Journal of Electronic Commerce Research: Special Issue on Virtual Worlds

by Marc Fetscherin

JOURNAL OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCE RESEARCH:
SPECIAL ISSUE ON VIRTUAL WORLDS

CALL FOR PAPERS
Special Issue on Virtual Worlds
Submissions due: November 1, 2007
Scheduled Publication date: August 2008

Overview:
The emergence of virtual worlds and Web 3.D change the way of
doing business. Web 3.D is the synonym for Internet-based virtual
worlds, where people can create own 3-D *virtual*
personalities. Virtual Worlds such as Second Life and others are
undergoing an evolution similar to that of the Internet in the
mid nineties and might impact profoundly the way people
cooperate, communicate, collaborate, and conduct business. The
recent entering of companies such as Toyota, American Apparel,
Nissan, or Adidas indicate the upcoming role of this platform for
the next generation of conducting electronic business. This call
for papers is intended to cover a wide range of business and
research topics that fall within the broad description of
activities, challenges, opportunities, applications, innovations
and implications associated with Virtual Worlds as the emerging
new online business landscape.

Purpose of the Special Issue:
The purpose of this special issue is to encourage discussion and
communication of important research issues that underpin Virtual
Worlds as an important aspect of e-commerce and to showcase
interesting and significant research work in this critical area.
Specifically this issues is focusing on business and legal issues
of doing business in Virtual Worlds. Of particular relevance to
the described focus are papers about business models, marketing,
promotion, pricing, customer integration, consumer behavior,
legal, cultural and cross-cultural research. The issue, however,
will not be restricted to these topics; rather, it welcomes
reports of theoretical or empirical research that examines
pertinent business issues related to Virtual Worlds e-commerce.
This special issue will be of interest to researchers,
governments, small and large businesses, marketing and PR
companies among others.

List of possible topics are:
* Product Development and Testing in Virtual Worlds
* Image, Branding, Advertising in Virtual Worlds
* Marketing in Virtual World
* Avatar-based Marketing
* Promotion of Virtual Goods in Virtual Worlds
* Pricing of Virtual Goods in Virtual Worlds
* Selling, Cross-Selling Real and Virtual Worlds
* Business Planning for Non-profits in Virtual Worlds
* Fundraising and Virtual Worlds
* Convergence of Real and Virtual Worlds
* Customer Integration and Virtual Worlds
* Technology, Business, Strategy in Virtual Worlds
* Financial Systems, Investments, Currency Exchange Real
and Virtual Worlds
* Emerging Media Presence in Virtual Worlds
* Consumer Behavior, Consumer Acceptance and Virtual
Worlds
* Trust, Cross-Cultural Studies and Virtual Worlds
* Intellectual Property, Copyright, Trademarks and Virtual
Worlds

Submission of Manustcript:
JECR publishes original empirical research, theoretical and
methodological articles, evaluative and integrative reviews,
field research, business surveys, and application papers of
interest to a general readership. A submission based on a paper
appearing elsewhere (such as conference proceedings or
newsletters) must have major value-added extensions to the
earlier version. For conference papers, it should have at least
30% new material. The submitted manuscripts should follow the
format as suggested in the Submission Guideline found in the
journal website: http://www.csulb.edu/journals/jecr/s_guide.htm.
Of particular note is that the manuscript should be prepared in
Microsoft Word format. The names, affiliations, and contact
information (i.e., phone, fax, email addresses) of all authors
should be provided only on the cover page. The submitted paper
will undergo a double-blind review. Contributing authors may be
asked to serve as reviewers for the special issue. Authors may
submit completed manuscripts electronically at any time prior to
November 1st 2007 deadline.

Manuscripts and questions send to
mfetscherin - at - rollins -dot- edu