Agata Rudnicka

Collaboration of NGOs and business in Poland

Purpose – The paper is devoted to cross‐sector collaborative bonds appearing in Poland in the last years. The general purpose of the paper is to draw a picture of existing collaboration between NGOs and business organizations in Poland. Particularly, its purpose is to research the conditions and characteristics in which Polish profit and non‐profit organizations establish the collaborative bonds.Design/methodology/approach – First, the paper introduces short description of social economy in Poland, presents corporate social responsibility as a possible framework for cross‐sector collaboration and shortly introduces different theoretical frameworks of inter‐organisational collaboration. It is of descriptive type and is only the first step to explore more deeply (in an analytical way) the area of collaboration. The reason is that this paper is the first of its kind in Poland.Findings – The paper is conducted in 2008. The questionnaire available online is used. The invitation to participate in the research i...

How to Manage Sustainable Supply Chain? The Issue of Maturity

Background: The issue of managing sustainability in supply cha in seems to be more and more complex. There are many aspects that need to be taken into c onsideration when planning, implementing and monito ring environmental and social conditions of supply chain s. Despite many works, already published, on the co ncept of sustainable development (SD) is seems that the issu of assessment and especially the issue of maturit y in the light of the SD concept is still not developed enough. Methods: The general aim of the paper is the analysis of t he maturity issue in the context of sustainability. The main objective is to conceptualize the idea of maturity in sustainable supply chain. Beside the literature r esearch the own proposition of theoretical model was described. Results: The article describes the issue of maturity as an element of managing sustainable development in the supply chain. The author presented a theoretical model of the maturity. Moreover the author gave some recomme ndations how to manage the sustainability issues in supply chain in more mature approach and introduced some useful to ols among which are: certification, code of conduct and code of eth ics, audits, projects etc. Conclusions: The issue of maturity seems to be very useful for pr per understanding the idea of sustainable develo pment in supply chain. The developed model can be used as self-assessment method to check at which level of implementation the idea of SD is analyzed in supply chain. Further more, the next phase of the planned research in for m of practical verification of the model was advised as well as a research of identification of new factors and tools in analyzed area.

Understanding Sustainable Business Models

Purpose: Business organizations present different approaches to the implementation of the sustainable development concept to their business models. The scale and scope of implementation of the idea may be related to the level of understanding and prioritizing the issue of sustainability in business operations. The main aim of the paper is presentation of the theoretical background of sustainable business models. Frameworks and borders of the sustainability in management will be proposed. Approach: There are different aspects taken into consideration when analyzing the idea of business models based on sustainability from environmental responsibility to strategic orientation. Author of the paper will analyze the current literature and based on this improve main elements that describe the theoretical approach to business models including sustainability. Implications: The paper presents conceptual assumption of sustainable business model. It is the first step to further research. The limits and challenges of sustainable business models are presented. The proposed criteria are used to assess the possibilities of developing and designing sustainable approach of business models in companies.