**3. Materials and Methods**

The subject matters of this research involved practices leading to GIC formation across Polish enterprises. The purposes of the research wereto:


The literature review conductedby the study author, which presents the research findings of other authors, suggests that green intangible assets might be key to develop sustainable organizations [4,24,66] and to improve competitiveness [7,8,24,65–67]. In view of the above literature findings, the author puts forward the following hypotheses:

**Hypothesis 1.** *Actions leading to GIC accumulation have diversified impacts on the environmental development of anorganization, which enables identification of key practices*.

**Hypothesis 2.** *There is a correlation between the importance rate of individual practices contributing to GIC accumulation, from the point of view of corporate environmental development and implementation in the studied organizations*.

The first hypothesis is based on the Pareto principle. It assumes that 80% of achieved effects come from 20% of actions. The key is to find 20% of the most important actions thatdetermine the success. When applying the principle to the field of GIC management, the author assumed that it was possible to identify a group of actions promoting GIC accumulation, having major impacts on the development of sustainable organizations and actions of secondary importance.

The second hypothesis suggests that knowledge about GIC-fostering practices among the managing staff plays a vital role in the process of implementation. This is due to the fact that managers find it hard to successfully pursue activities thatare beyond their competencies. Hypothesis 2 is linked to Hypothesis 1. Hypothesis 2 assumes that if managers deem an action to be crucial, in terms of accomplishing the environmental objectives of an organization, they are more likely to implement it.

The analysis included a literature review, diagnostic surveys, and statistical analyses. In the process of verifying the hypotheses, the author applied average measures and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. This allowed establishing the correlation between

assessing the impacts of the practices in creating GIC (on the environmental development of enterprises) and their implementation. The correlation was presented using the linear regression model.

The diagnostic survey method allows one to learn a given social phenomenon, determine its range, scope, level, and intensity, and then allows one to rate it and design potential modifications. It is particularly helpful for examining opinions and attitudes of respondents. Acquiring information ona company's operations under intensive competition conditions is hampered by an organization's fear to lower itscompetitiveness. This is further applicable to information regarding intangible resources constituting a part of intellectual capital. Enterprises are under no obligation to publish the information in question in their annual reports. The use of the diagnostic survey method allowed the researcher to becomeacquainted with opinions of the studied managers concerning the range of implementation of GIC-fostering activities and their impact on the sustainable development of organizations on an anonymous basis. This information could not have been obtained otherwise. Ipso facto, the applied diagnostic survey method allowed accomplishing the adopted research objectives.

GIC is an elaborate category composed of intangible components thatare difficult to quantify. Due to the nonexistence of the financial methods of GIC estimation, the approach used in the course of the research was qualitative and based on a system of indices. The research model avails to follow the qualitative approach proposed by Edvinsson and Malone [70] and by Chen [7]. Eleven GHC indicators, twelve GOC indicators, and seven GRC indicators were applied in the analysis. A complete list of indicators is presented in Appendix A.

Reliability tests for the indicators applied in the diagnosis of the three GIC components— GHC, GOC, and GRC—were conducted with the use of the α Cronbach coefficient. The results are presented in Table 1. All constructs showed an α ≥ 0.70 reliability, which suggests high reliability and internal consistency of the applied measures [71,72].


**Table 1.** Results of Cronbach's Alpha.

The survey was conducted in the year 2020 in 150 Polish enterprises. The method used in the study was CATI. In order to ensure the representativeness of the research, the author randomly selected twenty-five entities from each of the six regions of Poland. The respondents were managers employed in the surveyed companies. The characteristic features of the study population are shown in Table 2.

**Table 2.** Profiles of studied enterprises (N = 150).



**Table 2.** *Cont.*

Medium-sized enterprises with 50–249 employees constituted the largest percentage of the surveyed population. In principle, the companies were limited liability companies that conducting business activities on a global scale. Enterprises with domestic capital dominated in the capital structure.

The study covered production companies. The production sector is one of the main generators of sustainable development-related difficulties. Therefore, managers should view environmentalorientation and GIC reinforcement as both necessary and priorities.
