Cybersecurity Governance: Board Oversight, Risk Disclosure, and Stakeholder Accountability in the Digital Age

Call for Papers

Cybersecurity Governance: Board Oversight, Risk Disclosure, and Stakeholder Accountability in the Digital Age

Journal: Corporate Governance
Publisher: Emerald Publishing
Manuscript Submission Opens: 1 December 2026
Manuscript Submission Deadline: 31 March 2027

Corporate Governance invites submissions for a Special Issue examining cybersecurity as a critical corporate governance and accountability challenge, with particular emphasis on board oversight, cyber risk disclosure, assurance, regulation, and accountability to a broad range of stakeholders.

About the Special Issue

Cybersecurity incidents increasingly create significant financial, operational, reputational, and regulatory consequences for organizations. As governments and regulators impose greater responsibilities on companies and their boards, cybersecurity has moved beyond being primarily a technical concern to become an important issue of corporate governance, risk management, disclosure, and stakeholder accountability.

This Special Issue seeks to address the gap between formal regulatory compliance and substantive cybersecurity governance. It encourages research examining who should be accountable for cyber risk, how boards and governance mechanisms can provide effective oversight, and whether cybersecurity disclosures provide meaningful information to investors, customers, employees, patients, supply-chain partners, and other stakeholders.

Topics of Interest

Submissions may address, but are not limited to:

Board Oversight and Cybersecurity Governance

• Board composition and cybersecurity oversight

• Cybersecurity and technology expertise on boards

• Symbolic versus substantive board oversight

• Board diversity and cybersecurity governance

• CEO and top management characteristics

• Cybersecurity investment decisions

• Co-opted boards and managerial entrenchment

• Cybersecurity risk-taking

• Audit committee oversight of cyber risk

• Governance of IT controls

Cyber Risk Disclosure and Reporting

• Voluntary and mandatory cybersecurity disclosures

• Cybersecurity reporting under U.S. SEC requirements

• EU NIS2 Directive and cyber risk reporting

• Australia's Security of Critical Infrastructure framework

• Quality and completeness of cybersecurity disclosures

• Informativeness of annual report disclosures

• Cyber incident reporting

• Form 8-K cybersecurity disclosures

• Cyber-washing

• Performative versus substantive cyber disclosure

• Data breach notification laws

• Disclosure behaviour and stakeholder accountability

Assurance, Audit, and Internal Control

• Cybersecurity disclosure assurance

• Role of auditors and third-party specialists

• Verification of cyber risk disclosures

• Internal control quality and cyber incidents

• Audit committee and auditor interaction

• IT general controls

• Cybersecurity assurance standards

• Practitioner capabilities for cybersecurity reporting

Regulation and Stakeholder Accountability

• Comparative cybersecurity governance regimes

• National and supranational regulatory frameworks

• Stakeholder theory and cyber risk

• Investor and supply-chain trust

• Media influence on cybersecurity accountability

• Activist investors and cybersecurity governance

• Role of NGOs in corporate cyber accountability

• AI governance

• Cloud concentration risk

• Quantum computing threats

• Cybersecurity governance in SMEs

Preferred Article Types

The Special Issue welcomes:

• Conceptual contributions

• Empirical research

• Review articles

Contributions from accounting, finance, management, law, information systems, and related disciplines are encouraged. Comparative research examining regulatory regimes beyond the U.S. context and studies adopting broader stakeholder perspectives are particularly welcomed.

Paper Development Workshop

A Paper Development Workshop will be hosted by the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance at Curtin University, Perth, in conjunction with the FBL Research Symposium 2026 during the submission period.

Further workshop information will be circulated through the journal and the Guest Editors' professional networks.

Submission Information

Submission Opens: 1 December 2026
Submission Deadline: 31 March 2027

Manuscripts should be submitted through the Corporate Governance ScholarOne Manuscripts system.

Submit via ScholarOne

Journal & Author Guidelines

Authors must select “Cybersecurity Governance: Board Oversight, Risk Disclosure, and Stakeholder Accountability in the Digital Age” from the Special Issue options during submission.

Submitted manuscripts must follow the journal's author guidelines, be original, and must not have been previously published or be under consideration elsewhere while under review.

Guest Editors

Rashid Zaman
Email: rashid.zaman@curtin.edu.au

Nishant Agarwal
Email: nishant.agarwal@curtin.edu.au

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