Market &Organisations

Navigating Uncertainty: Future Risks and Major Challenges for Modern Businesses

Guest editors:

Kaouther Boubaya kboubaya@edcparis.edu

Galina Kondrateva gkondrateva@edcparis.edu 

EDC Paris Business School 

Businesses are operating in an uncertain future characterized by major challenges related to climate and sustainability, health, inclusion, digital transformation, and security. These challenges transcend organizational and national boundaries. They are complex, interconnected, and evolving. They demand coordinated responses from public, private, and citizen stakeholders, combining governance, innovation, and the creation of shared value (George et al., 2016). Consequently, businesses struggle to structure problems and find definitive solutions (Wang et al., 2025). Their governance requires agility, rapid learning, flexible resource reallocation, and the creation of adaptive teams rather than a fixed plan (Ooi & Husted, 2025). In this context, digital technology introduces additional levers and constraints (Mongo et al., 2024). Platforms and data enable large-scale coordination, the arbitration of tensions, and a better allocation of the value created, provided that transparency, accountability, and governance of contributions are adopted (Nambisan & George, 2024).

In this regard, the literature on “major challenges” shows that effective action relies on cooperative architectures and mechanisms for collective action capable of aligning heterogeneous interests with future horizons (Adomako et al., 2024; Chuah et al., 2025; Wang et al., 2025; Ooi & Husted, 2025). In the literature, a major challenge is generally defined as a specific critical barrier that, if overcome, would make it possible to solve a significant societal problem with a substantial global impact and large-scale implementation (Adomako et al., 2024; George et al., 2016). The “major challenges” are characterized by their high complexity and systemic dimension, involving multiple actors, levels of analysis, and interdependencies. They extend beyond individual organizations to encompass societal or global issues and require interdisciplinary approaches and high-impact solutions. Their resolution is associated with lasting transformations in management practices and socio-economic systems (Drori et al., 2025). At the organizational level, addressing the “major challenges” can be facilitated by AI (artificial intelligence), cybersecurity, supply chain resilience, and infrastructure sustainability (Karwowski et al., 2025).

One of the “major challenges” for organizations is responding to evolving consumer needs. Modern organizations face increasing uncertainty, as future consumers are increasingly shaped by rapid digitalization and the widespread adoption of AI technologies (Rabby et al., 2021). These technologies enable more personalized, proactive, and predictive forms of engagement, but also introduce significant strategic and ethical risks (Kim et al., 2023). Recent research highlights how large-scale AI-based recommendation systems and algorithms influence organizational decision-making (Sun et al., 2025; Ngo, 2025; Zaman, 2022). While AI-driven systems can significantly improve efficiency and responsiveness, they also expose organizations to complex challenges related to privacy violations, algorithmic bias, and subtle forms of manipulation that are difficult to detect and regulate (Gaczek et al., 2025; Vaileanu and Paun, 2024). As businesses extend AI-enabled interactions across borders, digital technologies are increasingly reshaping customer journeys to be interactive and real-time, forcing organizations to navigate the tension between speed, personalization, and compliance with principles of fairness, transparency, and respect for consumer autonomy (Gupta et al., 2025).

At the same time, broader societal expectations are redefining organizational risk landscapes. Sustainability, ethics, social inclusion, and inclusive marketing are evolving from peripheral considerations to fundamental strategic imperatives that shape organizational legitimacy and long-term value creation (Ceccarelli et al., 2023). Research on sustainable marketing demonstrates that practices such as green digital advertising (El-Hana et al., 2024), eco-friendly product design, peer influence on sustainable consumption, and ethical business models (Tran et al., 2022) no longer appeal solely to niche ethical segments but increasingly influence consumer behavior in general (Jia et al., 2022). These dynamics are directly intertwined with emerging governance challenges.

This special issue invites contributions that explore how modern businesses address the “big challenges.” Authors may adopt empirical, theoretical, or conceptual approaches. Potential research questions may include, but are not limited to:

• How can businesses design a strategy that enables agile and coordinated responses to interconnected “big challenges” related to sustainability, health, inclusion, digitalization, and security?

• What cooperative architectures and mechanisms for collective action are most effective in aligning diverse stakeholders toward long-term solutions to complex societal challenges?

• How do digital platforms and data-driven infrastructures enable, but also limit, large-scale coordination, transparency, and the distribution of value among public, private, and citizen actors?

• In what ways are AI technologies transforming organizational decision-making, accountability, and the diffusion of responsibility when addressing ethical and strategic business dilemmas?

• How can businesses balance the benefits of personalization and real-time engagement through AI with the risks related to privacy, bias, manipulation, and consumer autonomy?

• What organizational capabilities (e.g., adaptive teams, rapid learning, flexible resource allocation) are essential for managing uncertainty and responding to evolving consumer expectations?

• How are sustainability, ethics, and inclusion transforming marketing strategies from niche positioning tools into key drivers of organizational legitimacy and long-term value creation?

• What organizational mechanisms and design principles are needed to detect, mitigate, and prevent bias in AI-generated marketing content across gender, age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status?

Références:

Adomako, S., Gyensare, M. A., Amankwah-Amoah, J., Akhtar, P., & Hussain, N. (2024). Tackling grand societal challenges: Understanding when and how reverse engineering fosters frugal product innovation in an emerging market. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 41(2), 211–235

Ceccarelli, A., Chouki, M., & Persson, S. (2023). Innovation sociale et enjeux de l’accessibilité numérique: le point de vue des professionnels du digital. Innovations, 71(2), 153-183.

Chuah, K., Slager, R., Gond, J.-P., & Homanen, M. (2024). Configuring the external corporate governance of multinationals’ solutions to grand challenges. Academy of Management Proceedings.

Drori, I., Neumann, K., Vaara, E., Boersma, K., Kyratsis, Y., Santacreu-Vasut, E., & Suddaby, R. (2025). Grand challenges and the rhetoric of collective action (Introduction to special issue). Academy of Management Perspectives, 39(1), 7–21.

El Hana, N., Kondrateva, G., & Martin, S. (2024). Emission-smart advertising: Balancing performance with CO2 emissions in digital advertising. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 209, 123818.

Gaczek, P., Leszczyński, G., Wei, Y., & Sun, H. (2025). The Bright Side of AI in Marketing Decisions: Collaboration with Algorithms Prevents Managers from Violating Ethical Norms: P. Gaczek et al. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-24.

George, G., Howard-Grenville, J., Joshi, A., & Tihanyi, L. (2016). Understanding and tackling societal grand challenges through management research. Academy of Management Journal, 59(6), 1880–1895. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2016.4007

Gupta, S., Wang, Y., Patel, P., & Czinkota, M. (2025). Navigating the future of AI in marketing: AI integration across borders, ethical considerations, and policy implications. International Journal of Information Management, 82, 102871.

Jia, H. M., Wang, Y., Tian, Q., & Fan, D. (2022). Marketing innovations and sustainable development for the future ecosystem. Journal of Cleaner Production, 372, 133295.

Karwowski, W., Salvendy, G., Albert, L., Kim, W. C., Denton, B., Dessouky, M., … Tiwari, M. K. (2025). Grand challenges in industrial and systems engineering. International Journal of Production Research, 63(4), 1538–1583.

Kim, T., Lee, H., Kim, M. Y., Kim, S., & Duhachek, A. (2023). AI increases unethical consumer behavior due to reduced anticipatory guilt. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 51(4), 785-801.

Mongo, M., Aouinait, C., & Le, S. T. K. (2024). Impact de la Covid-19 sur la numérisation des chaînes d’approvisionnement alimentaire. Marché & Organisations, (2), I110-XXVII.

Nambisan, S., & George, G. (2024). Digital approaches to societal grand challenges: Toward a broader research agenda on managing global–local design tensions. Information Systems Research, 35(4), 2059–2076.

Ngo, V. M. (2025). Human–AI collaboration for marketing capabilities: a meta-analysis. Marketing Letters, 36(4), 839-855.

Ooi, Y. M., & Husted, K. (2025). Problem-solving and organisation of public-funded challenge-based research projects using a wicked problem lens. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 38(2), 1052–1071.

Rabby, F., Chimhundu, R., & Hassan, R. (2021). Artificial intelligence in digital marketing influences consumer behaviour: a review and theoretical foundation for future research. Academy of marketing studies journal, 25(5), 1-7.

Sun, L., Tang, Y., & Ma, X. (2025). It just would not work for me: perceived preference heterogeneity and consumer response to AI-driven product recommendations. European Journal of Marketing, 59(5), 1426-1452.

Tran, T. T. H., Robinson, K., & Paparoidamis, N. G. (2022). Sharing with perfect strangers: The effects of self-disclosure on consumers’ trust, risk perception, and behavioral intention in the sharing economy. Journal of Business Research, 144, 1-16.

Vaileanu, I., & Paun, F. (2024). L’économie de la fonctionnalité des données qualifiées au cœur d’une croissance vertueuse. Marché & organisations, (3), I114-XXXVII.

Wang, H., Li, J., Tian, L., & Cheng, W. (2025). Policy on Multiple Grand Challenges and Firm Responses. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2025, No. 1, p. 15684). Valhalla, NY 10595: Academy of Management.

Zaman, K. (2022). Transformation of marketing decisions through artificial intelligence and digital marketing. Journal of Marketing Strategies, 4(2), 353-364.