WSB Merito University in Wroclaw

COVID-19, as a pandemic, is impacting institutions around the world. Its scope and economic dimensions also mean that it poses a major threat towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article discusses how the coronavirus pandemic may influence the SDGs and could affect their implementation. The methods used entail an analysis of the literature, observations and an assessment of current world trends. The results obtained point out that, while COVID-19 has become a priority to many health systems in developing nations, they still need to attend to many other existing diseases such as malaria, yellow fever and others. Further, the study shows that strong concerns in dealing with COVID-19 are disrupting other disease prevention programs. As a result, problems such as mental health are also likely to be overlooked, since the isolation of social distancing may mask or lead to an increase in the percentage of suffers. The paper suggests that, due to its wide scope and areas of influence, COVID-19 may also jeopardize the process of the implementation of the SDGs. It sends a cautious warning about the need to continue to put an emphasis on the implementation of the SDGs, so that the progress achieved to date is not endangered.

Purpose This paper aims to propose a research model that explores perceived green organizational support (OS) as a mediator of the effect of green human resource management (GHRM) on job performance (JP) and organizational citizenship behavior toward the organization (OCB-O). Design/methodology/approach This paper used data obtained from small- and medium-sized hotels in Palestine. The associations given above were tested using structural equation modeling. Findings The findings reveal that GHRM boosts hotel employees’ perceptions of green OS. That is, the effective implementation of GHRM is a sign of perceived green OS. Congruent with the study predictions, employees’ perceptions of green OS activate their JP and OCB-O. Finally, perceived green OS mediates the impact of GHRM on JP and OCB-O. Practical implications Management should take advantage of green human resource practices to acquire and retain talented employees whose environmental goals and values fit those of the company. Employees should be involved in problem-solving on environmental sustainability and green management. They should also participate in continuous training programs and enhance their awareness of environmental sustainability and green management. Originality/value There is a lack of evidence appertaining to the effects of GHRM and perceived green OS on non-green positive workplace performance outcomes. More importantly, there is a scarcity of evidence about the mechanism linking GHRM to these performance outcomes.

Sustainability leadership entails the processes, which leaders, policymakers, and academics undertake in order to implement sustainable development policies and other initiatives within their organizations. It encompasses approaches, methods, and systemic solutions to solve problems and drive institutional policy towards a more sustainable organization. Higher Education Institutions (HEI) play a particularly important role, especially with regard to their institutional leadership role in promoting sustainable development. There is a paucity of research focusing on sustainability leadership in universities. In order to address this gap, this paper discussed the concept of sustainability leadership based on literature and empirical insights. The study aimed to understand the main characteristics of sustainability leaders at HEI and the main challenges they are confronted with. Secondary research questions involved gender issues and positive outcomes of sustainability leadership. The empirical component of the study consisted of an online-questionnaire survey performed among leaders (n = 50) from a set of universities in 29 countries. The sampling scheme was purposive, based on the membership in the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Program (IUSDRP). The study was explorative in nature, and the descriptive statistics were used for the analysis. Due to the purposive sampling, the participants from top management positions could be considered as experienced, and their views were assumed to be information-rich. With a self-evaluation, the respondents described their leadership style and their usual traits, with inclusive style and systemic thinking being predominant in the sample. Regarding the skills, the respondents selected the ability to innovate, to think long-term, and to manage complexity from a pre-defined set of options. Connectedness with interdisciplinarity and knowledge about organizational settings, as well as global challenges and dilemmas, were stated as important issues related to the knowledge required for being a leader. Regarding requirements for a change towards more sustainable universities’ curriculum adaptation, investments in education for sustainable development (ESD), sustainable procurement, and reporting were mentioned. The study also revealed that gender issues were taken seriously among the sampled institutions, which is an encouraging trend. Challenges seen in implementing sustainability leadership are, for instance, a lack of interest by the university administration and among some members of the academic community, as well as lack of expertise and materials or resources. Based on the empirical insights, a set of measures were listed and which may be adopted in the future, so as to allow leaders of Higher Education Institutions to enhance their sustainability performance.

Purpose Using social exchange, signaling, job demands-resources and reformulation of attitude theories, the purpose of this paper is to propose and test a research model in which green work engagement (GWEN) mediates the impact of management commitment to the ecological environment (MCEE) on green creativity, task-related pro-environmental behavior (PEB) and proactive PEB. Design/methodology/approach Data for the paper were obtained from hotel customer-contact employees in Turkey and South Korea. The hypothesized associations were assessed via structural equation modeling. Findings The findings in Studies 1 and 2 supported the viability of the model. Specifically, GWEN partially mediated the effect of MCEE on task-related and proactive PEB, while it fully mediated the influence of MCEE on green creativity. Practical implications Management should invest and/or go on investing in environmental sustainability to send strong signals to employees that the organization really cares about the environment and is highly committed to the preservation and protection of the environment. With green training, empowerment and rewards, management can boost employees’ GWEN, which motivates them to engage in environmentally responsible behaviors. Originality/value The paper advances current knowledge by testing the relationship of MCEE, as appraised by employees, to their GWEN and green work outcomes. More importantly, the paper has explored the impact of GWEN in the intermediate relationship between MCEE and critical green work outcomes, such as green creativity, task-related PEB and proactive PEB. Further, the paper adds to the extant research by assessing the antecedents and outcomes of GWEN.

Relationships between geoheritage and cultural heritage are being increasingly explored and have become one of the mainstreams within studies of geoheritage and geodiversity. In this review paper, we identify the main and secondary themes at the geoheritage—cultural heritage interface and provide examples of specific topics and approaches. These themes include added cultural value to geoheritage sites, geoheritage in urban spaces, cultural landscapes, and the contribution of geoheritage to their identity, mining and quarrying heritage, linkages with natural disasters, history of science, and art. Intangible cultural heritage is also reviewed in the geoheritage context. In the closing part of the paper, various classifications of geoheritage—cultural heritage linkages are proposed, although it is concluded that themes and fields of inquiry are overlapping and interlinked, rendering one classification system not very feasible. Instead, a mind map to show these diverse connections is offered. The paper closes with recommendations for future studies, arising from this review and the identification of research gaps and under-researched areas.

The extant literature is bereft of evidence about the detrimental outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic on hotel employees' mental health (MH) and work and nonwork outcomes. Therefore, our paper examines MH problems as a mediator of the effect of COVID-19 as a stressor on propensity to be late for work (PLW) and absenteeism, as well as life satisfaction (LS). One hundred and fifty-one employees in two national five-star hotels in Turkey completed Web-based surveys. The previously mentioned linkages were gauged via structural equation modelling. Study results reveal that employees who are at risk of getting infected by COVID-19 are beset with MH problems at elevated levels. These employees in turn exhibit PLW and absences from work and display low levels of LS. The results further demonstrate that the threat of COVID-19 triggers employees' absenteeism. Our paper provides theoretical implications and recommendations for managers in the hospitality industry.

Sand is considered one of the most consumed natural resource, being essential to many industries, including building construction, electronics, plastics, and water filtration. This paper assesses the environmental impact of sand extraction and the problems associated with its illegal exploitation. The analysis indicates that extracting sand at a greater rate than that at which it is naturally replenished has adverse consequences for fauna and flora. Further, illicit mining activities compound environmental damages and result in conflict, the loss of taxes/royalties, illegal work, and losses in the tourism industry. As sea-level rise associated with climate change threatens coastal areas, sand in coastal areas will play an increasingly greater role in determining the amount of damage from floods and erosion. The present analysis points to the need for swift action to regulate sand mining, monitoring, law enforcement, and international cooperation.

The aim of this article is to evaluate selected tourism development strategies in Poland, in the context of strategic planning, stakeholders’ participation, and sustainable development principles. A questionnaire evaluation of strategy (44 questions) was established and based on measurement scales developed and validated by other authors in earlier studies. The five authors of the study rated 37 tourism development strategies in 13 provinces, 11 cities, 5 counties, 6 municipalities, and 2 other areas. Analysis revealed that they implement paradigms of sustainable development of tourism to only a small extent. Definitely higher quality is documented for higher levels of administrative division. The highest rated domains of the tourism development strategy in the examined documents are Strategic Planning Indicators and Implementation, Monitoring, and Evaluation.

PURPOSE: A risk assessment matrix is a widely used tool for analyzing, assessing and setting priorities in risk management in many fields. This paper overviews critical variables, advantages, disadvantages, strengths and weaknesses of this tool, according to the ISO 31000 risk management framework. RESULTS: Risk assessment is one of the key stages in the Risk Management Process and involves specific steps: identifying hazards, analyzing and evaluating all possible risks. Several methods are developed to assess risks in the literature. A risk matrix method, also called "decision matrix risk assessment (DMRA) technique", is a systematic approach used to determine the risk level and to compare different risks and define which threats need to be controlled first. The actors involved in risk assessment are called on to manage different issues related to the choice of the most appropriate methodological approach, the assessment of the adequacy of the existing control measures, the articulation of risk consequence domains, the definition of the impact-consequences, the explanation of risk likelihood scales and the development of a risk matrix. CONCLUSION: We highlighted a number of recommendations in order to address these issues, especially useful when healthcare organizations provide insufficient guidance on how to use risk matrices as well as what to do in response to the existing criticisms on their use.

Based on a systematic literature (SLR) and content analysis, this article offers a critical review of customer engagement (CE) research in English and Chinese hospitality and tourism management literature. This article discusses CE research by identifying temporal scope, country of origin distributions, theoretical perspectives and conceptualizations. Research streams of CE are also discussed from the perspective of context, mode and process, antecedents and consequences. The current study suggests that CE is an important research topic in the hospitality and tourism field. There has been a shift from “customer” to “tourist” and “visitor”. CE in hospitality and tourism has been explored both in the context of offline and online. This study provides specific theoretical implications and suggestions for future research.

INTRODUCTION: The Servqual (an acronym from the words "service" and "quality") method is used to assess the quality of provided services on the basis of standardised evaluation parameters. This method is based on five gaps resulting from the discrepancy between expected and received service quality. The aim of this meta-analysis and the systematic review was to view and assess the major differences in the five dimensions of the Servqual method used to evaluate the quality of delivered health care services in selected Asian countries. Another goal of the study was to confirm the use of the Servqual method as a suitable tool for assessing the quality of health care services. METHODS: This study followed the PRISMA guidelines for systemic reviews and meta-analyses. The following electronic databases for medical publications were used: PubMed, Medline, Scopus, and Cochrane were searched for articles published from January 2000 to April 2020. The databases were explored with original search queries containing the following terms: "Servqual", "service quality", "Servqual model", "servqual questionnaire", "health service quality", "health care services", "patients' expectation", "patients' perception", "expectation", "perception", and "health care services", in combination using "AND" and "OR". In order to minimize bias, two researchers (PK and DK) independently performed an online search for peer-reviewed papers, using the combinations of the above-mentioned words. In addition, references of eligible publications were checked. All disagreements, regarding the inclusion or exclusion of specific studies, were resolved through consultations among all the authors. RESULTS: A total of 96 reports were identified and submitted to a preliminary screening selection. As a result of the pre-screening stage, 64 papers were qualified to further evaluation. The output of the evaluation brought 15 reported studies, meeting the pre-defined inclusion/exclusion criteria. The total number of participants was 5903 (ranging from 20 to 439 in individual reports), and 54% of them were women. Eight studies (53%) were from Iran, two from Pakistan (13%) and one each from Arabia, Malaysia, South Korea, Bangladesh, and Iraq (each-about 7%). The results showed gaps between patients' expectations and perceptions in all five dimensions of Servqual in almost each analysed study. The highest and lowest values of the gaps in quality scores were associated with the dimensions of reliability, tangibility, empathy, and responsiveness, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The study demonstrated that the method of Servqual is broadly used in various medical sectors to assess the quality of medical services provided. In addition, the study demonstrated that patients had significantly higher expectations of the medical services offered in the five dimensions studied. The results, obtained through the Servqual method, may help improve and monitor the quality of services provided by different institutions.

Prior studies predominantly use cross-sectional designs to determine effects of pro-environmental beliefs on green purchasing attitudes, thereby limiting the possibility for causal inferences and examining mediation effects. We overcome these gaps by adopting a two-wave longitudinal design to test a moderated-mediation model that draws on consumer choice theory, positing that the effect of implicit pro-environmental beliefs on green purchasing attitudes is mediated by perceived social value from buying green, while the relationship between pro-environmental beliefs and perceived social value is moderated by perceived inconvenience of buying green. Findings from a sample of Polish youth indicate that green purchasing attitudes resulting from implicit pro-environmental beliefs, partly depend on wider societal factors, i.e., perceived social value and inconvenience. These findings suggest that it is not a desire to do good for society motivates pro-environmental attitudes of the youth, but rather a desire to look good, especially for consumers who perceive high inconveniences of buying green. The attitude of youthful consumers who are less susceptible to social values is directly determined by beliefs.

Purpose Drawing on the self-determination and conservation of resources theories, as well as the transactional theory of stress, this paper aims to develop and empirically test a research model depicting the interrelationships of sense of calling, emotional exhaustion (EXH), intent to remain with the organization (IRO), task-related pro-environmental behavior (PEB) and non-green behavior (NGB). Design/methodology/approach Data came from hotel employees with three waves of one-week time lag and their direct supervisors in China. The authors assessed these linkages through structural equation modeling. Findings Sense of calling mitigates EXH and NBGs, while it fosters IRO and task-related PEBs. EXH partly mediates the influence of sense of calling on NGBs. Practical implications It is important to maintain a workplace in which employees foster their work competence, possess a more positive interpretation of work meaning and accomplish their career goals. Management should organize environmental training programs that would compel employees to pay attention to the protection of nature and scarce resources and enable them to be involved in the environmental sustainability process. Originality/value A search made in the hospitality and tourism literature shows that few studies have investigated the consequences of employees’ sense of calling. The authors’ search also highlights the void that little is known about the mechanism linking sense of calling to green and non-green outcomes.

The aim of this article is to verify the hypothesis that crowdfunding campaigns with sustainable orientations are significantly more likely to convince investors and successfully raise funds. The research covered 50 successful crowdfunding projects’ reward and equity-based models, which were pledged on Polish platforms, and analyzed the context of the campaigns. Basic statistical non-parametric tests were used to analyze the data. The study shows that although there were big differences in the amount of raised funds and achieved success rates, the sustainable orientation of the project itself was not so important. It is worth noticing that the level of realization of the objectives of sustainable development was really low, and was not highlighted in the description. This paper explores the relevant success factors of crowdfunding projects, which is very important in order to prepare new ideas for financing and attract the crowd as an investor.

This paper aimed to present a model of natural environment management in national parks in Poland in the context of increased tourist traffic. The research area comprised Polish national parks as they are characterized by barely altered nature, little human impact, and undisturbed natural phenomena. The methods involved the observational method, literature analysis and criticism, and the in-depth interview method employed in November 2019. The respondents included national park management staff. The questions were prepared in accordance with the Berlin Declaration principles of sustainable tourism development and were extended with the authors’ own items. The questionnaire contained 17 questions, grouped in four parts: science and documentation; tourism; cooperation and education; environmental threats. The results indicate that in order for actions to prove efficient in a park, a conservation plan should be carefully developed. Its correctness requires monitoring the state of the environment, tourist traffic size and trends, and tourists’ impact on the environment. An important condition for effective tourism management in parks is to increase the competences of the administering bodies and knowledge regarding individuals’ responsibilities. Boards should be able to evaluate and modify conservation plans, spatial development plans, municipality development strategies, and projects for investments within the parks.

In recent years, attention has been increasingly paid to social-, environmental-, and ecology-related issues in the areas of diverse business operations. The concept of sustainable development of enterprises is an attempt to integrate a diverse set of requirements for the development of companies in the long-term future. The concept, which is set in a contradictory context of economic, social, and environmental aspects, is an attempt to balance fundamentally divergent requirements and aspirations. Sustainable enterprise development can be a source of competitiveness, provided the opportunities related to it are identified and implemented in a proper way. The research objective of this study is to diagnose the relationship between the company’s orientation towards the implementation of sustainability assumptions, the degree of implementation of the objectives of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy, as well as the creation of value in a sustainable enterprise. The survey was conducted on a sample of 165 FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) sector enterprises. The results indicate the existence of a positive correlation between the variables analysed in the surveyed enterprises. Entrepreneurs guided by sustainable development pursue economic and non-economic values and have a more comprehensive set of appropriate measures necessary to create value in a sustainable enterprise, which consists of achieving economic, ecological, and social goals.

The rapidly increasing global populations and socio-economic development in the Global South have resulted in rising demand for natural resources. There are many plans for harvesting natural resources from the ocean floor, especially rare metals and minerals. However, if proper care is not taken, there is substantial potential for long-lasting and even irreversible physical and environmental impacts on the deep-sea ecosystems, including on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. This paper reviews the literature on some potentials and risks to deep seabed mining (DSM), outlining its legal aspects and environmental impacts. It presents two case studies that describe the environmental risks related to this exploitative process. They include significant disturbance of the seabed, light and noise pollution, the creation of plumes, and negative impacts on the surface, benthic, and meso- and bathypelagic zones. The study suggests some of the issues interested companies should consider in preventing the potential physical and environmental damages DSM may cause. Sustainable mining and the use of minerals are vital in meeting various industrial demands.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the status, trends and potential future research areas in the field of financial decision-making process in family firms. Design/methodology/approach The bibliometric indicators and methods are applied in order to describe the publication activity and to analyze the contents of the articles. The material examined are the journals included in the SCOPUS, SAGE and EBSCO database and the peer-reviewed article, which contain in their titles, keywords or abstracts with a combination of phrases “family firms,” “family business” or “family enterprise” with “financial decision” or one of the subcategories: capital structure, investment decision, capital budgeting, working capital management or dividend policy. The study covers the period from 2000 to 2016. Findings Although the interest in family business research is growing rapidly, the area of financial decision making is underestimated. Despite of the fact that the vast majority of the studies into financial decisions in family firms is are focused on the capital structure, they do not give clear answers to the question of how the family businesses behave in this scope and what their true financial logic is. Additionally, the area of the investment decisions and dividend policy is rather not better left uncovered. Research limitations/implications The analyses enable the identification of potential avenues for future research which could be vital to make an advancement in the consolidation of the discipline. Practical implications The analyses ought to have a potential meaning mainly for external institutions (especially financial institutions) in better understanding of the family businesses and their point of view. Originality/value This paper fulfills the need of a comprehensive review of financial decision making process in family firms. It provides a literature review and bibliography for the period between 2000 and 2016 for the use of both academicians and practitioners.

The field of sustainability has evolved considerably since the report “Our Common Future” was published in 1987. Whereas matters related to sustainable development used to be of marginal interest in the 1980s, it has substantially evolved since, and have become mainstream. As a result, there is a plethora of research on different aspects, whose focus has also been influenced by societal developments. This line of thinking also applies to sustainability research in higher education, a special and central field. Unfortunately, the variety of research on matters of sustainable development in universities makes it difficult to obtain an insight into its current status, and to ascertain how it has evolved since 1987. Based on the perceived need to fill this gap, a study focusing on the evolution of university-based sustainability research literature has been undertaken. The study entailed approximately 1700 papers published between 1987 and 2019, being one of the most comprehensive studies on this field ever undertaken. Apart from performing a bibliometric analysis using science mapping software tools, the research clustered the research into some key areas. The results suggest that, whereas impressive, the evolution of university-based sustainability research has been uneven, and calls for a more balanced emphasis to as to cover some research areas which have so far been neglected. The implications of this work are twofold: it will support the further development of the university-based sustainability research literature, and will help to address some thematic gaps, which are seen today, and to which greater attention is needed.

Despite the booming interest in determinants of green (i.e., sustainable) consumption, the psychological factors that influence pro-environmental consumption patterns are not yet fully understood. To answer this call, we developed and analysed a model that offers an integrative approach to sustainable consumption patterns by addressing the full palette of consumers’ personal value orientations. Specifically, we linked consumers’ egoistic, altruistic, and biospheric values at the personal level to pro-environmental purchasing intentions, behaviours, and experiences. Furthermore, we examined whether implicit beliefs about the balance between humanity and nature (i.e., worldviews) moderate these relationships. To support the theoretical propositions in our model, we drew on the key premises of the theory of planned behaviour. Data from 291 Polish respondents were analysed by using multiple linear regression analysis, and the moderating effect of worldviews was investigated with simple slope analysis. While controlling for cultural values, the findings show that personal values, specifically biospheric values, predict sustainable consumer patterns and that consumers’ worldview moderates this relationship. Our study offers a novel holistic approach to analyse sustainable consumption patterns, which will assist environmental management scholars and practitioners who seek to understand and stimulate pro-environmental consumer behaviour. Our findings may help practitioners to develop strategies to influence consumer intentions and behaviours concerning green products.