Hsiao-Hui Lee, National Chengchi University

Chih-Hung Peng, National Taiwan University

Choon Ling Sia, City University of Hong Kong

Extended Reality (XR) as immersive technologies – encompassing Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR) – is rapidly transforming how individuals, organizations, and societies interact with digital and physical environments. XR technologies create immersive, interactive, and context-rich environments where users can visualize data, collaborate across distances, simulate real-world scenarios, understand complex spatial relationships, and make more timely and informed decisions. They represent a key component of the accelerating convergence between the digital and physical worlds, where digital contents increasingly shape, augment, enrich, and even precede physical experiences.

Recent technological advances in XR promise more impactful applications in domains such as manufacturing, healthcare, education, retail, logistics, engineering, smart cities, and digital twins. Although the engineering and computer science communities have produced substantial research on hardware and software of immersive systems, IS and decision-support research on XR – its design, adoption, usage, outcomes, and business implications – remains limited, despite its immense potential for managerial and organizational decision making.

Recent discussions in the information systems literature (e.g., Chen 2024) highlight the importance of studying: devices and components with advanced technical capabilities; XR applications for myriad domains and purposes; implementation and usage of XR in various organizational and societal contexts; and short- and long-term outcomes and impacts of immersive technologies.

As XR applications become increasingly data-driven, interactive, and intelligent (e.g., immersive analytics, spatial decision support, avatar-mediated collaboration), they open opportunities to rethink human–technology interactions, support complex decision-making tasks, and enhance performance across functional areas for organizational transformation.

Given the mission of Decision Support Systems to publish cutting-edge research at the intersection of technology, data, and decision making, this Special Issue seeks to showcase high-quality quantitative (e.g., using analytical, empirical, and design science approaches) and qualitative research that meaningfully advances our understanding of XR and its role in supporting decision processes, improving organizational outcomes, and shaping future socio-technical ecosystems. Therefore, in this special issue we invite research that provides novel insights into XR-enabled decision making, applications, and impacts. Topics of interest include – but are not limited to – the following.

Potential topics

• 1. XR Systems, Design, and Technical Capabilities
• XR-enabled decision support systems
• Design and evaluation of immersive environments
• Interfaces, interaction modalities, and human–XR collaboration
• XR affordances, presence, immersion, and cognitive/affective states
• Data visualization, immersive analytics, and spatial analytics in XR
• XR integration with AI, IoT, digital twins, or blockchain
• 2. XR Applications in Organizational and Societal Domains
• Training, simulation, and learning using VR/AR/MR
• XR for field support, maintenance, and operations
• XR in healthcare, education, tourism, urban planning, and manufacturing
• Avatar-mediated communication, virtual teamwork, and collaboration
• Customer experience, service innovation, and XR-enabled commerce
• 3. Adoption, Implementation, Use, and Behavioral Dimensions
• Acceptance and use of XR at individual, group, organizational, or societal levels
• Task–technology fit, experiential engagement, and cognitive absorption in XR
• Factors shaping effective use of XR in work processes
• Cultural, demographic, or user-segment differences in XR adoption
• 4. Decision-Making Outcomes and Impacts
• Productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness gains from XR applications
• Organizational transformation and new business models enabled by XR
• Impacts on innovation, knowledge sharing, and decision quality
• Unintended consequences: distraction, over-reliance, privacy, security, ethics, well-being
• Metrics and methods for evaluating XR outcomes
• 5. Theoretical Innovation and Methodological Advancement
• New theories or theoretical extensions derived from XR phenomena
• Grounded theory, mixed methods, or action/design science approaches
• Cognitive, behavioral, and organizational mechanisms unique to immersive technologies
• Novel experimental or analytical approaches leveraging XR environments

Timeline

• September 1, 2026: Paper submission system opens
• January 31, 2027: Paper submission deadline
• Optional workshop for authors passing first-round review
• Paper publication: DSS adopts rolling-based publication procedure (i.e., paper will be published once it is accepted)

Associate editors

• Chao-Min Chiu, National Sun Yat-sen University
• Yen-Chun Chou, National Chengchi University
• Tsai-Hsin Chu, National Chiayi University
• Steven Hsiao, Rowan University
• Pei-Fang Hsu, National Tsing Hua University
• Ya-Han Hu, National Central University
• Chia-Ying Li, National Sun Yat-sen University
• Dahui Li, University of Colorado
• Yi-Ling Lin, National Chengchi University
• Ben Liu, City University of Hong Kong
• Qiqi Jiang, Copenhagen Business School
• Soumya Ray, National Tsing Hua University
• Siliang (Jack) Tong, Nanyang Technological University
• Yen-Yao Wang, Auburn University
• Melody Zou, University of Warwick