Active calls for papers
1) AI, Insurance, and Financial Risk: Rethinking Risk Management in the Age of Intelligent Systems
Editors:
Dr Annette Hofmann,
Great American Insurance Group Chair
Director, Lindner Center for Insurance & Risk Management
Editor-in-Chief, Risk Management & Insurance Review
Lindner College of Business, University of Cincinnati, USA.
Dr Alex Zarifis,
University of Southampton Business School, University of Southampton, UK.
Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, University of Cambridge, UK.
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing (contract signed)
The convergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), insurance, and finance represents a paradigm shift in the very conception and practice of risk management. There is a constant effort to reduce risk in various ways that needs to adapt once again (Peter & Hofmann, 2024). This edited volume offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary investigation into how AI technologies, spanning machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), and deep neural networks, are fundamentally reshaping the identification, pricing, transfer, and governance of risk across the financial and insurance sectors. By drawing on recent academic research, real-world applications, and evolving policy developments, this book positions risk at the centre of inquiry into the impact of AI. It critically explores how advanced AI is not only recalibrating existing actuarial and financial models but are also introducing novel categories of risk, including those of systemic algorithmic instability, profound data asymmetries, pervasive algorithmic bias, and complex ethical dilemmas (Zarifis & Cheng, 2025; Zarifis, & Yarovaya, 2025). Through a series of related chapters authored by leading scholars in economics, data science, actuarial science, law, ethics, and other related areas, this book serves as an indispensable resource for navigating the AI-finance-insurance nexus. More general chapters on how AI is changing risk may also be considered.
Provisional deadline for full chapters is June 2026. It is strongly encouraged to submit an abstract earlier so the editors can provide feedback.
References
Peter, R. & Hofmann, A. (2024) ‘Precautionary risk-reduction and saving decisions: Two sides of the same coin?’, Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, vol.118, pp.175-194, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.insmatheco.2024.07.001
Zarifis, A. & Cheng, X. (2025) ‘The New Centralised and Decentralised Fintech Technologies, and Business Models, Transforming Finance’. In Fintech and the Emerging Ecosystems – Exploring Centralised and Decentralised Financial Technologies (pp. 1–18). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-83402-8_1
Zarifis, A. & Yarovaya, L. (2025) ‘Building Trust in AI: Leadership Insights from Malaysian Fintech Boards’. In A. Zarifis & X. Cheng (Eds.), Fintech and the Emerging Ecosystems (pp. 357–374). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-83402-8_15
2) Special Issue on Digital Economy, Sustainable Economic Transformation, and Regional Development
We are pleased to invite you to this Special Issue on Digital Economy, Sustainable Economic Transformation, and Regional Development. New technologies and business models of digital economy are currently supporting sustainable transformation in many ways (Zarifis et al. 2024; Zarifis, 2024). There are already many successes in this area that we can learn from but there are also many failures. The results are also not uniform across different sectors of the economy and different parts of the world with some doing far better than others (Kozar & Warwas, 2025).
This Special Issue aims to bring together both practical lessons of such successes and failures but also develop the theory in these and related areas. Research on how new technologies, processes and business models strengthen economic sustainability and other forms of sustainability are encouraged.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but not limited to) how the following relate to sustainability:
• Digital transformation trends
• Regional differences in the digital economy
• Specific digital transformation successes
• Specific digital transformation failures
• Cross-border e-commerce
• How Fintech or Insurtech are driving digital transformation
• How Fintech or Insurtech affect a specific region or sector of the economy
I look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Alex Zarifis
Guest Editor
References
Zarifis A. (2024) ‘Leadership in Fintech builds trust and reduces vulnerability more when combined with leadership in sustainability’, Sustainability, 16, 5757, pp.1-13. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135757
Kozar L.J. & Warwas I. (2025) ‘Green Finance and Digital Transformation: A Bibliometric Analysis of Research Trends’, Procedia Computer Science, vol.270, pp.4353-4362. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2025.09.560.
Zarifis A., Efthymiou L. & Cheng X. (2024) ‘Sustainable digital transformation in finance, tourism, transport, entertainment and social innovation’. In Zarifis A., Ktoridou D., Efthymiou L. & Cheng X. (ed.) Business digital transformation: Selected cases from industry leaders, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.1-16. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33665-2_1
Published special issues and books
Special Issue on Development of AGI in e-commerce
Journal of Electronic Commerce Research (JECR)
Guest editors:
Dr Xusen Cheng, Renmin University of China
Dr Jian Mou, Pusan National University
Dr Yonggui Wang, Zhejiang Gongshang University
Dr Alex Zarifis, University of Southampton, a.zarifis@soton.ac.uk
http://www.jecr.org/sites/default/files/JECR-CFP-AGI-e-commerce.pdf
Fintech and the emerging ecosystems around centralised and decentralised financial technologies
Publisher:
Springer Nature
Editors:
Dr Alex Zarifis, FHEA, University of Southampton, UK, a.zarifis@soton.ac.uk
Prof. Xusen Cheng, Renmin University of China, China
The book covers new financial technologies such as cryptoassets including Bitcoin and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT), Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) and the increasing role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative AI. The change brought about by these technologies is coming together with other drivers of change in finance, such as sustainability. The book welcomes chapters focused on the technology of Fintech or other aspects of finance driving transformation alongside Fintech.
2) Sustainability special issue: Information systems in e-business: Digital transformation and sustainable management (2024)
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/713Q318RUO
Digital transformation and sustainability are two popular topics attracting the investment of enormous amounts of money and time. They are, in some ways, very different topics, yet there is significant overlap. Digital transformation is not merely an opportunity for financial enrichment, it also opens up prospects for building a better and more sustainable world. The aim of this Special Issue is to further explore how the technologies and processes inherent in digital transformation can support sustainability. Digital transformation can support sustainability in various contexts, from that of a single organisation, to broader contexts such as those of entire cities and countries.
While developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have come to dominate the attention for many, other specific technologies, such as blockchain, advanced virtual reality, 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT), can also support sustainability. In addition to the specific technologies that must be considered, the manner in which whole sectors of the economy are undergoing processes of digital transformation also impacts sustainability. For example, finance is being transformed by fintech, with exciting developments in cryptoassets and decentralised finance (DeFi) (Proskalovich et al, 2023; Yuan et al., 2023).
These is, however, a dark side to the role digital transformation plays in sustainability (Cheng et al., 2022). For every opportunity a new technology offers, there is also a new vulnerability, accompanied by possible unintended consequences. For example, the continuous stream of ransomware attacks certainly causes technical challenges but can also challenge the trust and privacy of consumers (Zarifis etl al. 2022).
References
Cheng X., Lin X., Shen X., Zarifis A. & Mou J. (2022). ‘The dark sides of AI’, Electronic Markets, pp.1-5. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-022-00531-5.
Proskalovich R., Jack C., Zarifis A., Serralde D.M., Vershinina P., Naidoo S., Njoki D., Pernice I., Herrera D. & Sarmiento J. (2023). ‘Cryptoasset ecosystem in Latin America and the Caribbean’, University of Cambridge – Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance (CCAF). Available from: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/faculty-research/centres/alternative-finance/publications/crypotasset-ecosystem-in-latin-america-and-the-caribbean/.
Yuan H., Cen W. & Du T. (2023). ‘Digital Finance and County Ecological Performance—New Evidence from China Counties’, Sustainability, vol.15, 16691. Available from: https://doi.org/10.3390/su152416691.
Zarifis A., Cheng X., Jayawickrama U. & Corsi S. (2022). ‘Can global, extended and repeated ransomware attacks overcome the user’s status quo bias and cause a switch of system?’, International Journal of Information Systems in the Service Sector (IJISSS), vol.14, iss.1, pp.1-16. Available from: https://doi.org/10.4018/IJISSS.289219.
Dr. Alex Zarifis
Guest Editor
Information Processing & Management
Special issue: From digital technologies to digital entrepreneurship (2024)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/information-processing-and-management/special-issue/10WHMCK3MPF
Sustainability
Special issue: Sustainable artificial intelligence for societal, business and environmental value (2023)
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/sustainable_artificial_intelligence_AI
Systems
Special issue: Human–AI Teaming: Synergy, Decision-Making and Interdependency (2023) https://www.mdpi.com/journal/systems/special_issues/T2AX040941
Journal of Organizational and End User Computing (JOEUC)
Special issue: Digital technology enabled innovation for healthcare in the new normal of COVID-19 (2022)
Electronic Markets – The International Journal of Networked Business
Special issue: The dark sides of AI (2021)
https://www.electronicmarkets.org/call-for-papers/single-view-for-cfp/datum/2020/02/12/cfp-special-issue-on-the-dark-sides-of-ai/
British Journal of Educational Technology
Special issue: AI and Deep Learning in educational technology research and practice (2020)
https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/bjet.13018