Companies that belong to the energy sector can use Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for their strategies and diversify electrical energy production with reverence to the natural environment. This article aims to analyze sustainability strategy types among the Visegrád Group (V4) countries’ energy producers, who decided to generate electrical energy from the renewable resources. This research uses an inductive inference approach supported by a literature study and deductive reasoning supported by a statistical reference method. The main finding is that the energy producers from the V4 group have a common direction of evolution in their strategies. This change is based on a growing share of renewable energy sources to achieve environmental excellence strategies. The lack of renewable energy sector organizations’ strategies translates into disappointment with the goals pursued by these organizations. The significance of this study lies in an explanation of how sustainability strategies compare at a firm and country-level in a proposed classification. The analysis can open future research areas to examine development of strategies in the renewable energy sector.

Gaining a competitive advantage assumes that a company should build a unique position, but this concept is related to a relatively stable environment. However, it is difficult to predict the consequences of the enterprises’ changes, leading to changes both in the business and natural environment. Therefore, this study’s authors asked a research question: Is it possible to restore a balance between durability and variability of the organization in terms of strategy? The answer to such a question was drawn upon the literature review and survey research. This paper presents a qualitative and quantitative model of competitive advantage in a changing business environment. This article uses an inductive inference method supported by a literature study and a deduction method supported by statistical calculations, based on a survey conducted among 150 Polish companies in different economic sectors. As a result of the research methods, a dualistic competitive advantage model in a changing environment was proposed and discussed. The article’s aim was achieved in the model combining a sustainable (SCA) and temporary competitive advantage (TCA). Understanding the conditions for gaining competitive advantage allowed to formulate general conditions under which sustainable strategic management can be built to consider sustainability objectives and contribute to the green economy. This research has confirmed that building a competitive advantage in unstable conditions requires finding a balance between implementing the planned development strategy and using new opportunities.

Management style and decision-making create an organization’s culture and influence its performance also in the pro-ecological dimension. Therefore, this paper’s originality lies in how it explores the effect of management style to inform our understanding of decision-making when using a sustainable approach. However, the cause-and-effect relations between decisions and management style remain vastly unexplored. The paper’s aim is to explore whether the management style serves as a basis for decision-making or if it is an effect of decisions. This research addresses a research question: is the management style a basis for decision-making or an effect of the decisions in a pro-ecological context? We used a comprehensive literature review by using inductive and deductive approaches to analyze the relations between decision-making and management style. The paper also illustrates how organizational culture images can inform accounts of business realities influencing organizations’ green strategies. The analogies followed relations between color symbol and guiding metaphor. The article presents a theoretical discussion on the influence of management style on decision-making in the organization, based on original literature research in pro-ecological strategy related decisions. As a result, a decision-making style model is proposed. This nonorthodox approach might open up new avenues of thought in the field of decision-making, management styles, and pro-ecological strategy. Theoretical and managerial implications and directions for future research are also addressed.

Companies operating in the creative industries are struggling with the simultaneous pressure to be innovative and creative, which requires access to unique resources (such as knowledge and creative potential), but also means they must be effective in actions taken. To find a balance between those tensions, they are using the networking approach. Therefore, it seems that networking is becoming a high priority and that being involved in networks is a crucial part of such companies’ business models. Nevertheless, their competitive advantage is based on creative potential, which means that they are rooted in building and maintaining internal relations. As a result, in creative industries, relationships with internal and external stakeholders are crucial, but are strongly based on trust. Thus, the main aim of this paper is to investigate whether trust is the main factor influencing the approach to management. Moreover, we tried to understand the impact of trust on the managerial actions taken. We used the multiple case study research method to examine the role of trust in cooperation, as well as in shaping internal relations in companies operating in the creative industries. To achieve that goal, 10 companies from Poland and Portugal (5 from each country) were investigated in order to find any regularities. By analyzing the research results, it was possible to identify consistencies among the sample and present the main findings. Therefore, four approaches distinguished by the degree of trust were identified. When the level of trust is low, companies are operating within their network based on close relationships, as well as using collective participation where the team is perceived as a key success factor. On the other hand, when the level of trust is higher, companies move towards cooperative management (where the role of competitors is crucial) as well as individual participation (where an employee is engaged in the creative, as well as the decision-making, process). As a result, a theoretical model is proposed that includes the level of trust and the external and internal stakeholders’ perspective. Based on our research, trust can also be added as a fourth ‘T’ to the ‘3T’ (talent, tolerance and technology) concept proposed by Florida (2003).

Competition, innovation and globalization are buzzwords, which for a few decades have been present in almost every aspect of social or economic activity. In particular, the growing interest in issues associated with the competitiveness has contributed to the development of theories and studies in the scope of the competition analysis and the competition strategies. Publications related to the subject of strategic management put a considerable emphasis on the issues concerning the competitive advantage as a factor determining the success or failure of organizations or nations. An emphasis is put on the necessity to stand out against competitors or to build a long-term sustainable competitive advantage. The latest studies, in response to the increasing variability or even chaos in the environment, indicate the need to stray away from the term "sustainable", and use the term "flexible" or "variable" in relation to the competitive advantage. The combination of sustainability, temporariness and otherness as the features characterizing an ideal competitive advantage seems to be one of the major challenges to be faced both by organizations implementing the strategic management process and theoreticians studying this area. The purpose of this paper is to examine relationships between the competitive advantage and courage when formulating objectives. Bearing in mind the aforementioned goal, there have been analysed the assumptions concerning the sources and evaluation of the company's competitive advantage in relation to the courage in formulating key objectives. In particular, the analysis concerned the issues related to the evaluation of the competitive advantage against the background of competitors, the main sources of the competitive advantage, and the relationship between the choice of a competitive advantage and the courage in formulating the key objectives, which manifests itself in the strategy expansiveness level.

The circular economy (CE) is a proposal for a new, more sustainable, and durable economy model. As a consequence, this pro-environmental economic model induces visible changes in the labor market which are Green Jobs (GJs). This paper is focused on the creation of Green Jobs in the CE. The GJs are most visible in the environmental goods and services sector (EGSS). This study aims to investigate EGSS among 28 European Union countries in the years 2009–2019. The adopted method was literature research complemented by the statistical analysis of secondary data from Eurostat in the linear regression method. Then, some Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their measure were used as main indicators reflecting changes in the labor market. Results are presented as a model indicating which of the SDGs can support CE and enhance a number of the Green Jobs. Presented results contribute to the science because combine factors influencing GJs creation in EGSS, in a CE perspective. This study underlines a lack of uniform methods for measuring and forecasting the effects of Green Jobs creation and indicates future research directions.

Sustainable development (SD) can indicate the direction of the development of modern organizations’ transition and transformation strategies in the energy sector. Currently, in most countries, the main challenge for the energy sector’s strategies is to deal with energy security. The implementation of SD induces changes both in strategy and technology. The strategies are based on the technological transition toward renewable energy sources (RES). The aim of this paper is to explore business management literature dedicated to the transformation and transition strategies in the energy sector. The adopted methods are a systematic literature review (SLR) accompanied by a classical literature review (CLR) in Scopus database exploration. A literature review is developed in VOSviewer software and keyword co-occurrences analysis allowed to identify the main changes of direction in energy sector transformation strategies. The literature was explored by the 26 queries which resulted with 11 bibliometric maps. The analysis of the bibliometric maps was a challenge due to the cross-disciplinary strategic directions of development presented in indexed publications in the Scopus database. The identification of the changes in energy sector strategies is important because of its reliance on depleting resources and natural environment degradation. As a result of this paper, there is a visible shift of the trend in explored scientific publication from not only technological-based solutions but also towards managerial and organizational practices to achieve sustainability in the energy sector. This paper, besides the results, presents the theoretical contribution and managerial recommendations for business practices and addresses future research avenues. There are discussed implications of the presented analysis for further research.

The Circular Economy (CE) is a proposal for new, more sustainable and durable economy model. As consequence, of this pro-environmental economic model induces visible changes on the labor market which are Green Jobs (GJ). This paper is focused on the creation of Green Jobs in the CE. The GJ are most visible in the Environmental Goods and Services Sector (EGSS). This study aims to investigate EGSS among 28 European Union countries in years 2009–2019. The adopted method was literature research complemented by the statistical analysis of secondary data from Eurostat in the linear regression method. Then, some Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their measure were used as main indicators reflecting changes on the labor market. Results are presented as a model indicating which of the SDGs can support CE and enhance number of the ‘Green Jobs’. Presented results contribute to the science, because combine factors influencing GJ creation in EGSS, in CE perspective. This study underlines a lack of uniform methods for measuring and forecasting the effects of green jobs creation and indicate future research directions.