Call for Papers
"Software Business in the Age of AI-Native Dominance and Digital Sovereignty"
Software business is entering a new phase shaped by profound technological, economic, societal, and geopolitical change. AI-native products and services are transforming how software is designed, operated, and monetized. At the same time, concerns about digital sovereignty, strategic autonomy, cloud dependence, semiconductor supply chains, infrastructure control, and energy availability are reshaping the conditions under which software businesses compete and grow.
The theme of ICSOB 2026, Software Business in the Age of AI-Native Dominance and Digital Sovereignty, invites the community to explore how software-intensive firms create value, remain resilient, and sustain legitimacy in a world increasingly influenced by AI, infrastructure concentration, geopolitical tensions, and the politics of digital technology.
We particularly invite work that examines questions such as:
- How are software businesses reshaped by AI-native products, platform concentration, and infrastructure dependence?
- How do firms manage dependence on cloud providers, chips, energy systems, standards, and regulatory regimes?
- How do geopolitics, industrial policy, procurement, and political influence affect software markets and digital ecosystems?
- How should software organisations balance growth, speed, sustainability, inclusion, and trust?
- How are traditional software business domains such as product management, cloud services, digital transformation, and ecosystem strategy evolving in parallel with the AI wave?
- What new opportunities arise from cloud-native computing, edge infrastructures, 6G, and next-generation digital services?
At the same time, ICSOB 2026 continues its long-standing mission as a broad forum for software business research and practice, explicitly welcoming contributions across the wide spectrum of topics that have traditionally defined the conference, including software product management, software ecosystems, cloud services, digital transformation, sustainability, ethics, inclusion, entrepreneurship, and emerging communications and infrastructure technologies.
ICSOB 2026 further invites rigorous and relevant work from a range of disciplines, such as software engineering, information systems, innovation and entrepreneurship, strategic management, economics, digital policy, design science, and related fields. We welcome qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method research, as well as literature reviews, systematic mapping studies, bibliometric analyses, case studies, surveys, experiments, design science research, action research, archival studies, analytical modeling, and simulation studies. Practice-based and industry-grounded submissions are also encouraged.
Topics of Interest
Topics include, but are not limited to, the following.
A. Main theme: AI-native dominance, digital sovereignty, and strategic dependence
- AI-native software businesses, products, platforms, and business models
- digital sovereignty, sovereign AI, strategic autonomy, and control over data, models, and infrastructure
- dependence on hyperscalers, foundation model providers, chips, and other platform gatekeepers
- geopolitical risk, industrial policy, export controls, procurement, and political influence in software markets
- electricity, data centers, critical infrastructure, cyber resilience, interoperability, and ecosystem control
B. Software product management and software-intensive innovation
- AI-enabled product strategy, roadmapping, portfolio management, and product operations
- product discovery, experimentation, personalization, and continuous value delivery in software- and AI-intensive products
- requirements engineering, human-AI interaction, model selection, and decision-making in product contexts
- software quality, technical debt, lifecycle management, observability, and reliability of software and AI systems
- product-market fit, pricing, monetization, and software-enabled service innovation
C. Cloud computing, platforms, and next-generation infrastructures
- cloud computing business models and cloud- and AI-service ecosystems
- multi-cloud, hybrid cloud, edge cloud, and distributed infrastructures for data- and AI-intensive systems
- platform business, API economies, AI platforms, and governance of cloud-based ecosystems
- SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, AI-as-a-service, and cloud-native software business
- future connectivity, IoT, cyber-physical systems, and digital infrastructures for smart sectors
D. Automation, business processes, and digital operations
- automation in software-intensive organizations, including AI-enabled workflows and digital operations
- business process management, business process modeling, and process redesign in digital enterprises
- process mining, predictive analytics, modeling, simulation, and data-driven process improvement
- robotic process automation, intelligent automation, agentic automation, and hyperautomation
- low-code/no-code automation, enterprise integration, governance, and organizational implications
E. Software ecosystems, open innovation, and digital platforms
- software ecosystems, AI ecosystems, platform governance, and orchestration
- complementors, boundary resources, developer ecosystems, and platform openness
- open source, open-core, open-weight AI, and ecosystem-based business strategies
- coopetition, partner strategies, marketplaces, and interorganizational value creation
- standards, interoperability, modularity, and ecosystem resilience across digital platforms
F. Sustainability, ethics, inclusion, and responsible software business
- sustainability in software business, digital services, and AI-intensive ecosystems
- green software, energy-efficient AI, responsible compute, and sustainable infrastructures
- ethics in software development, AI-enabled services, and responsible innovation
- fairness, accountability, transparency, explainability, and trustworthy software-intensive systems
- diversity, inclusion, accessibility, digital rights, and societal impacts of digital technologies
G. Entrepreneurship, startups, and software business development
- software and AI startups, scale-ups, and entrepreneurial digital ventures
- venture creation, business experimentation, growth strategies, and commercialization of software-intensive innovation
- business models, pricing, monetization, and internationalization in software and AI markets
- startup ecosystems, accelerators, venture financing, and corporate venturing
- deep-tech ventures, data-driven opportunities, and entrepreneurial responses to infrastructure dependence
H. Digital transformation, services, and organizational change
- digital transformation through software, cloud, data, automation, and AI
- transformation of incumbents into software-centric and AI-enabled businesses
- service innovation, service-dominant logic, and intelligent digital services
- organizational capabilities, talent, leadership, and work redesign in software-intensive firms
- public sector digitalization, digital operating models, and software-enabled societal transformation
I. Governance, regulation, and public value
- governance of software-intensive business, AI-enabled markets, and digital platforms
- regulation of AI, cloud services, data ecosystems, platforms, and critical infrastructures
- public procurement, compliance, certification, audits, and assurance of software-intensive systems
- privacy, cybersecurity, trust, liability, and software supply chain governance
- law, policy, public value, and institutional change in digital societies
Important Dates
Note: all deadlines are AoE (Anywhere on Earth) — 12 hours behind UTC.
- Deadline for submissions: July 20, 2026
- Notification of acceptance: August 17, 2026
- Camera-ready papers due: September 28, 2026
- Conference: October 26-28, 2026
Submission Categories and Submission Guidelines
ICSOB 2026 welcomes:
- Full Research Papers: up to 15 pages, including all text, figures, tables, references, and appendices.
- Short Position and Research-in-Progress papers: up to 6 pages, including all materials.
All submissions should be original, unpublished, and not under review elsewhere. Manuscripts must be written in English, submitted in PDF format, and anonymized for double-blind review. Each paper should include 3-5 keywords.
All manuscripts should follow Springer's official Computer Science proceedings instructions for LNCS/LNBIP, including the current author guidelines and templates published by Springer. Information about the format, as well as templates for MS Word and LaTeX, can be found at: http://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines
All submissions will undergo a rigorous double-blind peer-review process involving at least three reviewers.
All submissions should be done through EasyChair at:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icsob2026
For all accepted submissions, at least one author must register for the conference and present the paper on site.