Measuring Sustainability and ESG
Opportunities, Challenges, and Insights
Editors: Kristian J. Sund, Johannes Kabderian Dreyer, & Slobodan Kacanski
Publisher: Springer, Ethical Economy Series
CALL FOR SHORT PAPERS/ESSAYS
Abstract Submission Deadline: October 30th, 2025
Full Paper Submission Deadline: March 30th, 2026
Expected publication: early 2027
Stakeholders including investors, analysts, regulators, and civil society actors are demanding more robust, transparent, and decision-relevant ESG and sustainability information. In recent years, ESG data has been used to guide investment flows, shape regulatory frameworks, and redefine business risk. Yet, the field is now entering a period of heightened regulatory fragmentation, political pushback, and contested standards. In the US, the SEC has faced legal and political resistance over its climate disclosure rules. In the EU, the recent "stop-the-clock" move has suspended parts of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) for SMEs, stalling momentum just as many companies were preparing for compliance. Green tech leadership is shifting, even as double materiality and global assurance practices remain unevenly adopted. What do these shifts mean for the future of sustainability reporting? How are firms navigating ESG regarding regulatory uncertainty and shifting investor priorities? What tensions are emerging between global frameworks and local realities, and between compliance and strategic disclosure? We invite short, high-impact papers or essays that engage with these and related questions from diverse disciplinary angles, whether empirical, conceptual, or practice-oriented.
We intend to gather a collection of interdisciplinary and critical essay-style discussion papers on theoretical and empirical issues and challenges related to the measurement of sustainability and corporate responsibility, as well as the possible consequences of these issues to various stakeholders. We thus invite scholars to discuss these issues for different aspects of management, and for different stakeholder categories. Contributions should take the form of discussion essays, or short papers, not traditional full-length papers. Contributions could for example discuss data sources and related problems, examples of how sustainability data is used in research and related limitations, examples of how sustainability reports inform investor behaviour, issues related to the (missing) links between reporting and impact etc.
A more detailes call is found here: https://kristiansund.dk/2025/08/call-for-short-papers-and-essays/
Submission Procedure, Review Process and Timescale:
Contributors are invited to express their interest by first submitting a short proposal or abstract (200-500 words) to one of the editors before October 30, 2025.
Initial editorial decisions on proposals will be completed by November 30, 2025.
The deadline for a full draft submission (ca. 2,000 – 4,000 words, including references) is March 30, 2026.
Following review, final versions of chapters will be due August 1, 2026.
Publication of the collection in book format and online is expected Early 2027.
Questions:
For submission and any questions or concerns please refer to one of the editors:
Kristian J. Sund sund@ruc.dk
Johannes Kabderian Dreyer jodreyer@ruc.dk
Slobodan Kacanski kacanski@ruc.dk
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Best Regards/med Venlig Hilsen,
Dr. Kristian J. Sund
Professor of Strategic Management
Professor (mso) i strategisk ledelse
Head of Section for Business and Management
Representative-at-large, Academy of Management MOC Division
Roskilde University, Denmark
Email:
sund@ruc.dkPhone: +45 46 74 21 98
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