Implementing the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive: Challenges, Opportunities, and Emerging Practices
DETAILS
Call for Papers
Implementing the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive: Challenges, Opportunities, and Emerging Practices
Journal: Accounting in Europe
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Special Issue
Manuscript Submission Opens: 1 September 2026
Manuscript Submission Deadline: 30 November 2026
Accounting in Europe invites submissions for a Special Issue examining the implementation and evolution of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), including challenges, opportunities, emerging practices, and the implications of recent EU regulatory developments.
About the Special Issue
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive represents a major development in European sustainability disclosure regulation. Together with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), the framework was designed to strengthen transparency, comparability, accountability, and assurance across environmental, social, and governance reporting.
The EU's subsequent Omnibus initiative introduced proposals to simplify aspects of the CSRD and related sustainability regulations. These developments have created new questions around implementation, regulatory uncertainty, reporting burdens, competitiveness, assurance, and the future direction of sustainability reporting in Europe. This Special Issue seeks research examining both the original CSRD framework and the expected consequences of these evolving regulatory changes.
Topics of Interest
Submissions may address, but are not limited to:
Implementation of the CSRD and ESRS
Corporate responses to CSRD requirements
Changes in corporate behaviour and internal processes
CSRD and management systems
Sustainability regulation and strategy formulation
Business-model changes arising from CSRD implementation
Implications of the EU Omnibus process
CSRD/ESRS and stakeholder information needs
Investor perspectives on sustainability reporting
Sustainability reporting and European competitiveness
CSRD and organizational resilience
Sustainability disclosure and innovation
Data-collection challenges
Stakeholder engagement
Materiality assessment
Economic and operational effects of CSRD implementation
Reputational effects of sustainability disclosure
Alignment between ESRS and GRI
Alignment between ESRS and IFRS S1 and S2
Implications for multinational companies
Regulatory, institutional, and political dynamics
Role of EFRAG and EU member states
Sector-specific disclosure challenges
CSRD implications for audit firms
Sustainability assurance and assurance standards
Capacity of the assurance market
CSRD implications for SMEs
Implications for non-European companies
Cross-country implementation within the EU
National enforcement differences
Greenwashing risks
Standard overload and compliance-driven reporting
CSRD and meaningful sustainability outcomes
Influence of CSRD beyond the European Union
CSRD's role in shaping global sustainability reporting
Preferred Article Types
The Special Issue welcomes original research, including normative research examining the provisions of the original CSRD and the expected implications of the Omnibus process.
Consistent with the journal's scope, contributions may use a wide range of research paradigms and methods, provided they generate relevant insights for accounting research, practice, policy, or regulation.
Research Focus
The Special Issue particularly encourages research exploring how CSRD and ESRS affect corporate behaviour, internal processes, management systems, strategies, business models, assurance practices, and stakeholder relationships.
Research may also investigate broader institutional and political forces shaping EU sustainability disclosure regulation, including the tension between reducing administrative burdens and maintaining ambitious sustainability reporting standards.
Comparative and international research examining implementation differences across EU member states and the influence of CSRD on non-EU companies, jurisdictions, and global reporting frameworks is also encouraged.
Conference Opportunity
A special track dedicated to the Special Issue will be held at EUFIN – The Conference of Accounting in Europe 2026.
Participation in the conference track is separate from the journal's formal manuscript submission process.
EUFIN – The Conference of Accounting in Europe 2026
Submission Information
Manuscript Submission Opens: 1 September 2026
Manuscript Submission Deadline: 30 November 2026
Manuscripts should be submitted through the Accounting in Europe submission system.
Submit an Article to Accounting in Europe
Accounting in Europe – Instructions for Authors
Accounting in Europe – Journal Page
Authors should clearly state in their cover letter that the manuscript is intended for this Special Issue. All submissions must comply with the journal's manuscript preparation and submission guidelines.
Guest Editors
Diogenis Baboukardos
Audencia Business School, France; and Athens University of Economics & Business, Greece
Email: dbaboukardos@audencia.com
Begoña Giner
Universitat de València, Spain
Email: begona.giner@uv.es
Ronita Ram
University of Reading, United Kingdom
Email: ronita.ram@henley.ac.uk
Frank Schiemann
University of Bamberg, Germany
Email: frank.schiemann@uni-bamberg.de
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