Sustainability as an Inevitable Paradigm of Business and Social Relations

Dear Colleagues,

In today’s world, the role of sustainability as a paradigm of business and social relations is unquestionable. The first two decades of the 21st century proved that the shift towards a sustainability-oriented society and economy is a condition for the existence of future generations. Building a  sustainability-oriented society requires complex actions in different areas, taking into consideration a variety of perspectives: economic, behavioural, financial, environmental, educational, technological, etc.  Different aspects of sustainability should be addressed, including cultural and social sustainability, the sustainability of businesses, environmental and employment relations, marketing and sustainable production and consumption, psychology and communication for sustainability, sustainable design, the tourism and hospitality industry, sustainable transport, finance and management. General issues of sustainable development should be supplemented by cross-cultural and country-specific issues to stimulate openness to and awareness of different cultures and tolerance of and responsiveness to different needs that can lead to strengthening societies’ potential.

In today’s world, technology proliferation plays the core role in driving the transition to sustainable development by, for example, enabling the emergence of new business models that reflect social needs resulting from changes and predominating megatrends. There have been various ideas regarding how utilizing different tools can benefit businesses from marketing, relationship building to CSR- related merits, while techniques and game dynamics can encourage consumers to behave in a certain way. The only way to succeed is by combining the efforts, perspectives and stances of various players whose understanding, awareness and actions can result in slowing down the pace of destruction to the environment and provide for the development of societies without compromising their future. 

Therefore, the aim of this Special Issue is to bring together multidisciplinary studies, thus contributing to the development of new policies, technologies, products, strategies and approaches that can lead to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Dr. Anna Urbanek
Dr. Ewa Wójcik
Dr. Tomasz Zieliński
Guest Editors

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