Developing an Integrated Risk Governance Framework for Saudi Holding Companies in Support of Vision 2030

Saudi holding companies are increasingly central to portfolio investment, sectoral diversification, localization, and large-scale transformation under Vision 2030. Their governance challenge is distinctive: while risks originate within individual subsidiaries, value destruction can propagate through shared financing, brands, digital infrastructure, suppliers, executives, and strategic dependencies at the group level. This review develops an integrated risk governance framework tailored to this multi-entity context. An integrative review approach synthesizes research on enterprise risk management, board governance, organizational resilience, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, digital risk, supply-chain resilience, and Saudi corporate governance. The synthesis demonstrates that conventional subsidiary-by-subsidiary risk registers are inadequate when the parent company must understand risk concentration, contagion, correlated exposures, and strategic trade-offs across a portfolio. Effective governance therefore requires five interconnected capabilities: board-level risk direction and appetite; a group risk office capable of aggregating and challenging exposures; clearly retained subsidiary ownership of operational risks; independent assurance; and a continuous decision loop linking risk information to capital allocation, strategy, and learning. Saudi evidence further indicates that board structure, audit and sustainability mechanisms, institutional quality, disclosure, and investor expectations influence the credibility of governance arrangements. The proposed framework aligns these findings with Vision 2030 priorities by positioning risk governance as an infrastructure for disciplined growth rather than mere compliance. It provides a research agenda and practical design principles for holding-company boards, group chief risk officers, subsidiary leaders, regulators, and investors seeking resilience without sacrificing entrepreneurial autonomy.