Purpose – I aimed to analyze and synthesize the literature on sustainable HRM and its sub-concepts, such as green HRM and socially responsible HRM, with the focus on research conducted in the Visegrad Group (V4) countries. I posed the following research questions: (1) What are the main characteristics of sustainable HRM research in the worldwide literature? (2) What are the main characteristics of research conducted in the V4 countries? (3) Which future research directions are promising gaps to be filled by research conducted in V4 countries?
Design/methodology/approach – For the purpose of this study, I applied bibliometric analysis, scientific network analysis and in-depth content analysis.
Findings – The results of the analyses of articles indexed in the Scopus database revealed that there is a growing trend in research on sustainable HRM. However, scarce research comes from the V4; scholars have conducted such studies only in Slovakia and Poland. There are five thematic clusters in the main sample, though the concept of green HRM has been explored the most. Although the keyword network analysis showed that the V4 articles focus mostly on sustainable HRM, the in-depth content analysis provided evidence that the V4 sample represented all concepts.
Originality/value – This is the first study to analyze the achievements of scientists from the V4 in this research field. It applies methodological rigor and a mixed-method approach. Moreover, it presents directions of research that go beyond the recommendations presented in the analyzed articles.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper was identification and empirical assessment of the differentiation of consumers’ attitudes in Ukraine and Poland to Russian brands and other brands offered on the Russian market after Russia’s aggression against Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Design/methodology/approach – The main research methods include a systematic literature review and the authors’ own surveys conducted in November 2022. The research sample comprised 950 consumers – 67%of them were Poles, 30% – Ukrainians and 3% from other countries.
Findings – A respondents’ country (Poland and Ukraine) does not impact attitudes to brands offered on the Russian market after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Moreover, it does not affect and differentiate emotional engagement in the conflict and assistance to war victims. Cluster analysis resulted in identifying two groups on the basis of consumers’ declared emotional reactions to the war. The first group was smaller (N 5 353, 37.2%), referred to as “indifferent consumers”, and was characterized by a greater inclination to purchase brands offered in Russia. The other cluster, referred to as “sensitive consumers” (N 5 597, 62.8%), comprises those engaged in offering assistance to war victims, showing strong emotions in connection with the aggression and military activities and characterized by a clearly negative attitude to Russian and other offered brands and an inclination to boycott these brands.
Research limitations/implications – A short time horizon, the study confined to two countries, difficulties in reaching Ukrainian respondents due to power failures in Ukraine in the period of conducting the survey (November 2022), a non-representative research sample – overrepresentation of people aged 18–25 years. Practical implications – The research study contributes to the knowledge about consumer brand attitudes and preferences under unique social, economic and market conditions. These conditions were created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as well as the international and global character of the war in Ukraine. The significant implications of the study refer to brand communication policies and companies’ CSR-related declarations. A number of consumers’ errors were recorded, resulting from wrong brand retrieval, which were rectified at a later stage as a result of international restrictions imposed on Russia, harsh media criticism and social international embargoes imposed on brands offered in Russia. The marketing communication of contemporary global brands should give consideration to the informative function of CSR activities, and the communication process should be continuous. Critical attitudes and an inclination to boycott brands point to the possible consequences faced by inconsistent and ethically doubtful brand policies. This implication is clearly confirmed by the results of the study.
Social implications – The authors also wish to highlight the implications for practice and society. As mentioned earlier, Polish consumers involved in providing aid to victims of the war also expressed their opposition to the war by boycotting Russian products and international brands remaining in Russia. Popularization of the research results obtained by the authors can be a form of sensitizing the public to the need for long-term relief, awakening global awareness of the essence and importance of sanctions imposed on Russia, as well as the possibility of expressing opposition through individual purchasing decisions and boycotting brands still present in Russia.
Originality/value – The study allowed for identifying consumers’ differentiated brand attitudes in two countries: a country inflicted by war (Ukraine) and a front-line country, strongly supporting Ukraine (Poland). The research contributes to consumer behavior theories and studies of consumer attitudes and preferences from the perspective of international corporations’ CSR activities under the unique conditions of war. Also, it contributes to the knowledge of the mechanism of forming attitudes to Russian and international brands offered in Russia among CEE consumers.

Purpose: The study aims to build a typology of family businesses with relatively short experience in the free-market economy. The typology is based on the goal preferences of the family businesses.

Methodology: The research is based on empirical data from Polish medium-sized and large enterprises, collected in 2014. Using cluster analysis and variance analysis, we identified four types of family enterprises based on their goal perceptions and tested the differences among them.

Results: The article distinguishes and characterizes four types of family enterprises: “business first, family second,” “only business,” “immature,” and “family first, business second.”

Originality/value: The proposed typology is similar to that presented in the subject literature. Nevertheless, our contribution resides in the discovery that even if family and business goals are integrated in the enterprise, one of the systems will be dominant. Moreover, enterprises that only prioritize family goals were absent in the explored data set.

Purpose: The paper explores the paradigm shift occurring in the automotive retailing industry since the advent of technological innovations and different solutions in mobility. Existing studies and literature focus on the specific aspects of this changing trend, which is why this paper concentrates on the holistic changes that include various approaches to the issue of disruptive innovation in automotive retailing.

Methodology: To answer the research questions, the article utilizes qualitative research approach in combination with inductive-interpretive analysis. Interviews with eight top-level professionals from the automotive industry reveal three different perspectives on the subject. The study analyzes interview results with coding methodology and MaxQDA software.

Findings: The findings center on two components of research: major trends and impacts. The trends include the changing approach towards usership rather than ownership and to clustered habitation in mega cities. What is evident is the stark impact of such trends as the rising popularity of battery electric vehicles, autonomous cars, and mobility as a service on the dealership model of retailing. The impacts include the falling need and demand for personal cars, the rise of large fleet services like car subscription or lower maintenance needs that are expected to drastically reduce the importance of dealership.

Limitations: To further understand the trends in automotive retailing, future researchers should focus on local trends in specific regions. Another limitation is linked with exclusive concentration on experienced professionals as sources of data.

Purpose: The article critically reflects on the issue of age in workforces in human resource management and related fields. Age is widely used by scholars to denote the entire workforce of a company. The vast remit of this concept has resulted in many ongoing debates, such as young vs. old employees, mature employees, the aging workforce, as well as various stereotypes pertaining to age in academic research.

Methodology: The paper reviews recent academic literature: articles from peer-reviewed journals, written in English, and published in 2000–2018. Keywords and elimination criteria are explained in the corresponding section.

Findings: Research in this field shows the use of inhomogeneous groups in accordance to their age, which ultimately threatens to hinder the comparability of undertaken studies in this domain.

Research implications: There exists no clear consensus regarding the age-markers or barriers used to distinguish the workforce of an organization or to form groups of employees of a given age-cluster.

Originality: This text is the first review of studies in the field, in which age has been the main criterion to distinguish workforce. The review encourages dialog among scholars from various disciplines as a way to lessen discrepant categorizations.

Purpose: A wide range of approaches to defning, modelling, and measuring international competitiveness can be found in the scholarly literature across various felds of management and economics. Such number of perspectives enhances scientifc research, but confuses public debate. Despite certain defnitional ambiguities, there is a consensus that international competitiveness is a multi­ ­faceted concept that should be analysed at different levels of aggregation: company level (micro), industry/cluster level (mezzo) and national level (macro). This paper addresses international competitiveness at all three levels and tracks the interlinkages between them with the aim to fnd a common ground for understanding this economic phenomenon in a systemic perspective: as a complex whole.

Methodology: The paper constitutes an in­depth literature review, forming a basis for a new approach to categorizing the main perspectives on international competitiveness. A synthesis of the latest international competitiveness literature sources has been performed in order to categorize the existing approaches to defning, modelling, and measuring international competitiveness. Following Chandhuri’s and Ray’s (1997) two­dimensional classifcation approach (the level of analysis and the variable), the paper introduces new insights into the existing taxonomy of international competitiveness.

Findings: Based upon the developed taxonomy, the paper offers an interdisciplinary, multi­layered model of international competitiveness.

Originality: The offered fndings enhance the active shaping of modern competitiveness research directions to support the competitiveness policy on the regional and national level.

Purpose: Interest in older consumers as the subject of marketing strategy is growing in Western countries (Gunter, 1998). However, in Poland, this group is still neglected by marketers and perceived in stereotypical way, and its marketing potential is underestimated. The main goal of this research was to provide understanding of the contemporary older Polish population and especially older Polish consumers, including their values, needs,
attitudes, opinions and behaviors.

Methodology: In order to investigate the Polish “grey market,” we conducted survey research (CAPI) based on a representative quota – a random nationwide sample of n=1500 participants above 55 years old. Additionally, we also conducted qualitative research – 18 individual in-depth interviews (IDIs) at homes of consumers (ethnographic interviews).

Findings: Based on the factor and cluster analysis (Weinstein, 1994) from the quantitative survey, 5 segments of older Polish consumers were selected: Fulfi lled Optimists (14% of population), Bored with Life (17%), Passive Materialists (22%), Family-oriented Non-Paterialists (22%), and Excluded Traditionalists (25%). Segments differed in values, lifestyles, attitudes toward life, family, work and general life satisfaction. As a consequence of those psychological differences, segments differed in consumer behaviour, preferences and perception of marketing communication (advertising).

Originality: Our analysis shows that key areas, which determine particular consumer behaviour in each segment are – contrary to common belief – not demographic characteristics, but mainly psychological aspects (such as attitude to life, optimism, attitude to money, open-mindedness and general curiosity).

Purpose: The article introduces a concept of the economic imagination, describes economic public attitudes and discusses the character of the contemporary economic imagination of Poles.

Methodology: Representative survey conducted on the stratifi ed random sample of 1022 adult respondents by means of CAPI (computer assisted personal interview). Statistical analysis of data.

Findings: The features perceived by public as economically benefi cial to the entire economy, particular enterprises and individuals have been ranked by the representative survey and statistically grouped into more general clusters. Those considered as good for the economy are grouped into such factors as “investment and competition”, “statism (etatism)” and “progressive taxation”. The features considered as benefi cial for the enterprises are grouped into “human, social and economic capital”, “law obedience and good social relations” and “limited free market”. Personal characteristics perceived as benefi cial for individual’s economic success are grouped into “honesty, perseverance and good social relations”, “skills and diligence” and “nepotism and instrumentalism”. Intensity as well as determinants of such general value loaded convictions, and their impact on acceptance of democracy have been revealed as well.

Implications: Economic imagination has to be analysed as an important factor of socio-economic system’s legitimization.

Originality: Distinction and empirical defi nition of economic attitudinal syndromes at three different levels: macro-economic, enterprise and individual constitute a novelty in socio-economic research. Discussion of their determinants and wider implications constitute a new contribution to the theory of social legitimization.

in terms of the benefi ts for the cluster members. The paper examines which mechanisms within the clustersb promote knowledge creation between companies and other institutions.
Methodology: The literature review is based on databases of books and scientifi c articles, such as EBSCO, Elsevier, JSTOR, Springer, and the Oxford Library and Kingston University London Library. The analysis of the literature is focused around the concepts of business clusters, knowledge management in organizations, knowledge management in clusters.

Findings: The literature presented in this paper shows that network forms of organization such as clusters are conducive to inter-fi rm knowledge and skill development. Clusters as a type of network turn out to be a highly structured model of knowledge development, transfer and diffusion, produced by the interaction of social and economic relations within cluster institutions.

Research implications: The article constitutes a combination of two theoretical aspects – knowledge management and business clusters. The theoretical conclusions of the literature review, mostly foreign literature, provide a basis for research in that area.

Practical implications: In the Polish literature on the subject the aspect of knowledge management in business clusters has not yet been discussed. The conclusions of the presented literature analysis provide a basis for research and the development of practical recommendations for cluster managers. Knowledge-based clusters can serve as an example for developing clusters in the world. They are often clustered around research centers,
making it possible to improve the exchange of knowledge between the cluster members and also providing the opportunity to better connect the world of science and business.

Originality: The author has presented a unique mix of theory, knowledge management and business clusters and has demonstrated that one of the benefi ts of business clusters is their ability to generate knowledge by combining existing information and data from internal databases of businesses within clusters with the infl ux of new information.

Formal contacts between the employees of the cooperating institutions provide general knowledge and
best practices based on collective knowledge. While informal contacts are important channels for the transfer of
tacit knowledge, the so-called operational know-how

Purpose: The aim of this study is to show how the concentrations of primary income
can be related to the labour market structure in two samples of selected European
and transition countries. Then it focuses on the differences in the transitional path of
Poland and Russia that justify the current divergences in the distribution of income
in these two countries.

Methodology: This research, in its empirical part, is based on cluster analysis and
principal component analysis (PCA). By these techniques, the study defines which
main factors of the labour market are more involved in the distribution process in
the selected countries.

Findings: On the basis of the data used, it seems possible to establish a relationship
between different labour market models and the degree of primary income inequality,
focusing on which variables are more relevant with respect to the different
labour market systems.

Originality: This research deals with the aspect of the concentration of primary
income in different economies with cluster and principal component analyses, considering
the shortage of related economic data in this field of research.

Purpose: The essay aims at identifying the role of local government in supporting R&D efforts and knowledge transfer mechanisms and diffusion practices within the biotechnology clusters in the Flanders and Wallonia regions (local knowledge exchange and learning), as well as the role of informal interaction between the cluster actors.

Methodology: The main research method chosen for this study was qualitative analysis,
based on interviews with a series of researchers, academic scientists and technology
transfer officers from the Flanders and Wallonia regions. This was undertaken in September-October 2011 as a part of the COST/STRIKE initiative of the European Commission.

Findings: The high patent dynamics within the biotechnology sector is explained
by growing investments into R&D, highly qualified human capital, and geographical
factors such as cluster development. The answers of interviewed experts confirm
the view that the importance of geography should differ by technology type. The importance grows quickly for technologies undergoing radical innovations. Regional policy should therefore focus on promoting innovation through R&D support, improving the quality of human capital and the overall business environment (cluster).