“The Dark Pattern”: Corporate Failure and Corporate Scandals

Call for Papers
“The Dark Pattern”: Corporate Failure and Corporate Scandals

Journal: Qualitative Research in Financial Markets
Publisher: Emerald Publishing
Submission deadline: 31 December 2026

This special issue explores “the dark pattern” in corporations—how systemic design, culture, and incentives normalize unethical behaviour and lead to corporate scandals and failures. It invites qualitative research that examines how dark patterns in organisational life and digital-facing practices produce, disguise, and proliferate misconduct in financial markets and business organisations, with a focus on processes, narratives, and lived experiences rather than only financial outcomes.

Types of qualitative work invited

Guest editors

• Dr Fakhrul Hasan, Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, UK

• Prof William Forbes, School of Business, University of Dundee, UK

• Dr Egor Kiselev, School of Business, University of Dundee, UK

List of suggested topic areas

• The Dark Pattern & digital interfaces

• Dark Patterns & regulatory response

• Dark Patterns & consumer trust

• Financial misconduct and the dark pattern

• Organisational culture and normalization of deviance

• Crisis management and scandal narratives

• Behavioural economics and decision-making under the dark pattern

• Media and public perception of corporate scandals

• Consumer psychology and dark-pattern practices

• Societal impact and long-term trust erosion

• Employee perspectives on unethical normalization

• Corporate governance and accountability failures

• Ethical technology design and dark-pattern mitigation

Other topics are welcome if they engage the dark pattern concept qualitatively and connect to corporate failure, scandals, or misconduct in financial markets and business settings.

Submissions information

Submissions are made via ScholarOne Manuscripts:
Submit via ScholarOne

Author guidelines:
https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/qrfm

Authors should select the special issue title from the drop-down menu at the step “Please select the issue you are submitting to”. Articles must not have been published previously or be under consideration elsewhere while under review for the journal.

Important dates

• Opening date for manuscript submissions: 1 February 2026

• Closing date for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026

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