********************* CALL FOR PAPERS *********************

SPECIAL ISSUE ON E-Business and the Politics of Poverty Alleviation for International Journal of E-Politics (IJEP)

SUBMISSION DUE DATE: Friday, April 2, 2010

Guest Editors:
Lakshmi Iyer, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Babita Gupta, California State University Monterey Bay

INTRODUCTION:
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), specifically emerging Internet-based technologies, increase the potential for e-Business to help alleviate poverty.  First and foremost, it can get much needed information to the people in the form of market information, health information, and government service information. This information can help people improve their economic status. For example, farmers using an SMS service can get real-time market prices for their goods and with that information, they can negotiate better price through their intermediaries.  Second, e-Business can open up markets by increasing access.  Farmers can be linked to world commodity markets and artisans to international buyers through e-commerce sites.  While traditional methods of poverty alleviation rely on job creation through temporary employment, job creation through internet-based initiatives could be strengthened.  In addition, market expansion through the Internet can help create more jobs.

Government initiatives that embrace use of the Internet can also help alleviate poverty.  Online access to government provides a single source for services. Thus, people seeking these services do not have to travel from one government department to another to get help. These government initiatives can also increase government transparency, which can fight corruption and break down barriers to job creation. In both developed and developing nations, alleviation of poverty involves redistribution of wealth to improve conditions of underserved populations. While the intrinsic objectives of this notion are altruistic in nature, the politics surrounding redistribution of wealth is an important political issue. While there is much potential for e-Business to alleviate poverty, research linking the two is scarce.

OBJECTIVE OF THE SPECIAL ISSUE: The objective of the special issue is to seek research papers that focus on the topic of E-Business and the Politics of Poverty Alleviation. Topics to be discussed in this special issue include (but are not limited to) the following:

•       Applications and technologies (mobile telephony, PCs, the Internet) that are effective in reducing poverty
•       Behavioral issues (of different stakeholder groups) regardinge-Business and poverty alleviation
•       Case studies on e-Business and poverty alleviation
•       Critical success factors for e-Business and poverty alleviation
•       Education or awareness-increasing mechanisms
•       Evaluation or metrics to measure e-Business and poverty alleviation programs
•       Governance and regulation surrounding  e-Business and poverty alleviation
•       Impact of national cultures on e-Business and poverty alleviation
•       Impact of politics on strategies for e-Business and poverty alleviation
•       Political dynamics of stakeholders involved in e-Business poverty alleviation
•       Process-centric vs. customer-centric approaches to poverty alleviation using e-Business

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE:
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit papers for this special theme issue on e-Business and Poverty Alleviation on or before April 2, 2010. All submissions must be original and may not be under review by another publication. INTERESTED AUTHORS SHOULD CONSULT THE JOURNAL’S GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIONS at http://www.igi-global.com/development/author_info/guidelines%20submission.pdf.  All submitted papers will be reviewed on a double-blind, peer review basis. Papers must follow APA style for reference citations.

ABOUT International Journal of E-Politics (IJEP):
The primary objective of the International Journal of E-Politics (IJEP) is to lay the foundations of E-Politics as an emerging
interdisciplinary area of research and practice, as well as, to offer a venue for publications that focus on theories and empirical research on the manifestations of E-Politics in various contexts and environments. E-Politics is defined as influence attempts facilitated by or related to electronic media or to the information technology field. As such, it is seen as interdisciplinary, encompassing areas such as information systems, political science, social science (psychology, sociology, and cultural studies), security, ethics, law, management and others.

This journal is an official publication of the Information Resources Management Association
www.igi-global.com/IJEP

Editor-in-Chief: Dr. Celia Livermore
Published: Quarterly (both in Print and Electronic form)

PUBLISHER:
The International Journal of E-Politics (IJEP) is published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the “Information
Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference), “Medical Information Science Reference”, “Business Science Reference”, and
“Engineering Science Reference” imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com.

All submissions should be directed to the attention of Guest Editors:

Lakshmi Iyer (Lsiyer@uncg.edu)
Babita Gupta (bgupta@csumb.edu)

International Journal of E-Politics (IJEP)

******************************************