The opportunities and challenges related to sustainability impose not only a societal transformation but also a personal one. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have great potential to promote sustainability and shape future generations’ skills, knowledge, thinking, and actions. Addressing environmental, social, and economic pillars, education for sustainable development (ESD), or education for sustainability (EfS), is a catalyst for quality education towards a sustainable future. This paper aims to analyze the state of the art and prevailing trends in the scientific literature pertaining to ESD/EfS. In this regard, specific objectives were established to identify the following: (1) authors’ productivity over time; (2) countries’ contribution and collaboration; (3) the most relevant keywords; and (4) the most prominent themes—in terms of relevance and degree of development. To fulfill the research objectives, quantitative research employing bibliometric analysis was carried out in April 2023. The research data sample was collected from the Web of Science (WoS) database. By conducting the search using a combined topic (“education for sustainable development” OR “education for sustainability”), a total of 2827 documents in English were identified within a timeframe of 33 years (1989–2023). These documents served as the foundation for subsequent data processing, visualization, and analysis using Biblioshiny/Bibliometrix (version R-4.2.0), as well as Excel (version 2309) software. The visualization and analysis focused on examining the most prolific authors and countries, in addition to generating word clouds based on keywords. Moreover, the thematic map that was delineated into four quadrants—Basic, Motor, Niche, and Emerging or Declining themes—provides an overview of the researched subject. ESD—embracing environmental, social, and economic pillars—implies transformative learning, action-oriented pedagogies, and professional development. As a holistic framework, it requires interdisciplinarity, system thinking, critical and experiential thinking, problem-based learning, and the use of 4IR technologies to enhance the teaching-learning process.

The present scientific approach is based on the premise that an interdisciplinary approach in research allows us to solve more complex problems and to create a bridge between fields of knowledge in order to reach relevant solutions. In this context, as a general line of achievement, the proposed study aims to identify a management solution for implementing organizational change. The conceptual paradigm related to the link between sustainable development management and organizational culture is also incorporated, with a focus on the dimensions of sustainable development. The authors’ collective understanding of organizational culture, part of the organizational management system, and sustainable development management, as a cross-cutting approach, is the object of a study applied to the Romanian higher education environment, considered a catalyst for change with an impact on society as a whole. The specific objective of the study is to analyse the relationships between organizational culture and sustainable development management, aiding some stakeholders to identify solutions for increasing performance in the implementation of sustainable development management in Romanian universities. It is intended to contribute to internalizing the idea of a higher value of organizational culture as an internal barometer of an organization, an imprint of values, beliefs, rules and norms, which is why the study also takes into account the investigation of the role of culture in the diagnosis of organizational sustainability, and finally, the contribution of the culture vector to the implementation of changes is highlighted. Achieving goals in the field of sustainable development involves changing mindsets that shape human behaviour. The analysis of the university environment aimed precisely at investigating its relationship with ecological and sustainability issues and identifying ways to improve these practices. In order to achieve these research goals, a methodological framework centred on two pillars was used: a brief bibliometric research accompanied by a critical analysis of the literature and questionnaire-based research. The first pillar resolves the conceptual issues that underpin the study and the second provides an insight into the main characteristics of the organizational culture that can influence sustainable development in Romanian universities.

Critical infrastructure is foundational for the prosperity and quality of life in any society. By definition, its destruction or disruption would cause severe damage and possibly loss of life. Within this understanding, space systems are a new category of critical infrastructure, emerging as an enabler of new applications which are critical within the wider system-of-systems. This paper presents the results of a modeling exercise validating the proof of concept regarding the idea of the global, air-transport-critical infrastructure’s dependence on space systems. By using an open-source application, the authors constructed a complex system made up of 18 airports for which six scenarios were modeled that represent either the exposure to specific space phenomena or the effects of a partial or total critical space infrastructure disruption. Despite the limitations and assumptions made in the building of this model, its results suggest that a significant impact would result from disruptive events, with the potential for cascading disruptions within the system, beyond the system under analysis, and into the wider system-of-systems. Tools such as this model are useful to policy- and decision-makers, not only to protect existing, critical infrastructures, but also to adequately source future risks, vulnerabilities, and threats, and design and build new infrastructures.

Given the newest trends in business and the growing interest towards Internet of Things, it became natural that economic environment switched the paradigm of classical business model. Blockchain technology is a very timely topic of discussion both in academic environment and outside it. This element was proven by authors when analyzing the topic towards the number of publication releases and the search engine queries. Furthermore, the authors shaped the framework of blockchains‘ development highlighting the main advantages and disadvantages for Industry 4.0.

The urban transportation system is characterized by the urban roads development and growth of road traffic, which leads, most of the time, to a series of congestions in the vehicles traffic. Consequently, due to a high time duration spent on the road traffic, the travel time from a location to another one could be very upsetting for any car drivers, or embarrassing for emergency services and vehicle convoys that carry goods or sensitive items. Those are mainly reasons for using simulation modeling to analyze and optimize the travel time of the road traffic actors in the an urban transportation system. This paper focuses on optimization vehicles flow in a crowded area of Sibiu city, by using agent-based modeling concept and AnyLogic simulation modeling software.

The main purpose of this paper is to explore current perspectives on the approach to the concept of leadership in relation to sustainability. The research question is focused on the importance of leadership and its contribution as a driver of change, in the organizational sustainability context. The methodology of research has as main framework the bibliometric analysis approach. This quantitative research method allowed achieving some specific objectives, such as: determining the scientific interest in the studied topic and the main authors in the field, identifying the key concepts that interfered with leadership and sustainability and highlighting the main leadership style that facilitates the transition to sustainability. It is thus intended to make a valuable and up-to-date contribution to 2024 on the main trends manifested in leadership research as theory and practice. Among the main findings obtained, it is highlighted that, after 2020, the top three leadership styles that have created links in correlation with other concepts, thus generating organizational change, are: transformational leadership, ethical leadership and authentic leadership. Of these, transformational leadership stands out as a key factor in driving innovation and sustainable performance, this fact being valuable to managers and researchers.