In the last two decades, other disciplines, such as mathematics, statistics, social science, physics, and technology, have contaminated the traditional management domains. Such contamination has made substantial progress in value creation for both business and society (Civera and Freeman, 2019; Freeman, 2017; McVea and Freeman, 2005). The rise of Artificial Intelligence and, more in general, emerging technologies have led businesses and scholars to acknowledge that reality is complex and that an interdisciplinary perspective might support a shift in mindset to better cope with ethical paradoxes in the applications of technologies for sustainable outcomes and stakeholder well-being (Sharma, 2024; Güngör, 2020). In particular, the potential of AI and other emerging technologies in advancing transformative impacts on interactions with and among stakeholders is recognized as critical to business organizations (Güngör, 2020; Hollebeek, Sprott and Brady, 2021; Khemasuwan and Colt, 2021) since their purpose is, growingly, to create and co-create value with multiple groups of stakeholders simultaneously (Andriof et al., 2002; Freeman et al., 2010; Greenwood and Van Buren III, 2010; Freeman, 2017). In this regard, ‘the impact of AI systems should be considered not only from an individual perspective but also from the perspective of society as a whole’ (European Commission, 2020). Adding to this, the implementation of new technologies necessitates the acquisition of specific skills to create and disseminate their potential, requiring the formulation of unexisting paradigms (Iaia et al., 2024), toward a perspective able to boost the traditional value, adding the digital one (Pironti and Iaia, 2022).
Studying societal needs and expectations requires an interdisciplinary perspective, which is the aim of this special track.
Indeed, we call for a more holistic and much stronger connection between management and interdisciplinary perspectives that can bridge the gap between the mechanical world of management theories applied to technologies and the intricate, complex, and intangible ecosystem of harmonized human interactions and emotions underlying successful businesses and sustainable societies (Katsikeas, Viglia and Hollebeek, 2023; Freeman et al., 2010). Quantum physics, biology, epigenetics, and neuroscience, for instance, can lend new scientific paradigms that conceptualize human beings as “all part of one interconnected fabric of existence” (Lazlo, 2019; p. 89), dynamically linked to each other and their environment (Ball 2011). Similarly, music, literature, and arts applied in management can foster new creative knowledge that reinforces the human nature of business and raise awareness that stakeholder relationships should guide managerial thinking and be the base of business and society harmonization and wellbeing (Dion et al., 2022). Such dynamic stakeholder interconnectedness can benefit societal ecosystems through innovative management approaches achievable only by bridging the knowledge domains (Winn and Pogutz, 2013) and discovering feedback mechanisms that would not be gathered if each discipline acted in isolation (Krehbiel et al., 1999). That is where interdisciplinary research makes management more human-centric (de Colle et al., 2023; Dion et al., 2022; Lazlo, 2019; Freeman et al., 2010) and possibly ready to face ethical paradoxes brought up by technology. To this end, in 2021, Wasilieski and colleagues posited that “It is becoming clear that many of today’s management theories are inadequate theoretically and practically to move understanding, scholarship, and practice to where it needs to be for scholars, business leaders, and policy makers to cope with an increasing fraught world […]” (p. 7) and with wicked problems such as sustainability (Murphy, 2012) or ethical pressures imposed by AI and technologies in reconfiguring the business paradigm.
Yet, as we reflect upon the inherent complexity of contemporary management and the pressing challenges in society and the environment on business and stakeholders, we align with previous calls for multidisciplinarity (Dion et al., 2022; Wasilieski et al., 2021) and wish for converging various and different perspectives into knowledge management. We wish to provide theoretical thinking and empirical evidence of how interconnected knowledge domains can develop innovative management approaches and theories to co-create value for business and society and harmonize the bond between emerging technologies and human beings.
In pursuing a more holistic approach to management, we invite contributions that explore unconventional yet promising fields like quantum physics, computing science, medicine and biology, music, literature, arts, and architecture, just to name a few, applied to the management of knowledge for harmonizing the interactions among emerging technologies and stakeholders.
We, therefore, invite researchers, scholars, and practitioners from different but convergent disciplines to come together to submit their research to this innovative track, fostering a space where traditional management theories meet diverse disciplines’ novel and unexplored perspectives. Contributions can revisit, theoretically discuss, or empirically demonstrate the resolution of a wicked problem or thought through different but complementary perspectives, intending to challenge and/or enrich the axioms of established paradigms, creating innovative knowledge that can boost value co-creation among stakeholders for both business and society wellbeing and sustainability.

We encourage submissions that examine, but are not limited to, the following themes:
Quantum-inspired Management: i.e., Explore how principles from quantum physics can inform and revolutionize management paradigms, such as decision-making, leadership, and organizational dynamics, to strengthen business and society integration and well-being, aimed or supported by emerging technologies.
Information technologies and Management: i.e., analyzing how the most recent technologies and their introduction influence thinking skills and how they may support the development of new management approaches, in particular for creativity, design thinking, learning, and innovation, to define a fertile ecosystem in which players may cultivate their talent, innovate, and improve business activities and its sustainability, creating value for all stakeholders in the society.
Medicine, Biotechnology, and Management: i.e., using the emerging pattern method enabled by emerging technologies to discover distinctions in a dataset to identify illness at the earliest stage possible and applying the same method to management to support, among other things, decision-making, organizational processes, and business survival, improving its sustainability and the role that business plays in society in anticipating challenges and pressures.
Food science technology, Nutrition, and Management to foster social innovation practices: i.e., Development and transfer of knowledge and processes between public, private, and not-for-profit sectors, exploiting new technologies. International knowledge exchange and the evolution of new approaches to nutrition, reducing food waste, addressing food insecurity, and enabling civic engagement to improve sustainable outcomes for businesses and society.
Music and Management: i.e. Investigate the role of music in enhancing business practices and stakeholders’ interactions, workplace environments, employee well-being, and its potential improved by emerging technologies, as a management tool for stakeholder motivation, collaboration, and engagement to foster sustainable goals.
Literature, Arts, Culture, and Creativity in Management: i.e., Analyze the impact and implications of literature, art, and aesthetics on knowledge circulation, innovation, design thinking, and corporate culture development, and the role of technologies such as AI, AR, VR, XR, among others, to create or even enhance favorable environments where businesses and stakeholders can express themselves and innovate.
Industrial Heritage and Management: i.e., Analyze how the regeneration of industrial heritage in terms of cultural/creative re-design can overcome local constraints and favor urban development through a replicable and echoed effect within ecosystems, owing to the contribution of emerging technologies. Such an approach can contaminate management practices and approaches so that they can catalyze innovation dynamics in the whole society.
Sports and Management: i.e., Investigate how sports practices and new technologies can inform specific context and content management approaches to reconcile business and society expectations; explore how principles from sports discipline can inform managerial approaches and orientations toward developing engaging, collaborative, and sustainable ecosystems of stakeholders, and what is the role of emerging technologies in reinforcing and/or consolidating them.
Social Science and Management: i.e., Explore how social psychology and innovative technologies can support businesses in managing social and environmental problems by strengthening the understanding of the stakeholders’ interaction dynamics and facilitating more informed decision-making at all levels of organizations and societies.

Please be aware that contributions do not necessarily have to fall into a specific double-field category, as indicated above. Researchers, scholars, and practitioners can cover the different disciplines in three (or even four) dimensional combinations, such as merging emerging technology, medicine, and management to reach business and society’s higher well-being or, for instance, computing science, nutrition, food, and management for reaching specific sustainable goals in their ecosystem.
Join us in the endeavor to humanize the usage of emerging technologies and enrich managerial research by embracing the wisdom of diverse disciplines. Together, let us redefine management’s future in line with humanity’s and technology’s fundamental essence.

Chiara Civera, University of Turin, Italy
Cecilia Casalegno, University of Turin,Italy
Lea Iaia, University of Turin, Italy
Marco Pironti, University of Turin, Italy
Simone de Colle, IÉSEG School of Management, France