Colleagues, Please find below the Call for Papers for a special issue of the Journal of Interactive Advertising on user-generated content. We look forward to your submissions. Apologies for cross-posting. The formatted version is available at- http://www.jiad.org/callforpapers_user.htm ~~ Call for Papers Special Issue on Online User-Generated Content The Journal of Interactive Advertising announces a special issue on Online User-Generated Content. On the World Wide Web, empowered consumers (Urban, 2005) are now not simply consuming content produced by firms, but also participating in the generation of content, in a variety of forms (e.g., blogs, consumer reviews, user-generated videos). Despite this new trend, we are only beginning to understand the theoretical implications of user-generated content and its place in interactive advertising. At this point, very little is known about the motivation of customers who produce user-generated content, the effectiveness of such content in swaying consumer attitudes, and how firms can successfully utilize such avenues to reach online consumers. Initial research claims that uploaders are creative consumers (Berthon, Pitt, McCarthy and Kates 2007) and not lead users (Von Hippel 1986). However, further theoretical and empirical study on this topic is warranted. User-generated content is also of great interest to practitioners. Advertisers are struggling to find out how they can incorporate user-generated content into their campaigns. Some companies have encouraged users to create advertisements- with mixed results. Many industry executives are still not convinced of the effectiveness of encouraging user-generated content and fear negative reactions from users. RESEARCH TOPICS This special issue is interested in a wide variety of theoretical and empirical lines of inquiry into user-generated content. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): Appropriate advertising models and strategies for user-generated content Motivation of uploaders and downloaders of user-generated content Impact of uploading and downloading user-generated content on brand attitudes, identity and image User-generated content and online community Privacy and intellectual property issues in user-generated content SUBMISSION INFORMATION Submitted manuscripts will be subject to a double-blind peer review process and must not have been published or accepted for publication or currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. Electronic submission should be via email in either Word or PDF format, with all manuscripts following the JIAD guidelines (http://www.jiad.org/). ABOUT JOURNAL OF INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING The Journal of Interactive Advertising (JIAD) is an official online publication of the Department of Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing at Michigan State University and the Department of Advertising at The University of Texas at Ausitn. JIAD is an online refereed journal design to promote our understanding of interactive advertising, marketing, and communication in a changing world. It is published twice a year, in March and September. Important dates- Submission deadline July 15, 2007 Acceptance/Rejection notification September 15, 2007 Notification of Second Review December 15, 2007 Likely Publication Date March 15, 2008 SPECIAL ISSUE CO-EDITORS Wenyu Dou, Ph.D. Department of Marketing City University of Hong Kong 83 Tat Chee Avenue Kowloon, HKSAR mkwydou@cityu.edu.hk Tel:(852) 2788-7004 Sandeep Krishnamurthy, Ph.D. Business Administration Program University of Washington, Bothell 18115 Campus Way NE, Room UW 1-233 Bothell, WA 98011-8246, USA sandeep@u.washington.edu Phone: (452) 352-5229 REFERENCES Berthon, Pierre R., Leyland F. Pitt, Ian McCarthy and Steven M. Kates (2007), When customers get clever: Managerial approaches to dealing with creative consumers, Business Horizons, 50(1), 39-47. Urban, Glen L. (2005), Customer Advocacy: A New Era in Marketing? Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 24(1), 155-159. von Hippel, Eric (1986), Lead users: A source of novel product concepts, Management Science, 32(7), 791805.