Special Issue: “Disruptive Technology and Innovation in Society”

Journal |Technological Forecasting & Social Change | Disruptive Technology and Innovation Management | Submission deadline: November 2016

 

Special Issue Disruptive Technology and Innovation in SocietyOBJECTIVE

The objective of the Special Issue is to assemble a coherent collection of papers that accelerates the understanding of this topic through conceptual, empirical and theoretical research.

The topic is timely, provocative, and multidisciplinary. It aligns with the core aims of the journal in a challenging way: exploring the implications of innovative disruption on managers, entrepreneurs, customers, vendors and entire business ecosystems.

RATIONALE

The rationale for the special Issue topic is founded in the inter-relationships of social, technical, environmental, and economic inputs and output of disruptive innovation that are mentioned individually in contemporary academic and popular literature. Our areas of inquiry include the following: the impact of new technology, especially ubiquitous internet connectivity and the ‘internet of things’; the impact of further global integration; the consequences of changing generational demands; technology-enabled disruptive business models, such as peer networks; the growing importance of sustainability and environmental impacts on both business operations and customer perception; cascading financial crises; and large scale migration. All of these factors affect business, society and leadership today, as well as projections of the future.

As researchers and scholars, we see a need for specific strategies and instruments to leverage, cope with or profit from such disruption. While the topic of disruptive technology has been discussed in the academic literature for many years, not much academic research been published on the impact of disruptive technology on macro-systems such as societies or ecosystems, or on specific strategies and instruments to leverage, mitigate, or ameliorate disruption. Also the influences of disruption have rarely been linked to other destabilising phenomena, which are collectively labeled volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, also referred to as VUCA.

The complex patterns of disruption demand reexamination, reinterpretation and replacement of conventional theories of management. These updates must be multidisciplinary, multicultural, and dynamic, forward-looking, socially inclusive, and geographically international. We are seeking contributions reflecting different perspectives and methodological approaches that explore innovation at the macro, meso and micro level of analysis, across a range of international contexts, cultures and industry sectors.

CONTRIBUTIONS

While empirical contributions are encouraged, theoretical and conceptual papers that address the contextualisation of innovation and wider aspects of the disruption debate are particularly welcome.

Hence we may be looking at:

  • how technology is enabling organisational and social innovation
  • the role of technology in enabling global disruptive change
  • potential future disruptive technologies
  • the role of public policy and organisational strategy in promoting/ constraining disruptive technologies

 

Specific topics that would be of interest to the special issue editors include, but are not limited to, the following, in terms of technological disruption and forecasting in the VUCA environment:

  • How society can reinvent itself to cope with global business and technology disruption
  • Strategies to identify, acquire and exploit disruptive technological resources
  • Planning techniques to address risks, gaps and opportunities arising from emerging disruptive technologies
  • Corporate strategy in the light of public sector support for ‘smart growth’ (Europe 2020) in such areas as knowledge, innovation, education, ICT
  • The value of knowledge management for intra-organizational innovation and cy performance
  • Organizational perception of disruptive technology and innovation
  • Design to transform customer service and the customer experience
  • ‘Smart cities’, e-health and similar systemic solutions to social challenges
  • Achieving recognition and ownership of responsibility, sustainability, ethics, diversity, and well-being within and across organizations
  • Business model innovations and their relationship to disruptive technologies
  • Organizational impacts and options arising from prominent new technologies, e.g. social media, social innovation and the role of networks
  • ‘Smart’ environments and their influence on managing people
  • Technology in relation to social entrepreneurship and new forms of organization

GUEST EDITORS

  • Professor Carla Millar, Fellow, Ashridge at Hult International Business School and, Professor of International Marketing & Management, University of Twente (Corresponding Guest Editor)
  • Dr Ted Ladd, Hult Professor of Internet Economics and Strategy and Global Lead for Research on Creating Disruption, Hult International Business School
  • Professor Martin Lockett, Professor of Strategic Management and Global Dean Academic Affairs, Ashridge & Hult International Business School

REVIEW PROCESS AND SUBMISSION

  • All manuscripts will be single-blind reviewed
  • Manuscripts should follow the style guidelines of Technological Forecasting and Social Change, an international journal
  • Manuscripts are submitted with the understanding that they are original, unpublished works and are not being submitted elsewhere
  • Manuscripts should be submitted to ees.elsevier.com/tfs by November 15th, 2016
  • Please indicate both in the uploading process and on your paper clearly that your submission is for the special issue Disruptive Technology: Innovation in Society.

PAPER DETAILS

  • First page: manuscript title and author(s) names, institutional affiliation(s), contact information
  • Second page: manuscript title and brief (100 word maximum) biography of each of the authors.
  • Third page: manuscript title and brief (250 word maximum) abstract of the paper.
  • Fourth page: “Research Highlights.” These short bulleted items should state (not characterize) your research results, as specifically as possible (e.g., “Uptake of nanotech is faster in the auto industry than in agriculture,” NOT “Analysis shows differences in uptake among industries”) and succinct, impactful interpretations (“Agriculture in Europe is missing a two-billion-euro opportunity”). The Research Highlights should not be a condensation of your paper’s abstract, but should be framed as if for a press release. Think of the educated press (The Economist, WIRED, Technology Review) and the trade press of the industry your article addresses. Attention from those publications increases your own reputation as well as TFSC’s.
  • Fifth page and following: manuscript title followed by the text of paper.
  • Third, fourth, and pages following should have no reference to, or name(s) of, the author(s)
  • The paper is between 4000 and 5000 words in length.  In exceptional circumstances a longer paper of exceptional quality may be accepted.

 

For any further information please contact professor Carla Millar at c.millar@utwente.nl

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