Topic: Reinforcing financial and accounting resilience in digital circular platforms: The strategic role of digital governance and organizational culture

Abstract: Digital circular platforms are a new form of socio-technical ecosystems integrating digital technologies, financial innovation and organizational sustainability practices designed to build resilience and regenerative value. This research studied the effect of digital platform functionality, digital governance maturity and platform-based financial mechanism on financial and accounting resilience through the mediating impact of organisational culture for sustainability and circular business model innovation. Using dynamic capabilities view and socio-technical systems theory as a theoretical foundation, the current research develops and tests a serial mediation model using data from 297 professionals. Digital governance maturity and platform-based financial mechanism improve financial and accounting resilience significantly to a considerable degree. Organisational culture for sustainability and circular business model innovation exhibits serial mediating effects. Thus, it confirms that a mechanism exists between digital and financial enablers leading to resilience outcomes. The considerable variance in financial and accounting resilience can be explained by the model. Therefore, it can be inferred that adaptive governance and innovation-driven culture are critical to sustaining circular digital ecosystems. This study enhances the understanding of how digital governance and circular innovation are linked through organizational culture-based mediating pathways. Practically, it provides actionable guidance for platform managers and policymakers to facilitate their establishment of integrative digital financial and accounting systems that generate resilience, adaptability, and long-term sustainability for circular business systems.

Dr. Jasminka Samardžija, PhD, MBA is an Associate Professor at RIT Croatia, as well as an academic, researcher, author, entrepreneur, and business consultant. Her work connects leadership, organizational behavior, digital transformation, human capital, and AI-enabled business development. Her research interests include AI in organizations, digital entrepreneurship, future skills, ChatGPT-supported learning, interpersonal skills in management, workplace motivation, and the role of AI in comprehensive digital business development. RIT Croatia is a project partner in the SMILE project — Social Media Leadership Incubator for the Danube Region, an EU-funded Interreg Danube Region project focused on strengthening social media leadership, youth participation, digital competences, and leadership capacity in rural communities. Dr. Samardžija is an active member of the SMILE project consortium team for the 2025–2027 project period. Alongside her academic work, she leads Motivational Speaker Ltd., where she applies leadership development, soft skills training, and business excellence in practice. Her ICEBA contribution extends this professional and research trajectory by examining how generative AI service agents enable personalized customer care and service innovation in e-business, linking AI adoption with customer experience, trust, human oversight, and digital service transformation.