AMCIS 2008

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14th Americas Conference on Information Systems

August 14-17 2008, Toronto, Canada

Call for Papers AMCIS 2008

Supported by Fachgruppe CSCW of Gesellschaft fuer Informatik

1 Abstract
2 Possible Topics
3 AMCIS 2008 Papers
4 Mini-track Chair Information

[edit] Abstract

Virtual communities based on message boards, chat rooms, user groups and blogs have emerged as high activity domains on the Internet. Virtual communities are designed for a variety of purposes that could range from Communities of Interest, Communities of Relationship, Gaming Communities, and Communities of Transaction to Peer-to-Peer Communities or Mobile Communities and Second Life. The significance of these communities is evident by the impact they have on information generation and transmission, and socialization. For example, today, blogs are quickly becoming a primary source of information in a variety of domains. The dynamic and interactive nature of these forums makes them very attractive for the users. An additional value offered by many of these communities is their ability to support socialization and offer an identity for the participants. While most virtual communities share these characteristics, it is also important to recognize that virtual communities are not homogeneous; they differ significantly based on the domain, purpose and benefits. For example, virtual investing-related communities are focused on offering an important forum for individual investors to discuss stock performance. Open source communities, on the other hand, are virtual communities that offer a platform for participants to collaborate and produce a product of value to the entire community. Within the field of information systems researchers are interested at studying interaction patterns, transaction processes, management aspects, business models, and design aspects of information systems and services for virtual communities. Community members interact via digital media and contribute value in the form of content, reviews, and recommendations. Related issues are trust, network effects, transaction costs and the design of services. Well-organized communities even expand their power across various channels and into the Offline world. Empirical and conceptual work will be welcome for this Mini-Track. Despite the increasing popularity of virtual communities, several questions relating to virtual communities remain largely unexplored.

[edit] Possible Topics

We call for papers on social as well as business communities. Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

Social, political and economic impact of Virtual Communities
Community models, platforms, services, and interactions, multi-channel communities
Management and organizational behaviour of communities
Community-related business models
Transaction-oriented Virtual Communities, Customer collaboration
Peer-to-Peer or mobile services for Virtual Communities
Case studies and empirical studies, best practices and lessons learned
Motivation of participants in virtual communities
Benefits of participation in and competition among virtual communities
Information dispersion in virtual communities
A typology of virtual communities
Evolution of and innovation in virtual communities
Gaming Communities and Second Life

This Mini-Track builds on the success of the preceding AMCIS Mini-Track on Virtual Communities. During the last six years we have been gathering a community of researchers who are interested in the field of Virtual communities and related issues. Please visit the Mini-Track website at http://www.virtual-community.org.

[edit] AMCIS 2008 Papers

Online Consumer Reviews: Does Negative Electronic Word-of-Mouth Hurt More? (Christy M.K. Cheung - Hong Kong Baptist University, Matthew K.O. Lee - City University of Hong Kong)

Virtual Organizations in Practice: A European Perspective (Aisha Abuelmaatti - University of Salford, Yacine Rezgui - University of Salford)

The Benefits of Unexpected Informal Customer Support From Vendors in Online Communities (Yitshak Merin - TUI University, Wenli Wang - TUI University)

A Model for Understanding Success of Virtual Community Management Teams (Christoph Rosenkranz - Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Christoph Feddersen - e-Spirit AG)

A Service Integration Model of Value Creation: A Study of Commercial Online Communities (Jian Cai - Peking University, Lingyun Qiu - Peking University, Fei Ren - Peking University)

Antecedents of Behavioral Intention of Virtual Community Participation: An Empirical Study (Honglei Li - Swansea University, Vincent S. Lai - The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Economics of Virtual Communities: The Case of the Berlin Stock Exchange (Jan vom Brocke - University of Liechtenstein, Christoph Lattemann - University of Potsdam, Christian Sonnenberg - University of Liechtenstein, Stefan Stieglitz - University of Potsdam)