Extraordinary changes caused by COVID-19 have enforced companies around the globe to accelerate transition to digital business processes. Human resource management (HRM) is in the heart of these transformations helping organizations to navigate in the vague present and unforeseeable future. HRM needs to manage people in companies during the crisis in order to enable business continuity and ensure work-life balance. Since the future will bring more flexible, remote-friendly, digital working norms, the changes in policies, processes, workspaces, collaboration systems, and employee wellness are of increasingly urgent importance.The paper discusses the challenges HRM is facing due to the current crisis in terms of remote working, and identifies the implications the pandemic has on human resources. The expert interviews conducted in Georgia indicate that HRM should consider ways to develop new policies for hybrid working models as a response to the current pandemic crisis.

Economic growth is a major goal pursued by public authorities but can be achieved with the involvement of several categories of stakeholders given the complexity of the phenomenon and the many influencing factors. In this research paper, the authors analyze specific current issues that are representative as influencers of economic growth. This study brings into focus the importance of education, particularly tertiary education, entrepreneurship skills, and innovation capacities of businesses. The objectives are (1) to find out if tertiary education leads to economic growth; (2) to examine if innovation is one of the promotors of economic growth; and (3) to discuss the impact of the dynamic of businesses (enterprise birth) on economic growth. The methodology used in this research is panel regression (static model) for a sample consisting of 30 European countries for the period 2003–2020. The main findings are associated with a positive influence of tertiary education on economic growth, whereas the two other variables, that of entrepreneurship and innovation, are found to be insignificant for this time period.

Sustainable economic growth can be achieved through tourism by protecting the environment, maintaining natural resources, creating employment, improving cultural diversity, and recognizing cultural heritage values. The concept of tourism sustainability is gradually growing globally and becoming a dominant aspect in modern business, as companies need to meet stakeholders’ demands regarding environmental management. Sustainable tourism incorporates environmental, social, economic, and cultural issues into operations. The demand for green tourism, ethical consumption, protection of natural resources, and living close to nature is expected to increase. In particular, the latter gains more and more popularity due to the stress caused by the global pandemic and also because values have been re-evaluated at every level of society. In this paper, we explore sustainability in the tourism industry within the international context during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a specific focus on tourism in 35 European countries for the period between January 2020 and September 2021. We aimed to study the impact of tourism on sustainability based on the Eurostat database, using cluster analysis and descriptive statistics. The results indicate that tourism will recover slightly, even though the pandemic will continue, recording different effects in European countries. Furthermore, we highlight the relationship between income and tourism, the clusters on tourism being significantly different according to income. The results also identify potential recovery options to align this business area with global sustainable development goals, generate effective transformational change, and suggest how to create a viable growth process pushed by a glocal perspective.

The challenges imposed by climate change and the limited nature of resources generate paradigm shifts at the level of economic, social, and environmental policies and strategies. Promoting the principles of sustainable development and the circular economy is a priority worldwide. Thus, the motivation of this research is to explore the European countries’ path toward sustainable development by analysing the relationship between green environment, economic growth, and circular economy issues. In order to explore this relationship in the case of European countries, the analysis takes into consideration specific variables: final energy consumption, GDP, capital gross fixed capital formation, greenhouse gas emissions, SOx emissions, NOx emissions, and generation of municipal waste per capita. This study is focused on the period 2009–2020 for 31 European countries, with data being provided by Eurostat and World Bank databases. The panel data analysis was used in order to examine the relationship between a green environment, economic growth and a circular economy. The results of the study suggest that gross fixed capital formation and total greenhouse gas emissions lead to decreasing generation of municipal waste; instead, final energy consumption, GDP, SOx emissions and NOx emissions generate an increase in the generation of municipal waste. The novelty of our paper consists of associating green environment, economic growth, and circular economy in the case of European countries, the results allowing the proposal of economic policy measures to favor the green transition process considering the potential of the circular economy.

PURPOSE: Entrepreneurship seen as an engine for economic development is especially desirable for emerging countries to support rapid growth. Moreover, entrepreneurs can support social transformation in favor of more sustainable products and services. Sustainable orientation of entrepreneurship contributes to sustainable development goals and prevents environmental deprivation. However, the sustainable development agenda can also influence entrepreneurship. METHODOLOGY: The conducted bibliometric analysis confirmed the growing interest among scholars in the correlation of entrepreneurship to sustainability in the last years. Furthermore, panel regression (static model) was used to explore the variables on entrepreneurship influencing the sustainable development goal (SDG) index in emerging countries, and Levin, Lin and Chu (LLC), W-Stat – IPS, ADF-Fisher Chi-Square, and PP-Fisher Chi-Square tests were applied to analyze the variables stationarity. In order to examine the existence of structural breaks, the robustness was checked on single cross-section units and on the whole panel dataset. In addition, the Hausmann test was used to select between random and fixed effects, and heteroskedasticity of residues, autocorrelation of residues and dependence of residues between the panels were conducted. Data was analyzed through Eviews 13. FINDINGS: This paper investigates the relationship between sustainability and entrepreneurship in emerging countries. It discusses the impact of sustainable development on entrepreneurship and the influence of entrepreneurship on sustainable development. IMPLICATIONS: The study results can be used by governments and policymakers to plan their strategies and policies concerning entrepreneurship and implementation of sustainable development goals. They should promote entrepreneurial activity and control the negative environmental impact of enterprises simultaneously. ORIGINALITY AND VALUE: The research addresses the gap in the literature concerning the relationship between sustainable development and sustainable entrepreneurship. The paper examines the reciprocal relationship between sustainable development and entrepreneurship with an emphasis on emerging countries.

The current study examines the motivational factors, types of uncertainty, and entrepreneurship strategies of transitional entrepreneurship among ethnic minorities, immigrants, and women entrepreneurs, drawing insights from an extensive literature review. To understand the dynamics of transitional entrepreneurship, a thematic review, a qualitative research tool, was used to analyze the research problem and provide answers to the research questions. Three insightful findings emerged from the thematic review. First, six broad themes emerged as catalysts for transitional entrepreneurship among the three focused entrepreneurs, namely, the institutional environment, push factors, pull factors, ethnic resource dependence, cultural inheritance, and gender identity issues. Specific elements of each of the six themes are explicated. Moreover, two levels of uncertainty (Levels 1 and 2) confront transitional entrepreneurs depending on countries and institutional contexts. Level 1 uncertainty presents a clear future with likelihoods, possibilities, and probabilities of success, while Level 2 uncertainty presents several alternate paths and trajectories with a blurred possibility of success for these entrepreneurs. Finally, transitional entrepreneurs leverage optioned and adaptive entrepreneurship strategies in different ways to cope with the two types of uncertainty in their host countries. Given the prospects of TE, the paper provides implications on how to remove the institutional barriers facing transitional entrepreneurs for more balanced socioeconomic inclusion in host countries. It further explicates a need to leverage the motivational factors and entrepreneurship strategies for economic development. By providing a theoretical-based framework of motivations, types of uncertainty, and entrepreneurship strategies, the paper bridges the gaps in the literature and contributes to a better way of understanding TE among ethnic minorities, immigrants, and women entrepreneurs in the period of transition.