We are thrilled to announce the upcoming GIGS 4th Annual Conference (2025) which will take place in the enchanting city of Hammamet, Tunisia.

The Global Initiative for Governance and Sustainability (GIGS) invites submissions for its 2025 Annual Conference, themed "Generative AI: Shaping the Future of Sustainable Business." The event will be held in Hammamet, Tunisia, from July 17-19, 2025. While the central theme focuses on generative AI's role in sustainable business transformation, we also encourage submissions addressing broader aspects of business, technology, and sustainability. The GIGS Summer Symposium offers an exceptional platform for faculty, students, and practitioners to converge in a refreshing and inspiring environment. It encourages stimulating transdisciplinary dialogues and debates, propelling our scholarship to new pinnacles. And what better setting to rekindle old friendships, forge new ones, and mutually inspire than the stunning beaches and azure skies of Hamamet, Tunisia. GIGS 2025 will also host a Doctoral Symposium and Mentoring on July 16, 2025.

Conference Scope

The conference aims to explore how generative AI can transform sustainable business practices and advance financial inclusion. We encourage interdisciplinary research that addresses the intersection of technology, sustainability, and inclusive growth. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Generative AI in Financial Decision-Making: Innovations that improve financial reporting, risk management, auditing, and fraud detection, with implications for increasing transparency and access to financial services.
• Financial Inclusion and Digital Transformation: The role of AI in expanding access to financial services for underserved populations, driving inclusive growth, and supporting digital financial literacy.
• Sustainable Development and ESG Integration: Leveraging AI to enhance environmental, social, and governance outcomes, and promote economic inclusion through sustainable practices.
• Supply Chain and Sustainable Sourcing: AI applications in optimizing logistics, promoting sustainable sourcing, and improving resilience across global supply chains.
• Ethics and Responsible AI: Addressing ethical challenges, data privacy, algorithmic bias, and ensuring that AI supports fair economic opportunities for all.
• Leadership and Organizational Change: How AI can reshape leadership strategies and corporate governance to foster inclusion and bridge socioeconomic gaps.

Key dates:

• Submission opens: 5 November 2024
• Submission deadline: 23 March 2025
• Notification of decision: On a rolling basis, latest on 15 April 2025

Best Paper Awards:

The following awards will be presented based on recommendations by the scientific committee and conference chairs: Conference Best Paper, Best Paper in Finance, Best Paper in Accounting, and Best Doctoral Paper.

Doctoral Symposium:

The Doctoral Symposium will be held on July 16th 2025. Interested PhD Students in the areas of accounting, finance, economics, quantitative marketing and sustainability should be nominated by a supervising faculty members (e.g. supervisor, advisor, department chair, etc.) by sending their nomination letter to academic@gigs-initiative.org before the submission deadline 15 March 2025.

Chair of the Doctoral Symposium: Dr. Luminita Enache, PhD, CPA, RN, Associate Professor of Accounting at Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary and Editorial Board Member at the Contemporary Accounting Research

Tracks &  Chairs:

• AI, ESG and Global Investments
• • Ines Chaieb, Professor of Finance, University of Geneva & SFI Swiss Finance Institute

• AI, FinTech and Corporate Finance
• • Nadia Massoud, Ian Potter Professor of Finance, Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne

• Financial Inclusion and Digital Transformation
• • Robert Wood, Professor of Behavioural Decision Theory & Director of CommBank Diaries 2026 project, Macquarie University

• Securing AI in Financial Ecosystems: Strategies for Sustainable Security (SAFE-SS)
• • Haïfa Nakouri, Visiting Professor of Computer Science, University of Quebec at Chicoutimi

• Current Issues in Financial Economics and Sustainable Business
  
• • Samir Trabelsi, CPA Ontario Distinguished Scholar & Professor of Accounting and Governance, Brock University

The GIGS 2024 Organizing Committee

• Ines Chaieb, University of Geneva
• Nadia Massoud, University of Melbourne
• Robert (Bob) Wood, Macquarie University
• Samir Trabelsi, Brock University
• Imen Latrous, University of Quebec at Chicoutimi
• Amna Chalwati, Saint Mary's University
• Fares Belkhiria, McGill University
• Oussama El Ajal, University of Miami