Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues

The article highlights the importance of the development of the society, as well as the measurement of this development, in the context of security, sustainability and competitiveness and goes much further by guiding to further research focus on the introduced new conception of “Secure and sustainable competitiveness” in the context of globalisation. The definition of “Sustainable competitiveness” was broadened by including new aspect of security. The development of the society was introduced as common output of the globalization which goes hand-in-hand with competitiveness, sustainability and security. The interrelation of certain facets between security, competitiveness and sustainability lead to the proposal to create the new index of “Secure and sustainable competitiveness” with possibility to evaluate the progress by looking back and provide prospects by looking forward. The research findings are in line with policy context and the development of the new index of “Secure and sustainable competitiveness” could be an important research contribution to the European Union Strategy Europe 2020 for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth (2010).

On May 1st, 2004, Poland and 9 other countries became members of the European Union. The new economic and institutional conditions resulting from this event had a tremendous impact on Poland’s macroeconomic performance. Poland is the biggest beneficiary of the European Cohesion Policy in 2007-2013. This paper aims at evaluating the scope and strength of cohesion policy’s impact on the macroeconomic situation of Poland. Authors attempt to assess the economic benefits of Poland’s membership in the EU (focusing particularly on those related to impact of the cohesion policy’s implementation). Additionally, the article presents the benefits derived by the EU-15 countries from the implementation of the cohesion policy in Poland. Authors focus, inter alia, on assessing the impact of Poland’s membership in the European Union on macroeconomic situation of the country. The assessment of the said impact is based both on the analysis of selected studies of the subject and on authors’ own research based on available statistical data. Within such a context, authors discuss the results of three research projects – commissioned by the Polish Ministry of Regional Development – which attempt to evaluate the impact of the EU cohesion policy on selected macroeconomic indicators.

Economic growth and income differentiation problems are the most actual problems of modern research. The research is attributed to sustainable development research area. In a case of Latvian economy these problems have a huge actuality because of lack of researching works, where these parts of science are completely opened. Special interest causes question about the trajectory of economic growth and and uneven income. If GDP growth is connected with increasing income differentiation of population, then increasing income differentiation absorbs part of the effect on the growth of aggregate income. If GDP growth is on the background of lower income differentiation, the increase in total income is supplemented by regularity of revenue growth. Thus the social effect of economic growth increases significantly. What trends are taking place in income differentiation by regions and economic development of the regions in Latvia after the EU accession? What trends are taking place in interregional differentiation in income per household member, and in GDP? Is there a relationship between trajectories of economic growth and income differentiation in the regions of Latvia?

The issue of competitive advantage is the actual topic in times of globalization and the global crisis. The existence of a competitive advantage in the territory affects significantly its development and success at the territory market. Research of the competitive advantage due to the nature of the territory as a product requires the multidisciplinary approach. While at the corporate and national level, the issue of competitive advantage is given considerable attention, at the regional level it has been not completely researched yet. The aim of the paper is to process the methodology of use and building competitive advantage at the regional level based on the definition of basic terms in the research area. The basic sources of the research are the secondary research of scientific and professional literary resources, the primary research realised by Delphi method among experts from different countries and a conducted primary research by the method of structured interviews with representatives of regional authorities, which aimed to identify the nature of competitive advantage and methods, how to use it in ensuring sustainable development of the region.

The aim of the present article is to investigate the role of sustainable innovation strategies on competitive advantages of Lithuanian biotechnology companies. The entire Lithuanian biotechnology market is targeted via the conduction of semi-structured qualitative interviews, consecutively carried out in 2011 and 2012. The methodological solution to introduce the time perspective in the research elucidates the importance of the sustainability in innovation processes as there could be the progress and the continuity in the implementation of innovation strategies observed among sample companies. There is the increasing number of discussions about innovations and the performance of organizations. The success of an innovative activity depends on the complex of human and financial resources, organizational, managerial, technical and other factors. Though competitive advantages cover a vast spectrum of aspects, they all are inter-related and dependent on a great number of factors and measures. The innovation strategy could help to reach target results and to provide a synergy effect. Main reasons for the creation and deployment of innovations should also be the increasing competition, rapidly evolving technology and changing consumers’ expectations. Such factors as the human capital emerges as the key driver of high-tech industries because people involved in innovative activities are characterized by their competencies, motivation and willingness to act in different circumstances. It should not be forgotten the importance of the continuity of innovation processes and long-term strategic directions. The research question: are sustainable innovation strategies necessary for competitive advantages of Lithuanian biotechnology companies? Firstly, there is the concept and classification of innovations presented; it is continued by the revelation of main features of innovation management and success factors of the commercialization of innovations. These chapters are followed by the identification of companies’ competitive advantages and the analysis of sustainable strategic human resource management. Finally, there are main characteristics of the biotechnology sector underlined and the research (2011 and 2012) results on a sustainable development of competitive advantages via the innovation strategy presented.

The paper discusses the key factors that contribute to the successful „nurturing“ of inter-organizational relationships and evolving partnership activities in a pursuance of social innovations.

This paper is an attempt to review the European debate between proponents of the voluntary and the obligatory case for CSR in the middle of the economic crisis that we are living. Starting by the analysis of the current European government-led initiatives to foster CSR among companies we move to the analysis of two specific national government-led initiatives in the EU area, Spain and Poland. Finally, the paper focuses on the comparison of both cases, as an example of the disparities between national policies in Europe. The lack of a regulatory European framework for CSR could explain the misbalance between country initiatives.