The platform economy is the embodiment of the activities carried out by its influential players, which by their very nature are new markets, facilitating the matching of suppliers and customers. A new market entails access to or even joint use of underused assets, provision of new working places, and simplification of human life with online transactions and services, which serves the assumption that the platform economy is able to undertake sustainable development and may meet a number of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) introduced in 2015. First, this paper aims to study whether the platform business model entails sustainability as its integral core concept. Second, it attempts to assess if platform companies from two selected industries—ride-sharing services and EdTech—meet SDGs comparably better than their predecessor linear companies in transportation and education. The study carries out an empirical analysis of eight companies. The results indicate that platform companies demonstrate a relatively lower commitment to SDGs compared to linear transnational firms, which can be explained by the level of maturity of platform companies and their still mostly non-public nature.

I-business firms are upraising their capitalization compared to traditional pipeline businesses due to value co-creation with other participants - complementors, supply-side and demand-side users - forming a business ecosystem. The paper discusses the concept of value creation for platform firms and analyzes i-firms’ integration in the global value chains under the influence of Industry 4.0. It results in providing the models of contemporary GVCs with i-business firms embedded in them.

The main purpose of this paper is to study the influence of home-multinational enterprises on country global competitiveness and to determine how this influence changes with the stage of country competitiveness. Based on the regression model, Variance Inflation Factor test and Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering method, we analyzed the WEF Global Competitiveness Index 2017–2018 of those countries whose multinational firms were included into the Forbes Global 2000 list of 2017. The findings highlighted the important role of home-MNEs as determinants of countries‘ competitiveness, however MNE-related contribution of different pillars and components of the Global Competitiveness Index vary, depending on the stage of competitiveness of the studied 58 countries.

The study examines the sustainability of competitive advantages among Russian multinationals, particularly those in the commodity sectors. Using data from the Fortune 500 and Forbes Global 2000rankings, we analyze the dynamics of the representation of Russian MNEs and the structural factors contributing to their dominance. The paper explores several theoretical concepts, including the Market-Based View, Resource-Based View, Knowledge-Based View, and Dynamic Capabilities Perspective, to understand the drivers behind the sustained competitive edge of these firms. Emphasis is placed on the role of resource dependency, oligopolistic power, and state intervention, and the challenges posed by evolving global sustainability standards. The findings suggest that while Russian commodity companies benefit from stable internal resources, they face increasing pressure to adapt to sustainability and environmental regulations to maintain long-term competitiveness.