Role of Future Generations

Younger generations are growing up amid overlapping crises: climate, technological disruption and mental health. They are often described as the agents of change who will build a more sustainable future. At the same time, the markets that shape childhood and early adulthood are changing fast. For example, toys and children’s products are under pressure to become more sustainable, and food marketing to children faces growing scrutiny. Young adults entering the workforce are also reconsidering what they expect from work and from employers, from meaning and flexibility to firms' social and environmental commitments. In addition, AI now enters play, learning and family life through connected toys, voice assistants and companion chatbots. Children and young people are addressed as consumers, influencers, co-creators and future employees, yet they are also asked to carry sustainability goals that adults have not always met.

The “Responsible Youth” Special Interest Group was created to explore how younger generations think, act and drive responsible change in an era of profound environmental, digital and social shifts. It also asks to what extent they feel accountable for doing (or not doing) so. The first conference (2025) opened this discussion. This second edition turns to the markets that shape childhood, adolescence and early adulthood most directly: what young people play with, eat, buy and learn from, how they enter the world of work, and the technologies that increasingly sit between them and these activities. It invites international scholars, practitioners, policymakers and industry experts to take up this question from their own disciplines and fields.

We welcome empirical and conceptual papers, case studies and thought pieces from marketing, management, human resources, education, information sciences, psychology, law and public policy. Together, let’s explore how youth can redefine the future of responsible business and policy in a rapidly changing world. We encourage scholars to explore questions related to sub-themes given in the following tracks.