Geopolitical Trends and Their Impact on Business Management

Call for Papers – Geopolitical Trends and Their Impact on Business Management

Journal: Management Decision
Publisher: Emerald Publishing
Special issue closes: 30 April 2026

This special issue explores how geopolitical shifts—both long‑term structural changes and short‑term crises—reshape management decision‑making, strategy, organisational behaviour, and leadership. Management Decision invites conceptual and empirical contributions that examine how firms, managers, and policymakers respond to rising geopolitical volatility, protectionism, and strategic competition, with implications for global strategy, risk management, and leadership practice.

Why this issue matters

• Geopolitical instability—ranging from trade wars, sanctions, and regional conflicts to the reconfiguration of global economic and technological power—is now a core driver of strategic risk and opportunity.

• Firms increasingly need to integrate geopolitical reasoning, geopolitical risk analysis, and scenario planning into their strategy, supply‑chain design, and international‑investment choices.

• This SI aims to move beyond generic “risk lists” and build theoretical and methodological bridges between geopolitics, decision‑making, and organisational behaviour in a multi‑polar, volatile world.

Core themes and research areas

Papers should address how geopolitical dynamics shape management practice and theory, including:

• Geopolitical risk and strategic decision‑making

  • How geopolitical risk assessments influence foreign direct investment, market entry/exit, and location decisions.

  • Models linking geopolitical risk to firm performance, emerging‑market strategy, and crisis response.

• Geopolitical literacy and managerial capabilities

  • The role of geopolitical literacy in helping leaders analyse security, regulatory, and diplomatic risks across borders.

  • How managers develop geopolitical scanning, interpretation, and sense‑making capabilities.

• Managerial responses to trade wars, tariffs, and protectionism

  • Firm‑level responses to trade wars, sanctions, and export restrictions (e.g., diversification, dual‑sourcing, reshoring).

  • Impact on pricing, product strategy, and innovation in politically sensitive sectors.

• Sector‑specific geopolitical challenges

  • Energy, defence, cybersecurity, and technology sectors, where national security, technology rivalry, and regulations deeply shape strategy.

  • Case studies of U.S.–China rivalry, regional sanctions, and technology‑sovereignty debates.

• Leadership and organisational behaviour in volatile environments

  • Leadership styles, decision‑making styles, and crisis‑leadership behaviours in politically unstable or restrictive environments.

  • How state–business relationships, political connections, and corporate diplomacy affect multinational‑enterprise behaviour.

• Cross‑border talent and workforce management

  • Geopolitical drivers of labour‑mobility restrictions, visa policies, and talent flows.

  • HR strategies for managing global teams amid sanctions, migration controls, and security concerns.

• Policy, regulation, and diplomacy

  • Influence of international regulation, trade agreements, and diplomatic tensions on corporate strategy and governance.

  • Firm strategies for lobbying, standardisation, and stakeholder engagement in contested political environments.

• Scenario planning and risk‑assessment tools

  • New or improved frameworks for geopolitical scenario planning, risk‑assessment, and resilience‑building in volatile contexts.

  • Applications to supply‑chain resilience, transport‑corridor security, and digital‑infrastructure dependencies.

Submissions are welcome from management, international business, strategy, HR, supply‑chain, risk management, and political‑economy perspectives.

Guest editors

• Prof. Alberto Ferraris, Department of Management, University of Turin, Italy
  Email: alberto.ferraris@unito.it

• Dr Nuno Morgado, CIAS, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
  Email: nuno.morgado@uni‑corvinus.hu

Submission details

• Submission platform: ScholarOne Manuscripts for Management Decision:
  https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/md

• When submitting, select the special issue title “Geopolitical Trends and Their Impact on Business Management” under “Please select the issue you are submitting to”.

• Key deadlines:

  • Submissions open: 1 December 2025

  • Submissions close: 30 April 2026

• Authors must follow the journal’s Author Guidelines:
  https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/md

• Submissions must be original and not under review elsewhere.

Papers should clearly connect geopolitical dynamics with management theory or practice, and offer actionable insights for executives, policymakers, and academic researchers in a highly contested global environment.

ServiceSetu Academics — Premier Platform for Academic Opportunities & Research Collaboration

Visit official website of the publisher