Special Issue on "Regulatory competition and global governance in digital markets"

In recent years, the European Union has famously started to regulate digital markets, in particular by taking the reins on data, digital platforms, and artificial intelligence (Fast et al., 2023; Johnson et al., 2023; Paul, 2023; Peukert et al. 2022). The General Data Protection Regulation (Dorfleitner et al. 2023; Engelmann et al. 2018), the Data Governance Act, the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, the Data Act, and most recently the AI Act will significantly impact whether and how companies do business in Europe. Regulations of digital technologies and markets (De Vaujany, 2018; Easley et al. 2018) have also been implemented in China and the United States or are expected to be implemented there (e.g., Li & Wang, 2024). This emerging global governance landscape for the digital economy raises the question of how competition among private and public regulators (Kokshagina et al., 2023) and entire jurisdictions will affect the strategic choices of companies, the development and diffusion of innovative technologies, and thus ultimately the welfare and wellbeing of societies.

Diverging regulatory rules and standards can allow companies in digital markets to strategically choose their location in regions in order to benefit from better regulations or to engage in regulatory arbitrage. A highly illustrative example of regulatory arbitrage is corporate law, where companies may choose the limited liability status in a jurisdiction with the lowest minimum capital requirement. Other traditional areas in which firms are allowed to choose from a variety of different legal regimes include contract law, bankruptcy law and the rules governing the proceedings of an arbitration court. As of today, it is largely unclear which regulation attracts digital businesses and how governments will then adapt their regulations. The special issue invites conceptual, theoretical, and empirical contributions that address, but are not limited to, the mentioned topics below. Submissions should provide novel insights and contribute to the academic discourse on regulatory competition and global governance in the digital economy, offering both theoretical depth and practical relevance.

Central issues and topics

Possible topics and exemplary questions of submissions include, but are not limited to:

+ How does regulatory competition affect digital technologies, digital markets, and the well-being of societies?

+ Does competition among regulators leads to a "race to the top" or "race to the bottom" in digital markets (Smuha 2021)?

+ What drives legal arbitrage in data, digital platforms, and artificial intelligence business models?

+ How does regulatory competition affect data-driven innovation and the diffusion of digital technologies?

+ When developing artificial intelligence, do companies actually choose locations where AI systems require less protection or liability is laxer? Do digital platforms and their users benefit from stricter content regulations and more stringent neutrality obligations?

+ Which institutions can facilitate the development of standards and governance mechanisms in a global digital economy with diverging interests and values?

+ What forms of governance and (self-)regulation can promote data sharing (Otto & Jarke, 2019)? Is there empirical evidence for a Brussels effect when it comes to the regulation of digital technologies?

+ How does regulatory competition affect the enforcement of data protection and privacy rules?

Submission

Electronic Markets is a Social Science Citation Index (SSCI)-listed journal (IF 8.5 in 2022) in the area of information management and information systems. Submissions should be original, unpublished, and not under consideration at any other journal. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods are welcome, provided the research exhibits strong methodological rigor. Contributions can take the form of conceptual and theoretical development papers, empirical hypothesis testing, position papers, case-based studies, and more. All papers which pass the desk-reject phase will undergo a double-blind peer-review process. Submissions must be made via the journal's submission system and comply with the journal's formatting standards. Authors should clearly indicate that their submission is intended for the special issue on Regulatory competition and global governance in digital markets. 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.

Important deadlines

+ Submission deadline: April 1, 2025

+ Planned publication of special issue: Autumn 2025

In addition, an optional paper development workshop (PDW) will be organized at the Technical University in Dresden, Germany: https://tu-dresden.de/bu/wirtschaft/bwl/finance/events/PDW_Electronic_Markets

+ Submission deadline for optional paper development workshop: October 31, 2024

+ PDW at TU Dresden: January 31, 2025

References

Dorfleitner, G., Hornuf, L., & Kreppmeier, J. (2023). Promise not fulfilled: FinTech, data privacy, and the GDPR. Electronic Markets, 33, 33. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-023-00622-x

Engelmann, S., Grossklags, J., & Papakyriakopoulos, O. (2018). A democracy called Facebook? Participation as a privacy strategy on social media. In Privacy Technologies and Policy: 6th Annual Privacy Forum, APF 2018, Barcelona, Spain, June 13-14, 2018, Revised Selected Papers 6 (pp. 91-108). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02547-2_6

Fast, V., Schnurr, D., & Wohlfarth, M. (2023). Regulation of data-driven market power in the digital economy: Business value creation and competitive advantages from big data. Journal of Information Technology, 38(2), 202-229. https://doi.org/10.1177/02683962221114394

De Vaujany, F. X., Fomin, V. V., Haefliger, S., & Lyytinen, K. (2018). Rules, practices, and information technology: A trifecta of organizational regulation. Information Systems Research, 29(3), 755-773. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2017.0771

Easley, R. F., Guo, H., & Krämer, J. (2018). From net neutrality to data neutrality: a techno-economic framework and research agenda. Research Commentary. Information Systems Research, 29(2), 253-272. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2017.0740

Johnson, G. A., Shriver, S. K., & Goldberg, S. G. (2023). Privacy and market concentration: Intended and unintended consequences of the GDPR. Management Science, 69(10), 5695-5721. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4709

Kokshagina, O., Reinecke, P. C., & Karanasios, S. (2023). To regulate or not to regulate: unravelling institutional tussles around the regulation of algorithmic control of digital platforms. Journal of Information Technology, 38(2), 160-179. https://doi.org/10.1177/02683962221114408

Li, Z., & Wang, G. (2024). Regulating Powerful Platforms: Evidence from Commission Fee Caps. Information Systems Research, forthcoming. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.0191

Otto, B., & Jarke, M. (2019). Designing a multi-sided data platform: findings from the International Data Spaces case. Electronic Markets, 29(4), 561-580. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-019-00362-x

Peukert, C., Bechtold, S., Batikas, M., & Kretschmer, T. (2022). Regulatory spillovers and data governance: Evidence from the GDPR. Marketing Science, 41(4), 746-768. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2021.1339

Paul, R. (2023). The politics of regulating artificial intelligence technologies: A competition state perspective. Handbook on Public Policy and Artificial Intelligence, Regine Paul, Emma Carmel and Jennifer Cobbe (eds.), Cheltenham Spa: Edward Elgar, forthcoming. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4272867 or dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4272867

Smuha, N. A. (2021). From a ‘Race to AI’ to a ‘Race to AI regulation’: Regulatory competition for artificial intelligence. Law, Innovation and Technology, 13(1), 57-84. https://doi.org/10.1080/17579961.2021.1898300

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Journal

Electronic Markets

Electronic Markets focuses on social, economic, and technological aspects of digital platforms and electronic business.

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Douglas Arner

Kerry Holdings Professor in Law and RGC Senior Research Fellow in Digital Finance and Sustainable Development at the University of Hong Kong, where he leads a team focusing on the role of finance, technology and regulation in supporting broader sustainable development. He is Senior Fellow of the University of Melbourne and a non-executive director of NASDAQ listed biotech firm Aptorum. Douglas advised international organizations across the world on financial sector development strategies. He leads Introduction to FinTech, the largest FinTech online course on edX, with over 130,000 learners from many countries in the world.
Jianqing Chen

Ashbel Smith Professor in Information Systems at the Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas. His general research interests are in platform business models, economic impact of AI, social media and user-generated content, and economics of information systems. His papers have been published in academic journals, including Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly, Management Science, Journal of Marketing, and Journal of Marketing Research. He is currently an Associate Editor of Information Systems Research and a Senior Editor of Production and Operations Management.
Lars Hornuf

Full Professor of Business Administration with a focus on Finance and Financial Technology at Dresden University of Technology, Germany. He completed his PhD in Economics at Ludwig Maximilian University and received his habilitation at the University of Regensburg. He was a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley, Stanford University, Duke University, Georgetown University, the CESifo, and the House of Finance. His research interests include regulatory competition, financial technology, crowdsourcing, data privacy, and artificial intelligence. Media including The Economist and Foreign Policy have reported on his research findings.
Daniel Schnurr

Professor of Information Systems and holds the Chair of Machine Learning & Uncertainty Quantification at the University of Regensburg. He is also a Research Fellow of the Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE). Previously, he led the research group Data Policies at the University of Passau. He received his Ph.D. in Information Systems from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, where he previously studied Information Engineering and Management. His current research focuses on the role of artificial intelligence for competition, privacy and data sharing in digital markets, as well as regulation of AI and the data economy.