Intangible Assets and Visible Impact: Corporate Responses to the Climate Challenge

CALL FOR PAPERS

Intangible Assets and Visible Impact: Corporate Responses to the Climate Challenge

Journal: Journal of Environmental Management

Publisher: Elsevier

Submission Deadline: 31 December 2026

Introduction

As climate risks intensify, firms must not only reduce environmental impact but also demonstrate credible responsibility through transparent disclosure, credible assurance, and stakeholder trust. This Special Issue explores how intangible environmental assets — ESG disclosure quality, green reputation, and stakeholder confidence — shape the visibility, credibility, and impact of corporate climate strategies.

It invites contributions examining disclosure mechanisms, governance assurance, legitimacy, and stakeholder engagement across jurisdictions and institutional settings. By integrating insights from corporate governance, environmental economics, and social legitimacy, the Special Issue aims to inform both theory and practice in sustainable business transformation.

Scope & Significance

This Special Issue addresses a fundamental tension in corporate climate action — the gap between what firms disclose and what they actually do. As regulatory demands escalate, stakeholder scrutiny intensifies, and assurance practices evolve, there is an urgent need for rigorous scholarship that clarifies when and how corporate environmental commitments translate into measurable outcomes — and when they risk becoming symbolic or legitimacy-seeking behavior.

List of Topic Areas

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

1. How firms navigate escalating disclosure demands without resorting to symbolic reporting amid the shifting regulatory landscape

2. Whether institutional enforcement differences condition firms' ability to convert environmental commitments into measurable outcomes

3. The rigor and comparability of auditor and assurance provider climate-related verification practices

4. Stakeholder expectations — justifying not only what is disclosed but why chosen metrics are meaningful

5. Green innovation strategies and the links between investment decisions and long-term environmental value creation

6. Capital market reactions to ESG signals and gaps in how investors interpret environmental intangibles

7. Cross-border variation in reporting standards and the challenges of consistently evaluating corporate climate performance

8. Board-level climate oversight — embedding climate governance in core strategic processes rather than compliance

9. Reputational risks when disclosure expands faster than internal capacity to monitor environmental performance

10. Digital reporting tools for real-time climate data — opportunities and concerns around accuracy and verification

11. Supply chain transparency and overall climate exposure assessment for firms with dispersed global operations

12. How firms respond to controversy and whether corrective actions appear substantive — the dynamics of stakeholder confidence

13. Interim milestones and credibility of climate targets — enabling external observers to track progress

14. When environmental narratives enhance legitimacy and when they heighten suspicion of symbolic behavior

15. Climate policy uncertainty and its influence on corporate reporting choices and disclosure quality

Guest Editors

Dr. Sajid Mukhtar Chaudhry (Executive Guest Editor — Contact for Topic Inquiries) Department of Accounting and Finance, Aston Business School, Aston University, Birmingham, UK Email: s.chaudhry9@aston.ac.uk

Dr. Rizwan Ahmed Department of Finance, University of Vaasa, Vaasa, Finland

Key Deadlines

Manuscript Submission Opens: 1 June 2026
Manuscript Submission Deadline: 31 December 2026

Submission Guidelines

Submit your manuscript via Editorial Manager, the official online submission system for the Journal of Environmental Management. When submitting, select Article Type:

"VSI: CorporateClimateStrategy"

All submissions deemed suitable will be reviewed by at least two independent reviewers. Once accepted, articles will be simultaneously published in the current regular issue and featured in the online Special Issue.

For any inquiries about the appropriateness of contribution topics, contact Dr. Sajid Mukhtar Chaudhry at s.chaudhry9@aston.ac.uk.

All submissions must be original and must not be under review elsewhere at the time of submission.

About the Journal

The Journal of Environmental Management, published by Elsevier, is a leading international peer-reviewed journal with a CiteScore of 14.4 and Impact Factor of 8.4. It supports open access publishing and is dedicated to advancing the understanding and application of environmental management practices — providing a global platform for interdisciplinary research at the intersection of ecology, policy, governance, and socio-environmental systems.

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