Sustainability Outcomes of Green Processes in Relation to Industry 4.0 in Manufacturing: Systematic Review

Green manufacturing for achieving carbon neutrality goal requires innovative technologies: A bibliometric analysis from 1991 to 2022

Recent years have seen a significant increase in interest in green manufacturing as a key driver of global carbon-neutral efforts and sustainable development. To find the research hotspots of green manufacturing and reveal future research trends, this study reviewed and analyzed research articles from the Web of Science database on green manufacturing from 1991 to 2022 using a bibliometric method. The findings indicate a significant rise in the number of articles related to green manufacturing since the 2010s. Moreover, there has been an increase in the involvement of scholars from developing countries such as China and India in this field. Based on the literature review and bibliometric cluster analysis on green manufacturing, we believed that future research may continue following the lines of intelligent technology integration, adoption of frontier engineering techniques, and industry development in line with carbon reduction targets. A framework for future green manufacturing development is proposed, with a focus on Chinese policies. The framework could provide policy implications for developing countries looking to pursue opportunities for development in green manufacturing.

The potential of industry 4.0 for renewable energy and materials development - The case of multinational energy companies

The study's primary objective is to identify the implications of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) implementation for renewable energy management and materials development. The study aims to establish a new perspective that promotes adopting emerging clean energy technologies. The study adopts a transdisciplinary approach and critical synthesis of existing literature. Thematic analysis and inferences from three case illustrations are used to gain insights into the value and strategies of I4.0 implementation for achieving a sustainable and low-carbon future. The literature review on I 4.0 provides a deeper understanding of its concepts and potential benefits. The study highlights the improved efficiency, productivity, and sustainability that I4.0 technologies, such as IoT, AI, and advanced manufacturing, can bring to various industries. The study's findings have significant implications for the practical implementation of I4.0. By cohesively identifying and addressing economic, regulatory, and technical obstacles, I4.0 can be effectively implemented for renewable energy and materials development. The study is a valuable reference for students, researchers, scholars, and practitioners. It may guide the design and implementation of I4.0 strategies and supports the transition toward a sustainable and low-carbon future.

Can green finance facilitate Industry 5.0 transition to achieve sustainability? A systematic review with future research directions

Most of the world's rising carbon emission results from industrial activities. Previous industrial revolutions did not put much thought into safeguarding the natural world. Governments worldwide have been continuously implementing regulations and policies for the mitigation of climate change to promote sustainable development. To achieve decarbonization, the climate change discussion is merged with Industry 5.0 (I5.0) where green finance (GF) plays a crucial role. This technological metamorphosis of transition from Industry 4.0 (I4.0) to I5.0 will affect humans and their society. I5.0 forms a symbiotic relationship with different aspects of Society 5.0 (S5.0) such as social (human‒machine centricity), ecological (zero emissions), and technological (green innovations). Thus, the I5.0 transition prioritizes greening the economy in pursuit of achieving S5.0. Through a systematic review of 196 articles, this research study concisely summarizes the rapidly expanding body of information. The research domain gave six major themes: Green Innovations (GI), Green Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Circular Economy (CE), Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM), Emerging Economies, and Net Zero Economy (NZE). Finally, a framework has been provided that illustrates the supporting role of GF for the I5.0 transition eventually followed by S5.0. This study provides an overview of these themes with their propositions and future research directions. The present study addresses the knowledge gap by providing valuable contributions to the burgeoning research domain of I5.0 and GF. Moreover, it aims to garner the attention of different stakeholders to integrate these two concepts of research to attain the goal of sustainable development.

Performance effects of green production capability and technology in manufacturing firms

The proclamation of the sustainable development goals is driving companies to implement protective measures that favour the environment, thereby occupying a strategic place in the creation of green product innovation (GPI). This new management paradigm could be impacting capabilities, techniques, technologies, efficient energy use and green-oriented production policies and systems. Therefore, one of the challenges is to configure green production capabilities (GPC) coordinated with the technology dimension (TECH) because the design of ecological products and their manufacture requires the backup of capabilities and the possible support of green technology. To this effect, this article aims to establish the impact of the association of GPC and TECH on organisational performance. To do so, we test whether the adoption and high implementation of GPC and TECH affect environmental and financial performance. Empirical evidence is supported by the European Manufacturing Survey (EMS), using a sample of 1018 manufacturing companies from seven European countries. Our results show that the adoption of GPC and TECH and their high levels of implementation have a significant impact on environmental and financial performance. Regarding the association between the implementation of GPC and TECH, its contribution to environmental performance but not financial performance is evidenced. Furthermore, at high levels of implementation of this association, there is no significant effect on either environmental or financial performance. These findings drive theoretical and practical implications and provide opportunities for academics, managers and government bodies.

Energy-Saving and Low-Carbon Gear Blank Dimension Design Based on Business Compass

Sustainable blank dimension design is the key to the implementation of green industrial development. However, blank dimension design only considers the blank production factor of the blank dimension design stage, which cannot guarantee the blank production stage and the use stage’s overall goal. In this paper, based on the guiding thinking of a business compass, a low-carbon and low-energy consumption blank dimension optimization design model was proposed. Taking the process parameters of the production and the use of the blank as the variables, the grey wolf optimization algorithm was adopted to solve the problem. Taking the gear blanks dimension as an example, the optimized blank dimension is 98.6, compared with the standard blank dimension of 100, 105, the energy consumption is 95.7% and 93.1%, the carbon emission is 92.6% and 90.2%, and the material consumption is 96.5% and 87.5%, respectively. The sustainable blank dimension design has obvious advantages in terms of low energy consumption and low carbon, and it can save a lot of materials; it can also promote product sustainability.

Emerging Technologies Supporting the Transition to a Circular Economy in the Plastic Materials Value Chain

Plastic waste has come to the forefront of academic and political debates as a global problem that demands an urgent solution. Promoted by policymakers, academia, and corporations alike, the circular economy model presents a viable path to reach more sustainable levels of development. Emerging and disruptive technologies can catalyse the transition to a circular economy, but their application to the transition of the plastic materials realm is not fully understood. Based on a systematic review of the literature, this paper aims to understand the role of key emerging technologies in the transition towards a circular economy in the plastic materials value chain, their potential impact, as well as the barriers of adoption and diffusion. Employing the ReSOLVE framework, the analysis reveals that rather than individual technologies, four technology sets associated with Industry 4.0, distributed economies, bio-based systems, and chemical recycling stand as major enablers of this transition. The complementarity of technologies and the change needed from a systemic perspective are discussed along with a proposal for governance and practical implementation pathway to overcome barriers and resistance to the transition.

The Impact Factors of Industry 4.0 on ESG in the Energy Sector

Digital transformation refers to highly thought-out social, manufacturing, and organizational transitions driven by digital revolutions and emerging technologies. On the other hand, energy is a critical pillar of the economic growth of the country. Meanwhile, global interest in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment is growing. The conventional investment paradigm is being phased out in favor of investments that prioritize environmental, social, and corporate responsibility. The energy sector is one of the most significantly affected. Presently, the field of digital transformation is limited in its analysis about the sustainability factors and is still controversial, especially in the energy business. This paper identifies an in-corporation factor in Industry 4.0, taking into account the effect on ESG. The research papers and the World Economic Forum reports were investigated and identified the correlation factor using machine learning to analyze their contents. We spotlighted the documents relevant to the energy industry and sustainable development. To quantify the model, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is proposed to generate a valid model, followed by path analysis with latent variables to evaluate the structural equation modeling (SEM). The result provides the conceptual model with impact factors and their correlations. The goodness of fit value is acceptable for the agreed-upon condition, as well as a descriptive that incorporates Industry 4.0 and ESG in terms of business, industry, and ESG in relation to the energy sector’s key issues.

HT-TPP: A Hybrid Twin Architecture for Thermal Power Plant Collaborative Condition Monitoring

Thermal power plants, TPP, are one of the main players in the phosphoric acid and fertilizer production value chain. The control of power plant assets involves considerable complexity and is subject to several constraints, affecting the asset’s reliability and, most importantly, plant operators’ safety. The main focus of this paper is to investigate the potential of an agent-based digital twin architecture for collaborative prognostic of power plants. Based on the ISO 13374:2015 scheme for smart condition monitoring, the proposed architecture consists of a collaborative prognostics system governed by several smart DT agents connected to both physical and virtual environments. In order to apprehend the potential of the developed agent-based architecture, experiments on the architecture are conducted in a real industrial environment. We show throughout the paper that our proposed architecture is robust and reproduces TPP static and dynamic behavior and can contribute to the smart monitoring of the plant in case of critical conditions.

An Empirical Investigation of Green Product Design and Development Strategies for Eco Industries Using Kano Model and Fuzzy AHP

Collaboration in green product design and development is becoming more significant to ensure a brighter future for eco industries, and research into such innovation has increased in recent years. So, it has been emphasized by practitioners that green thinking should be adopted from the design stage through the development stage and into the disposal stage of a product. However, it is challenging to identify the severity of strategies that mainly hampers the growth of green product design and development (GPDD). The current research aimed to identify and rank various strategies based on their significant impact on the development of green product design. The study contains three segments: (1) Multiple strategies were identified based on the published literature, project reports, and interactions with academics and industry experts. Then, 22 strategies were selected for GPDD that could be divided into five clusters: cooperation and commitment from top management commitment (TMC), design for environment (DFE), utilization of green technologies (UGT), green external supply chain management (GESCM), and green internal supply chain management (GISCM). (2) The Kano model was used to identify user requirements and satisfaction levels. (3) The priority weight and rank among selected strategies were determined using the fuzzy AHP approach. The results show that the “DFE” ranks highest among the main categories, and “design for disassembly” has been highlighted as a necessary sub-criteria in the emerging eco industries. Various recommendations are suggested to adopt these techniques, which augment the growth of green product design and development for eco industries.

Using a Digital Twin to Study the Influence of Climatic Changes on High Ozone Levels in Bulgaria and Europe

High concentration levels of air pollutants may cause damage to plants, animals, and the health of some groups of human beings. Therefore, it is important to investigate different topics related to the high air pollution levels and to find reliable answers to the questions about the possible damages, which might take place when these levels exceed some limits. A few of the numerous questions, the answers of which are highly desirable, are listed below: (a) When are the air pollution levels dangerous? (b) What is the reason for the increased air pollution levels? (c) How can the air pollution levels be decreased? (d) Will the future climate changes result in higher and more dangerous air pollution levels? It is necessary to study carefully many issues connected with the distribution of air pollutants in a given region and with the reasons for the increases of the concentrations to high levels, which might be damaging. In order to do this, it is necessary to develop a Digital Twin of all relevant physical processes in the atmosphere and to use after that this tool in different applications. Such a tool, its name is DIGITAL AIR, has been created. Digital Twins are becoming more and more popular). Many complex problems, arising taking place in very complicated surroundings, can be handled and resolved successfully by applying Digital Twins. The preparation of such a digital tool as well as its practical implementation in the treatment of a special problem, the increase of some potentially dangerous ozone levels, will be discussed and tested in this paper. The Unified Danish Eulerian Model (UNI-DEM) is a very important part of DIGITAL AIR. This mathematical model, UNI-DEM, can be applied in many different studies related to damaging effects caused by high air pollution levels. We shall use it in this paper to get a reliable answer to a very special but extremely important question: will the future climatic changes lead to an increase in the ozone pollution levels in Bulgaria and Europe, which can potentially become dangerous for human health?

Applied Machine Learning in Industry 4.0: Case-Study Research in Predictive Models for Black Carbon Emissions

Industry 4.0 constitutes a major application domain for sensor data analytics. Industrial furnaces (IFs) are complex machines made with special thermodynamic materials and technologies used in industrial production applications that require special heat treatment cycles. One of the most critical issues while operating IFs is the emission of black carbon (EoBC), which is due to a large number of factors such as the quality and amount of fuel, furnace efficiency, technology used for the process, operation practices, type of loads and other aspects related to the process conditions or mechanical properties of fluids at furnace operation. This paper presents a methodological approach to predict EoBC during the operation of IFs with the use of predictive models of machine learning (ML). We make use of a real data set with historical operation to train ML models, and through evaluation with real data we identify the most suitable approach that best fits the characteristics of the data set and implementation constraints in real production environments. The evaluation results confirm that it is possible to predict the undesirable EoBC well in advance, by means of a predictive model. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first approach to detail machine-learning concepts for predicting EoBC in the IF industry.

The relationship between socioeconomic development, renewable energies and the innovative process

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the relationships between socioeconomic development, renewable energy and the innovative process by providing: a descriptive analysis; a co-occurrence analysis of terms, thematic mapping and conceptual structure; and the typology of the textual corpus.

Design/methodology/approach

To analyze the relationship between “renewable energies, socioeconomic development and the innovative process,” it is necessary to build a theoretical foundation that contains the relevant scientific studies and reflects the current state of the art on the subject. For this, this study developed a systematic literature review (SLR) using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses research protocol to answer the relationship on the theme.

Findings

Research shows a global understanding of the need to invest in developing studies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and improve economic growth. The main contributions lie in providing a typology of the state of the art, identifying the joint relationships between themes, insights into the key themes and indicating themes that must be developed. This study may also support future empirical studies as it provides a theoretical foundation for formulating hypotheses, which can be tested through qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Originality/value

The innovative character consists of addressing a shortage of SLRs on this theme. Thus, this paper fills this gap by providing a theoretical foundation for future scientific and academic knowledge generation. Furthermore, regarding the interdisciplinary aspects of this research as contributions, this paper presented different approaches and theoretical perspectives.

Water Management in Agriculture and Industry: Challenges, Trends, and Opportunities

This Special Issue aims to explore current challenges and trends, as well as opportunities for sustainability and innovation, in the fields of agricultural and industrial water management [...]

The role of emerging technologies in implementing green practices to achieve sustainable operations

Purpose

The current study investigates the effect of industry 4.0 on green practices, including green manufacturing and green logistics, in the context of emerging economies.

Design/methodology/approach

A cross-sectional data were collected from 234 manufacturing firms in Pakistan, and PLS-SEM was employed to test hypotheses.

Findings

With the advent of industry 4.0 in the current era, more emphasis is being given to the adoption of digital technologies in every field. The adoption of the green approach in supply chain management provides firms with socioeconomic and environmental benefits. The study results indicate that industry 4.0 positively affects green practices, including green manufacturing and green logistics. Moreover, the results also illustrate that these green practices have a substantial effect on the sustainability performance of the firms.

Research limitations/implications

This study provides an amplified understanding of the industry 4.0 technologies in the adoption of green practices. The outcomes also offer a policy framework for managers, legislators and manufacturers to promote green practices (i.e. green manufacturing and green logistics) in businesses.

Originality/value

Although several recent studies have tried to investigate the effect of green practices on sustainability performance. However, as per the author's best knowledge, very few studies have analyzed the influence of industry 4.0 on green practices (i.e. green manufacturing and green logistics) in the context of emerging economies.

Customers’ willingness of irresponsible industry 4.0 companies to co-create sustainable practices

Purpose

In this regard, this paper aims to wonder how willing to co-create sustainable practices customers of irresponsible Industry 4.0 (I4.0) companies are? With this purpose, the authors began introducing I4.0 and sustainability, showing their theoretical gaps.

Design/methodology/approach

I4.0 has recently spread with its technological developments and social, economic and political ambitions, facing challenges-related, for example, to the implementation of sustainable practices and the stakeholders’ participation.

Findings

Then the authors conduct a literature review following a sequential mix-method approach that begins with a bibliometric analysis and ends with a content study to propose a conceptual model for I4.0 and sustainability. Once the authors understood the theoretical gaps in the framework of the conceptual model, the authors conducted an empirical verification between clients of a Colombian company of the I4.0 belonging to the logistic sector, specifically of the deliveries, asking them about the labor issues that the company faces with delivery people and their willingness to co-create. The authors analyzed the collected data through a structural equation modeling model, where the authors found that customers’ willingness to co-create depends on intrinsic behaviors like “responsible behavior,” followed by extrinsic behaviors such as “helping.”

Originality/value

In fact, stakeholders may support companies, but customers must learn how to assume a critical posture during their purchase decision.

Characterization and exposure assessment to urban air toxics across Middle Eastern and North African countries: a review

Middle East and North African (MENA) countries over the decades are experiencing rapid industrial and infrastructural growth combined with being the global hub of oil and gas industries. These economic transformations are associated with release of air pollutants including urban air toxics (UAT) through industrial, traffic, and constructional activities into ambient urban environments. UAT concentrations levels may exacerbate in most MENA countries considering high number of vehicular traffic populations and petrochemical industries which are one of the main sources of this pollutant. Therefore, the main objective of the study is to review major findings of UAT levels in urban areas across thirteen (13) MENA countries. The study characterizes various measured UAT, assesses their concentrations in ambient environment, and identifies their major sources of emissions by reviewing more than 100 relevant UAT papers across the selected MENA countries. It was found that benzene, heavy metals, formaldehyde, and dioxin-like compounds are the most reported UAT. The study concluded that road traffic, fuel stations, and petrochemical industries were identified as the main sources of ambient UAT levels. It was further reported that most of the studies were based on short-term ambient environment with limited studies in indoor environments. Therefore, it is highly recommended that future research should focus on innovative health impact assessment and epidemiological studies from exposure to UAT levels. Also embarking on sustainable mitigation approaches through urban greenery, eco-industrial estates infrastructural developments, and renewable energy shares will reduce UAT levels and improve human health.

Applications of Blockchain Technology in Sustainable Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management: A Systematic Review

Developing sustainable products and processes is essential for the survival of manufacturers in the current competitive market and the industry 4.0 era. The activities of manufacturers and their supply chain partners should be aligned with sustainable development goals. Manufacturers have faced many barriers and challenges in implementing sustainable practices along the entire supply chain due to globalisation, outsourcing, and offshoring. Blockchain technology has the potential to address the challenges of sustainability. This study aims to explain the applications of blockchain technology to sustainable manufacturing. We conducted a systematic literature review and explained the potential contributions of blockchain technology to the economic, environmental, and social performances of manufacturers and their supply chains. The findings of the study extend our understanding of the blockchain applications in sustainable manufacturing and sustainable supply chains. Furthermore, the study explains how blockchain can influence the sustainable performance of manufacturers by creating transparency, traceability, real-time information sharing, and security of the data capabilities.

Industry 4.0 Technologies for Manufacturing Sustainability: A Systematic Review and Future Research Directions

Recent developments in manufacturing processes and automation have led to the new industrial revolution termed “Industry 4.0”. Industry 4.0 can be considered as a broad domain which includes: data management, manufacturing competitiveness, production processes and efficiency. The term Industry 4.0 includes a variety of key enabling technologies i.e., cyber physical systems, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, big data analytics and digital twins which can be considered as the major contributors to automated and digital manufacturing environments. Sustainability can be considered as the core of business strategy which is highlighted in the United Nations (UN) Sustainability 2030 agenda and includes smart manufacturing, energy efficient buildings and low-impact industrialization. Industry 4.0 technologies help to achieve sustainability in business practices. However, very limited studies reported about the extensive reviews on these two research areas. This study uses a systematic literature review approach to find out the current research progress and future research potential of Industry 4.0 technologies to achieve manufacturing sustainability. The role and impact of different Industry 4.0 technologies for manufacturing sustainability is discussed in detail. The findings of this study provide new research scopes and future research directions in different research areas of Industry 4.0 which will be valuable for industry and academia in order to achieve manufacturing sustainability with Industry 4.0 technologies.

Industry 4.0 and Sustainability: A Bibliometric Literature Review

Industry 4.0 (I4.0), Sustainability, and the Circular Economy are recently popularized concepts likely to redefine how economies and industries work. This paper, as the opening piece of this Special Issue, consists of a bibliometric study of 393 articles linking the Issue’s key themes: Industry 4.0, Sustainability and the Circular Economy. Given that this is still a recent area of the literature, and the fact that it already commands a fast-growing number of publications, the provision of an updated overview of the relevant scientific production in the field is a relevant contribution.

Binary Linear Programming as a Tool of Cost Optimization for a Water Supply Operator

The problem of scheduling pumps is widely discussed in the literature in the context of improving energy efficiency, production costs, emissions, and reliability. In some studies, the authors analyze the available case studies and compare the results; others present their own computational methods. In the paper, a problem of pump scheduling in regular everyday operations of a water supply operator is considered. The issues of water production optimization and energy savings are part of the topic of sustainable development. The objective of the article is the minimization of the cost of electric power used by the pumps supplying water. It is achieved thanks to the variability of both the demand for water and the price of electric power during the day combined with the possibility of storing water. The formulation of an existing electric power cost optimization problem as a binary linear programming problem was improved. An essential extension of the above mathematical model, which enables more flexible management of the pump system, was also proposed. An example containing real-world input data was successfully solved using Microsoft Excel with a free OpenSolver add-in.

Applying Industry 4.0 technologies in the COVID–19 sustainable chains

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is 1) to investigate the effects on the crucial Industry 4.0 technological innovations that interact between the real and virtual worlds and that are applied in the sustainable supply chain process; 2) to contribute to the identification of the opportunities, the challenges and the gaps that will support the new research study developments and 3) to analyze the impact of the Industry 4.0 technologies as facilitators of the sustainable supply chain performance in the midst of the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

Design/methodology/approach

This research is performed through a bibliographic review in the electronic databases of the Emerald Insight, the Scopus and the Web of Science, considering the main scientific publications on the subject.

Findings

The bibliographic search results in 526 articles, followed by two sequential filters for deleting the duplicate articles (resulting in 487 articles) and for selecting the most relevant articles (resulting in 150 articles).

Practical implications

This article identifies the opportunities and the challenges focused on the emerging Industry 4.0 theme. The opportunities can contribute to the sustainable performance of the supply chains and their territories. The Industry 4.0 can also generate challenges like the social inequalities related to the position of the man in the labor market by replacing the human workforce with the machines. Therefore, the man-machine relationship in the Industry 4.0 era is analyzed as a gap in the literature. Therefore, as a way to fill this gap, the authors of this article suggest the exploration of the research focused on the Society 5.0. Also known as “super-smart society,” this recent theme appeared in Japan in April 2016. According to Fukuda (2020), in addition to the focus on the technological development, the Society 5.0 also aims at the quality of life and the social challenge resolutions.

Originality/value

This article contributes to the analysis of the Industry 4.0 technologies as facilitators in the sustainable supply chain performance. It addresses the impacts of the Industry 4.0 technologies applied to the supply chains in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it analyzes the research gaps and limitations found in the literature. The result of this study can add value and stimulate new research studies related to the application of the Industry 4.0 technologies as facilitators in the supply chain sustainable performance. It can encourage the studies related to the COVID-19 impacts on the sustainable supply chains, and it can promote the research development on the relationship among the man, the machine and the labor in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Critical Success Factors of the Project Management in Relation to Industry 4.0 for Sustainability of Projects

Sustainability has recently become a phenomenon; small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly emphasizing the principles of sustainability in their corporate governance. They implement these changes through project management. The purpose of the paper is to determine the critical success factors in project management, as seen by the managers of Czech manufacturing enterprises, related to the most to the successful completion of the projects. We aim to analyze the relation of these success factors to Industry 4.0, Human Resources, and sustainability. We determined the possible interconnectedness of the critical success factors using correlation coefficients. Then, we compared them using the Mann-Whitney test with new corporate management trends. The results show that companies consider Leadership and Experiences, and Employees and Flexibility to be key factors in project management’s success. The most important critical factor for the sustainability of projects focused on Industry 4.0 is the finances that decide the implementation of projects. The benefits of Industry 4.0 concerning sustainability have been identified in projects aimed at implementing new energy sources. In addition to the results obtained, the development of a methodology for evaluating Industry 4.0 projects’ success concerning sustainability may be based on critical success factors in the future.

Does Social Capital Matter for Total Factor Productivity? Exploratory Evidence from Poland

Two issues connected with sustainable development are analysed in this article: total factor productivity (TFP), which measures the efficiency of transforming physical capital and labour into production, and social capital, which is increasingly considered as a factor of TFP. TFP is sometimes viewed as a measure of sustainability, and its high value indicates an effective way of combining and using limited resources. Social capital, in turn, is a determining factor in the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of development. The subject of this analysis is the impact of social capital on TFP. Social capital generates synergistic effects and creates added value using the existing resources. Therefore, it is legitimate to regard it as one of the determinants of TFP. The role of social capital in sustainable development is theoretically grounded and confirmed by numerous empirical studies. Nevertheless, due to the deep dependence on the context, the mechanisms of the impact of this capital on economic effects are still not fully understood. In this paper, social capital is analysed in the context of the post-transformation economy. This context seems to be interesting for two reasons: the relative weakness of social capital in post-communist countries and extensive nature of development these countries have experienced in recent decades, which together can be a barrier to long-term growth in these economies. The purpose of the paper is to identify and assess the impact of social capital in Poland on TFP in a regional breakdown (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics II - NUTS II). The research period covers the years 2002–2016 and employs econometric modelling methods. Social capital turns out to be a factor in explaining the level of TFP in Polish regions.

The Impact of Implementing Talent Management Practices on Sustainable Organizational Performance

As organizations operate in an inexorable marketplace, there are always new and unpredictable difficulties that make managerial roles harder and the achievement of organizational goals and objectives more critical. Recently, the implementation of talent management practices in achieving sustainable organizational performance that will match the firms’ operational and strategic goals have been the concern of both academics and practitioners, but the issue has not been exhaustively investigated. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of talent management practices on the sustainable organizational performance in real estate companies located in the United Arab Emirates. This paper seeks to make contributions through an empirical evaluation of talent management in the United Arab Emirates. A structured questionnaire was distributed to collect data from a study sample of 306 managers working in real estate companies. The proposed hypotheses were verified by structural equation modeling (SEM). The results of this study show that talent attraction and talent retention had no impact on the sustainable organizational performance, whereas learning and development and career management were found to have significantly positive impacts. The study suggests that learning and development, and employee career management, should be leveraged on by the management by concentrating on the coaching and training programs and job rotation so that the firm can achieve sustainable organizational performance.