Emerging Technologies on Digital Platforms

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Interests: generative artificial intelligence (GAI); electronic health (eHealth); platform economy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
School of Public Administration, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
Interests: human–computer interaction; digital health; AI

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,  

The rapid rise in emerging technologies—such as generative AI, blockchain, immersive interfaces, and algorithmic intelligence—is accelerating structural change across digital platforms. These technologies are redefining how platforms facilitate value creation, coordinate interactions, and shape user behavior. Yet, their theoretical and practical implications remain insufficiently examined, making it timely and necessary to dedicate a Special Issue to this topic. 

This Special Issue aims to advance understanding of how emerging technologies transform platform innovation, governance, digital commerce ecosystems, and socio-technical outcomes. It aligns closely with JTAER’s core domains of Data Science, AI, and e-Commerce Analytics, focusing on algorithmic recommendations, AI-enabled services, and predictive platform intelligence; and Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Digital Business Models, emphasizing how novel technologies reshape platform-based innovation, ecosystem development, and new digital business models. It also connects with Immersive Commerce and Emerging Technologies, addressing metaverse environments, AR/VR-enabled commerce, and IoT-driven interactions.

Publishing this Special Issue in JTAER is highly appropriate given the journal’s leadership in electronic commerce scholarship and its strong emphasis on emerging technologies and platform research. By bringing together frontier theoretical and empirical studies, this Special Issue will contribute to deeper academic insight and guide practitioners navigating the next wave of digital platform transformation.

Prof. Dr. Xiaofei Zhang
Dr. Xiumei Ma
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • emerging technologies
  • digital platforms
  • generative AI
  • platform governance
  • digital commerce innovation

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 1320 KB  
Article
Are You Ready for Human-like AI Service Agents: Consumers’ Willingness to Use Substitute Versus Assist AI on OTA Platforms
by Wenqiu Guo, Yenchen Liu, Banggang Wu and Xiaoyu Deng
J. Theor. Appl. Electron. Commer. Res. 2026, 21(6), 160; https://doi.org/10.3390/jtaer21060160 - 22 May 2026
Abstract
With the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, human-like AI service agents have been increasingly applied in service marketing. Online travel agency (OTA) platforms provide an important application context for such service agents in consumer-facing service interactions, such as travel planning and [...] Read more.
With the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, human-like AI service agents have been increasingly applied in service marketing. Online travel agency (OTA) platforms provide an important application context for such service agents in consumer-facing service interactions, such as travel planning and related services. Drawing on social cognitive theory and control theory, this study examines the psychological mechanisms underlying consumers’ intentions to adopt AI service agents. One pretest and two experiments involving 521 participants were conducted to investigate the effects of the AI service agent role on consumers’ willingness to use substitute vs. assist AI. The results show that consumers are more willing to use assist AI service agents than substitute AI service agents. This effect is mediated by human identity threat and sense of control. Moreover, higher consumer technology readiness moderates these effects, mitigating the preference for assist over substitute AI service agents. This study extends the conceptual framework of AI service agents in human–computer interaction research and offers practical implications for the effective design and deployment of AI service agents in OTA applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Technologies on Digital Platforms)
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