“India at the Intersection: Reconfiguring Commerce, Capabilities and Culture in Age of Technological Acceleration”

Call for Papers – Special Issue: “India at the Intersection: Reconfiguring Commerce, Capabilities and Culture in Age of Technological Acceleration”

Journal: The Journal of Strategic Information Systems (JSIS)
Publisher: Elsevier
Impact Factor: 11.8 | CiteScore: 17.9
Submission deadline: 30 September 2026

This special issue examines how India’s rapid technological acceleration is strategically reshaping commerce, organisational capabilities, and socio‑cultural practices within the country’s complex, layered economy. JSIS positions India as a “living laboratory” where digital platforms, AI, fintech, and public digital infrastructure intersect with millennia‑deep traditions, informal economies, and institutional plurality, offering rich ground for new IS theory and practice‑based knowledge.

Why this issue matters

• India’s digital transformation spans from large‑scale platforms like e‑commerce, UPI, ONDC, and Aadhaar to rural micro‑entrepreneurs, MSMEs, informal traders, and craft economies, all of which reconfigure how value, trust, and inclusion are enacted in the digital age.

• The special issue foregrounds context‑specific theorization: the idea that India is not just a “market” or “case” but a socio‑historical formation where culture, caste, gender, informality, and policy co‑produce digital trajectories.

• At the same time, global debates on platform governance, digital sovereignty, climate‑linked AI, and labour in the gig economy make India’s experience highly relevant for the Global Majority and for IS scholarship more broadly.

Core themes and topics

The SI welcomes theoretical, empirical, and practice‑situated work that studies how digital technologies reshape strategic choices, organisational logics, and everyday life in India. Key streams include:

• Craft, culture, and vernacular economies

  • How digital platforms and algorithms affect traditional crafts, artisanal industries, and cultural‑specific consumption patterns.

  • The role of digital enterprises in shaping cultural circulation and diasporic identities in global markets.

• Digital platforms, inclusion, and ecosystems

  • How e‑commerce, logistics, and fintech platforms integrate small producers and informal micro‑entrepreneurs into formal value chains.

  • The design and governance of public digital infrastructures (Aadhaar, UPI, DPI, ONDC) and their implications for inclusion, equity, and state–citizen relations.

  • How gender, caste, and community shape access to and benefits from digital platforms.

• Innovation, entrepreneurship, and labour

  • The rise of startups, unicorns, and frugal innovation in India’s digital economy.

  • Tech‑enabled social enterprises addressing development challenges (health, education, livelihood, sanitation) while building scalable business models.

  • Labour conditions in gig work and platform economies, including precarity, algorithmic control, and bargaining power.

• Policy, scale, and governance

  • How government policy, digital regulation, and data‑flows rules shape digital innovation and worker protection.

  • The role of educational institutions, accelerators, and skilling platforms in building India’s digital innovation geographies.

• Firm‑level strategy and organisational change

  • How Indian firms across sectors and sizes respond to digital transformation through reconfigured business models, organisational practices, and value chains.

  • The role of digital labs, accelerators, and intrapreneurship in cultivating internal innovation and agility.

The SI particularly encourages studies that connect India’s civilizational and institutional specificity with global IS debates on platforms, AI, sustainability, and equity.

Guest editors

• Prof. Pankaj Setia, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India

• Prof. Priya Seetharaman, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, India

• Prof. Abhishek Kathuria, Deakin University, Australia

• Prof. Marco Marabelli, Bentley University, USA

Manuscript submission and timeline

• Journal submission system: Elsevier Editorial Manager for JSIS:
  https://www.editorialmanager.com/jsis

• When submitting, select article type “VSI: India at the Intersection”.

• Key dates:

  • Developmental workshop (optional): 6–8 March 2026 at InCIS 2026 (IIM Ahmedabad)

  • Extended abstract deadline (optional but recommended): 1 May 2026 (≈1,000 words)

  • Full‑paper submissions open: 1 July 2026

  • Full‑paper submission deadline: 30 September 2026

  • First feedback: 31 January 2027

  • Revised‑paper deadline: 30 April 2027

  • Final decisions (projected): 1 December 2027

All submissions undergo double‑blind peer review under JSIS’s standard procedures.

ServiceSetu Academics — Premier Platform for Academic Opportunities & Research Collaboration

Visit official website of the publisher