Global uncertainty is reshaping the environment in which organizations operate and are held accountable. Geopolitical tensions, economic and financial volatility, climate change, energy insecurity, technological disruption, regulatory transformation, and widening social and stakeholder expectations are creating interconnected risks that challenge conventional approaches to accounting, governance, reporting, and organizational decision-making.

Against this backdrop, accounting has an increasingly important role in enabling organizations to understand, manage, communicate, and respond to uncertainty. Beyond its traditional functions of financial measurement, reporting, and control, accounting is increasingly connected with sustainability-related performance and reporting, corporate governance, enterprise risk management, stakeholder accountability, and organizational resilience. At the same time, developments in sustainability reporting and assurance, artificial intelligence, digital technologies, and evolving regulatory frameworks are transforming how organizations identify and manage risks, demonstrate accountability, and create sustainable long-term value.

This track invites scholars, researchers, practitioners, policymakers, regulators, and other stakeholders to examine the intersections between accounting, corporate governance, sustainability and ESG, risk management, and accountability in an increasingly uncertain global environment. We particularly welcome conceptual, empirical, interdisciplinary, critical, and practice-oriented research that advances understanding of how financial and sustainability accounting, governance, and risk-management mechanisms can contribute to responsible business transformation, effective risk oversight, sustainable value creation, and organizational and societal resilience.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following areas:

• Financial and corporate reporting: financial reporting quality, transparency, accountability, risk disclosure, and integrated reporting under conditions of uncertainty.
• Sustainability and ESG accounting and reporting: sustainability-related performance, reporting and governance, environment, climate and carbon-related performance, reporting, governance and risk management, social accounting and reporting, and stakeholder accountability.
• Audit, assurance, and reporting credibility: financial and sustainability assurance, audit quality, internal audit, internal controls, and the credibility of corporate reporting.
• Corporate governance and risk oversight: board effectiveness, audit and risk committee effectiveness, governance mechanisms, enterprise risk management, and organizational resilience.
• Geopolitical, economic, and emerging business risks: war and conflict, geopolitical instability, energy insecurity, commodity and fuel price volatility, and their implications for accounting, reporting, governance, and risk management.
• Corporate accountability, ethics, and responsible business: stakeholder governance, ethical leadership, fraud, corruption, whistleblowing, forensic accounting, and responsible business practices.
• Regulation and institutional change: evolving financial and sustainability reporting requirements and regulatory developments, institutional environments, and their implications for corporate accountability and governance.
• Digital transformation and emerging technologies: artificial intelligence, data analytics, cybersecurity, technology risk, and digital transformation in accounting, auditing, governance, and risk management.
• Management accounting and strategic decision-making: management control, performance measurement, strategic decision-making, and organizational responses to risk and uncertainty.
• Islamic accounting and governance: Islamic accounting, Shariah governance, ethical accountability, and risk management in Islamic financial and business institutions.
• Accounting education and the profession: evolving professional competencies and accounting education in response to sustainability, governance, risk, regulatory, and technological transformation.

The above themes are indicative rather than exhaustive. Submissions addressing other accounting-related issues that contribute to understanding business transformation, accountability, governance, sustainability, risk management, and organizational resilience amid global uncertainty are also welcome. 

Special Issue Publication Opportunity

Scholars working at the intersection of ESG, sustainability, and business risk are also invited to consider submitting their research to the Risks (Scopus Q1) Special Issue “ESG and Business Risks,” guest edited by Dr. Amama Shaukat.

The Special Issue welcomes rigorous and innovative research examining how ESG considerations interact with financial, operational, climate, governance, strategic, reputational, and systemic risks. Contributions offering interdisciplinary perspectives, novel datasets, innovative methodologies, and policy-relevant insights are particularly encouraged.

Researchers whose work aligns with these themes are warmly encouraged to explore this opportunity to contribute to the growing academic debate on how ESG considerations are reshaping the identification, assessment, governance, and management of business risks.

Further details and submission information:

Risks | Special Issue: ESG and Business Risks

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