Pankaj Setia, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Priya Seetharaman, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

Abhishek Kathuria, Deakin University

Marco Marabelli, Bentley University

Contemporary Information Systems (IS) are marked by transformations at the intersection of technology, people and organizations (Setia 2024). These are shaped by, and are shaping how firms, communities, and societies evolve. As researchers unravel these dynamics, India presents a compelling context. Rooted in millennia of cultural and commercial history, India is now rapidly being reshaped by the forces of digital innovation. Indian business landscape is a vibrant mosaic where ancient artisanal traditions, kinship-based commerce, informal enterprises, and social ventures coexist with state-owned firms, family conglomerates, and home-grown blue chips. This landscape often collides with large multinationals, platform economies, and globally scaled startups. Together, India’s palimpsestic business environment, pluralistic culture, and demographic vastness form a powerful trifecta that offers a unique context for researchers. Specifically, unlike a monolith landscape, India represents a living, evolving environment of practices, identities, and aspirations.

This special issue invites submissions focused on how rapid technological acceleration in India is strategically reshaping the country’s business environment. We particularly welcome submissions that explores how culture, capabilities, and commerce evolve amid the transformations of a historically layered, institutionally complex economy. Traditionally, India’s artisanal industries and cultural expressions were deeply entwined with its commercial practices (Tharoor, 2016). Centuries of colonial domination disrupted local crafts and knowledge systems; today, the digital wave carries a similar dual potential, risking the displacement of traditional modes of production while also offering new avenues for visibility and market access. India’s contemporary platform economy, with its roots in the historical bazaar and emporium systems (Athique, 2020), exemplifies this paradox.

The expansion of digital technologies into an informal, fragmented economy has introduced elements of structure and visibility long described by Scott’s notion of “legibility” (1998), a concept which relevance persists as states and platforms alike seek to render local practices more standardized and governable in the digital age. Could the drive for scale, efficiency, and algorithmic appeal lead to a flattening of cultural nuance in favor of standardization and mass reproducibility? This scenario becomes real if Information Technology (IT) education and digital skilling emphasize surface-leveltechnical credentials and globalized templates of “digital competence” (Rangaswamy & Narasimhan, 2022) rather than contextually grounded, socially attuned capabilities.

Research on India’s digital transformation offers opportunities to develop new theoretical insights for the global IS community. India’s “digital revolution” began with the IT services boom of the 1990s, expanded through the telecom and mobile internet surge of the 2000s, and has accelerated since the mid-2010s (Seetharaman & Cranefield, 2019) along with more recent initiatives such as Digital India (nationwide digital infrastructure and e-governance), Aadhaar (biometric digital identity) (Addo, 2022), UPI (Unified Payments Interface, i.e. inter-bank peer-to-peer and person-to-merchant real-time payments), and ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce - a decentralized, interoperable open e-commerce). The early IT services phase delivered major economic gains, creating an entire industry, generating jobs, boosting exports (Bhatnagar & Madon, 1997). More recently, the focus has shifted to attracting foreign investment and expanding access to information (Parthiban et al., 2024). Yet some scholars have questioned the limited societal spillovers and skewed labor composition (Barnes, 2013) of India’s IT industry. Others note that emerging digital technologies may help move beyond low-end services toward more diversified, socially embedded growth (Das & Sagara, 2017).

The current IT development phase, characterized by digital platforms embedding services related to fintech, e-governance, and mobile ecosystems, has expanded access to resources, formalized parts of the informal sector, and holds promise for reducing poverty and inequality. These developments offer models for the wider global majority, even if significant challenges remain. The complex dynamics of new technological affordances and constraints, ranging from cross-platform interoperability to fraudulence (Kumar et al., 2025) and lack of sufficient regulations that balance conflicting interests (Marabelli & Davison, 2025; De’ et al., 2024), hinder the equitable spread of these digital platforms across socio-economic groups.

IS research, including studies published in JSIS, highlights how digital technologies may afford the creation of economic opportunities for the informal sector, help small and medium enterprises access new markets (Parthiban et al., 2024; Shirish et al., 2025), and transform service delivery in high impact industries such as healthcare (Hiriyur, 2022; Setia, 2023). In India and in the wider global majority countries, digital technology has also been socially transformative such as through, amplifying marginalized voices, lowering barriers to political participation (Kulshreshth, 2023), and supporting creative industries through digital media (Mehta & Cunningham, 2023), though always mediated by prevailing social norms and values (Oreglia & Srinivasan, 2016). This ongoing transformation is however complicated by geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions, and economic nationalism which are leading to a rethink of globalization’s promises (Butollo et al., 2024). Although digital technologies, AI (artificial intelligence) in particular, are deeply entangled with environmental sustainability challenges exacerbating global resource inequalities; yet they also enable strategic responses to climate risks through innovations in smart cities, agriculture, and disaster prediction (Marabelli & Davison, 2025). For India too, this shift opens up both risks and opportunities: it may create greater space for indigenous enterprises, self-reliant supply chains, and localized innovation, while also changing the nature of export-led sectors and globally networked business models (Witt et al., 2023). The interplay between fractured globalizing forces and India’s own plural, multi-scale economy raises pressing questions about sovereignty, resilience, and cultural-economic autonomy.

This special issue seeks to examine strategic opportunities, disruptions and challenges arising from the intersection of culture, commerce, capabilities and technology in the Indian context. We welcome research that shows how digital technologies reshape strategic choices, organizing logics, and competitive positioning while remaining embedded in India’s uniqueness. The special issue also aims to foreground location-specific research agendas and contextual theorization (Avgerou, 2019), emphasizing the need for research that is not only rigorous and relevant, but also responsible to its context (Seetharaman et al., 2024).

By bringing together diverse ideas and a deeper understanding, this special issue aims to reframe India not as a battleground between tradition and modernity but as a dynamic site of ongoing negotiation, reinvention, and possibility.

Potential topics

• Craft, Culture, Civilization, and Vernacular Economies
• Digital Platforms, Inclusion, and Ecosystems
• Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Labor
• Policy, Scale, and Governance
• Firm-Level Strategy and Organizational Change

Timeline

• March 6, 2026: Developmental workshop for interested authors at InCIS 2026
• May 1, 2026: Deadline to submit a 1000-words extended abstract on the JSIS portal (not required but highly recommended)
• July 1, 2026: Submission of full papers opens
• September 30, 2026: Submission deadline for full papers
• January 31, 2027: Initial feedback to authors
• April 30, 2027: Deadline for resubmission of revised papers
• September 30, 2027: Final Submissions due
• December 1, 2027: Final editorial decisions communicated to authors

Associate editors

• Amit Prakash, International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore
• Anuragini Shirish, Institute Mines-Télécom Business School
• Ashish Kumar Jha, Trinity Business School
• Ashish Gupta, Auburn University
• Atta Addo, Surrey Business School
• Bidisha Chaudhuri, University of Amsterdam
• Devinder Thapa, University of Agder
• Janaki Srinivasan, University of Oxford
• Juliana Sutanto, Monash University
• M N Ravishankar, Queen's Business School
• M S Sandeep, UNSW Business School
• Nirup Menon, George Mason University
• Onkar Malgonde, North Carolina State University
• Radhika Santhanam, University of Oklahoma
• Rahul De, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
• Rajiv Kishore, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• Saji K Mathew, Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Samrat Gupta, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
• Satish Krishnan, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode
• Silvia Masiero, University of Oslo
• Soumyakanti Chakraborty, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
• Sumeet Gupta, Indian Institute of Management Raipur
• Sunil Wattal, Temple University
• Suranjan Chakraborty, Towson University
• Swanand Deodhar, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Shaokun Fan, Oregon State University

Noyan Ilk, Florida State University

Akhil Kumar, Penn State University

J. Leon Zhao, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen

Blockchain technology has received enormous attention since Bitcoin was launched in 2009 and has become the frontier of technology advancements and application innovations in recent years. In particular, blockchain is now recognized as a critical part of the new ABCD of modern technology, that is, Artificial intelligence, Blockchain, Cloud computing, and big Data. However, many research challenges and opportunities remain to be tackled and surmounted in areas such as blockchain infrastructure decentralization, blockchain network governance, blockchain security and privacy, and the nature of machine trust in blockchain-based systems. Because blockchain is an integral part of automated business processes, the implementation of this technology can vary greatly between organizations across different industries.

The aim of this special issue is to highlight novel and high-quality research in blockchain technology and applications, and to examine the current and future impact of blockchain systems, and related technologies including data verification before block confirmation, authentication of data ownership, and dataflow across blockchain systems. Considering the decision-making focus of DSS publications that bridge the gap between managerial and technical perspectives, this special issue is open to all manuscripts that make a significant research contribution to blockchain systems and applications in business sectors such as finance, insurance, healthcare, manufacturing, supply chain, education, and government.

In terms of research paradigm, we invite manuscripts with system-based implications that draw on various analytical, empirical, and technical methodologies including, but not limited to, system development, econometrics, decision theory, operations management, experimentation, and engineering. We strongly encourage submissions that follow a design science research perspective, which aims to develop cutting-edge IT artifacts. That is, all technical and quantitative research methods that are helpful in tackling real-world challenges confronted by managers, engineers, and researchers via blockchain technology are welcome.

Potential topics

• Process-aware blockchain design and management
• Blockchain applications in metaverse platforms
• Design and implementation issues in the transition from PoW to PoS
• Data management issues on the blockchain
• Security and privacy issues on the blockchain
• Design and implementation issues of Metaverse systems
• Integration of blockchain into existing business infrastructure
• Modeling, design and implementation of trust mechanisms in blockchain-based systems
• New and faster consensus algorithms for blockchain implementation
• NFT analysis and design paradigms in various business sectors
• Blockchain-based NFT casting models and mechanisms

Timeline

• October 15, 2022: Submissions System opens
• January 15, 2023: Paper Submission Deadline
• January 30, 2023: Initial Screening of Submissions
• April 15, 2023: First Review Decisions
• June 30, 2023: Revision Due
• September 15, 2023: Acceptance Decisions
• November 15, 2023: Final Manuscript Due

Associate editors

• Michael Adams, Queensland University of Technology
• Arthur Carvalho, Miami University
• Daning Hu, South University of Science and Technology
• Qiqi Jiang, Copenhagen Business School
• Jiewu Leng, Guangdong University of Technology
• Rong Liu, Stevens Institute
• Xin Luo, The University of New Mexico
• Chih-Hung Peng, National Chengchi University
• Zhe Shan, Miami University
• Hemang Subramanian, Florida International University
• Yinliang Tan, University of Houston
• Chih-Ping Wei, National Taiwan University
• Ling Xue, Georgia State University
• Wenping Zhang, Remin University of China
• Xi Zhao, Xi'an Jiaotong University