In the era of economic globalization, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are recognized as an engine of sustainable economic development in both the developed and developing world. In literature, three competitive challenges—the sustainability challenge, the global challenge and the technological challenge—faced by industrial entities in the current globalized economy, are categorized. Of them, this paper undertakes a systemic review of the literature covering the theme of SMEs and technology in order to identify how technological progress in the SMEs, correlates with SMEs survival improvement in the global competition. The review identified six driving forces—social capital, link with Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) and Transnational Corporations (TNCs), innovation, sharing and networking, information technology, and adoption of productivity-enhancing technology—influencing technological upgrade in the SMEs. The review also identified two conditions for successful technological adaptation in the SME sector—availability of technologically skillful workforce in the economy, and identification of opportunities of new technologies in the competition. These conditions could be viewed in the macro environment and emphasize the need for the economies’ readiness towards SMEs’ success.

Economic globalization has created many challenges for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) due to the rapid increase in competition. Therefore, the downfall rate of SMEs is relatively high, a short period after their commencement. Accordingly, SMEs need to adopt survival strategies and strategic methods to succeed in confronting the various global challenges faced by the SME sector. This study critically examined the existing literature on global challenges for SMEs to understand the SMEs’ survival and successive mechanisms in the present competitive business background. Published information related to the field by the multilateral institutions and 110 research papers published by four recognized publishing companies, i.e., Emerald, Elsevier, Taylor and Francis, and MDPI, were chosen for this study. The review revealed the critical global challenges for SMEs within the context of economic globalization. They are the global market competition, global finance and economic crises, information communication technology, the emergence of multi-national corporations, transnational corporations, consumer changes and especially their preferences, trade dumping, international terrorism, and religious conflicts and trade wars. Furthermore, the study considered the survival strategies of SMEs in the industrial platform to recognize sustainability-related policies, specifically, the necessity for a robust theoretical examination on the survival strategies of SMEs in the field of global challenges.

This study examines whether energy consumption and tourism development provide evidence to support the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis in Sri Lanka. Results of the study show that carbon emissions, income, tourism development, and energy consumption are cointegrated in the long run. The long-run estimates do not support the presence of the EKC hypothesis in Sri Lanka. Energy consumption adds to environmental degradation in both short run and long run, while tourism development aggravates environmental degradation in the long run. This study recommends that Sri Lanka can reduce environmental degradation without hindering its economic growth; however, it has to increase energy production from renewable resources as the country’s location provides suitable alternatives for energy production in the form of tide and wind energy in the coastal provinces, while the central provinces offer suitable sites for small hydro-electric projects.

This study examines the nexus between energy, trade, urbanization and environmental degradation in Sri Lanka. The time series data has been checked for unit root problem along with unknown structural break. The bounds testing approach confirms the long-term relationship among carbon emissions, energy consumption, income, trade openness, and urbanization in the presence of structural break. The results of the study do not confirm the presence of the EKC (Environmental Kuznets Curve) hypothesis in Sri Lanka. This study finds that energy consumption leads to carbon emissions in both the long term and the short term. Trade openness is degrading environmental quality, as trade is responsible for the accumulation of carbon emissions in the atmosphere. The results of the study confirm that urbanization has been found to have significant and negative effect on carbon emissions. The study finds that the model is in equilibrium and the model will return to equilibrium from any external shock in less than two years. Policy measures are recommended for sustainable environment of the island.

Sustainable development is the ultimate objective of the nations around the world, and the adoption of development strategies is the driving force for obtaining long-run economic growth, environmental protection and social inclusion. On other hand, globalization integrates the countries around the globe economically, politically and socially. Thus, it is vital to conduct a study on the impact of globalization on sustainable development in Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, as most of the countries are in a transition state from socialism to capitalism and are opening their doors to the world. Globalization comprises three main components, which are economic, political and social. Henceforth, this study investigates the effect of economic globalization, political globalization and social globalization on sustainable development. Energy has been highlighted in the literature and received attention from researchers as a factor of income and environmental quality; thus, it is added as a control variable in this study. The long-run relationships among variables are established through panel cointegration once the order of integration is determined. This study finds a positive and significant effect of economic globalization and political globalization on sustainable development, whereas energy consumption is deteriorating in CIS countries. Policy implications are recommended.

This study aims to examine the influence of banks’ credit to SMEs on non-performing loans. Many studies find that access to financial sources has become an obstacle to the growth and sustainability of SMEs. This study uses theoretical and empirical approaches to support the study’s hypothesis. Data are presented for 15 banks in Palestine, covering the period 2006 to 2016.The study uses empirical techniques regarding to examine the relationship between the variables. Evidence shows that encouraging banks to lend more money to SMEs through the use of a guarantee fund could decrease their risk. Thus, enhancing credit to SMEs could improve the growth and sustainability of these firms. The study recommending policymakers and bank’s managers could develop their strategies according to SME’s needing. Therefore, enhancing the growth in these firms and reducing the bank’s risk. Furthermore, adopting the guarantee funds in developing countries could decrease the bank’s risk, thus lending more to SME. The value of this paper comes from the importance of SME in the economic growth and development sustainability. Therefore, there is a need to convince banks to enhance SME credit through a guarantee fund and that extending this type of credit would positively influence banks’ activities.