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<p align="LEFT" class="defaultFont">Australasian Journal of Information Systems</p>
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<p align="LEFT" class="defaultFont">Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Special Issue</p>
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<p align="LEFT" class="defaultFont">AJIS publishes high quality contributions to theory and practice in the global IS discipline. It is particularly interested in IS knowledge drawn from or applied to Australasia and in the Asia-Pacific region. The journal
welcomes submissions on research and conceptual development based on a wide range of inquiry methods, ways of thinking and modes of expression. AJIS is ranked “A” by the Australian Council of Professors and Heads of Information Systems (ACPHIS) and Australian
Business Deans Council (ABDC). It is one of two open access “A” journals ranked by ACPHIS, offering potential for papers to be widely accessible and citable.</p>
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<p align="LEFT" class="defaultFont">Overview of the special issue</p>
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<p align="LEFT" class="defaultFont">There has been a long tradition in the IS academic community, within Australasia but also globally, to research on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and IS. SMEs have been of interest to many researchers because SMEs are
considered different to large organisations in such areas as motives for being in business, heterogeneity with respect to their IS and management capabilities, and flexibility due to their often flat structures and small numbers of employees. Additionally,
SMEs are of interest because as a group they make a significant contribution to the GDP of many national economies globally.</p>
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<p align="LEFT" class="defaultFont">This has led to a saturation of research concerning the factors which hinder or enable SMEs to adopt various IS such as computers, productivity software, websites and e-business, enterprise systems, social media and, more
recently, “green” IT/IS and cloud computing. Location-based studies (e.g. those that examine rural or remote SMEs and IS) have also been prominent.</p>
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<p align="LEFT" class="defaultFont">This special issue will focus on IS research which moves beyond SME adoption factors to explore topics that can still examine issues such as those above, but additionally provide new contributions to theory and practice:</p>
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<div><font face="Times New Roman">arising from critical analyses of prior IS literature on SMEs (e.g. topics neglected, issues with the use of theory, etc) and resulting in future research agendas</font></div>
</li><li style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px;">
<div align="LEFT"><font face="Times New Roman">relating to interventions helping SMEs to consider, plan for, adopt, implement, exploit or resist IS;</font></div>
<font face="Times New Roman"></font><font lang="ZH-TW" face="SymbolMT"></font></li><li style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px;">
<div align="LEFT"><font face="Times New Roman">concerning a non-technocentric view which considers negative aspects of IS for SMEs;</font></div>
<font face="Times New Roman"></font><font lang="ZH-TW" face="SymbolMT"></font></li><li style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px;">
<div align="LEFT"><font face="Times New Roman">associated with interactions between SMEs and external parties (e.g. IS vendors/consultants);</font></div>
<font face="Times New Roman"></font><font lang="ZH-TW" face="SymbolMT"></font></li><li style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px;">
<div align="LEFT"><font face="Times New Roman">relating to novel forms or uses of IS peculiar to particular types of SMEs or SME contexts;</font></div>
<font face="Times New Roman"></font><font lang="ZH-TW" face="SymbolMT"></font></li><li style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px;">
<div align="LEFT"><font face="Times New Roman">concerning how to make better conceptual sense of the interrelationships between SMEs and IS;</font></div>
<font face="Times New Roman"></font><font lang="ZH-TW" face="SymbolMT"></font></li><li style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px;">
<div align="LEFT"><font face="Times New Roman">relating to types of SMEs under-represented in IS literature such as not-for-profits (e.g. sporting clubs, community houses) or those in specific industry sectors (e.g. cultural SMEs, personal service SMEs)</font></div>
</li></ul>
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<p align="LEFT">Important dates</p>
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<p align="LEFT">The special issue editors welcome extended abstracts from authors wanting to see if their paper is suitable for the special issue. Authors who wish to can email abstracts to the editors directly (see details below).</p>
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<div align="LEFT"><font face="Times New Roman">Submission deadline for papers (see submission instructions below)
</font><b><font face="Times New Roman">- 30th June, 2014</font></b></div>
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<font face="Times New Roman">Notification of desk rejections - </font><b><font face="Times New Roman">end of July, 2014</font></b></div>
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<div align="LEFT"><font face="Times New Roman">Notification of paper acceptance decision after double-blind review
</font><b><font face="Times New Roman">- end of September, 2014</font></b></div>
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<font face="Times New Roman">Submission deadline for final versions of accepted papers -
</font><b><font face="Times New Roman">end of October, 2014</font></b></div>
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<div align="LEFT"><font face="Times New Roman">Publication of accepted papers - </font>
<b><font face="Times New Roman">December issue of AJIS, 2014</font></b></div>
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<p align="LEFT">Paper submission instructions</p>
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<p align="LEFT"><font face="Times New Roman">All papers must be submitted via the AJIS online system (</font><font color="#0563c2" face="Times New Roman"><font color="#0563c2" face="Times New Roman">http://dl.acs.org.au/index.php/ajis</font></font><font face="Times New Roman">)
and meet the AJIS submission requirements specified at this site.</font></p>
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<p align="LEFT">Special issue editors</p>
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<font face="Times New Roman">Nabeel Al-Qirim, United Arab Emirates University, United Arab Emirates,
</font><font color="#0563c2" face="Times New Roman"><font color="#0563c2" face="Times New Roman">Nalqirim@uaeu.ac.ae</font></font></div>
<font color="#0563c2" face="Times New Roman"><font color="#0563c2" face="Times New Roman"></font></font><font lang="ZH-TW" face="SymbolMT"></font></li><li style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px;">
<div align="LEFT"><font face="Times New Roman">Stephen Burgess, Victoria University, Australia,
</font><font color="#0563c2" face="Times New Roman"><font color="#0563c2" face="Times New Roman">Stephen.Burgess@vu.edu.au</font></font></div>
<font color="#0563c2" face="Times New Roman"><font color="#0563c2" face="Times New Roman"></font></font><font lang="ZH-TW" face="SymbolMT"></font></li><li style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Craig M. Parker, Deakin University, Australia,
</font><font color="#0563c2" face="Times New Roman"><font color="#0563c2" face="Times New Roman">craig.parker@deakin.edu.au</font></font></li></ul>
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<div data-signatureblock="true">_____________________________________<br>
Stephen Burgess, PhD<br>
Associate Professor, Information Systems<br>
College of Business<br>
Victoria University<br>
PO Box 14428<br>
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 8001<br>
Tel: +61 3 9919 4353<br>
Email: Stephen.Burgess@vu.edu.au </div>
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