Digital Governance: Inter-Firm Coopetition and Legal Frameworks for Sustainability BRISTOL, UK SEPTEMBER 18, 2025

Digital Governance: Inter-Firm Coopetition and Legal Frameworks for Sustainability

Date:

September 18th, 2025 (UTC +0)

Organizer:

University of Bristol

Symposium Chair:

Dr. Tonejit Gad-Harry
Lecture in the University of Bristol Business School

Personal Bio:

Dr. Tonejit Gad-Harry is a Lecture in the University of Bristol Business School, with a background in human resource management, leadership, and strategy. Bringing a socio-technical approach to social research, my research interests lie in digitalization, inter-organizational relationships, organisational behaviours and interactions, strategy, leadership, and work futures, as I explore social constructs within technological settings. My current research investigates how technology influences the future of knowledge-intensive work through interactions in synthetic environments while identifying challenges and opportunities for organisations adapting to a rapidly changing digital landscape.

Committee Members

Dr. Ebenezer Afum University of Bristol -Business School [email protected]

Background

The pervasive influence of digital technologies has ushered in an era of unprecedented connectivity and innovation, fundamentally altering global landscapes. From the rapid advancements in AI to the widespread adoption of big data analytics, the digital age demands a rethinking of traditional governance paradigms. As societies grapple with complex challenges like data privacy, algorithmic bias, automation, and the environmental footprint of technology, these new approaches that explores the governing structures for these new ways of working are critical. Therefore, this symposium is designed to explore two pivotal, yet often understated, mechanisms for navigating this complexity: the strategic collaboration between firms (coopetition) and the proactive integration of sustainability into policy frameworks.

Goal/Rationale:

Overall Aim: To empower participants with actionable insights into how inter-firm coopetition and proactive sustainability policy frameworks can serve as critical instruments for effective governance in the digital age, fostering responsible innovation and collective societal benefit.

  1. Understanding Digital Governance Challenges: To identify the unique governance complexities presented by rapid digital transformation, including the rapid proliferation of technology, global reach, and ethical dilemmas.
  2. Exploring Inter-Firm Coopetition: To define inter-firm coopetition in the context of the digital economy, analyze its forms (e.g., data sharing alliances, joint R&D), and assess its potential to drive shared sustainability outcomes.
  3. Analyzing Sustainability Policy Frameworks: To examine current and emerging policy and regulatory approaches aimed at promoting digital sustainability (e.g., green IT, ethical AI), and their effectiveness in shaping corporate behaviours.
  4. Identifying Synergies & Tensions: To uncover the dynamic interplay, synergies, and potential tensions between inter-firm coopetition and sustainability policy frameworks in achieving governance objectives.
  5. Developing Strategic Approaches: To collaboratively explore practical strategies for leveraging coopetition and designing effective policy frameworks to address critical digital age challenges in areas such as data ethics, AI accountability, and environmental impact.

Call for Papers:

This symposium explores the intersection of Digital Governance, Inter-Firm Coopetition, Digital Sustainability, and Policy Frameworks in the context of the digital age. Participants will engage in discussions on the challenges and models for effective oversight and regulation amid rapid technological advancement, the paradoxical strategies of cooperation and competition among businesses, and how digital tools can be utilized to achieve broader environmental and social sustainability goals. The symposium will also cover legal and regulatory frameworks, ethical considerations related to AI and data, and the development of policy instruments that support responsible digital transformation.

Topics

The main topics of this symposium are listed below.

Laws
  • Cyber Law and Digital Privacy
  • AI Ethics and Intellectual Property
  • Environmental Law and Climate Policy
  • Human Rights and Social Justice
  • Labor Law and Gig Economy
  • Consumer Protection and Data Security
  • Criminal Law and Digital Crime
  • Property Law and Blockchain Applications
  • Public Health Law and Policy
  • Media Law and Freedom of Information
Political Science
  • Comparative Politics and Populism
  • International Relations and Global Governance
  • Political Economy and Digital Finance
  • Climate Policy and Environmental Politics
  • Cybersecurity and Digital Governance
  • Human Rights and Migration Policy
  • Political Philosophy and Ethics in AI
  • Public Policy and Social Movements
  • Political Polarization and Media Influence
  • Public Administration and Domestic Policy

Meanwhile, submissions aligned with the overall conference theme are also welcome.

Culture & Sociology
  • Digital Sociology
  • Sociology of Climate Change
  • Migration and Globalization
  • AI and Society
  • Sociology of Technology
  • Social Media Impact
  • Post-Colonial Sociology
  • Sociology of Mental Health
  • Inequality and Social Justice
  • Gender Studies in Sociology
  • Core Fields (e.g., Theoretical Sociology, Historical Sociology)
  • Specialized Areas (e.g., Urban Sociology, Criminology, Rural Sociology)
Pedagogy & Psychology
  • Cooperative Pedagogy
  • Experiential Pedagogy
  • Pedagogy of Differentiation
  • Assessment for Learning
  • Cybernetic Pedagogy
  • Pedagogy of Multisensory Learning
  • Behavioral Psychology
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Comparative Psychology
  • Cross-cultural Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Educational Psychology
  • Industrial-organizational Psychology
  • Social Psychology

Submission

All submitted papers should report original and unpublished work, experimental or theoretical, and are not under consideration for publications elsewhere. All papers should be no less than 4 pages in length and must strictly follow the format of the symposium template. All papers are subject to reviews and edits. Prospective authors are kindly invited to submit full text papers that includes title, abstract, introduction, tables/figures and references. Other styles of papers are not accepted. Please submit your papers in both .doc/.docx AND .pdf formats as attachments via email to [email protected]    by the given deadline. It is unnecessary to submit an abstract in advance.

Paper Template

Publication

Accepted papers of the symposium will be published in  Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media (Print ISSN 2753-7048), and will be submitted to  Conference Proceedings Citation Index (CPCI), Crossref, CNKI, Portico, Google Scholar  and other databases for indexing. The situation may be affected by factors among databases like processing time, workflow, policy, etc.

* The papers will be exported to production and publication on a regular basis. Early-registered papers are expected to be published online earlier.

This symposium is organized by ICILLP 2025 and it will independently proceed the submission and publication process

Ways to Participate

Attendance Onsite

The symposium welcomes participants to attend on-site and share the innovative experiences and researches with the group. Therefore, we provide some general information about the visa application. If you want to attend the symposium on-site, please email the Symposium committee: [email protected]

Visa

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