Strategic Foresight for Sustainable Digital Transformation

CALL FOR PAPERS

Journal: EuroMed Journal of Business

Publisher: Emerald Publishing

Submission Opens: 1 July 2026

Submission Deadline: 1 November 2026

Introduction

Firms today operate in a poly-crisis environment, forcing them to make decisions with decade-long consequences amid rapid technological change. While management research on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has proliferated, integrated theories connecting strategic foresight routines — such as scenario planning, horizon scanning, back-casting, and real-time Delphi — to sustainable digital transformation remain underdeveloped.

Scholars have begun revisiting foundational strategic frameworks to address this complexity, yet clear evidence on how foresight practices modify strategies to mitigate risk is lacking. Recent evidence suggests that prioritizing ESG factors is crucial for mitigating bankruptcy risk, but the specific digital antecedents of this relationship remain under-theorized.

This Special Issue addresses that gap by seeking interdisciplinary work that clarifies the mechanisms linking foresight practices to technology road-mapping, investment sequencing, and measurable sustainability outcomes across sectors and firm sizes. It aims to explain how strategic foresight capabilities guide sustainable digital transformation to deliver long-term ESG value.

Thematic Pillars

The editors encourage submissions — conceptual, empirical, or review-based — that advance theory or practice across the following thematic pillars:

1. A Capabilities View of Foresight and Strategy How firms convert weak signals into technology portfolios and staged investments aligned with ESG targets. Contributions updating classic corporate strategy and growth frameworks through the lens of foresight and digital sustainability are especially welcome.

2. SME Competitiveness and Resilience Evidence on how foresight-enabled adoption of digital technologies strengthens resilience and prepares smaller firms for disruption.

3. Leadership, Governance, and AI Insights into culture and governance for AI-aware foresight — including ethical decision systems, board oversight, top-management cognition, determinants of AI adoption, and ethical implications of AI-driven change.

4. Strategic Alignment, Risk, and Performance Clearer links between foresight-led digital strategies and ESG performance metrics — particularly how these strategies influence financial stability, bankruptcy risk, and standard investor disclosures.

5. Ecosystems and Entrepreneurship How digitalization interacts with entrepreneurship and sustainable development, particularly in emerging markets — advancing holistic approaches to sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems and exploring the role of AI in venturing.

List of Topic Areas

Manuscripts are invited on themes including, but not limited to:

Human and organisational behaviour in digital transitions — foresight practices shaping attitudes, norms, and behaviours underpinning sustainable digital transformation
Prejudice, bias, exclusion risks, and organisational learning dynamics in digital transformation
Digital literacy and competence development across the workforce
Learning, capabilities, and sensemaking — micro and meso-level studies of how managers, teams, and boards interpret weak signals and develop dynamic capabilities
Inclusive foresight and prejudice reduction — participatory methods that surface diverse stakeholder voices and support just transitions
Digital skills, reskilling and upskilling programmes enabling SMEs and larger organisations to adopt AI sustainably
Behavioural risk, ethics, and governance — how cognitive biases and ethical frames influence technology road-mapping and ESG prioritisation
Methodologies for sustainable road-mapping — scenario planning, horizon scanning, back-casting, and real-time Delphi in Industry 4.0 contexts
Value creation, risk, and metrics — aligning financial and sustainability KPIs within digital strategies
ESG prioritisation and its connection to bankruptcy mitigation and long-term value
SME resilience, entrepreneurship, and sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems
Foresight-enabled digitalisation in emerging and developing market contexts

Guest Editors

Prof. Renato Pereira 📧 (contact via journal submission platform)

Prof. Andrea Caputo 📧 (contact via journal submission platform)

Prof. Christina Theodoraki 📧 (contact via journal submission platform)

Key Deadlines

📅 Manuscript Submission Opens: 1 July 2026

⏰ Manuscript Submission Deadline: 1 November 2026

Submission Guidelines

Submissions are made through ScholarOne Manuscripts, the official submission platform of Emerald Publishing. Authors must strictly follow the journal's author guidelines.

When submitting, select "Strategic Foresight for Sustainable Digital Transformation" from the special issue drop-down menu at the appropriate step in the submission process.

⚠️ Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication elsewhere while under review for this journal.

For author guidelines and to submit your manuscript, visit the official EuroMed Journal of Business page on the Emerald Publishing website and access via ScholarOne Manuscripts.

About the Journal

The EuroMed Journal of Business (EMJB), published by Emerald Publishing, is a leading peer-reviewed journal dedicated to advancing research on business, management, and entrepreneurship across the Euro-Mediterranean region and beyond. It provides an international platform for scholars and practitioners exploring strategic management, digital transformation, sustainability, and entrepreneurial ecosystems in diverse and emerging contexts.

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