[AISWorld] Last reminder: JIT special issue on IT in China

[Ping Gao]

The deadline for submission to JIT Special Issue on IT in China is approaching - 31 March 2012

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Call for Papers for a Special Issue of Journal of Information Technology
Information Technology in China

Special Issue Editors: Ping Gao, Heejin Lee, Kalle Lyytinen and Kanliang Wang

For the past quarter century, the rise of China has been a defining factor in global
economic development. During this time, China has recorded an average annual GDP
growth rate of about 10%, and constructed a modern IT infrastructure across the
whole country. IT has become an important part of business and social life in China,
and has brought with it some significant changes. As a result, more and more
scholarly attention is being paid to IT in China, including special issues in mainstream
information systems journals.

Although there has been some significant work on IT in China, the focus was on IT
applications and IS at the micro-level of the organization, which reflected
well-established but rather bounded interests within information systems more
generally. This special issue of JIT on "Information Technology in China" seeks to both
update and expand the coverage. It aims to draw out the particular insights that
policy-making, development and application of IT in recent years in the world's
most-populous country have to offer from a variety of theoretical and methodological
perspectives.

We wish to bring together research on important recent IT developments and
applications in China that have been relatively ignored in the literature. Particularly, we
are interested in the following phenomena (although not restricting submissions to this
range). First, China has formed a true "digital economy" infrastructure. It is important to
understand the various factors that determine fast growth of IT infrastructure in China,
and analyze the challenges that China faces in future growth, for example the
institutional and legislative barriers for the convergence between the Internet,
telecommunications and media sectors. Second, Chinese firms are catching up with
the global innovation frontier in IT manufacturing. In the meantime, the government
has promoted indigenous IT innovation. There are interesting issues for debate
around China's national system of IT innovation: its successes, its failures, and
criticisms of a techno-nationalism that jeopardizes fair, open competition for private
and foreign firms. Third, China's IT services market is booming. Amazon, Google and
other major Internet firms have set up in China, yet it is Chinese firms that dominate
the domestic market. Interesting lessons can be drawn from case studies of the
business models of Chinese and foreign IT service providers in China. Fourth, it is
interesting to know how the central government has sought to use IT to promote
socio-economic development, to help reduce social divisions, and to create a more
"homogeneous society". We call for investigations into the impact and challenge when
various IS are applied in healthcare, education, justice, agriculture, environmental
protection, disaster alleviation, etc.

This special issue aims for a deep understanding of the key aspects of IT in China,
linking those phenomena to China's particular social, economic, cultural, political and
institutional context. We call for innovative research papers addressing the
opportunities and challenges of IT in China in the above and other areas. Comparative
studies of China with other developing countries and emerging economies (especially
in Asia due to some similarities of development history and context) are particularly
welcomed. At a more practical level, we invite submissions that are theoretically and
empirically rigorous on topics that may include but are not limited to:
- IT infrastructure
- IT policy
- The role of government in IT development
- IT innovation and standardization
- Organizational strategies and procedures for IT development
- IT manufacturing industry
- The telecommunications sector
- IT convergence
- IT service adoption and diffusion
- IT and socio-economic development in healthcare, agriculture, environment, etc.
- IT and social development
- Comparative study of IT in China and other countries
- Digital cities
- e-Governance

Timetable
31 March 2012: Deadline for article submission
30 September 2012: Reviews returned to authors
31 December 2012: Deadline for submission of revised articles
31 March 2013: Final articles selected
December 2013: Publication of the JIT Special Issue

Submission Information
For information about JIT and formatting requirements please see www.palgrave-journals.com/jit/index.html.
Questions about the Special Issue can be directed to Guest Editor Ping Gao at ping.gao at manchester.ac.uk.
Papers for the Special Issue should be submitted by email to JITedoffice at lse.ac.uk
with the title of the Special Issue in the Subject line.