In the postmodern era of industrialization, sustainable business performance is vital for success in a competitive environment. In order to attain sustainable business performance, Malaysian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are facing various social and technological challenges. The objective of this study was to examine the roles of social and technological challenges in achieving a sustainable competitive advantage and sustainable business performance. To accomplish this objective, first-hand data were collected from Malaysian SMEs. Opinions of managerial staff of these SMEs were preferred regarding the roles of social and technological challenges in achieving a sustainable competitive advantage and sustainable business performance. An email survey was carried out to collect data. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed among managerial staff of SMEs. Questionnaires were distributed by using simple random sampling. By using structural equation modeling, findings of the study revealed that social and technological challenges played major roles in boosting sustainable competitive advantage and sustainable business performance. Moreover, strategic alignment was a key in reflecting the positive roles of social and technological factors on sustainable competitive advantage. Findings of the study are beneficial for practitioners and will allow their strategies to reflect sustainable competitive advantages and sustainable business performance.

In the context of profound social, economic and financial changes, private and public organizations managers turn their attention towards the most valuable resource they have – the human resource (HR), the one that can ensure increased organizational performance. Using adequate HR policies and practices, organizations can build a positive work environment that sustains employees’ development, encourages communication, innovation, and pro-active attitudes and behaviors. However, managerial practices specific to the private sector do not seem to be the solution to the problems public institutions deal with. While specialists have mainly explored the link between human resources management (HRM) and performance in the private sector, due consideration ought to be paid to the particularities of this relationship in the public sector as well, and to the factors that influence public employees’ motivation and determine their level of performance. The purpose of our paper is to show that HRM in public institutions should be approached in a manner that focuses more on the work motivation theory, specifically on the psycho-sociological profile of the public employee, and argue that higher performance can be achieved by establishing a social exchange relationship between managers and the members of their teams. A supportive work environment positively impacts upon public employees’ performance, self-efficacy and job satisfaction, even though they are mainly driven in performing their tasks by intrinsic motivators and devotion to public values and interest.

The COVID-19 pandemic has a major effect on the world economy and the world's population. Statistics show worryingly, at the beginning of May there were almost 4 million diseases and almost 250,000 deaths in the world. More than 1 million diseases are registered in the USA, Italy, Great Britain, Spain, France, and Russia. This extremely difficult context has led us to make a comparative analysis of the measures that the governments of the states of the European Union have taken to manage it. Our paper analyses the cooperation between the European Union and the states in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper contains some recommendations for the governments of the Member States to solve the problems of their health systems and to relaunch the economy in the European space. The results of the research are useful and interesting for the governments of the EU member states, which should have a unitary and coherent strategy to avoid economic and social imbalances. The recommendations contained in this paper can be a reference and source of inspiration for the EU institutions to develop a coherent strategy for a rapid social and economic recovery.

Globalization determines the economic environment to identify new development models that harmoniously integrate the modern digital economy with corporate social responsibility for sustainable development. The aim of the research was to discover the main ways to increase corporate social responsibility in Romanian organizations in 3 key sub-areas of bio-economy. We also sought to identify and analyze the implementation level of fundamental principles and values of corporate social responsibility, strategic priorities and methods used by Romanian companies in the target group to strengthen it. Another objective of the research was to develop a hierarchy of strategic (economic, social and environmental) interests of the top managers of the analyzed organizations, reflecting the new business philosophy. The research tools used were: an online questionnaire, a semistructured interview with general managers and document analysis, that is: 10 organizational strategies, 60 bi-annual reports on corporate social responsibility and 30 budget executions from the last three years of activity of the organizations involved in the research. The data obtained were correlated and processed in Excel and SPSS. The novelty of the research consists in taking a systemic approach, from a managerial point of view, of corporate social responsibility in the field of bio-economy being the first applied research of its kind on the segment of medium-sized companies from three representative sub-domains of Romanian bio-economy.