**3. Research Methodology**

With the aim of examining the variety of approaches to evaluating an organization's performance, assessing their suitability for the creation of a green organization benchmark, and selecting the most suitable approach for the creation of a green organization benchmark, it is appropriate to conduct the theoretical study in several stages, each of which is defined by the appropriate research method (see Figure 2).

**Figure 2.** Methodological scheme of the research (source: composed by the authors).

*In the first stage*, the selection of approaches to evaluate an organization's performance in terms of greenness was carried out. To identify the approaches to evaluating an organization's performance associated with green organizations in the scientific literature, the

content analysis method was applied within the framework of this study. The content analysis method allows textual information and written sources to be examined according to a selected indicator, for example, a topic that reflects certain attitudes, interests, values, norms of activity, etc. [41,42]. According to [43], in the preparation stage of the content analysis method, it is important not only to select documents for analysis but also to assess their authenticity, representativeness, meaningfulness, completeness, and reliability. Therefore, the keywords *green organization* and *performance*, which correspond to the objective of this research, were used to find information and select an approach to evaluating a green organization's performance. Ref. [43] noted that a disadvantage of this research method may be the fact that the indicator chosen for analysis (for example, a word) may be understood differently by different authors and therefore be given different meanings. It should be noted that the adjective *green* used in the scientific literature is no longer just a characteristic of the color of a physical object. As early as 2012, Ref. [44] stated that the color green can be assigned to a group of metaphorical terms in which colors are given certain meanings. According to this author, in economic terminology, the color green is associated with things that are ecological and environmentally friendly, such as green tax, green tourism, green energy, and the use of metaphorical terms in the terminology of a certain field of science is closely related to the research objects in that field. According to [45], the color green is most often included as an active element in the composition of a term to create a metaphor related to environmental protection, environmental goals, nature conservation and nurturance, and the fight against climate change (green economy, green growth). Ref. [44] identifies the concept of the adjective *green* as problematic because it has many meanings, and emphasizes that administrative language increasingly uses the adjective *green* in the sense of "ecological, conforming to the laws of nature, harmless to the environment, preserving it, produced from renewable sources" as in green accounting, green diplomacy, green energy, green electricity, green enterprise, green (environmental) tax, green product, green revolution, green public procurement, green zone. According to [46], the color green in advertising communications usually indicates that the product is natural, not artificial. In conclusion, it can be assumed that the adjective *green* may be attributed to metaphorical terms, which have different meanings depending on the research object of the scientific branch. In this research, the adjective *green* used in the wording *green organization* refers to those organizations that integrate green initiatives and practices into their activities in different areas to meet their environmental objectives, social well-being, and economic growth. The selection of scientific sources related to the green organization was focused on literature in the field of social sciences. The results of the content analysis of the selected scientific literature sources were processed according to the general features of the topic, which can be attributed to the possible methods for evaluating an organization's performance.

*In the second stage*, after performing a comparative analysis and synthesis of the scientific literature, the identified approaches to evaluating the organization's performance were described. *In the last stage*, a comparative analysis of the suitability of each organization's performance evaluation approach to creating a green organization benchmark was performed according to the identified attributes. After grouping, interpreting, and generalizing the results of the analysis, the most suitable approach to evaluating an organization's performance was determined to create a green organization benchmark.
