The XXXV annual Conference of the Scientific Association of Economics and Business Management (ACEDE) is themed "Responsible Governance and Business Transformation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence." With this focus, the conference is envisioned as a space for academic discussion and debate aimed at reflecting on the challenges and opportunities facing organizations in a context defined by technological disruption, increasing social complexity, and the undeniable need for responsible business management.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the deepest and fastest engines of change of our time. Its influence cuts across all business functions: from strategy formulation to operational processes, customer relations, and talent management. The integration of the AI is not only a technological challenge but also an ethical, organizational, and social one: it demands a rethinking of governance models, ensuring transparency and fairness in data use, and designing structures capable of combining innovation, sustainability, and social responsibility.
In this scenario, business transformation requires a renewed reflection on the role of business leadership. In an environment marked by economic uncertainty, changing social expectations, and an ongoing digital revolution, those responsible for organizations must maintain coherence among strategy, structure, and environment, without losing sight of the social legitimacy of their decisions. Responsible governance thus stands as the key element for articulating the pursuit of competitiveness under the principles of sustainability and social justice.
From the field of research in economics and business management, the commitment is to analyze and understand how artificial intelligence and new technologies reconfigure business models, transform leadership styles, and generate new dynamics of collaboration and conflict, both within organizations and with their environment. This analysis must be supported by an integrative vision that transcends the logic of private profit to also incorporate the collective interest, considering dimensions such as environmental sustainability, equity in access to innovation, and the protection of individual rights in an increasingly digitized society.
The challenge for academia is as enormous as it is stimulating: to advance in the development of conceptual frameworks and empirical evidence that guide organizations in their adaptation to this new scenario, providing tools that help them successfully face it. For this, intellectual curiosity, creativity, methodological rigor, and openness to a plural dialogue among different theoretical perspectives, and from all areas of business, are essential.
Within this framework, the Organizing Committee of the XXXV ACEDE Conference invites the national and international scientific community to join this debate by submitting their work to the conference, which will take place at the University of Cantabria, in Santander, on June 14, 15, and 16, 2026. It will be an opportunity to share the most recent advances in business management research and to highlight the relevance of responsible governance as a fundamental axis of business transformation in the era of artificial intelligence.