Call for book chapters: Diversity in Diversity Management

Call for Book Chapters

Diversity in Diversity Management

Editors:

• Andri Georgiadou, UCLan Cyprus, School of Business, Cyprus (andrigeorgiadou.ag@gmail.com)
• Maria Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez, Universidad EAFIT, Colombia (mgonza40@eafit.edu.co )
• Miguel R. Olivas-Lujan, Clarion University of Pennsylvania, United States (molivas@clarion.edu).

In many countries, managing and developing diversity is an increasingly high priority on the business and political agenda and has become an area of knowledge and practice in its own right. Yet all too often, diversity management and research is centred on Western democracies, mono-culturally infused and biased (e.g., Jonsen et al., 2011; Nishii & Ozbilgin, 2007). At the same time, diversity and equality at work cannot be treated as a unifying concept, nor be interpreted uniformly across different cultures and countries, as highlighted in the volumes and special issues on country or comparative perspectives on equal treatment and diversity, edited by Klarsfeld (2010), Syed and Özbilgin (2010), Klarsfeld et al. (2014), and Klarsfeld et al. (2016a and 2016b).

The need for this volume has emerged due to the lack of understanding as to how diversity and equality are managed in different national contexts. Focusing on workplace equality, diversity, and inclusion, the collection of chapters (conceptual, theoretical, or empirical articles) will bring together a unique blend of scholarly research and professional practice, evidenced through an array of individuals both outside and inside organisations.

This edited book (part of the Emerald Publishing’ Advanced Series in Management book series) seeks to provide new practical and strategic insights for practitioners, managers, students and policy makers; it delves on the strategic nature of policy intervention with thought-provoking contributions written by experts from around the world. Contributors aim to provide critical reflection of current debate areas on diversity and equality in under-researched countries to inform and support evidence-based decision making for a wide variety of academic and practice-oriented stakeholders. It will benefit higher-education students’ learning experience and provide useful resources to enrich knowledge and learning on diversity and equality in business programs, organizations, and for policy-makers.

TENTATIVE CONTENT (examples)

1. Introduction and Background
1. Equality and diversity
2. Traditional perspectives
1. Cultural, historical, sociological and anthropological
2. Legal
3. Economic
3. Diversity beyond in the grounds of diversity...
1. Diversity within diversity
4. Cultural and legal perspectives
5. Managing diversity based on specific grounds
1. Typologies of diversity
2. Comparative prioritized grounds of diversity

2. Why managing diversity matters?
1. Business case of diversity
2. Inclusion and diversity
3. Societal expectations of managing diversity in business and society

3. Country-based cases (specific examples, incentives, legislations, market incentives, historical and cultural weight, workplace equality, sectoral approaches, etc.)
1. Managing Diversity in Cyprus
2. Managing Diversity in Colombia
3. Managing Diversity in Mexico
4. Managing Diversity in Kenya
5. Managing Diversity in the United States of America
6. Managing Diversity in Malaysia
7. Managing Diversity in ...

4. Why managing diversity matters?
1. Business case of diversity
2. Ethical case of managing diversity

      5. Conclusion and Future Research

Chapters will include between 6,000 and 9,000 words. The following structure is suggested, though authors should feel free to make adjustments that reflect their expertise: (1) Emerald’s structured abstract, (2) Introduction, (3) Problem statement and literature review, (4) Methodology or research design, (5) Findings or results with implications for managers and decision-makers, (6) Discussion, limitations, future research, and conclusion, (7) References. Chapters will first be reviewed by volume editors, then by anonymous reviewers; authors of accepted chapters commit to reviewing anonymously and collegially up to two chapters written by different authors.

IMPORTANT DEADLINES

• October 1 - December 20, 2017: Submit chapter proposals to volume editors
• January 2018: Notification of accepted chapters proposals
• April 30, 2018: Receipt of full chapters for review
• May 31, 2018: Chapter reviews sent to volume editors followed by notifications to authors
• July 31, 2018: Revised chapters re-submitted to volume editors (if needed) along with 100-word author bios
• September 30, 2018: Approved chapters delivered to publisher
• January 2019: Book published

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Please submit your chapter proposal as an email attachment at your earliest convenience. A brief, one-page outline of your chapter identifying main sources of information and a one-page biography listing institutional affiliation, position, publications, educational background and any other relevant information should be sent to: Andri Georgiadou (andrigeorgiadou.ag@gmail.com), Maria-Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez (mgonza40@eafit.edu.co), and Miguel R. Olivas-Lujan (molivas@clarion.edu).

More details about the Advanced Series in Management can be found here; details before submitting a chapter are in Emerald’s Author Guidelines page. This series is indexed in Scopus  and included in Thomson Reuters Book Citation Index.

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CfP. Corporate responsibility: In the dilemma between trust and fake?

Call for Papers: Corporate responsibility: In the dilemma between trust and fake?

Guest Editors:

• Simon Fietze, University of Southern Denmark
• Wenzel Matiaske, Helmut-Schmidt-University/University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg (Germany)
• Roland Menges, Technical University Clausthal (Germany)

Special Issue
Trust is the currency that creates markets. This is knowledge of the merchants at the latest since modern markets have emerged along the medieval trade routes. Quality and reliability in the business are also building blocks of trust and the assumption of responsibility for the social and ecological consequences of entrepreneurial activity. Whether the latter should be integrated into social and legal relations and norms in the form of voluntary corporate responsibility, has been the subject of economic discussion since the beginnings of the discipline and since the separation of the spheres of economic and moral action in the Scottish moral economy.

Over the past decades, both supra-national organisations such as the UN and the EU have been focusing on soft law – from the global compact through the AA1000 to the Green Paper of the EU Commission – as well as the national states, to promote social and environmental responsibility for companies in the age of globalisation. These initiatives have led to lively activities and debates both in the business world and in different scientific disciplines. For companies, it has now become a “fashion” to campaign social and ecological responsibility using the concept of “Corporate Social Responsibility”. This commitment has meanwhile led to the fact that CSR activities should partly contribute to value creation instead of aligning them with corporate objectives and values. Such a development leads to the loss of trust and the assumption of responsibility becomes a “fake”.

Against this backdrop, some of the social and economic observers remained sceptical, advocating tougher legal norms or fiscal implications. Finally, lawyers pointed out that (successful) standardisations often develop not only from the "top" but also from the “bottom”, i.e. they emerge from the action routines of the economic actors as emergent effects. However, not only the recent scandals – from the ENRON case to the VW case – raise questions about the effectiveness of co-operative self-commitment as well as external control.

Moreover, corporate responsibility is related to the concept of consumer responsibility. Whereas market-optimists believe that reliable changes in consumption patterns rely on responsible individual action, more market-skeptics warn of a counterproductive “privatisation of sustainability”.

In this light, this special issue will be on theoretical and empirical contributions to the topic “Corporate responsibility: In the dilemma between trust and fake?” from economic, sociological, (economic) historical and legal perspectives. Possible topics are:

Economic and history of ideas cases and questions of corporate responsibility

• The “pseudo” corporate responsibility 
• Organisational and sociological theories and findings on corporate responsibility
• Theory and empiricism of the audit 
• Theoretical and empirical studies on consumer responsibility 
• Criminal law considerations for corporate actors 
• Institutional factors of corporate responsibility 
• The trust of social entrepreneurship 
• This is not an exhaustive list. 

Deadline

Full paper for this special issue of Management Revue must be submitted by September 30th, 2017. All contributions will be subject to a double-blind review. Papers invited to a ‘revise and resubmit’ are due January 31st, 2018. Please submit your papers electronically via the online submission system using ‘SI Corporate Responsibility’ as article section.

Hoping to hear from you!
Simon Fietze
Wenzel Matiaske
Roland Menges

CfP. Strategies in the Global Digital Economy

Strategies in the Global Digital Economy

Call for papers for a Special Issue of 

Global Strategy Journal 

Deadline for submissions: April 15-30, 2018

Special Issue Editors:

• Erkko Autio, Imperial College Business School
• Ram Mudambi, Fox School of Business, Temple University
• Youngjin Yoo, Weatherhead School of Business, Case Western Reserve University 

Objective of this Special Issue:

Spatial transaction costs – the costs of undertaking business transactions across geographic space – have been declining continuously since the beginning of the industrial revolution. However, with the digital transformation of society, these declines have become exponential. Since the introduction of the integrated circuit in 1958, Moore’s Law has consistently held, with speed and processing power doubling roughly every 18 months (Moore, 1965).1 According to Brynjolfsson and McAfee (2014), the point of inflection associated with Moore’s Law dynamics was reached about 2006. They argue that the enormous and accelerating increases in digital capabilities since that time have changed the global business landscape in fundamental ways. They have enabled the flowering of a wide range of entirely new industries from social networking to online entertainment, as well as the re-launching of many traditional industries from taxicabs to lodging as platform businesses. 

Digitalization is transforming how firms organize for value creation and delivery (Tilson, Lyytinen, & Sorensen, 2010; Yoo, Boland Jr, Lyytinen, & Majchrzak, 2012). Underpinning this transformation is the constantly increasing sophistication and ubiquitous availability of digital infrastructures, which enable ever more sophisticated interactions between transacting parties regardless of geographic location. As services and interactions are increasingly digitalized and modularized (McDermott, Mudambi & Parente, 2013), and as digitalization increasingly permeates even physical products, enabling the connectivity of these to digital platforms, new business models are enabled that have the potential to scale globally – and to disrupt established incumbents. The car sharing company Uber and the home sharing firm Airbnb are just two well-known examples of the resulting globally disruptive business models that have transformed previously highly local service sectors. 

The global reach and disruptive potential of digitally enabled business model innovation creates a distinct challenge for global strategy research. Although the more disruptive wave of digitally enabled business models started already in the mid-2000s, global strategy and While many experts believe that the continual shrinking of transistors is reaching physical limits (e.g., Simonite, 2016), other technologies are appearing to maintain the general speed and processing power gains at the rate predicted by Moore’s Law.

international business research have been slow to address this phenomenon, in spite of increasing anecdotal evidence that the digitalization phenomenon is directly challenging and even undermining received theories of the internationalization of firms. When ubiquitous digital platforms enable direct and immediate interactions between users and producers located in different sides of the planet, what are the implications of this for the internationalization process theory and to the importance of foreign market knowledge? When firms can deliver services from distance, without necessarily locating any physical resources in the country where the service is offered, what are the implications of this for network models of internationalization? When a globally transacting business can be coordinated and managed from a single location, what are the implications of this for the very meaning of internationalization and globalization?

Although many digital business models are inherently international, global strategy and internationalization research have been relatively slow to address this phenomenon. While there have been numerous, often case-based studies focusing on ‘internet businesses’ and ‘e- business’, and systematic accounts of how digitalization challenges received internationalization theories have been few.

This special issue seeks to address both theoretical and empirical implications of digitalization for global strategies and internationalization. These are a few topics and research questions that papers submitted to the special issue can address: 

• Digitalisation is transforming the patterns and sometimes the very meaning of the internationalization of firms (new ventures)

In particular, disintermediation (the ability of service and resource providers to directly engage and interact with end users virtually regardless of geographic distance) is enabling productive cross-border interactions in ways mostly unanticipated in received theories of the internationalization of firms.

• The breadth and immediacy of one-to-one cross-border interactions is opening up new ways of creating, delivering, and appropriating value, driving a wave of international business model innovation.
• The emergence of global digital platforms is enabling value creation and capture on a global scale, sometimes even global market dominance by a single firm 
• Digitalisation is also enabling hitherto unseen opportunities to scale up business models in a global scale
• Digitalization creates unforeseen interactions between local and global competitions, some of which are caused by the mobilization of local physical assets via global digital infrastructure 
• Digitalization and global scalability of business models. On the one hand, digitalization tends to reduce dependency on location-specific assets thanks to, e.g., easily accessible and scalable cloud services that can be tapped in case of rapid growth. On the other hand, new barriers to scalability may arise, in the form of, e.g., regulatory barriers or gaps. When can digitalisation eliminate access to local resources as a constraint to internationalization, and what are the new barriers to foreign market entry? 
• Implications of digitalization for the internationalization process. How does digitalization impact, e.g., entry mode choice, foreign market learning, liabilities of foreignness and outsidership, and the feasibility of gradual and ‘born global’ modes of internationalization?
• Digitalisation and global value co-creation. How do the characteristics of digitalization, such as disintermediation and generativity shape and extend opportunities for value co-creation over national borders? 
• Digitalisation, value bundling, and cross-border value co-creation. As digitalization enables novel ways of functionality bundling around digital platforms unconstrained by geographical location, what are the implications for cross-border value co- creation? 
• Digitalization, disintermediation, and cross-border business model innovation. As disintermediation enables direct and virtually immediate contact with end users regardless of location, this should enable international new ventures to implement ‘lean entrepreneurship’ practices such as business model experimentation in cross- border settings. How can cross-border experimentation be harnessed for the discovery of robust and globally scalable business models? 
• Digitalization, asset specificity, and the transformation of foreign market entry modes. As digitalization reduces asset specificity, it also should reduce dependency on local resources for value delivery and capture in a given country market. How will foreign market entry mode choice be affected by this development? 
• Digitization in the production of tangible products, especially the effects of technologies like 3D printing, robotics and artificial intelligence on the location dimension of international business. 

Submission Process:

Between April 15 and 30, 2018, authors should submit their manuscripts online via the Global Strategy Journal submission system: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/gsj. To ensure that all manuscripts are correctly identified for consideration for this Special Issue, it is important that authors select “Digital Economy special issue” in the submission process

Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with Global Strategy Journal Guide for Authors available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)2042- 5805/homepage/ForAuthors.html. All submitted manuscripts will be subject to the Journal’s double-blind review process.

Authors who have any questions may direct them to the Special Issue Editors by email: Erkko Autio (erkko.autio@imperial.ac.uk), Ram Mudambi (ram.mudambi@temple.edu) and Youngjin Yoo (youngjin@case.edu).

References:

Brynjolfsson E. and McAfee, A. 2014. The Second Machine Age: Work, Progess and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies. W.W.Norton, New York.

McDermott, G., Mudambi, R., & Parente, R. 2013. Strategic modularity and the architecture of the multinational firm. Global Strategy Journal, 3(1): 1-7.

Moore, G. 1965. Cramming more components onto integrated circuits. Electronics, 38(8), April 19.
Simonite, T. 2016. Moore’s Law is dead. Now what? MIT Technology Review, May 13.
Tilson, D., Lyytinen, K., & Sorensen, C. 2010. Desperately Seeking the Infrastructure in IS Research:

Conceptualization of "Digital Convergence" As Co-Evolution of Social and Technical Infrastructures.

Paper presented at the System Sciences (HICSS), 2010 43rd Hawaii International Conference on.
Yoo, Y., Boland Jr, R. J., Lyytinen, K., & Majchrzak, A. 2012. Organizing for innovation in the digitized world.

Organization Science, 23(5): 1398-1408.

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Call for papers. Special Issue: Renewable Energy in International Business

Special Issue – critical perspectives on international business 

“Renewable Energy in International Business”

Guest Editors

• Valtteri Kaartemo, University of Turku, Finland; Masar B.V., the Netherlands
• Maria Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez, Universidad EAFIT, Colombia

Introduction to the Special Issue

Renewable energy sources are continually restored by nature and derived directly (e.g., thermal and photovoltaics) or indirectly (e.g., wind and hydro) from the sun, or from other natural mechanisms of the environment (e.g., geothermal and tidal energy). Renewable energy excludes resources derived from fossil fuels, waste products from fossil sources, and waste products from inorganic sources (Ellabban et al., 2014). As a result, renewable energy is to a large extent climate neutral and resource saving.

In 2016, around 300 billion US dollars were invested in renewable energy worldwide (Bloomberg, 2017). Major multinational enterprises (MNEs) have announced their transition towards renewable energy sources (Hardy, 2016). Renewable energy has the potential to be a fascinating topic to study for international business (IB) scholars. Most of the production, particularly solar photovoltaics, is highly scalable and currently concentrated in China (Kaartemo, 2016). However, resources and demand for renewable energy investments are global. Moreover, renewables are highly influenced by international institutions (e.g. the Paris Climate Change Agreement was signed by 194 nations in 2015). Yet, these agreements have to be locally implemented, and countries have different capacities and institutional regulatory environments for attracting (and sometimes distracting) renewable energy investments, and to drive environmental innovations (Gonzalez-Perez, 2016).

Despite the need for understanding renewable energy business as a complex global phenomenon, there is a general lack of research in addressing environmental challenges from an IB perspective. The extant research on renewable energy markets is mostly studied within country boundaries, without interest in studying the cross-border dynamics. These studies focus on the development of current status, public policies and future potential of individual countries. Only few studies have been published on how IB practices or countries’ cross-border institutional development and geopolitics influence the investments, competitiveness, and MNE interaction in the era of ‘energy transition’ (Kolk, 2015, 2016).

This is unfortunate. Studies on renewable energy can open up new perspectives to how international opportunities are discovered and created (Mainela et al., 2014). In addition, as renewable energy attracts impact investors (Bugg-Levine and Emerson, 2011), financiers who make investments with the intention to generate social or environmental impact alongside a financial return, studies in renewable energy may challenge the current monetary oriented focus in international finance research (Ockenden and Ye Zou, 2016). Furthermore, being heavily influenced by national decision-making and local stakeholders, studies on renewable energy can critically depict institutional work – how institutions are created, maintained, and disrupted (Lawrence et al., 2011), and how international markets are created. Instead of focusing primarily on local transformations, IB research could provide new insights on the global developments of renewable energy markets. Finally, the linkage between renewable energy and IB scholarship can further advance our understanding of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the thematic area of renewable energy, itself.

Conceptual and Empirical Topics of Particular Interest

For this special issue, we seek conceptual, theoretical and empirical work that debates issues linking renewable energy research and IB research. We encourage scholars to utilise different theoretical perspectives and apply a wide variety of rigorous methodological approaches. We are looking for studies identifying and examining common issues in renewable energy across countries as well as highlighting industry and country-specific issues. Manuscripts may also cover wider perspectives as long as the papers are in line with the broad theme of the special issue.

Guiding questions may include, but are not restricted to:

• What is the role of national and international institutions in the creation and shaping of renewable energy markets?
• How do differences in institutional environments enable or constrain the development of indigenous renewable energy markets?
• How do relevant international networks differ from one form of renewable energy to another?
• How effective has been the activism of the global civil society and international non-governmental organisations to promote a critical view on man-made climate change?
• What is the importance of local networks in deploying renewable energy in an MNE’s target market?
• How does positive news around adopting of renewable energy influence CSR and corporate sustainability practices internationally?
• How does corporate sustainability and CSR influence adoption of renewable energy in different target markets?
• How can research on international entrepreneurship advance insight on renewable energy adoption?
• Which incentives need to be put in place for renewable energy adopting in new international ventures? 
• What are the investment criteria of international renewable energy financiers?
• What is the role of target country image in attracting funding for renewable energy projects?
• What are the dark sides of international renewable energy?
• What are the local environmental and societal consequences of the excessive use of land by renewable energy MNEs?
• To what extent is renewable energy a solution also for developing countries as well as the global poor? 

Following the aim and mission of critical perspectives on international business (cpoib) (Roberts and Dörrenbächer, 2016), submissions must promote dialogue and new thinking in the broad field of IB. Potential contributors are encouraged to creatively and critically question the hegemony of transnational corporations, managerial orthodoxy and the dominant academic discourse.

The special issue is open to various formats and styles of presentation. We encourage potential contributors to review previous issues of cpoib to see the breadth of perspectives and contributions.

Submission Process and Deadlines

Guidelines for submission

• Authors should refer to the cpoib website and the instructions on submitting a paper. For author guidelines and more information see: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/cpoib.htm
• Submissions to cpoib are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cpoib  
• All papers will be subjected to double-blind peer review and papers will be reviewed in accordance with cpoib guidelines. 

The guest editors welcome informal enquiries related to proposed topics.

• Submission deadline: 28 February 2018 

• Approximate date of publication: Issue 1, 2019

Guest Editors’ Contact Details:

Dr. Valtteri Kaartemo 
University Teacher
University of Turku, Finland
valtteri.kaartemo@utu.fi
https://www.utu.fi/en/units/tse/units/international_business/contact/Pages/Valtteri-Kaartemo.aspx
Head of Research
Masar B.V., the Netherlands
valtteri@masar.io
www.masar.io


Prof. Dr. Maria Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez
Vice-President of the Academy of International Business (2015-2018)
Full Professor of Management
Universidad EAFIT, Colombia
mgonza40@eafit.edu.co
http://www.eafit.edu.co/docentes-investigadores/Paginas/maria-gonzalez.aspx

References

• Bugg-Levine, A. and Emerson, J. (2011), “Impact Investing: Transforming How We Make Money while Making a Difference”, Innovations, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 9–18. 
• Bloomberg (2017) “Clean Energy Investment End of Year 2016”. Bloomberg New Energy Finance, available at: https://about.bnef.com/clean-energy-investment/. 
• Ellabban, O., Abu-rub, H. and Blaabjerg, F. (2014), “Renewable energy resources : Current status , future prospects and their enabling technology”, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Vol. 39, pp. 748–764. 
• Gonzalez-Perez, M.A. (2016), “Climate change and the 2030 corporate agenda for sustainable development”, Advances in Sustainability and Environmental Justice, Vol. 19, pp. 1–6. 
• Hardy, Q. (2016), “Google Says It Will Run Entirely on Renewable Energy in 2017”, The New York Times, available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/06/technology/google-says-it-will-run-entirely-on-renewable-energy-in-2017.html?_r=0. 
• Kaartemo, V. (2016), “Creation and shapping of the global solar photovoltaic (PV) market”, Advances in Sustainability and Environmental Justice, Vol. 19, pp. 229–250. 
• Kolk, A. (2015), “The role of international business in clean technology transfer and development”, Climate Policy, Vol. 15 No. 1, pp. 170–176. 
• Kolk, A. (2016), “The social responsibility of international business: From ethics and the environment to CSR and sustainable development”, Journal of World Business, Vol. 51 No. 1, pp. 23–34. 
• Lawrence, T., Suddaby, R. and Leca, B. (2011), “Institutional Work: Refocusing Institutional Studies of Organization”, Journal of Management Inquiry, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 52–58. 
• Mainela, T., Puhakka, V. and Servais, P. (2014), “The Concept of International Opportunity in International Entrepreneurship: A Review and a Research Agenda”, International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 105–129. 
• Ockenden, S. and Ye Zou, S. (2016), What Enables Effective International Climate Finance in the Context of Development Co-Operation?, OECD Publishing, Paris. 
• Roberts, J. and Dörrenbächer, C. (2016), “Renewing the call for critical perspectives on international business”, Critical Perspectives on International Business, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 2–21.

CfP. Challenges and opportunities in the sharing economy

Journal of Management Studies’ Special Issue Call for Papers:

Challenges and opportunities in the sharing economy

Submission Deadline: January 15, 2018

Guest Editors:

• · Yonggui Wang, University of International Business and Economics, China (ygwang@uibe.edu.cn)
• · Li-Qun Wei, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong — JMS Associate Editor (weiliqun@hkbu.edu.hk)
• · Weiru Chen, China Europe International Business School, China (weiruchen@ceibs.edu)
• · Michael Leiblein, Ohio State University, USA (leiblein.1@osu.edu)
• · Marvin Lieberman, University of California, Los Angeles, USA (marvin.lieberman@anderson.ucla.edu)
• · Gideon Markman, Colorado State University, USA (gid.markman@gmail.com)

Overview

This special issue explores how, when, why, where and under what conditions an emerging form of collaborative consumption, popularly known as the “sharing economy” affects the creation and capture of value. The sharing economy (a.k.a. shareconomy, access, collaborative, and peer economy) refers to a class of economic arrangements in which asset owners and users mutualize access to the products or services associated with these assets (Lamberton & Rose, 2012; Sundararajan, 2016). Fueled in part by advances in information technology and excess resources, the sharing economy is now recognized as offering easy and broad connection with customers and suppliers. 

The emergence of collaborative consumption and the sharing economy has led to dramatic changes in the nature of competition between entrants and incumbents. For instance, the sharing economy has fostered the growth of many well-known startups, including accommodation companies (Airbnb), social media firms (Facebook), and financial firms (Lending Club) (Belk, 2014; Matzler et al., 2015). The valuation of Airbnb, a 7-year-old startup, is $30 billion, which is worth nearly $7 billion more than the 97 years old, publicly-traded Hilton Worldwide—the next most valuable hospitality company. Age and valuations aside, Airbnb boasts more than 2 million listings in more than 191 countries whereas the newly combined Marriott and Starwood offer ‘only’ 1.1 million rooms in 110 countries worldwide. Some estimate that the sharing economy is valued at $26 billion, with new services and multisided platforms emerging almost daily (Botsman, 2014; Botsman, & Roger, 2011). 

This Special Issue (SI) aims to explore and explain how, why and when the sharing economy affects consumers, business competition, and regulators. The SI also aim to shed light on how the sharing economy addresses problems of profit making, trust building, and market legitimacy in both B2B and B2C markets. In the sharing economy, the roles of suppliers, buyers, and users tend to blur and overlap as parties build platforms to share their resources (Belk, 2014; Williamson & De Meyer, 2012). Academic research, however, has yet to explain, especially theoretically how multisided platforms overcome these challenge while increasing asset accessibility and maximize the value of resources. As the sharing economy challenges how businesses are organized and governed, it creates opportunities for scholars to assess management theories, labor laws, practices and the nature of for profit and nonprofit enterprises (Davis, 2016).

What the Special Issue (SI) Hopes to Accomplish

First, this SI seeks to offer a clear conceptualization of the sharing economy. By identifying and categorizing the critical actors—the suppliers, platform providers, social entrepreneurs, and users associated with the sharing economy, as well as regulatory institutions—we hope to refine our understanding of the contexts wherein the sharing economy is most likely to have its greatest impact.

Second, this SI seeks to better understand how the sharing economy coordinates action across these diverse actors and even ecosystems.  Our SI will favor manuscripts that, individually and collectively, address big research questions and create foundational knowledge that addresses the logistical, operational, governance and performance consequences of the sharing economy for new entrants and incumbents alike.  Such work may explore, for instance, whether existing conceptualizations of platform competition are precise enough to explain how traditional incumbents should react to sharing-economy entrants.  

Third, our experience shows that studies on emerging phenomena tend to homogenize; they usually follow similar empirical methodologies, converge around a dominant conceptual lens, and tackle similar research questions.  The risks associated with such “convergence” is potentially overemphasizing branded players (e.g. Airbnb, Craig’s List, etc.), while underspecifying processes (e.g. how, when and where players inside and outside the sharing economy collaborate and compete).  Our SI favors attention to processes, especially the underlying mechanism in both developed and developing worlds.  

Given the multi-disciplinary and multi-level nature of the sharing economy, we encourage conceptual and empirical studies using a variety of methods (qualitative and quantitative).  Our SI will also differentiate other special issues on this topic (e.g., AMD, which focuses on empirical research and MIS Quarterly, which focuses on information technology)  

Submission Process and Deadlines

*  Manuscripts will be reviewed according to the JMS double-blind review process.

*  Submissions should be prepared using the JMS Manuscript Preparation Guidelines.

* Manuscripts should be submitted by January 15, 2018 to Margaret Turner (business.jms@durham.ac.uk).

*  For informal inquires related to the Special Issue, proposed topics and potential fit with the Special Issue objectives, please contact the guest editors.

Special Issue Workshop: To help authors advance their manuscripts, a Special Issue Workshop will be held in May 2018 (location to be announced). Authors of R&R manuscripts will be invited to present and discuss their papers during the workshop, but presentation at the workshop does not guarantee acceptance of a paper for publication in JMS. Attending the workshop is not a precondition for acceptance into the Special Issue.

References:

Belk, R. 2014. You are what you can access: Sharing and collaborative consumption online. Journal of Business Research, Vol. 67 No. 8, pp. 1595-1600.

Botsman, R. 2014. Sharing's not just for start-ups. Harvard Business Review, Vol. 92 No. 9, pp. 23-25.

Botsman, R. & Roger, R. 2011. What's Mine Is Yours: How Collaborative Consumption is Changing the Way We Live. HarperCollins Business.

Davis, G. F. 2016. The vanishing American corporation: Navigating the hazards of a new economy. Ann Arbor, MI: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. 

Lamberton, C.P., and Rose, R.L. 2012. When is ours better than mine? A framework for understanding and altering participation in commercial sharing systems. Journal of Marketing, Vol. 76 No. 4, pp. 109-125.

Matzler, K., Veider, V., and Kathan, W. 2015. Adapting to the sharing economy. MIT Sloan Management Review, Vol. 56 No. 2, pp. 71-77.

Sundararajan, A., 2016. The Sharing Economy: The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism, MIT Press

Williamson, P.J., & De Meyer, A. 2012. Ecosystem advantage: How to successfully harness the power of partners. California Management Review, Vol. 55 No. 1, pp. 24-46.