Cross-border partnerships are a distinctive example of inter-organizational cooperation, embedded, in terms of territory, in the neighboring borderland regions of two or more countries. The aim of this paper is to identify factors that contribute to the sustainable cross-border cooperation and affect motivation to increase cooperation between cross-border partners. The objective implementation is connected with the verification of a hypothesis referring to the possible impact of the European Union funds on the trans-boundary cooperation transformations. Results of desk research and quantitative research involving IDI, CATI, CAWI and CATI and PAPI data collection methods, implemented in the Polish–Czech borderland in 2016 were used in this paper. Research on the Polish–Lithuanian borderland was also used in the paper to conduct comparative analysis, useful to identify and evaluate factors motivating sustainable cross-border cooperation in the Czech–Polish borderland. The sustainable, cross-border and inter-organizational cooperation in the borderlands results from the simultaneous interaction of three groups of factors: (1) people and institutions (the quality of interpersonal relationships); (2) cross-border planning, procedures and support mechanisms (e.g., the possibility of jointly planning the cross-border cooperation and obtaining EU funds for the development of the borderlands as well as the availability of other funds helpful in this kind of cooperation); and (3) environment (historical affinity and geographical proximity of neighboring border regions, system support at the regional and local level in neighboring countries).

The subject of the paper is the analysis and evaluation of cross-border entrepreneurship development opportunities on the basis of cross-border cooperation, which has gradually evolved from consisting of bilateral partnerships to a networking model or even a cluster. The study conducted at the Polish–Czech border area indicates that, in terms of the development of cross-border cooperation, the economic sphere is lagging far behind social activities such as culture, education and tourism. At the same time, Polish and Czech enterprises are not sufficiently mobilized to develop cross-border entrepreneurship, although a number of support instruments in this regard have been proposed. Sustainable development of the border should take into account both social and economic aspects. An important research problem therefore becomes determining the possibility of boosting the development of cross-border entrepreneurship on the basis of the existing forms of cross-border cooperation, including cooperation in the social sphere. The aim of this paper is to define the conditions and opportunities for the development of cluster cooperation in the area of cross-border entrepreneurship. The author has attempted to resolve whether the intensity of cross-border cooperation can be a factor which mobilizes companies to develop their cross-border entrepreneurship and whether cross-border entrepreneurship can be further developed within the cluster model.

In recent years, cooperation among nations has become a critical issue towards sustainable development of neighbor cities in border areas. In this regard, sustainable common planning approaches and policies are an increasing reality, particularly in European territories. Considering the significant amount of cross-border cooperation (CBC) projects and strategies within Europe, it is crucial to promote research approaches that are able to identify the most positive approaches towards the establishment of alliances in border territories, serving as pivotal methodologies for achieving success. Contextually, the present study considered direct and indirect research methods and tools, literature reviews, data collection, computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) and computer-assisted web interview (CAWI), all applied over two European border cities: Cieszyn (Poland) and Cesky Tesin (Czech Republic). These methods enabled the assembly of perspectives of local authorities, public and private institutions, non-governmental organizations, and entrepreneurs from the cities under study. Through the analysis of the collected data, five conditions have been identified for the success of strategic alliances in CBC projects: (i) well defining the alliance goals; (ii) ensuring participation in the alliance of various groups of stakeholders; (iii) involvement of both partners with extensive experience in CBC; (iv) ensuring the coherence of the key objective; and (v) guaranteeing the alliance benefits both sides. These conditions might effectively contribute to achieve more successful outputs in CBC projects, highlighting the relevance of previously developed strategies on the definition of future approaches.

The aim of this paper is to examine the role and scope of the influence of leadership on the sustainable development of SMEs. Research methods included the theoretical analysis of scientific literature and a direct survey. The quantitative sample for analysis contained 138 managers, the representatives of companies (SMEs) located in Poland. The data was collected in November and December 2015.The obtained results show that leadership is one of the key aspects that enable sustainability. It is more important than employee approval, beliefs of employees from individual departments and teams, a long-term strategy for the sustainable development of the company, approval by external stakeholders, and substantial financial resources. There is a statistically significant relationship between taking action related to sustainable business in the company and manager’s conviction (awareness) regarding the concept of sustainable business development as well as the influence of the manager on employees and the stimulation of their behaviour, including their development, decent treatment, communication with the manager, and the system of rewards and promotions. Managers undertake some action aimed at developing their employees. They also establish relationships with external stakeholders.The paper presents theoretical reflections on the relationship between the sustainable business development of SMEs and leadership, also verified by the empirical study conducted among managers of private companies. The findings of the study contribute to the understanding of the connections between these constructs. The relationship between the creation of sustainable business development is analysed in depth with reference to SMEs. Entrepreneurs and managers of SMEs can benefit from the study in order to build an organisation capable of achieving effective and sustainable development.

During the times of the COVID-19 pandemic, nations have issued unprecedented border closures around the world, yielding abrupt impacts on the movement of goods and people. This has heavily affected the quality of life in border regions, which are often found to be at a disadvantage when compared to other regions in terms of employment, accessibility, social services and economic growth. Based upon developing threads in the literature concerning the untapped potential for development in border regions, we argue that the Mission-Oriented Approach (MOA) can fit well with the ambitious goal to revitalize those territories in the aftermath of the pandemic. Despite the surge of MOA in discourses on innovation policy, we seek to implement it in a regional development perspective, pursuing both economic and social policy objectives. The authors unravel the policy concept of MOA into three main aspects: (I) address a sound societal challenge; (II) Research & Development (R&D) regional agenda embedded in a cross-border regional development vision; (III) mobilizing multiple cross-sectorial projects. Through a desk study analysis, the authors draw insights from selected case studies where these aspects have been implemented to inspire policy intervention in the aftermath of COVID-19. This paper presents the MOA theoretical model, which has potential explanatory power in other cross-border regions.