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Dear colleagues,
Electronic Markets is inviting submissions for a Special Issue on "Digital influence in the platform economy: Governance, value creation, and market dynamics". Please find further details below.
Call for Papers: "Digital influence in the platform economy: Governance, value creation, and market dynamics"
Submission deadline: March 01, 2026
Guest Editors
Dr. Abhisek Kuanr, Essex Business School, UK, abhisek.kuanr@essex.ac.uk
Prof. Debasis Pradhan, XLRI Jamshedpur, India, debasis@xlri.ac.in
Dr. Hongfei Liu, Southampton Business School, UK, hongfei.liu@soton.ac.uk
Dr. Rahul Chawdhary, Kingston University, UK, r.chawdhary@kingston.ac.uk
Dr. Baidyanath Biswas, Trinity Business School, Ireland, b.biswas@tcd.ie
Dr. Dušan Mladenovič, Masaryk University, Czechia, dusan.mladenovic@econ.muni.cz
Theme
Digital platforms have evolved beyond real-time price negotiation (Alt & Zimmermann, 2014). Contemporary electronic platforms now function as infrastructures supporting sustained interorganisational processes, enabling strategic sourcing, digital procurement, and collaborative knowledge exchange (Alt & Zimmermann, 2014; Alt, 2020).
The platform economy, an encompassing ecosystem (Hein et al., 2020), generates value from digital marketplaces (Tan et al., 2024), social media networks (Fu et al., 2024), and platform-based entrepreneurship (Cutolo & Kenney, 2021), becoming central to global economic activity (De Reuver et al., 2018). Within this economy, digital influence (Backaler, & Shankman,2018) influencers-has become a significant mechanism for value creation, consumer engagement, and brand strategy. Social media platforms (Dolbec & Smith, 2025; Saternus et al., 2024; Waltenrath, 2024) and the rise of the creator economy have enabled scalable, platform-mediated relationships between content creators, consumers, and firms. Despite this model's rapid growth, the governance, monetisation, and platformisation of influencers remain underexplored, particularly in terms of how value is distributed and how different stakeholders (UGC platforms, creators, consumers) negotiate control, authenticity, and trust (Gu et al., 2024).
The evolution of influencers from endorsers to entrepreneurial co-creators, via equity partnerships and collaborative product development, raises key questions about power redistribution, financial sustainability, and brand authenticity in the platform economy (Pradhan et al., 2023; Libai et al., 2025). Similarly, the increasing adoption of community-driven monetisation, like subscriptions and crowdfunding, redefines the creator-user relationship and requires deeper exploration of creator autonomy and user dynamics (Cartwright et al., 2022).
Simultaneously, the platform economy presents increasing ethical and socio-economic concerns requiring scholarly scrutiny. Platform-driven monetisation often favours larger influencers, exacerbating financial inequalities in the creator economy (Leung et al., 2022). Unclear regulations and inconsistent sponsorship disclosures (Cao & Belo, 2024) further complicate ethical issues, as influencers face pressure to align with potentially incongruent values. Deceptive advertising (De Veirman & Hudders, 2020), inadequate transparency, and the spread of misinformation erode consumer trust and pose significant regulatory challenges (European Commission, 2024).
Finally, the increasing sophistication of AI-generated content, blurring authenticity and fabrication, alongside the rise of virtual influencers, necessitates a critical re-evaluation of trust and identity. In addition, the long-term implications for labour, ethics, and platform governance remain under-theorised (Leung et al., 2022). These shifts require reconfiguring value creation in the influencer ecosystem, offering new avenues for sustainable growth while raising urgent theoretical and practical questions that warrant rigorous academic investigation within the platform economy, making it a timely and compelling focus for this special issue.
Central Issues and Topics
This special issue welcomes contributions exploring key tensions and transformations within the platform economy, particularly through influencers and platform-based commerce. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
- Disruption and market dynamics for influencers on digital platforms
- Future of digital influence on digital platforms
- Influencer entrepreneurship and creator-economy business models
- Design of platforms in the influencer and creator economy
- Role of artificial intelligence and algorithms in the influencer economy
- Value creation and revenue models in the influencer economy
- Impact of influencers on pricing in electronic marketplaces
- Authenticity, ethics, and influencer trust in the influencer economy
- Power asymmetries between platforms and influencers during brand collaborations
- Emotional costs of platform culture and influencer well-being
- Regulatory and policy challenges, transparency, disclosures, and consumer protection
Submission
Submissions should be original, unpublished, and not under consideration at any other journal. Quantitative and qualitative research methods are welcome, provided the research exhibits strong methodological rigour. Contributions include conceptual and theoretical development papers, empirical hypothesis testing, position papers, case-based studies, and more. All papers will undergo a double-anonymised peer review process. Submissions must be made via the journal's submission system (https://www.editorialmanager.com/elma/) and comply with the journal's formatting standards. The preferred average article length is approximately 10,000 words, excluding references. Instructions, templates, and general information are available at www.electronicmarkets.org/authors/general-information/. If you would like to discuss any aspect of this special issue, you may either contact the guest editors or the Editorial Office.
Keywords
Digital Platforms, Creator Economy, Virtual Influencers, Algorithmic Inequality, Platform Governance
Important Deadlines
Submission Deadline: March 01, 2026
Intended Publication: online publication after acceptance
A panel discussion will be organised to deepen our key topics, opening a stimulating conversation and clarifying questions. Further information will be announced.
References
Alt, R., & Zimmermann, H. D. (2014). Editorial 24/3: Electronic Markets and general research. Electronic Markets, 24(3), 161-164. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-014-0163-9
Alt, R. (2020). Evolution and perspectives of electronic markets. Electronic Markets, 30(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-020-00413-8
Backaler, J., & Shankman, P. (2018). Digital influence. Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78396-3
Cartwright, S., Liu, H., & Davies, I. A. (2022). Influencer marketing within business-to-business organisations. Industrial Marketing Management, 106, 338–350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2022.09.007
Cao, Z., & Belo, R. (2024). Effects of Explicit Sponsorship Disclosure on User Engagement in Social Media Influencer Marketing. MIS Quarterly, 48(1), 375-392. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2023/17944
Cutolo, D., & Kenney, M. (2021). Platform-dependent entrepreneurs: Power asymmetries, risks, and strategies in the platform economy. Academy of Management Perspectives, 35(4), 584-605. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2019.0103
De Reuver, M., Sørensen, C., & Basole, R. C. (2018). The digital platform: a research agenda. Journal of Information Technology, 33(2), 124-135. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41265-016-0033-3
De Veirman, M., & Hudders, L. (2020). Disclosing sponsored Instagram posts: the role of material connection with the brand and message-sidedness when disclosing covert advertising. International Journal of Advertising, 39(1), 94–130. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2019.1575108
Dolbec, P. Y., & Smith, A. N. (2025). From fame and followers to fortune: How person-brands capture value in the creator economy. International Journal of Research in Marketing. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2025.03.004
European Commission. (2024, February). An investigation of the Commission and consumer authorities found that online influencers rarely disclose commercial content. European Commission - European Commission. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_708
https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/the-creator-economy-could-approach-half-a-trillion-dollars-by-2027
Fu, H., Xiao, X. H., & Zhu, H. M. (2024). Big gains in digital ecosystem niches: How facilitators emerge and develop into an organizational category. Information & Management, 61(4), 103957.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2024.103957
Gu, M., Liu, D., & Kumar, S. (2024). Navigating Platform-Led Affiliate Marketing: Implications for Content Creation and Platform Profitability. Information Systems Research. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.0620
Hein, A., Schreieck, M., Riasanow, T., Setzke, D. S., Wiesche, M., Böhm, M., & Krcmar, H. (2020). Digital platform ecosystems. Electronic Markets, 30(1), 87-98. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-019-00377-4
Kozinets, R. V., Gretzel, U., & Gambetti, R. (2023). Infuencers and creators: Business, culture and practice. Sage Publications.
Leung, F. F., Gu, F. F., & Palmatier, R. W. (2022). Online influencer marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 50(2), 226-251. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-021-00829-4
Libai, B., Rosario, A. B., Beichert, M., Donkers, B., Haenlein, M., Hofstetter, R., Kannan, P. K., van der Lans, R., Lanz, A., Alice Li, H., Mayzlin, D., Muller, E., Shapira, D., Yang, J., & Zhang, L. (2025). Influencer marketing unlocked: Understanding the value chains driving the creator economy. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-024-01073-2
Pradhan, D., Kuanr, A., Anupurba Pahi, S., & Akram, M. S. (2023). Influencer marketing: When and why gen Z consumers avoid influencers and endorsed brands. Psychology & Marketing, 40(1), 27-47. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21749
Saternus, Z., Mihale-Wilson, C., & Hinz, O. (2024). Influencer marketing on Instagram-The optimal disclosure strategy from influencers' and marketers' perspectives. Electronic Markets, 34, 60. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-024-00743-x
Tan, Y. R., Yu, C., Liu, Y., & Zheng, Q. (2024). Agency models in online platforms: A review of recent developments and future prospects. European Journal of Operational Research, 319(3), 679-695.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2024.02.021
Waltenrath, A. (2024). Consumers' ambiguous perceptions of advertising disclosures in influencer marketing: Disentangling the effects on current and future social media engagement. Electronic Markets, 34, 8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-023-00679-8
Best regards,
Rainer Alt, Mathias Klier, Maria Madlberger, Hans-Dieter Zimmermann, Ramona Coia
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Electronic Markets - The International Journal on Networked Business
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Editor-in-Chief: Rainer Alt, Leipzig University
Co-Editors: Mathias Klier, Ulm University; Maria Madlberger, Webster Vienna Private University; Hans-Dieter Zimmermann, Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences
Executive Editor: Ramona Coia, Leipzig University
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04109 Leipzig, Germany
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Electronic Markets
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