ESG Reporting, Sustainability Assurance, and Financial Risk Management

Dear Colleagues,

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting has become a central component of corporate transparency, accountability, and sustainable value creation. Concurrently, stakeholders are demanding greater assurance regarding the credibility, reliability, and decision usefulness of ESG disclosures. The growing regulatory emphasis on sustainability reporting, including developments associated with the ISSB, CSRD, and other global reporting frameworks, has increased the importance of assurance mechanisms and governance structures that enhance the quality of ESG information.

This Special Issue seeks to advance our understanding of the interrelationships between ESG reporting, sustainability assurance, governance mechanisms, and financial risk. It aims to provide a platform for high-quality theoretical, empirical, review, and methodological contributions that examine how ESG reporting practices influence organizational outcomes, risk management, corporate performance, stakeholder trust, and sustainable development objectives.

The Special Issue welcomes research from developed and emerging markets and encourages interdisciplinary perspectives from accounting, finance, auditing, governance, sustainability, and risk management disciplines. Potential topics include ESG disclosure quality, sustainability assurance practices, integrated reporting, corporate governance mechanisms, audit committees, risk management committees, external assurance, anti-corruption reporting, climate-related disclosures, green accounting, sustainable finance, AI applications in ESG reporting, and the implications of ESG performance for financial and non-financial risks.

By bringing together diverse perspectives, this Special Issue aims to contribute to both academic knowledge and practical policy discussions regarding the evolving role of ESG reporting and assurance in enhancing transparency, accountability, and organizational resilience in increasingly complex business environments.

Dr. Krayyem Al-Hajaya
Dr. Ahmed Eltweri
Dr. Rami Salem
Dr. Sajead Mowafaq Alshdaifat
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Risk and Financial Management is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.