The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research (http://jvwresearch.org/) is happy to announce the call for this “Managerial and Commercial Applications” issue edited by

• Shu Schiller, Wright State University, USA
• Brian Mennecke, Iowa State University, USA
• Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA

You can access this call directly through our website.

The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research (http://www.jvwresearch.org/) is an online, open access academic journal that engages a wide spectrum of scholarship and welcomes contributions from the many disciplines and approaches that intersect with virtual worlds research. Virtual worlds ignite a continuously evolving area of study that spans multiple disciplines and the JVWR editorial team looks forward to engaging a wide range of creative and scholarly research.

Motivation and Scope

The intriguing potential of virtual worlds has attracted a significant amount of scholarly work in the business research domain. As much as we recognize the invaluable contribution made by scholars in this area, we also see the need for more research that can offer visionary perspectives to shape the future design and use of virtual worlds. Through the business lens, virtual worlds are often perceived to be promising yet risky and exciting yet formidable for the use and management of individual and collaborative work. Scholars and practitioners are confronted with an apparent contradiction: on the one hand, the business case for virtual worlds appears to offer great promise; while on the other hand, the observed returns and demonstrable successes are often absent or negligible.

This special issue on “managerial and commercial applications” of virtual worlds aims to highlight research that makes a significant and novel contribution in theory and practice about virtual worlds in the business domain. We are seeking papers that showcase new directions for research by examining technical, behavioral, economic, and/or social perspectives of virtual worlds in organizational and business environments. In particular, we are interested in papers that enable us to better understand managerial and organizational issues associated with virtual worlds and how these environments should be designed, used, and managed for commercial and managerial purposes to enhance business value. We especially welcome innovative and creative research that enables our audience to see the new possibilities offered by the unique affordances of virtual environments.

Authors are invited to submit original scholarly manuscripts that will make significant contributions to the advancement of our understanding of managerial and commercial applications as it applies to virtual worlds. We encourage diverse methodological approaches and welcome both qualitative and quantitative research studies, as well as theoretical, conceptual, and empirical studies.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Novel and innovative design and development of managerial and commercial applications of virtual worlds
• The use, management, and evaluation of virtual worlds in organizational settings
• Individual and group behaviors in virtual worlds that are used for business purposes
• Process and governance of individual and collaborative group behaviors and mechanisms in virtual worlds
• The role of psychological and social attitudes and characteristics on behaviors, processes and outcomes in virtual worlds
• Ethics, privacy, security, and trust issues related to virtual worlds in the business domain
• Intra- and inter-organizational communication and collaboration and cultural issues in virtual worlds
• Business and economic models of virtual worlds
• Power and political issues related to individual, group, organizational, and societal behaviors in virtual worlds
• Commercial applications and commercialization of virtual worlds technologies and environments

Submission Instructions
Authors are invited to submit original scholarly papers of up to 6000 words including footnotes, references, and appendices. Interested authors should submit a two-page extended abstract by the deadline indicated below. All submissions (abstracts and papers) should be made via the JVWR publishing system (see www.jvwreserach.org > About JVWR > For Authors). All submissions will be blind reviewed. Accepted papers will be published online in the Volume 5, Number 3 (2012) of the Journal.

Deadlines and Timeline

• Authors submit abstract: May 15, 2012
• Editors return comments on abstracts: May 30, 2012
• Authors submit full paper: July 1, 2012
• Editors return review report and initial decision: September 1, 2012
• Authors submit revised paper: October 1, 2012
• Editors return final comments and decision: November 1, 2012
• Authors submit final version: November 30, 2012
• Publication: December 31, 2012

Connecting with AIS AMCIS 2012

Interested authors are welcome but not required to submit papers to the ‘Virtual Communities and Virtual Worlds’ Track at AMCIS 2012 (link below). This is a good opportunity to receive feedback and comments to enhance your paper.

http://amcis2012.aisnet.org/index.php/program/tracks-and-minitracks/68

Please contact

Shu Schiller shu.schiller AT wright DOT edu
Brian Mennecke mennecke AT iastate DOT edu
Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah fnah AT unlnotes DOT unl DOT edu

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