions rejected by the ISJ may be considered for the special issue in EJISDC, and vice versa, but this is at the discretion of the editors. 

:: Coordinating editor 
Professor Robert Davison

:: Special Issue editors 
Brian Nicholson, 
University of Oslo Norway & Alliance Manchester Business School, UK 

Petter Nielsen 
University of Oslo (Also ISJ and EJISDC Senior Editor)

Johan Ivar Sæbø 
University of Oslo (Also EJISDC Senior Editor)

:: Associate Editors
Margunn Aanestad University of Agder, Norway
Chrisanthi Avgerou, LSE, UK
Professor Carla Bonina, University of Surrey, UK
Ravishankar M.N., Loughborough University, UK
Eric Monteiro Norwegian, University of Science and Technology, Norway
Sundeep Sahay, University of Oslo, Norway
Mark Thompson, University of Exeter, UK 
Yingquin Zheng, Royal Holloway University of London, UK

:: Important Dates
Full paper submission deadline: 
September 2019

First editorial review sent to authors:
November 2019. 

Paper resubmission based on editor feedback deadline: 
March 2020 

Second editorial review, decision and suggestions to authors: 
July 2020

Paper resubmission based on editor feedback deadline: 
November 2020 

Third editorial review, decision and suggestions to authors: 
March 2021

Final submission of accepted papers deadline:
Tentatively June 2021

ISJ/EJISDC publication: 
Tentatively Late 2021

:: References and Bibliography
Avgerou, C., & Li, B. (2013) Relational and institutional embeddedness of Web‐enabled entrepreneurial networks: case studies of netrepreneurs in China, Information Systems Journal, 23(4), 329-350.

Constantinides, P., Henfridsson, O. and Parker, G. G. (2018). Introduction—Platforms and Infrastructures in the Digital Age, Information Systems Research, 29(2), 381-400.

de Reuver, M., Sørensen, C. & Basole, R.C. J Inf Technol (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41265-016-0033-3

Gawer, A. (2009). Platforms, Markets and Innovation. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Gawer, A. and Cusumano, M.A. (2014). Industry platforms and ecosystem innovation. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 31(3), pp.417–433.

Jin, D (2015) Digital Platforms, Imperialism and Political Culture. Routledge.

Koskinen, K, Bonina, C, and Eaton, B (2018). Digital Platforms in the Global South: Foundations and Research Agenda. DIODE Working Paper No. 8, Centre for Development Informatics, Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1566694

Malik, F, Nicholson, B and Heeks, R (2017) Understanding the development implications of online outsourcing. Proceedings of IFIP 9.4 International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries. Springer, Cham.

Nielsen, P. (2017). Digital Innovation: A Research Agenda for Information Systems Research in Developing Countries. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology; Volume 504. p. 269-279

Parker, G.G., Van Alstyne, M.W. and Choudary, S.P. (2016). Platform revolution : how networked markets are transforming the economy and how to make them work for you. W. W. Norton, Incorporated.

Srnicek, N (2017) Platform Capitalism. Polity.

Taplin, J (2017) Move Fast and Break Things, Macmillan.

UNCTAD (2017) Information Economy Report available at http://unctad.org/en/pages/PublicationWebflyer.aspx?publicationid=1872, last accessed 16th November  2017.


Br.
- Petter

Associate Professor
Deputy Head of Department
Department of Informatics
University of  Oslo
Ole-Johan Dahls Hus
Gaustadalleèn 23B
N-0373 Norway

+47 41506058
pnielsen at ifi.uio.no
http://www.mn.uio.no/ifi/english/people/aca/pnielsen/index.html
http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Petter_Nielsen