Over the past two decades, systemic risk has evolved from a relatively specialized concern within banking regulation into a central issue in debates surrounding financial stability, corporate governance, accounting transparency and public policy. The 2008–2009 global financial crisis, followed more recently by the COVID-19 pandemic, exposed how deeply interconnected financial institutions, markets and economies have become (Berger Fonseca Rahman, Troster, Uddin, rather, they are deeply embedded in networks of contractual obligations, investment relationships, information flows and shared exposures. Such network integration creates conditions under which localized shocks may rapidly propagate across institutions, sectors and markets, thereby amplifying broader forms of systemic vulnerability (Fonseca Rahman et al., 2022).Although insurers have historically been viewed as stabilizing institutions due to their relatively predictable liabilities and long-term business models, emerging evidence suggests that the insurance industry may also contribute meaningfully to systemic risk (Bongini, Nieri, Pelagatti, Leong, Pellegrini, Leong et al., 2020).Moreover, systemic risk itself is evolving. Climate-related events, digital infrastructures and artificial intelligence increasingly create new forms of financial vulnerability (Chong, Feng, Hu, Goncharenko, Hledik, Basu Khan, 2019).Within the insurance industry, IFRS 17 intensifies these discussions. By requiring the recurrent reassessment of insurance liabilities using current assumptions and discount rates, the standard may increase earnings volatility and affect solvency metrics (Krügler Carvalho Lamaj, Novotny-Farkas, Li, Xia, Sun, Rizwan et al., 2025; Wang, Song, Xi, Lou, Barucca et al., 2020). Such approaches may substantially improve early-warning systems, systemic risk monitoring and macroprudential supervision, particularly in environments characterized by opacity, complexity and rapid information diffusion (Ellis et al., 2022).Systemic risk is no longer merely a technical issue confined to banking regulation or financial economics. It increasingly reflects a broader organizational and institutional challenge involving transparency, incentives, regulation, technological dependence and institutional interconnectedness.As financial systems become more interconnected, balancing transparency, innovation, efficiency and stability becomes increasingly complex. Regulatory interventions designed to reduce risk may simultaneously create new vulnerabilities. Disclosure mechanisms intended to strengthen market discipline may also intensify contagion and synchronized behavior, while technological innovation and Generative AI may enhance efficiency at the cost of greater concentration and interconnectedness.These tensions suggest that understanding systemic risk requires moving beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries. Future crises may emerge not only from banking fragilities, but also from technological infrastructures, operational networks, cyber vulnerabilities, climate-related shocks and concentrated digital ecosystems. Management scholars, in particular, can contribute to this debate by examining how organizational decisions, governance systems, strategic behavior and institutional arrangements shape broader patterns of financial stability and fragility.From a management perspective, systemic risk can be understood as the aggregate consequence of organizational decisions made under uncertainty, incentives and institutional pressure. Governance structures shape risk oversight and responses to uncertainty, managerial cognition influences how executives interpret tail risk and regulatory signals and competitive strategies may increase common exposures and herding behavior across institutions (Anginer, Demirguc-Kunt, Hasan, Tunaru, & Vioto, 2023). Disclosure strategies and regulatory arbitrage further illustrate how organizations adapt strategically to transparency requirements and prudential constraints.For management research, systemic risk represents not only a timely research opportunity, but also an increasingly urgent societal challenge.
Carvalho et al. (Sat,) studied this question.