Call for papers; Special Issue in Business & Society on Blue Economy, Blue Governance, and Blue Justice
Nives Dolsak
Call for Papers: Special Issue in Business & Society
“OUR OCEANS AS A BUSINESS-SOCIETY NEXUS: ADVANCING THE INTERPLAY
OF BLUE ECONOMY, BLUE GOVERNANCE AND BLUE JUSTICE”
Guest Editors
Matevž (Matt) Rašković, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
Noemi Sinkovics, Newcastle University, United Kingdom
Michelle Voyer, University of Wollongong, Australia
Nives Dolšak, University of Washington, USA
Gurmeet Singh, University of the South Pacific, Fiji
Business & Society Editor
Céline Louche, University of Waikato, New Zealand
Founded in 1960, Business & Society was the first journal exclusively dedicated to publishing research in the field of business and society. It is the official journal of the International Association of Business and Society.
Impact Factor: 6.0 / 5-Year Impact Factor: 8.1
“The sea provides more than half the oxygen we breathe, food for billions of people and livelihoods for hundreds of millions – yet giant corporations, aided by global finance and complicit states, are plundering it under the banner of ‘Blue Growth’, turning what should be a shared commons into zones of private profit and exclusion.” (Guy Standing, 2019, The Blue Commons: Rescuing the Economy of the Sea, Penguin Books)
Background and Rationale
Our oceans make up 70% of our planet, provide transportation for 80% of global goods in volume (UNCTAD, 2023a) and ensure the livelihood of over 3 billion people (UNDP, 2025); including many of the global poor. Oceans represent the largest environment-humanity nexus on Earth – be that in environmental (Sardá et al., 2025; de Luca Peña et al., 2024), economic (Vidrin et al., 2021; Constanza, 1999), geopolitical and global security (Wallis et al., 2024, Louey, 2022) or socio-cultural terms (Cisneros-Montemayor et al., 2022; Benett et al., 2021; Croft et al., 2024). Yet, as planetary spaces, our oceans are often thought of as separate from humans (Havice & Zalik, 2019) in a human-nature duality (Ferns et al., 2024; Nyberg et al., 2022). Such duality limits research on the place-space embeddedness of business in particular environmental materialities (Nyberg et al., 2022); like, our oceans. Despite the critical role played by the world’s oceans, management scholarship has engaged with oceanic contexts in a relatively limited and uneven way (Blachford, 2024; Sinkovics et al., 2022). Existing contributions have frequently framed ocean-based activities through blue growth lenses centered on economic value and growth (Graziano et al., 2022) under the banner of neo-classical capitalism, which promotes the exploitation of common pool resources, erodes public goods and incentivizes business to externalize costs (Schneider et al., 2024). Given that over 60% of our oceans are considered international waters beyond national jurisdictions (Jacquet & Jackson, 2018), the above mentioned dynamics are especially salient in oceanic contexts, which helps to explain their depletion (Schneider et al., 2024) and the prevalence of various kinds of socio-economic injustices (Bennett et al., 2021).
Despite their critical role for the Planet, our oceans are economically exploited by a small number of powerful state and business actors. For example, over 80% of global fishing is carried out by only 25 countries, the top 100 blue economy firms account for 60% of gross revenues generated from exploiting our oceans, and 97% of marine genetic resources have been patented by multinational enterprises (MNEs) in 10 rich countries (Blasiak et al., 2018; Österblom et al., 2020; Vidrin et al., 2021).
Although some progress has been made with regards to sustainable development of our oceans under the banner of the blue economy (Gourvenec et al., 2025), only about 2% of countries worldwide appear to be on track to meet the targets under UN SDG#14 (i.e., Life below water) by 2030 (de Salas et al., 2022). Conceptualizing the relationships between the blue economy, blue governance and blue justice remains challenging (van Noort et al., 2026); however, understanding how they interplay together is essential for achieving a sustainable, equitable and just blue commons (van Noort et al., 2026; Standing, 2019). This can in turn revitalize and advance existing business-society debates linked to ethics and (social) justice (Tregidga et al., 2018), helping to address some of the societal grand challenges (Schneider et al., 2024).
Key Themes: Blue economy, blue governance and blue justice
The blue economy represents at least US$24 trillion in economic assets and generates around US$3 trillion in economic value annually, set to double by 2030 (UNCTAD, 2023b). This makes it the seventh largest economy globally (Gouvernec et al., 2025). In terms of sectoral coverage, it covers fishing and aquaculture, deep-sea mining and energy production, shipping, transportation, tourism and, sometimes, even national defence (Axon & Collier, 2023). The multisector nature of the blue economy makes it a particularly fruitful research area for exploring multi- and cross-sectoral approaches on how to address grand societal challenges (Blockson, 2003; Boas et al., 2016) against a particular environmental materiality, transnationality and aterritoriality. The idea of a blue economy emerged as a counterpart to the terrestrial green economy (Schutter et al., 2021). It was first introduced at the UN Convention on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in 2012 (Silver et al., 2015). There exist a variety of interpretations of the blue economy (Voyer et al., 2018). We adopt the definition by Schutter and colleagues, who define the blue economy as “a broad set of policies aiming to support ocean-based economic activities that provide simultaneous improvements for economic, social, and environmental outcomes” (Schutter et al., 2021, p. 1).
Blue governance is a blue economy derivative from the general governance concept, which refers to “mechanisms by which the behavioral regularities that constitute institutions are maintained and reinforced” (Crouch, 2005, p. 20). It functions more as an umbrella concept covering a range of governance approaches linked to coastal governance, marine governance and ocean governance at local, national and supranational levels (van Noort et al., 2026). It spans various sectors – from fish and aquaculture species to seabed minerals, energy and tourism. As governance spaces, our oceans are highly contested because of the high economic, ecological, and strategic value of their resources (Midlen, 2021; De Pryck & Boettcher, 2024). From a business-society perspective, the idea of blue governance extends beyond “just spatial reach; it highlights a holistic and integrated approach to blue spaces and resources, focusing on plural knowledge, values, principles, identities, securities, in addition to the connectivity of marine species and human activities” (van Noort et al., 2026, p. 4). Examining how businesses, states, and civil society interact offers an important way to reassess assumptions about responsibilities, power, and coordination among actors engaged in transnational governance (Abbott & Snidal, 2008; Azizi et al., 2021). The transnational and aterritorial nature of ocean contexts, along with their particular environmental materiality, offer a fruitful avenue for exploring the relationship between statehood (or lack thereof) and governance (Azizi et al., 2021), which is especially interesting from the perspective of limited or diminished statehood in some emerging and developing countries and overseas territories. In such contexts, powerful non-state actors often emerge and fill the governance void (Arda & Banarjee, 2021). Firms, particularly multinational enterprises (MNEs), often taken on strong(er) political roles, either in the pursuit of their interests or to fill the void in the governance of global public goods (Scherer et al., 2014). Explore this topic also offers an opportunity to problematize the ineffectiveness and deficiencies of Western governance approaches and philosophies in nonwestern and indigenous contexts (Vakkayil, 2021; Nwoke, 2021). As an example, Vakkayil (2021) has highlighted the need to decolonize field structures, create hybrid institutional logics and diversify actor agency, as three particularities of indigenous contexts under limited statehood conditions, which are specifically linked to the exploitation of natural resources.
Even where ocean-based initiatives contribute to sustainable development (Fusco et al., 2022) and are supported by effective forms of transnational governance (Boas et al., 2016; Groeneveld, 2020), important social risks and inequities often still remain and require attention (van Noort et al., 2026; Cisneros-Montemayor et al., 2025). Compared to the blue economy and blue governance, the blue justice concept is a much younger concept (Blythe et al., 2023). It serves as a normative benchmark between political actors and other stakeholder groups, and is underpinned by distributive, procedural, recognitional and restorative justice principles (van Noort et al., 2026). Bennett et al. (2021) have provided a typology of ten types of social inequities reproduced within blue economy development models, which offers the most comprehensive typology of blue justice issues to date: (i) dispossession, displacement and ocean grabbing; (ii) waste and pollution environmental injustices; (iii) environmental degradation and erosion of environmental ecosystem goods; (iv) livelihood impacts for small scale fisheries; (v) access to marine resources supporting livelihoods and wellbeing; (vi) inequitable distribution of socio-economic benefits; (vii) social and cultural threats; (viii) marginalization of women and minorities; (ix) human and indigenous rights’ abuses; and (x) governance exclusion.
Aim of the Special Issue
The aim of this Special Issue is to encourage cross-disciplinary research that examines oceans as a business–society nexus. It focuses on how blue economy activities interact with governance arrangements and social justice considerations, and how such interactions shape the economic, social, and ecological dimensions of ocean use (Graziano et al., 2022; Standing, 2019; Cisneros-Montemayor et al., 2019; van Noort et al., 2026).
We welcome contributions that examine business–society relations in contexts related to oceans and coastal environments. Submissions may be empirical, conceptual, or review-based, including case studies at country, sectoral, or firm level, provided they move beyond description to generate broader insights into business–society dynamics in these settings (see Crane et al., 2015a; Welch et al., 2022).
We particularly welcome work that takes ocean- and coast-related phenomena as its starting point and reflects on how insights from these contexts inform existing debates (Tsang, 2013; Bamberger, 2008) in business-society research and beyond (see Berkowitz et al., 2019). Research involving human participants should be conducted with appropriate sensitivity to local contexts and research practices, including culturally appropriate methods and meaningful engagement with local communities (Smith, 2008; Ponton, 2018; Ofe-Grant et al., 2025).
Indigenous-centered submissions should reflect “relational ontologies; worldviews in which relationships among humans, non-humans, ancestors, and the land are constitutive of identity” (Doshi et al., 2026, p. 4). Authors conducting indigenous-centered research should follow the proposed checklist by Doshi and colleagues (2026, Table 3) in Business & Society, which provides guidance related to topic, context, methods, theoretical lenses and style of writing. Such research should first and foremost honor indigenous ways of knowing and being, including as it relates to the blue economy (see Hoareau, 2025). It should also empower collective indigenous agency, benefit indigenous communities and advance indigenous rights (Doshi et al., 2026).
The Special Issue also encourages submissions that engage with perspectives and regions that have been underrepresented in business and management research (Banerjee, 2011; Munzio, 2022). This includes coastal and Indigenous communities and scholars based in the Small Pacific Island Nations, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Contributions may examine how economic, social, and environmental considerations intersect in ocean- and coast-related contexts, including the trade-offs and tensions that arise between climate-related concerns and other sustainability challenges, and how these shape interactions between business actors, societal stakeholders, and governance arrangements in practice (De Pryck & Boettcher, 2024).
Topics and Guiding Questions for the Special Issue
Rather than prescribing sectors or methods, we invite submissions that address one or more of the following questions about oceans and coastal environments as a business–society nexus, especially where economic activity, governance arrangements, and social outcomes interact.
1) Business models, value creation, and distribution
a. How do different ocean-based business models create value, who captures the value and who bears costs across communities, ecosystems, and value/supply chains?
b. What trade-offs and paradoxes emerge between economic growth and social/environmental objectives, and how are they justified, negotiated, or contested by various stakeholders and at different levels?
c. How do firms build, maintain, or lose social license to operate in ocean- and coast related activities, and what triggers shifts in legitimacy?
2) Governance, accountability, and power across levels
a. How do governance arrangements (e.g., local, national, regional, transnational) shape who gets access, who is included/excluded, and how rules are enforced in ocean and coastal settings?
b. When and why do “good governance” arrangements still produce undesired social outcomes (e.g., exclusion, livelihood disruption), and what mechanisms explain this?
c. How do firms, states, NGOs, and community actors coordinate or compete to frame problems, set standards, and allocate responsibilities and resources?
3) Justice, equity, and lived impacts
a. How are distributive, procedural, recognitional, and restorative justice concerns expressed in ocean and coastal contexts, and how do they translate into organizational and policy decisions?
b. What forms of inequity arise in practice (e.g., displacement, access restrictions, benefit sharing), and what interventions have been effective (or ineffective) in redressing them?
c. How do gender, indigeneity, and marginalisation shape participation in governance and benefit-sharing, and what organisational and policy practices enable or constrain inclusion?
4) Ownership, stewardship, and legitimacy
a. Under what conditions are oceans treated as shared spaces versus commodified resources, and how do firms and states influence these framings?
b. What governance designs or institutional arrangements support credible stewardship (beyond compliance), and how are these maintained or evolve over time?
c. How do alternative understandings of stewardship and collective rights (including Indigenous governance) reshape corporate strategy, accountability, and legitimacy?
5) Risk, contestation, and the “dark side”
a. How do illegal, informal, or harmful practices (e.g., illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, labor abuses, illicit trade) become embedded in ocean-related industries, and what enables accountability or impunity?
b. How do firms manage reputational, legal, and operational risks linked to ocean-related activities, and when do risk-management approaches conflict with justice and sustainability aims?
Submission Process
To be considered for this special issue, submissions must fit with the aim and scope of Business & Society. To understand the fit with the journal’s scope, vision and expectations related to rigor and contribution, we strongly encourage prospective authors to refer to the published works in the journal by Crane et al. (2015b), in terms of scope and Bapuji and Higgins (2023) and Arora, Gardberg and Louche (2025), in terms of vision. A collection of editorials is available at https://journals.sagepub.com/topic/collections-bas/bas-1-editors-insights/bas.
All manuscripts must be uploaded via the journal’s online submission system (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/bas) between 15 March and 15 May 2027. When submitting, please specify in your cover letter that the manuscript is for the special issue “Our oceans as a business-society nexus: advancing the interplay of blue economy, blue governance and blue justice.” Only submissions via the system will be considered. All submissions will be double-blind peer-reviewed by multiple reviewers. Interested scholars are welcome to contact any of the guest editors to discuss their paper ideas to receive developmental feedback and are encouraged to attend the online idea generation workshop held sometime in May-June 2026.
Preparing Your Submission
Manuscripts should be between 7000-12,000 words, including tables, figures, and references. Please the manuscript https://journals.sagepub.com/authorinstructions/bas. submission guidelines at We can only consider submissions in English. If your first language is not English, financial support may be made available by Business & Society for translation on a case-by-case basis. Please write to the SI editors with your request. The guest editors will organize an online idea generation workshop sometime in May-June 2026. Interested authors are encouraged to send a one-page proposal to matt.r...@aut.ac.nz at least 10 working days before the online workshop, which will be advertised on social media and the Business & Society LinkedIn page. At this workshop, the guest editors will provide some guidelines and potential ideas to encourage submissions. Prospective authors who have sent in their one-page proposals will then be allocated into breakout sessions to receive some developmental feedback from guest co-editors.
A second post-submission workshop, where authors whose manuscripts are granted a “revise and resubmit” decision can receive feedback and instructions for the process going forward, will take place in hybrid format sometime in June 2027 and will be held at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji. Authors are strongly encouraged to attend the workshop in person, as there will also be some additional research capacity-building workshop offered on blue economy topics. Researchers from emerging and developing markets might be eligible for a limited number of travel grants, based on a competitive process. Priority will be given to indigenous scholars and early-career female scholars from emerging and developing countries.
Contact Details
Corresponding guest editor: Professor Matt Raskovic: matt.r...@aut.ac.nz
Business & Society Editor: Professor Céline Louche: celine...@waikato.ac.nz
Indicative timelines (incl. conferences and workshops)
- Online idea generation workshop: May-June 2026
- Online research capacity building workshop for PhD students, early-career scholars and emerging market scholars: August 2026
- Submission window for full papers: 15 March to 15 May 2027
- Hybrid PDW for R&R papers at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji: June 2027
- Online “Delphi method” workshop for writing a scene-setting future research agenda as a part of the Introduction to the Special Issue: November 2027
The call for papers can also be found here: https://journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cmscontent/BAS/2026-BS-Blue%20Economy-Revised-23Feb2026_final-1771866037403.pdf?_gl=1*2phemy*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTA0MzcwODM5OC4xNzcxOTcwNjIx*_ga_60R758KFDG*czE3NzE5NzA2MjAkbzEkZzAkdDE3NzE5NzA2MjAkajYwJGwwJGgyMjUzNDc4MDk
Stan and Alta Barer Professor of Sustainability Science
Director, School of Marine and Environmental Affairs
University of Washington Seattle
@NivesDolsak