Social media, defined by Kaplan and Haenlein (2010, p.61) as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content", is a term currently in use to describe a wide variety of Information and Telecommunication Technologies (ICTs) whose common denominator is the ability to connect users in ways that enable bridging distance, time, and other traditional barriers. Even though several “electronic facilities” have captured both general and business attention, it is clear that a high degree of environmental turbulence or high velocity exists, as both software (e.g., social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Xing, facebook, google+, Orkut, or MySpace; blogging sites such as Wordpress, blogspot or twitter; personal or organizational rich-media facilities like YouTube, Skype, Spotify, etc.) and hardware platforms (e.g., tablets, smartphones, thinbooks and other recent innovations) keep evolving at a blistering pace. Whatever software or hardware context we may take, social media aims to replace traditional media and communication (Perdue, 2010, p.35), and will be the locomotive via which the World Wide Web evolves (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010, p.68).

Social media covers a large area of activities and websites which differ in content, purpose, users and information. Systematic, rigorous research using best-available scientific evidence methodologies that document and analyze the use of this phenomenon in business are currently lagging behind this revolution; this scholarly book is an attempt to fill this knowledge gap to facilitate knowledge acquisition and diffusion, as well as enable the higher levels of understanding that may precede both the exploitation and the exploration of newer and more advanced tools and methodologies.

For this volume of the Advanced Series in Management, we are seeking chapters that will increase our understanding of how these emerging technologies are evolving, using the most rigorous social scientific methods and tools. Topics that may best fit this volume’s editorial intentions include (but are not limited to) the following:

•Management of social media within and outside organizations (for recruitment, training or other personnel decisions, for marketing, reputational and any other relevant business, non-profit, or work-related, governmental purposes)
•Development or evolution of new or customized products and services using social media as an information source or as a promotional vehicle in particular companies or industries
•Predictors, types and consequences of intra-organizational social media policy acceptance, rejection and diffusion gaps
•Influences of culture, legislative traditions, economic blocs, corporate descriptors, industrial characteristics, and any other aspect that may affect the development, management, and effectiveness of the use of social media
•Individual and social (from small group to national or cross-cultural levels) characteristics and factors that facilitate adoption, use and diffusion of social media for business, education, and other work-related purposes
•Comparisons and contrasts of differential uses of social media in work contexts in emerging (e.g., Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle-East, etc.) or non-Western economic settings
•Virtual, technologically mediated markets, life, work, newly developed, gamefied (or not) products or services, crowd-sourced or personally oriented, etc.
As a volume in the Advanced Series in Management, this scholarly book will contribute to researcher’s understanding of the development, antecedents, processes and consequences of social media in management around the world. It may also be used as a reference in executive education programs or as a textbook in graduate (or advanced undergraduate) courses in accredited Colleges or Schools of Businesses, Technology Management, Information and Communication Systems, and similarly situated educational offerings. Cross-disciplinary collaborations that include fieldwork or empirically supported findings (e.g., from experimental or quasi-experimental, large-scale, generalizable, longitudinal or cross-sectional studies, to deductive, rich, ethnographic, inductive, case-based methodologies) are particularly sought, as also are rigorous, tightly developed or grounded theory-building with an applied or pragmatic (e.g., design science) purpose.

Chapters are expected to have between 4000 and 5000 words (excluding references, figures, and tables). Only original work whose copyright is owned (or cleared) by the chapter authors and not considered for publication elsewhere can be considered for inclusion in the ASM series.

Scholars whose work is likely to fit this call for chapters are invited to contact the editors via email to discuss their ideas and in preliminary form assess whether their contribution would be included. Brief descriptions (300 words or less) of the main contents of their chapter, their methodology and about 200-word author(s)’ bio(s) highlighting their expertise in the area should be sent to both editors for initial consideration, before July 31, 2012.

The editors for this series will also attend at the Academy of Management’s annual conference in Boston, MA (USA) this August (2012) and might be available for face-to-face conversations by appointment. Highly qualified chapter authors (in addition to the book series’ editorial board) are also expected to review anonymously some of the chapters submitted for this volume, as part of their contribution.

Important deadlines
•Preliminary screening of ideas for chapters: July 31st , 2012 (this is a “soft” deadline)
•Full chapters: September 30th, 2012
•Acceptance notifications or requests for revisions: about four weeks after full chapter manuscript is received
•Submission of revised manuscripts: No later than December 31st, 2012
•Publication of volume: about four months after final, revised chapters have been received by the volume editors; expected in early to mid-2013.

For more information on the Advanced Series in Management, please visit the link.