Michele Acciaro, Copenhagen Business School

Martin Jes Iversen, Copenhagen Business School

Ioannis Lagoudis, University of Piraeus

Iryna Savelieva, Odesa National Maritime University

Dong Yang, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Kum Fai Yuen, Nanyang Technological University

Critical infrastructure (CI) systems, such as energy, transportation, telecommunications, and water, form the backbone of modern economies. These systems face unprecedented challenges from technological disruptions, geopolitical tensions, environmental pressures, and evolving security threats, from cyber-attacks and supply chain vulnerabilities to climate impacts. Virtually no firm can consider itself independent from CI, as infrastructure disruptions cascade through supply chains, energy failures halt production, and transportation bottlenecks constrain competitiveness.

The deep interconnection between innovation and security, conceptualized as the 'security-innovation nexus', has emerged as a defining feature of contemporary political economy. Understanding CI security innovation requires engaging with complex interdependencies where technological capabilities, industrial structures, geopolitical strategies, and security co-evolve. Innovation systems frameworks offer powerful analytical lenses for this purpose, yet CI systems remain relatively understudied within innovation studies despite their strategic importance.

The integration of innovation and security objectives presents important governance challenges. Poorly designed security governance can undermine innovation by fragmenting knowledge networks, while innovation without security governance increases systemic fragility. These tensions manifest across multiple levels: at the firm level, companies must balance security investment with innovation focus; at the sectoral level, CI operators must coordinate heterogeneous actors; at the policy level, governments must manage trade-offs between openness and security controls.

These tensions also generate pressing ethical dilemmas, most visibly around dual-use technologies whose civilian and security applications cannot be cleanly separated. Such dilemmas place renewed demands on corporate responsibility, responsible innovation, and on assessments of the social value created—or eroded—by security-oriented technological change in CI sectors.

Recent geopolitical developments, including the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-US war on Iran, the US-China technology competition, and strategic contests over semiconductors, critical raw materials, and telecommunications infrastructure, have heightened the urgency of this research agenda. Critical raw materials have emerged as a key concern especially in relation to green technology transitions, with implications spanning from renewable energy infrastructure to shipbuilding and defence industries. Digital transformation across CI sectors, including autonomous systems, AI, IoT, and cyber-physical systems, is simultaneously reshaping capabilities and creating new vulnerabilities. High-profile cybersecurity incidents in energy, transportation, and telecommunications networks demonstrate how cyber resilience has become a core dimension of infrastructure security.

From an organizational perspective, security concerns in CI create innovation opportunities for dependent firms while reshaping CI provision itself. Firms perceiving infrastructure vulnerabilities, e.g., geopolitical risks threatening supply chains, cybersecurity threats to networks, or climate impacts on energy grids, develop organizational innovations to reduce dependency and enhance resilience. Importantly, these innovations frequently diffuse back into CI sectors and adjacent industries, constituting a bidirectional dynamic that remains a crucial but understudied dimension of CI innovation.

Potential topics

• Innovation Systems, Governance, and Geopolitics - Technological Innovation Systems (TIS) approach for CI security and how security-focused innovation systems emerge and evolve
• Innovation Systems, Governance, and Geopolitics - Sectoral and technological innovation systems in CI security, knowledge bases, and actor networks
• Innovation Systems, Governance, and Geopolitics - Regulatory innovation and multi-level governance approaches balancing security, safety, and economic efficiency
• Innovation Systems, Governance, and Geopolitics - Geopolitical competition, technology sovereignty, and industrial policy effects on CI innovation systems
• Firm Strategies, Organizational Innovation, and Resilience - Organizational innovation and adaptation in response to CI system vulnerabilities
• Firm Strategies, Organizational Innovation, and Resilience - Firm strategies, organizational innovation, and business models for infrastructure security
• Firm Strategies, Organizational Innovation, and Resilience - Resilience, supply chain security, and infrastructure interdependencies
• Digital Transformation, Sustainability Transitions, and Human Factors - Digital transformation, automation, and cybersecurity in critical infrastructure
• Digital Transformation, Sustainability Transitions, and Human Factors - Sustainability transitions and the security-environment nexus
• Digital Transformation, Sustainability Transitions, and Human Factors - Socio-technical transitions, ethics, and human factors in CI sectors
• Multi-Level Transitions and Sectoral Applications - Multi-level dynamics of transitions with focus on critical infrastructure
• Multi-Level Transitions and Sectoral Applications - Sectoral applications including energy, transportation, telecommunications, water, financial systems, healthcare, and space infrastructure

Timeline

• Invalid DateTime: Publication of the special issue
• December 15, 2026: Submission opens
• January 31, 2027: Submissions due