In today’s turbulent global economy, corporate governance cannot be separated from the forces transforming firms, markets, and societies. The evolving purpose of the corporation, the use of artificial intelligence and heightened geopolitical tensions call for renewed attention to how corporate governance adapt to sustain long-term value creation and societal well-being, a shift toward more purposeful governance.

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Each year, the ICGS conference provides a forum for international academics and policymakers to showcase and discuss the latest corporate governance research issues and practices. Bringing together academics from management, finance, accounting, international business, and law, the 2026 conference theme seeks to promote cross-disciplinary dialogue on how boards, executives, investors, states, and regulators can shape purposeful governance in a rapidly changing, globally interconnected business environment.

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Topics include (but are not limited to) :

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• Behavioural perspectives on executives, boards, investors, and other governance actors, and their roles in shaping the purpose of corporations.

• Institutional and political approaches that examine how legal systems, societal expectations, and geopolitical shifts influence governance practices.

• Implications of AI adoption for internal and external corporate governance mechanisms.

• Evolving forms of activism/engagement from investors and other stakeholders and their impact on corporate governance outcomes.

• Reconfiguration of governance systems under geopolitical crises.

• Governance mechanisms for managing state-firm relations.

We welcome plurality in methods, whether theory-driven, data-driven, case-based, or large-scale empirical across all conference tracks.