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Call for Papers: Special Issue of Electronic Commerce Research
Cross-border e-Commerce Initiatives under China's Belt and Road
Initiative (BRI)
Topic: China has experienced significant economic growth since
1990, and since 2006, very aggressive growth in Internet based
services and retailing. To capitalize on its leads in
manufacturing and Internet services, the country launched the
"Internet +" Plan in 2015 to apply internet and other information
technologies to conventional industries, creating new value spaces
and composite technologies needed for China's further advancement
in the 21st century.
China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) launched in 2016 augments
this push into new technologies with the funding of regional
infrastructure to deliver benefits to countries and customers
beyond the immediate borders of China. The coverage area of the
initiative is primarily Asia and Europe, encompassing around 60
countries, with future extensions into Oceania and East Africa.
The anticipated cumulative future investment has been estimated at
around 50 trillion RMB (~US$8 trillion); estimates from the
Ministry of Commerce and iResearch suggest total turnover will hit
12 trillion yuan (about 1.74 trillion U.S. dollars) by 2020.
Cross-border e-Commerce under BRI shares some similarities with
existing marketing and logistic channels; but in other ways it
will be substantially different. Internet based systems are highly
scalable - substantially more than traditional channels - and
allow for economical, flexible wired and wireless infrastructure
to augment roads and rail transit. But cross-border e-Commerce
also complicate business processes; expose firms to higher
business risk and uncertainty; lower the barriers to market entry;
and create cybersecurity risks. Our special issue seeks the
submission of high-quality papers on topics addressing the many
substantial challenges of cross-border e-commerce. We have listed
a number of potential research topics; submissions though are not
limited to this list, and we invite high quality, innovative and
novel investigations of any cross-border e-Commerce issues
relevant to Internet+ and BRI.
Editors. This special issue will be co-edited by:
* Rong Du, Xidian University
* Jason Cohen, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
* Jian Mou (
jian.mou@xidian.edu.cn), Xidian University
* Lei Sun, Xidian University
* Jin Li, Xidian University
Topics. The special issue will be devoted to the exploration of
strategic, managerial, organizational, technical, security,
privacy and policy challenges with regard to information services
under e-commerce. We seek high-quality, unpublished contributions
addressing electronic commerce in Greater China or in a Chinese
context on the following and related topics:
* The success of cross-border e-commerce (focusing on both buyers
and seller's perspectives)
* The policies and cross-border e-commerce
* Mobile technologies and cross-border e-commerce
* Logistics and cross-border e-commerce
* Privacy- and security-related issues in cross-border e-commerce
* Service and cross-border e-commerce
* Localization related issues in cross-border e-commerce
* Cross-cultural issues in cross-border e-commerce
* Other emerging issues in cross-border e-commerce.
Submission Deadline. The submission deadline for full papers is
December 1, 2018. Authors are encouraged to submit as soon as
possible.
Submission Guidelines. Only original and unpublished research
papers will be considered. Authors should limit their initial
submissions to no more than 32 double-spaced pages in 12-point
font with appropriate margins, inclusive of all materials (i.e.,
references, figures, tables and appendices). Author names and
affiliations should be listed on the first page of the paper; the
reviewing will be single blind only. All papers should be
submitted via ECR's submission system
(
http://www.editorialmanager.com/elec/default.aspx). Authors
should select "S.I.: Belt and Road E-Commerce" when they reach the
"Article Type" step in the submission process. Authors should
follow Springer's Electronic Commerce Research format.
Review Process. The special issue editors will return first
reviews and AE reports no later than 90 days from the date of
submission. We will use a developmental reviewing approach for
this special issue, with the aim of helping special issue authors
to achieve very high quality final publications. Second and third
round reviews, as needed, will be completed on an expedited basis,
if authors are able to turn their revisions around quickly. We
also will provide special issue authors with an indication as
early as possible of rejection for the special issue, including
decisions based on a first reading by the special issue editors.
Inappropriately targeted or under-developed papers will be
returned immediately to the authors.
Publication Date. The publication of this special issue will occur
on a "best effort" basis some time in 2019. The actual date of
publication depends on the timing of completion of all the
articles that it will contain, and is subject to the editorial
staff's and publisher's ability to schedule it. ECR's experience
is that special issues are published no later than about 6 months
after the last article of the issue is completed and sent to
production by the authors and special issue editors.
For Authors: Interested authors should feel free to direct
questions to the special issue editors.
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