Hemant Bhargava, University of California, Davis

Andreas König, University of Passau

Jan Krämer, University of Passau

Chayanin Wipusanawan, University of Passau

One of the central features of the contemporary digital economy is the growing importance of digital platforms that enable, facilitate, govern, and increasingly mediate exchanges and interactions among participants who affiliate with the platform. Digital platform ecosystems, comprising platform owners, complementors, users, and a broader network of partners and institutions, have become a dominant architecture for value creation in the global economy. They influence organizational strategies, reshape industries and markets, and generate far-reaching social and political implications.

While platform ecosystems can foster novel forms of innovation, coordination, and entrepreneurial opportunity, their concentrated influence also raises critical questions regarding their powerful, and sometimes problematic, effects on societal processes and structures that extend beyond business and economic outcomes. As platform-mediated activities now govern substantial parts of how individuals work, communicate, access information, and participate in public debate, it is increasingly important to examine how these ecosystems are designed, governed, and regulated, and how such governance arrangements shape societal outcomes.

This influence is particularly visible in evolving labor arrangements, the organization and boundaries of online speech and content moderation, and the protection of vulnerable users, including youth safety and digital well-being. Related concerns include issues of fairness and transparency, market power and competitive dynamics, data practices and privacy, the distribution of risks and benefits across stakeholder groups, and the interaction of platform governance with public policy.

This special issue aims to provide a scholarly forum for addressing critical questions on digital platform ecosystems, considering both their enabling potential and their societal risks. We welcome theoretical and empirical contributions, employing quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods approaches, from the full breadth of the information systems field and related disciplines.

Potential topics

• Platform Governance and Ecosystem Orchestration: Governance mechanisms, rule-setting, boundary resources, and the allocation of decision rights across platform owners, complementors, and users; centralized, decentralized, and hybrid governance models.
• Strategic Conduct, Market Power, and Competitive Dynamics: Strategic positioning, platform envelopment, self-preferencing, lock-in, multi-homing, and the implications of dominant platforms for competition and market structure.
• Innovation, Complementor Dynamics, and Value Co-creation: Generativity, innovation governance, API and data access, developer relations, incentive structures, and strategies for value creation and capture across ecosystem participants.
• Content Governance, Speech, and Public Discourse: Content moderation, recommender systems, platform policies, and their effects on online speech, civic participation, and political communication across jurisdictions.
• Societal Risks, Safety, and Equity: Fairness, inclusion, and distributional effects of platform governance and algorithmic decision-making; information integrity and the maintenance of digital trust; safety, well-being, and protection of vulnerable users.
• Regulation, Policy, and Institutional Change: Antitrust and platform regulation, interoperability and portability, liability regimes, standards, oversight of platform policies and algorithmic systems, and the interaction between platform governance and public policy.
• Platforms and Socio-Economic Development: Platformization trajectories, local innovation ecosystems, informal economies, and societal impacts in emerging and developing contexts.

Timeline

• July 1, 2026: Open for submissions
• December 1, 2026: Submission deadline

Christian Bartelheimer, University of Göttingen

Daniel Beverungen, Paderborn University

Sara Hofmann, University of Agder

Lysanne Lessard, University of Ottawa

Digital transformation continues to reshape how organizations create, deliver, and capture value. At the same time, service has become a crucial lens for understanding contemporary information systems (IS) phenomena. Value is co-created across organizational boundaries, enacted through digital technologies, and embedded in networks, platforms, and ecosystems. The Topical Collection on Digital Transformation & Service at Electronic Markets seeks to advance theoretically grounded and relevant IS research at the intersection of digital transformation and service.

We invite submissions that foreground service and digital transformation as they are established, debated, and further developed within the IS discipline, and in particular in Electronic Markets. Submitted articles should demonstrate a clear engagement with core IS literature to identify a well-defined research gap that matters for practice and theory, and articulate a convincing contribution to recent IS conversations. We are particularly interested in papers that move beyond broad claims about the consequences of digital transformation and instead examine how information technology (IT) artifacts ought to be designed and how they can be applied to foster value co-creation.

A central expectation of this Topical Collection is that submissions 'white-box' the role of IT artifacts. We seek papers that explicate how IT artifacts shape and are shaped by the digital transformation of organizations, for instance by enabling or transforming customer relations, value propositions, and service exchange. Studies may focus on (smart) service systems or ecosystems at varied levels, including communities, organizations, inter-organizational arrangements, platforms, data spaces, and society. In contrast, we do not seek papers that treat information systems as 'black boxes' or limit their analysis to summative business implications without theorizing the underlying structures, mechanisms, and affordances of IT artifacts through which these implications emerge. Manuscripts presenting IT artifacts that use or expand large language models or other large-scale artificial intelligence technologies must also be unpacked and contextualized, and presented in a way that is theoretically anchored and generates contributions at the intersection of digital transformation, service, and information systems.

We invite contributions from various epistemological positions and methodological traditions common in the IS discipline. Suitable submissions may include (action) design science, conceptual papers, qualitative studies, including case studies and Delphi studies, quantitative research, including experiments, surveys, and data-driven studies, and mixed-methods work. Literature reviews are also welcome, provided that they deliver strong theoretical implications and develop a forward-looking research agenda that reaches considerably beyond reporting the current state of research.

We particularly encourage submissions that investigate the role of digital technologies in real-world service scenarios. Studies that focus on inter-organizational contexts such as service networks, digital platforms, data spaces, or business ecosystems are especially relevant, as they touch on core topics of Electronic Markets. Submissions may examine established organizations, start-ups, public-sector organizations, communities, or other actor constellations in which digital technologies enable, constrain, or transform service exchange and value co-creation.

Potential topics

• Digital transformation and service in information systems
• Design and application of IT artifacts to foster value co-creation
• Smart service systems and ecosystems at multiple levels (communities, organizations, inter-organizational arrangements, platforms, data spaces, and society)
• Customer relations, value propositions, and service exchange enabled by digital technologies
• Role of digital technologies in real-world service scenarios
• Inter-organizational contexts such as service networks, digital platforms, data spaces, and business ecosystems
• Digital transformation in established organizations, start-ups, public-sector organizations, and communities
• IT artifacts using or expanding large language models and other large-scale artificial intelligence technologies
• Generative AI and digital responsibility in service contexts

Timeline

• Invalid DateTime: Submission deadline

Rainer Schmidt, Munich University of Applied Sciences

Rainer Alt, Leipzig University

Alfred Zimmermann, Reutlingen University

The Topical Collection on Artificial Intelligence-based Assistants and Platforms focuses on assistant systems (e.g. chatbots, recommenders) that are based on artificial intelligence and the interaction with users via declarative natural-language interfaces. They are present in various forms as well as industries and often assume a platform logic when services and devices from different providers are included.

The Topical Collection relates to a minitrack at the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) and comprises research on novel methods, models, processes, and approaches related to the design, implementation, deployment, operation, and optimization of AI-based assistants and platforms for the digital economy.

Potential topics

• Design, implementation, and deployment of AI-based assistants and platforms
• Novel methods and models for AI-based assistants (e.g., chatbots, recommenders)
• Natural language interfaces and user interaction with AI systems
• Platform logic and integration of services from different providers
• Operation and optimization of AI-based assistants and platforms for the digital economy
• AI-based assistants in various industries and applications

Timeline

• Invalid DateTime: Submission deadline

Timeline

• February 15, 2025: Full paper submission deadline