Sustainable technologies, including clean energy in manufacturing and green and reverse logistics, generate conditions for industry development and future growth with the implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies and innovations in the context of sustainable development goals (SDGs). The objective of the article is to identify and analyse the potential of sustainable technologies in synergy with Industry 4.0 innovations and renewable energy initiatives in manufacturing and logistics in the context of SDGs. Qualitative analysis was performed on 105 enterprises of various business sizes, in several regions of Slovakia, within various industry sectors, and within geographical coverage. Based on the summarised results, we can state that more than 82% of surveyed enterprises implement the SDGs. Currently, more than 70% of enterprises prefer environmental aspects in business management. Based on the results, we find a significant relationship between the environmental management of the enterprise in the context of SDGs and sustainability in production and logistics. Statistical analysis confirmed the relationship between the use of renewable energy technology in the industrial sector. A significant relationship was also demonstrated between sustainability in logistics activities in the industrial sector in waste separation and recycling; environmental certification; environmental training of employees; the use of renewable energy sources and the continuous reduction of CO₂ in all logistics activities. The results of the study indicate a significant relationship between green manufacturing, green logistics, reverse logistics and selected Industry 4.0 technologies: autonomous robots, renewable energy, advanced materials, virtual technologies, and simulation. We conclude the significant influence of environmental management on business production and logistics.

Entrepreneurship is one of the driving forces behind the development of the national economy. The effect of entrepreneurship in the economic dimension is a business entity, most often a small or medium enterprise. The SME sector plays a significant role in every national economy. Traditionally, people perceived entrepreneurship as a factor measured by the earned profit. Increasing it was the primary goal of enterprises operating on the market. The operating conditions and competitiveness level have meant that enterprises beside economic goals also pursue social and environmental goals. Entrepreneurship is perceived as a determinant of social and ecological development, thus referred to as sustainable entrepreneurship. This article aims to identify and evaluate attitudes towards sustainable entrepreneurship among Polish enterprises. We compare the obtained results with their self-assessment and distinguish different approaches to business activity. The cluster analysis of survey results shows that the Polish SME sector can be divided into five separate groups characterized by a different approach and level of implementation of sustainable development. We also concluded that the Polish enterprises are more focused on social than environmental aspects.

An important challenge for the future is focusing on sustainability in life and business. The three elements of sustainability (economic, environmental, and social), defined in 17 factors by the United Nations (UN) as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), may, therefore, be the main drivers of business competitiveness and opportunity recognition. The main aim of the article is to identify the awareness level of sustainability and sustainable development goals in the context of business opportunity areas by analysing the results of a survey of organisations in six countries (Finland, Slovakia, Italy, Austria, Spain, and Turkey). A multilingual questionnaire, administered in six participating countries, was used as a collection tool to determine the organisation’s level of awareness regarding the SDGs. A research questionnaire was filled in by 238 respondents, providing a cross-cultural view of their attitudes, knowledge, and future interest in sustainability and the SDGs. The obtained results indicate differences in the approach to sustainability issues, the scope of knowledge, interest, competencies in sustainable development and SDGs, and the content of implementation of sustainability and SDGs in organisations in different sectors, regions and countries. Further statistical evaluation of the research hypotheses states the significant relationship between the two variables: sustainable strategy and the designation of a responsible employee in each organisation rs = 0.677 (α = 0.05). It is essential to eliminate the gap in the cross-cultural approach and knowledge in engaging with sustainable strategy and its implementation in current and future organisation activities in the context of sustainability and SDGs, in order to enhance opportunities for the growth of sustainability-focused entrepreneurship across different sectors and countries.

A systematic approach to nonconformity management and continuous improvements are the key elements of the quality management system. The objective of this paper is to present quality improvement for a manufacturing company producing forgings through the combination of several statistical methods and quality control techniques. First, Pareto analysis was applied, followed by the 8D (eight disciplines) methodology using a structured eight-step approach to problem solving following the PDCA (plan-do-check-act) method. The aim was to identify the problem and discover the critical causes of failures in the management system that allowed the problem to occur, by modifying and combining appropriate quality management methods and tools. The paper introduces a case study considering the forging process in the production of gearboxes, where customer complaints were identified in the last year, demanding the need to eliminate failures. Using the mentioned methods, the root cause of the problem was identified and permanent corrective action was planned and implemented according to the recommendations of the 8D report, which made it possible to reduce the likelihood of a recurrence of this problem and increase customer satisfaction.

Aim of the paper is to analyse specific factors of human-robot collaboration and adoption to Industry 4.0 technologies in relation to working in mixed teams and in virtual work environment. Based on literature review and current findings in unified theory of technology acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model and its extensions, new endogenous factors might be included/considered, in a UTAUT model, namely emotional attitude (trust towards technology, perceived threat) and new moderators such as a location of organization and type of workplace-based training in organization. Team identification and self-extension process are intended as drivers for development of positive attitudes in human-robot collaboration and prerequisites of sustainable human-robot interaction. Regarding the findings in human-robot collaboration, the authors suggest including the type of personality and the attitudes towards Human-Robot collaboration among the extended factors of technology adoption within Industry 4.0 strategy. Emotional attachment acts as a relevant factor of successful Human-Robot collaboration that can be maintained by a support of team identification and self-extension process. For the development of positive attitudes in human-robot collaboration, principles of personalized design can be applied, e. g. engaging the workers in designing specific features of the robot. It can be supposed that specific models of technology adoption - as UTAUT/UTAUT2 will require new extensions in a context of work analysis in a virtual work environment, e.g. health and psychological assumptionsIn the paper, subjective assessment of the increase in well-being of the workers after the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies is identified as one of the new Industry 4.0 outcomes within the human capital definition of Industry 4.0.

The work discusses issues of the infrastructure, its instruments, and specifics of infrastructure in Polish and Slovak rural areas. The aim of this article is to analyze the level of technical infrastructure development in rural regions of the Małopolskie Voivodeship in Poland and the west part of Slovakia—Trnava self-governing region (Trnava region) as two regions with a similar position regarding regional competitiveness index. Following the topic, after identification of strengths and weaknesses of mentioned regions, the opportunities, and threats of sustainable development of infrastructure in rural areas have been analyzed using the SWOT method. The development of sustainable, reliable, and functional infrastructure does not only refer to the chosen regions of Poland and Slovakia but also other regions in the European Union. Sustainable infrastructure is a factor stimulating social and economic progress as one of the most important determinants of sustainable development and regional competitiveness. The authors notice a particular lack in the sustainable development of infrastructure in the field of water and sewerage management together with the supply of water. Therefore, this article tries to complete the gap in research focusing on the concept of a more systematic approach to technical infrastructure improvement in the context of sustainable development, and strategy of cooperation.