Editorial: Durable, Inclusive, Sustainable Economic Growth and Challenge

Nowadays, sustainability and sustainable development play vital roles in our lives. Moreover, sustainable economic growth is essential for all businesses, communities, regions, and countries. Furthermore, the Sustainable Development Goals are pivotal to the efficiency, efficacy, and performance of businesses, with the aim of supporting the present population alongside future generations.

In this context, this Special Issue on “Durable, Inclusive, and Sustainable Economic Growth and Challenges”, belonging to the section “Sustainability and Finance” as part of the Journal of Risk and Financial Management (ISSN 1911-8074), aims to stress the importance of sustainable and responsible economic growth and highlight the changes and challenges specific to the current economy and society. This Special Issue focused on durability, inclusivity, robustness, and responsibility, especially in the context of increasing competition among regions and countries, which has generated unprecedented friction and overwhelming pressure to develop new resources for human survival.

Interestingly, specialists worldwide acknowledge that battling for resources, especially those that are extremely expensive and rare, will only accentuate the disparities between individuals, communities, and organizations, generating a larger divide between regions and countries (Popescu & Popescu, 2025). Additionally, the research community is extremely preoccupied by recent societal and economic trends generated by artificial intelligence and the development of new technologies and techniques at a global level (Singh et al., 2024).

Hence, although the Global Goals and the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development targeted pivotal objectives intended to foster a better understanding of ways to protect the health and well-beingwellbeing of individuals, communities, and the environment, in some cases, ongoing pursuits for money and power have led to numerous conflicts, discrepancies, problems, and wars.

This Special Issue contains seven papers, which offer new and captivating insights into the specificities of the business environment.

Firstly, Warin and Stojkov (2023) analyze speeches and interviews from high-level European Central Bank decision-makers in an attempt to discover clusters of key topics (Warin & Stojkov, 2023). The analysis spans from 1997 to 2021, focusing on the transparency of the European Central Bank and vital themes such as the Global Financial Crisis, the pandemic crisis, and inflation (Warin & Stojkov, 2023). Importantly, this paper emphasizes the importance of using quantitative indices as well as text mining techniques to provide a more in-depth understanding of the European Central Bank’s communication, policy, and transparency (Warin & Stojkov, 2023).

Secondly, Lee et al. (2023) examined the interactive effect of advertising investment and Corporate Social Responsibility on financial performance. They emphasize that the managers of organizations ought to focus more on fulfilling Corporate Social Responsibility as well as appropriate advertising investment (Lee et al., 2023).

In the third paper of this Special Issue, the importance of implicit hedging and liquidity costs for structured products was thoroughly analyzed (Avdiu & Unger, 2023). Moreover, valuable insights were discussed when comparing fair values calculated based on the Heston model while making use of various optimization techniques (Avdiu & Unger, 2023).

Fourthly, Hassan et al. (2024) recently published an article on the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility, innovation performance, and CEO gender diversity, corroborated by valuable evidence from the U.S. Their research shows a positive correlation between Corporate Social Responsibility and innovation performance (Hassan et al., 2024).

Furthermore, Ahmed et al. (2024) focused on the joint effect of intellectual capital and innovation on the financial vulnerability of a company while addressing a carefully selected sample of non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange.

Al Khub et al. (2024) successfully examined digital financial inclusion in emerging economies, shedding a new light in the context of Jordan. They emphasized the role of digital financial inclusion while making valuable connections with poverty mitigation as well as economic growth promotion, with a particular focus on developing countries in the COVID-19 era.

Finally, Longar et al. (2024) offer new insights into cycling, economic growth, and sustainability, while conducting a comparative analysis between Slovenia and Belgium.

This Special Issue focused on the broad and paramount topic of “Durable, Inclusive, and Sustainable Economic Growth and Challenges” and included novel research on entrepreneurship; business; sustainable economic development and growth; risk and financial management; financial well-being before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic; corporate governance and corporate responsibility; innovation; intellectual capital; and green and sustainable finance. Also, this Special Issue aimed to capture valuable wide-ranging research in the modern context in light of the changes and challenges caused by the pandemic while focusing on microeconomics, macroeconomics, sustainability, public health, the financial situation, financial well-being, the planet’s prosperity, the impact of immigration on employment and unemployment, income fluctuations, the labor market, employee welfare, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—as presented and promoted by the United Nations (UN) Agenda. Other relevant keywords in the context of this Special Issue include artificial intelligence; auditing; accounting; balance sheet data; business counseling; business environment; business excellence; business performance; business process management; business risks; business transfer; climate change; circular economy; corporate reporting; corporate responsibility; control and evaluation; corporate governance; economics; economic growth; emerging markets; human resources management; labor market; inclusive businesses; intangible assets; intellectual capital; intellectual property; innovation; finance; financial analysis; green finance; growth potential; quality management; management; pandemic context; prosperous, inclusive, and sustainable society; risk management; small- and medium-sized enterprises; staff headcount; sustainability; sustainability assessment; sustainable development; Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); sustainable finance; sustainability risks; tangible assets; technology and innovation management; tourism sector; turnover; and United Nations (UN) Agenda.