[AISWorld] Call for Special Issue Papers for Internet Research (Submission Due: July 31, 2021)

[Daniel Lee]

Special Issue: The Role of Digital Technologies in New Normal: The Emergence of Contactless Digital Technologies and Services

Call for Papers for: Internet Research
     The entire world is experiencing a significant transformation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The current event, which produces an enormous number of infectious and fatalities in most countries around the world within a very short period, threatens our society with very strong propagation power. In response, most countries lockdown businesses, limit the movement of citizens, and implement social distance to slow the rate of transmission of this virus among people. As a result, the entire world is moving toward contactless businesses and daily environments, a.k.a. the contactless, un-tact, or remote society as the new normal (e.g., Dwivedi et al., 2020; Gursoy & Chi, 2020; Pani et al., 2020). In line with this social transformation, the role of digital technologies in such new personal and organizational environments has been disruptively increased and evolved (Carroll & Conboy, 2020; Leclercq-Vandelannoitte & Aroles, 2020; Pan & Zhang, 2020).
     This special issue is intended to recruit studies about the role of digital technologies in the new normal environments in various aspects. According to the co-evolution perspective, a societal evolution happens through the co-influences among the different levels of evolutions (Lewin & Volberda, 1999; Johnson et al., 2016; Volberda & Lewin, 2003). Particularly, this special issue focuses on socio-technical phenomena at the individual, technology, service, and organization levels. Which are interdependent to each other and are likely to co-evolve through the current event that affects all aspects of human and organizational activities. 

Topics of Interests

1. Contactless Technology Artifacts
     In the process of rapid change to a new environment, the roles of information technology (IT) are becoming more important. In traditional environments, products or services have been delivered mainly face-to-face in analog manners. In the new environment, however, not only the delivery of products and services but also the work environments are changing in contactless manners (Lee & Lee, 2020). Behind this digital evolution, there are contactless technology artifacts that constantly interact with users (e.g., self-service systems, remote working systems, distance education systems, internet streaming platforms, etc.). In this case, the scope and depth of functions that can be provided by contactless technology artifacts can be varied according to the needs of users. Accordingly, the types and roles of information technology (Brem et al., 2020; Froehle & Roth, 2004) and their impacts on the new society will also be changed. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
     - New concepts and theories of the contactless technology artifacts
     - Types and roles of contactless technologies and their impacts on the new society
     - Scope and depth of the contactless technology artifacts
     - Interactions between users and the contactless technology artifacts
     - Case studies about contactless technology artifacts

2. Contactless Service Design
     In emergent situations like the COVID-19, every individual and organizational environment becomes complicated. As Verganti (2009) argues, “design” is a vehicle to understand human behaviors and synthesize new design features beyond the technology-driven innovation. With this notion, information systems and innovation studies have considered a variety of features of digital innovation and transformation (Nylén & Holmström 2019; Nambisan et al., 2017; Yoo et al., 2010). Therefore, “contactless service design” will deal with a research dilemma—how do contactless service design features could represent unexpected human behaviors (desires, needs, and requirements) and transform organizational issues? On this research dilemma, the research topics and issues can be diverse as follows:
     - Discovering contextual inquiries about unexpected human behaviors (desires, needs, and requirements) and creating new contactless service design features
     - Developing contactless service design scenario planning, illustrating the temporal and longitudinal problems, interactions, and solutions
     - Understanding the role of design discipline on the emergent situations (e.g., COVID-19) and providing design policy for the contactless service design
     - Delivering contactless service design theories as a new disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge and practice beyond technology-driven and market-driven innovation

3. Individual Behaviors
     Individual user’s adoption and usage behaviors are still an important research area in the information systems society and other academic disciplines. This special issue will also cover this adoption and user’s behavior issues as a core part of understanding the contactless digital technology development and its diffusion in society and the market. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
     - New theory and perspective for the contactless digital technology adoption and diffusion
     - Success and failure factors of the contactless digital technologies
     - The benefits and risks of adopting contactless digital technologies
     - Individual’s privacy and security issues of the contactless digital technologies
     - Cross-cultural issues related to disruptive information technologies
     - Digital literacy and digital divide issues of the contactless digital technologies
     - Cultural and psychological issues in the technological development of contactless digital technologies
     - User interface, usability, the user experience of the contactless digital technologies.
     - Individual adaptation of the contactless digital technologies

4. Organizational Transformation
     As the business environments have been dramatically changed during the pandemic period with emerging or disappearing market demands and changing compliance requirements, organizations are facing significant challenges to adapt to the huge uncertainties (e.g., Carroll & Conboy, 2020; Gursoy & Chi, 2020;). While many organizations have failed to adapt to such hyper-uncertain environments, some organizations have successfully adapted to the new environments through organizational transformations particularly using contactless digital technologies (e.g., Lee & Lee, 2020). Hence, another set of research topic will be the role of digital technologies in transforming organizations or businesses to be responsive to the contactless society and its new requirements. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
     - Digitally-enabled organizational transformation processes and outcomes
     - Organizational IT resources and capabilities for contactless organizational transformations
     - The emerging and new role of digital technologies in contactless business environments
     - The impacts of contactless digital technologies on internal operations, supply chain, and customer management   
     - The impacts of contactless digital technologies and services on industry competitions
     - Digitally-enabled organizational capabilities for a firm’s survival in the new normal
     - IT governance policies and practices for the contactless digital technologies
     - Emerging IT architectures for the contactless technologies and services
 
Research Design and Methodological Requirements
     This special issue encourages a variety of research design and methodological approaches including (but not limited to):
     - Conceptual and empirical studies
     - Quantitative, qualitative, and multi-method approaches
     - Using data from direct observations and secondary sources
     - Using correlation-based, econometrics, configurational approaches, data mining, and text mining for data analysis
 
Important Dates
     - Submission and Review Schedules
     - Submission system open: May 1, 2021
     - Paper submission due: July 31, 2021
     - First review result: October 31, 2021
     - Revision due: January 31, 2022
     - Second review result: March. 31, 2022
     - Final decision: June 30, 2022

Please find more details from: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/intr/role-digital-technologies-new-normal-emergence-contactless-digital-technologies-and 
 
Guest Editors
One-Ki (Daniel) Lee, College of Management, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA (Daniel.Lee at umb.edu)
Jaehyun Park, Department of Design and Architecture, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Japan (jaehyun at kit.ac.jp)
Juyeon Ham, School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, China (juyeon.ham at gmail.com)
Younghoon Chang (Managing Guest Editor), School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, China (younghoonchang at bit.edu.cn)

Apologies for cross-posting!