Scopus Journal Call for paper: European Business Review (The Human Dimension of Organizational Sustainability in the AI Age)

Industry 5.0 calls a new paradigm in management that emphasizes human-centric, sustainable, and resilient leadership. Unlike Industry 4.0, which focused heavily on automation and efficiency, Industry 5.0 integrates technological advancement with human values. Based on this challenge, this special issue aims to advance understanding of how the human dimension – values, leadership, culture, and employee engagement – contributes to organizational sustainability in the AI age. It seeks to explore how organizations can remain ethically grounded, socially responsible, and resilient while embracing technological change. To achieve these aims, the issue invites to bring together interdisciplinary research, case studies, and theoretical contributions that highlight people-centered strategies for sustainable transformation. By fostering collaboration across disciplines, this special seeks to generate actionable insights for organizations striving to align AI integration with human well-being and sustainable performance.

The human dimension of organizational sustainability is increasingly recognized in the AI age yet underexplored in current literature. Parallel with the dawn of Industry 5.0 recent studies emphasize the need to balance technological innovation with human values, ethical leadership, inclusive work environment and culture in the AI age to ensure long-term resilience (Townsend & Romme, 2024; Keil et al., 2025). Scholars call for people-centered strategies that align with sustainability goals, particularly in navigating AI’s impact on work, well-being, and governance (Schwaeke et al., 2025; Bhasin & Krishna, 2025).

This special aim to offers a unique contribution by reframing organizational sustainability through the lens of human values, leadership, and culture in the AI age. Rather than focusing solely on technological implementation, it emphasizes the people dimension as a critical driver of long-term resilience and ethical transformation. By integrating insights from humanistic management, sustainability studies, and organizational behavior, the issue advances a holistic understanding of how organizations can remain purpose-driven, meaningful, fit to human nature, and future-ready amidst rapid digital change.

List of Topic Areas

Human-Centered Organizational Sustainability:
Exploring how values, purpose, meaning, and employee well-being drive long-term resilience in AI-influenced environments.

Leadership and Culture for Ethical Transformation:
Investigating leadership styles and cultural practices that foster motivation, learning, responsibility, and sustainable organizations.

Competencies and Workforce Development in the AI Era:
Identifying future-fit skills, learning strategies, and human capabilities needed to thrive in AI-augmented workplaces.

Social Sustainability and Stakeholder Engagement:
Examining how organizations can be structured, designed, and address stakeholder motivation, learning, and engagement for social sustainability, and stakeholder trust in the digital age.

Interdisciplinary and Practice-Based Insights:
Featuring diverse perspectives from management, ethics, sustainability, and technology to bridge theory and practice.

Journal Information : Scopus Journal Q1, H-Index 60

Submissions Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available at: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ebrev
Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/ebr
Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”.
Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.