CFP: Journal of Virtual Worlds Issue on Enterprises Welcome Virtual Worlds
Call for papers on “Enterprises Welcome Virtual Worlds” in the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.
A special issue edited by: Imed Boughzala, Telecom Business School, Institut Mines-Telecom, France; Gert-Jan de Vreede, The Center for Collaboration Science, University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA and Moez Limayem, Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas, USA.
The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – JVWR is happy to announce this call for a special Issue number 3 of Volume 6 to be published on Q3/ 2013.
JVWR (http://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 world research.
Motivation and Scope
Virtual worlds provide a visual window to a persistent and synthetic world inhabited by avatars that are deeply involved in social interactions, along with economic, organizational and commercial activities. They present challenges and opportunities for enterprises. Enterprises have to overcome limitations originating from sharing different physical space and opportunities while virtual worlds offer possibilities that are sometimes impossible in the real world. Today’s virtual worlds bring a variety of opportunities with respect to team collaboration, virtual project management, immersive virtual education, product marketing, simulation and design. Several companies are already using virtual worlds but others are hesitating to jump in for different reasons: technology readiness or investment, evidence of proof of value and proof of use in the field.
This special issue on “Enterprises Welcome Virtual Worlds” will highlight research that makes a significant and novel contribution in theory and practice about virtual worlds in the enterprise field domain. We are looking for papers that provide new directions for research by examining organizational, individual/group, design, and/or social perspectives of virtual worlds in intra or inter organizational and business activities and environments. We especially welcome innovative and creative research that enables our audience to see the opportunities and obstacles offered by virtual worlds.
Authors are invited to submit original manuscripts that will make significant contributions to the advancement of our understanding of enterprise applications with virtual worlds (experiments, case studies, action research, design science, empirical investigation, comparative research, prototyping and experimental engineering emphasizing technical and methodological dimensions of virtual worlds). There are no preferred methodological stances for this special issue: it is open to qualitative and quantitative research, to research from a positivist, interpretivist, or critical perspective, to studies from the lab, from the field, or developmental in nature.
Themes and Topics of Relevance Include, but are not limited to:
– The impact of virtual world on organizational and business performance
– Success factors of virtual worlds applications
– Change management using virtual worlds
– Factors influencing virtual world adoption, adaptation, and diffusion in the field
– Introducing virtual world technologies and processes in organizations and cross organizational collaborations
– Facilitation, management and leadership styles in virtual worlds
– Skills, knowledge, and abilities to successfully work, play and learn in virtual worlds
– Creativity and innovation in virtual worlds
– Approaches and processes for repeatable tasks in virtual worlds
– Best practices, collaboration techniques, and pattern languages for virtual world processes
– Theories, guidelines and strategies for designing virtual world processes, technologies and systems
– Policies, risks and phenomena in virtual worlds
– Enhancing robustness, flexibility, and longevity of virtual world applications, processes, and technologies
– Modeling techniques and frameworks to support virtual world processes and applications
– Embedded technologies for virtual worlds
– Information access, processing, and dissemination in virtual worlds
– Collaboration and co-creation styles in virtual worlds
– Cultural perspectives on virtual worlds
– Approaches to training virtual world skills
– Serious games and Mobile learning applications
– Knowledge management through virtual worlds
– Knowledge transfer from virtual to real world
– Ethical issues surrounding virtual worlds
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. All submissions will be reviewed in accordance with JVWR double-open policy. See details on the Journal’s site in About JVWR> For-Authors. Accepted papers will be published online in Volume 6, Number 3 (2013) of the Journal.
Deadlines and Timeline
Authors submit abstract: September 15, 2012
Editors return comments on abstracts: September 30, 2012
Authors submit full paper: March 1, 2013
Editors return review report and initial decision: May 1, 2013
Authors submit revised paper: June 1, 2013
Editors return final comments and decision: July 1, 2013
Authors submit final version: September 15, 2013
Publication: November 1, 2013
Connection with HICSS 46: 7-10 January 2013, Grand Wailea, Maui, Hawaii
Interested authors are welcome but not required to submit papers to the “Enterprises Welcome Virtual Worlds” minitrack at HICSS. This is a good opportunity to receive feedback and comments to enhance your paper. See original call here (PDF) or http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu.
Please Contact:
Imed Boughzala: imed.boughzala AT telecom-em.eu
Gert-Jan de Vreede: gdevreede AT mail.unomaha.edu
Moez Limayem: MLimayem AT walton.uark.edu
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