Determinants of Sustainable Productivity Growth in Post-COVID Central and Eastern Europe

Dear Colleagues,

During recent decades, Central European enterprises, economies, and whole societies have managed to build quite effective socioeconomic systems which are characterized by a high level of resilience and considerable sustainability potential. These characteristics have been confirmed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The last two years have been a period of huge disturbances in the global economy, which have affected both underdeveloped areas and the welfare growth of almost all developed countries. These problems can be witnessed in Europe especially, where the big EU economies have suffered from severe recessions with high growth in unemployment, bankruptcies of important enterprises, and a general decrease in welfare. At the same time, the biggest Central European economies have managed to avoid deep recessions. At an entrepreneurial level, many Central European enterprises have treated the pandemic as an opportunity for digital reorganization, which has positively affected their sustainable growth potential and has laid the groundwork for future—international—expansion. However, at present, growing socioeconomic instability has brought new multiscale challenges to the region, which are economic but also relate to new social and sociopsychological situations, which will force policy makers and managers to embrace a new wave of change. The effectiveness of these processes will shape the sustainable growth potential of the whole region in the coming decades. Therefore, the main objective of this Special Issue is to provide insights into the determinants of building a sustainable economic environment in Central European economies in the new and unstable post-COVID  conditions. We welcome submissions with a focus on the following issues, with a specific perspective of Central European countries:

• Determinants of building socioeconomic stability and wellbeing;
• Digital disparities and organization sustainability as a managerial challenge;
• Sustainable entrepreneurship; 
• The role of human capital in increasing resilience and enterprise sustainability;
• Managerial and organizational changes increasing short- and long-term enterprise productivity growth;
• Managerial approaches to building strategies based on work and balance of employees’ concepts;
• Application of CSR for increasing the competitive potential of small and medium enterprises;
• Determinants of sustainable internationalization for medium enterprises.

• Case studies for the effectiveness of financing sustainable growth programs;
• Geen economy potential development;
• Circular economy;
• Digital disparities as a policy challenge;
• Factors of eco-modernization of national economies;
• Supporting sustainable production systems;
• Developing sustainable behavior and sustainable consumption patterns;
• Process of modernization of energetic national systems within the objectives of national security;
• Avoiding middle income traps under ecological pressure.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Adam P. Balcerzak
Prof. Dr. Mariola Grzybowska-Brzezińska
Guest Editors

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• sustainable digital economy
• post-COVID managerial and policy challenges
• Central Europe
• socioeconomic ecological pressures
• circular economy
• productivity growth
• middle income trap
• organizational changes
• sustainable internationalization
• micro and macro sustainability
• CSR—corporate social responsibility