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6th International Conference on Software Business - ICSOB 2015
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June 10-12, 2015
Braga, Portugal
www.icsob.org

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Call for papers
The 6th International Conference on Software Business will be held on June 10-12, 2015 at Braga, Portugal. The ICSOB 2015 conference addresses the creation of software-based products, platforms, and services and the business models behind them. In particular, the ICSOB 2015 conference addresses the creation of software-based products and services that provide solutions to the biggest challenges and problems faced by modern cities.

Conference theme: Enterprising cities

Advancements in the software industry have had a substantial impact not only on productivity and on GDP growth globally, but also on our daily work and lives. Moreover, there is a noticeable spillover within other industries (e.g. manufacturing, entertainment industry) enabling new business models: companies bundle their physical products and software services into solutions (e.g. using subscription models or in-app purchases) and start to sell independent software products in addition to physical products. Software business refers to commercial activities in and around the software industry, aimed at generating income from the delivery of software products and software services.
Although the software business shares common features with other international knowledge-intensive businesses, it carries many inherent features making it a challenging domain for research. In particular software companies have to depend on one another to deliver a unique value proposition to their customers or a unique experience to their users. Moreover, recent developments like the emerging app economy offer a variety of opportunities for entrepreneurs or start-up companies. The software ecosystems forming around these companies are also subject of the conference.
The challenge for academia lies not only in studying software business, software production, and surrounding themes, but also in teaching. This year, the conference intends to attract researchers and practitioners, who are concerned with software business in different ways as well as the start-up community, which is increasingly focusing on mobile and social software. The main theme of 2015 focuses on addressing the challenges that modern cities with innovative software products and services. Amongst others, case reports of courses, student projects, and practical experiences are welcome.
ICSOB 2015 intends to attract researchers and practitioners who are concerned with software business in different ways as well as the start-up community, which is increasingly focusing on mobile and social software. You are invited to submit papers addressing contemporary issues emerging at the intersection of the software and business domains, broadly defined. Both papers reporting research results and industrial experiences are welcome. Invited are original submissions on the topics listed below.

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Topics
• Software platforms and ecosystems
• Software supply networks
• Business models of cloud computing
• Software product management
• Licensing, intellectual property and patents
• Business models for software startups and companies
• App economy
• Productization, servification, and servitization
• Impact of megatrends on software business
• Effects of business models on software development
• Global and cultural aspects of software business
• Mobile software business trends
• Partnership models and APIs
• Games and gamification
• Software business education
• Software entrepreneurship education
• Mergers and acquisitions in the software industry
• Intellectual property rights
• Dynamics of software ecosystems
• Openness in software businesses
• Economic aspects of engineering
• Internationalization of software firms
• Outsourcing
• SaaS and Cloud-based enterprise software startups
• Economics of software startups

Special sessions this year
• Dragon’s Den for Portuguese startups
• Doctoral symposium
• Workshop on entrepreneurship education

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Submission
Conference: Full research papers (15 pages), short papers (6 pages), industrial track presentations (abstract) and posters are all welcome. Accepted full papers and short papers will be included in the conference proceedings published by Springer as a volume in Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (LNBIP) series. Inclusion of accepted papers in the conference proceedings is conditional upon receiving payment for at least one full registration per paper latest by April 07, 2015.
To submit your papers, please use the EasyChair platform (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icsob2015).
The ICSOB conference can boast an impact factor of 4.5 on average, meaning that ICSOB articles are on average cited 4.5 times in the two years after they are published in the proceedings.

Doctoral symposium: PhD students are invited to submit research abstracts and present and discuss their work at the Doctoral Symposium. A separate CFP for the Doctoral Symposium will be published later. You may also submit workshop proposals to the conference.

Dragon's Den Start-up: This year we're adding a special session on start-ups to ICSOB. In a dragon's den environment start-ups can pitch their business idea. A jury of international experts in software business will reward the business plans with prizes and feedback. Want to submit? Please send a 1-page document to slinger.jansen@uu.nl.
You may also submit a proposal for organising a workshop within the conference.

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Important Dates
Paper Submission: January 12th 2015
Workshop submission: January 26th, 2015
Notification: March 10th, 2015
Camera-Ready: April 7th, 2015
Conference: June 15-18, 2015

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Organization

General Chair
João M. Fernandes, U Minho, PT

Program Chairs
Ricardo J. Machado, U Minho, PT
Krzysztof Wnuk, Lund U, SE

Program committee (* to be confirmed)
Sergey Avdoshin, Higher School of Economics, RU
Jan Bosch, Chalmers UT, SE
Sjaak Brinkkemper, Utrecht U, NL
*Peter Buxmann, TU Darmstadt, DE
Michael Cusumano, MIT, US
Torgeir Dingsøyr, SINTEF, NO
Samuel Fricker, Blekinge IT, SE
*Peter Gloor, MIT, USA
Georg Herzwurm, U Stuttgart, DE
Thomas Hess, LMU Munich, DE
Slinger Jansen, Utrecht U, NL
Thomas Kude, U of Mannheim, DE
Olli Kuivalainen, Lappeenranta UT, FI
*Patricia Lago, VU Amsterdam, NL
Ulrike Lechner, U Bundeswehr München, DE
Andrey Maglyas, Lappeenranta UT, FI
*Tiziana Margaria, U Potsdam, DE
John McGregor, Clemson U, US
*Silvio Meira, UFPE, BR
Rory O'Connor, Dublin City U, IE
Samuli Pekkola, Tampere UT, FI
Wolfram Pietsch, FH Aachen, DE
Maryam Razavian, Utrecht U, NL
Björn Regnell, Lund U, SE
Dirk Riehle, Friedrich-Alexander U, DE
*Eric Ries, LeanStartup, US
Matti Rossi, Aalto U, FI
Kari Smolander, Lappeenranta UT, Finland
*Klaus-Dieter Thoben, U Bremen, DE
Pasi Tyrväinen, U Jyväskylä, FI
Krzysztof Wnuk, Lund U, SE
Donald Wynn, U Dayton, US

Steering Committee
Jan Bosch, Chalmers UT, SE
Sjaak Brinkkemper, Utrecht U, Netherlands
João M. Fernandes, U Minho, Portugal
Georg Herzwurm, U Stuttgart, Germany
Slinger Jansen, Utrecht U, Netherlands (chair)
Casper Lassenius, Aalto U, Finland
Eetu Luoma, U Jyväskylä, Finland (chair)
Ricardo J. Machado, U Minho, Portugal
Tiziana Margaria, U Potsdam, Germany
Björn Regnell, Lund U, Sweden
Kari Smolander, Lappeenranta UT, Finland
Pasi Tyrväinen, U Jyväskylä, Finland
Krzysztof Wnuk, Lund U, Sweden

Local organization
Paulo Afonso, U Minho, PT
Miguel A. Brito, U Minho, PT
Rui J. José, U Minho, PT
Ana Lima, CCG, PT
Nuno Soares, U Minho / CCG, PT
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