Web 3.0 Platforms for Sustainable Digital Social Innovation

Call for Papers – Web 3.0 Platforms for Sustainable Digital Social Innovation

Journal: Digital Business
Publisher: Elsevier
Journal metrics: Impact Factor 7.2, CiteScore 12.4

Submission window: From January 2026 – 30 September 2026

This special issue explores how Web 3.0 platforms—built on blockchain, decentralised finance, smart contracts, tokens, and related technologies—can support sustainable digital social innovation (DSI) and digital social enterprises (DSE). It invites case studies, conceptual frameworks, empirical work, and platform‑design strategies that show how Web 3.0‑enabled digital tools can advance social inclusion, community empowerment, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while fostering sustainable business models and cross‑sector collaboration.

Why this issue matters

• Digital Social Innovation (DSI) uses digital technologies to co‑create solutions for economic, social, and environmental challenges; Web 3.0 adds a decentralised, trust‑enabled, and user‑owned layer to these initiatives.

• Technologies such as blockchain, DeFi, token‑based ecosystems, and GenAI/IoT‑integrated platforms can enhance transparency, traceability, financial inclusion, and governance in social‑innovation contexts.

• Despite growing interest, research on Web 3.0‑backed DSI, governance models, and impact measurement remains fragmented, and this SI aims to build robust theoretical and empirical foundations for sustainable digital social platforms.

Key themes and research areas

Submissions may be theoretical, empirical, case‑based, or design‑oriented, and should connect Web 3.0, social innovation, and sustainable development.

• Sustainable DSI and digital social enterprises

  • Case studies of DSI or DSEs in health, education, rural development, community empowerment, and inclusion.

  • Analyses of how blockchain and Web 3.0 platforms reduce digital divides and support marginalised or underserved communities.

• Web 3.0 technologies and platforms for social/green innovation

  • Role of blockchain, smart contracts, tokenisation, and DeFi in fair‑trade, sustainable supply chains, circular‑economy models, and green entrepreneurship.

  • Integration of GenAI, IoT, and Web 3.0 to create transparent, traceable, and accountable social‑innovation ecosystems.

• Governance, ethics, and collaboration

  • Platform governance, data ownership, and trust mechanisms in Web 3.0‑based social‑innovation platforms.

  • Multi‑stakeholder collaboration between governments, social enterprises, cooperatives, and tech organisations for SDG‑aligned projects.

• Measurement, impact, and scaling

  • Frameworks and tools to measure social, environmental, and economic impacts of Web 3.0‑enabled DSI.

  • Strategies for monitoring and reporting SDG progress via decentralised platforms, dashboards, and smart‑contract‑driven indicators.

• Digital payments, financial inclusion, and inclusion‑driven innovation

  • Use of digital payments, mobile money, and DeFi to promote financial inclusion and social‑value creation.

  • Studies on consumer and community perspectives on blockchain and digital social innovations.

• Consumer‑ and community‑centred Web 3.0 platforms

  • Designs for transparent, fair, and community‑centred innovation systems that embed participatory governance, DAO‑like structures, and self‑sovereign identity.

  • Ethical and regulatory challenges (e.g., privacy, energy use, inequality, and regulatory fit) in deploying Web 3.0 for social‑innovation purposes.

Guest editors

• Prof. Ravi S. Sharma, College of Technological Innovation, Zayed University, UAE

• Dr. Aijaz A. Shaikh, Institute of Information and Computational Technologies, Kazakhstan

• Prof. Francisco J. Liébana-Cabanillas, University of Granada, Spain

• Prof. Galimkair Mutanov, Institute of Information and Computational Technologies, Kazakhstan

• Prof. Intan Azura Mokhtar, Community Leadership and Social Innovation Centre (CLASIC), Singapore Institute of Technology, Singapore

• Prof. Richard Glavee-Geo, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Submission details

• Submission portal: Elsevier Editorial Manager for Digital Business:
  https://www.editorialmanager.com/digbus/default.aspx

• When submitting, select article type: “VSI: Web 3.0 Platforms”.

• Submission window:

  • System open: January 2026

  • Submission deadline: 30 September 2026

• All submissions are original, peer‑reviewed manuscripts and must comply with the journal’s Guide for Authors.

• Articles will be reviewed continuously (“rolling basis”); accepted papers are published online immediately upon acceptance.

The journal operates on an open‑access, article‑processing‑charge (APC) model, with reduced fees for authors from lower‑ and middle‑income countries (typically 20–40% of the standard APC).

Papers should clearly show how Web 3.0 platforms enable or reshape sustainable digital social innovation, and should discuss implications for theories of social innovation, digital platforms, and the SDGs.

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