Abstract The current environmental challenges caused by the dependence on nonrenewable energy, increased waste disposal, the toxic emissions created by operational activities, and also the scarce supply of water are so complex and important that it requires immediate attention. Strict environmental legislation, market pressures, and urgent need for sustainability have given businesses no option but to ensure that they do all that is possible to ensure that their business operations are sustainable. This paper addresses the underlying factors that determine the extent to which organizations adopt sustainable business practices and cleaner production techniques and technologies. It had been concluded that ethics is linked to sustainable business practices, because the objectives of both these concepts are to think about doing what’s right for others and the world, including the environment. According to the organizational corporate compliance regulations, a company’s commitment to ethical business and sustainable business practices should be detailed in their policy handbook and communicated to all employees within the company (Sustainability Report 2013/2014).

Abstract The article is the generalization of experience of the implementation project, which has been treated as well as a research field. The results are presented in two parts. The first part includes: a description of the classical approach to knowledge management and shows the concept of structure of process of knowledge management with a description of the procedure in each step of the process. The key idea is to divide the process in three spirals of actions: spiral of perfecting the collection of knowledge; spiral of the perfecting of the formulation of knowledge; spiral of perfecting the utilization of knowledge. Part II of this paper is article Structuring Knowledge Management – Levels, Resources And Efficiency Areas of Knowledge Management (DOI: 10.1515/fman-2015-0042).

Abstract Part 1 of this article has been published in the article Structuring Knowledge Management – Classical Theory, Strategic Initiation and Operational Knowledge Management (DOI: 10.1515/fman-2015-0041). The previous article presented process cycles of knowledge management. This article proposes a layered model of knowledge management, and then shows how to organize knowledge management, both in terms of organizational structure management, and structuring knowledge resources.

Abstract A number of family business researches affirm benefits of family involvement to the business while some of other studies assure only detriments of family involvement. When comparative studies of family businesses begin to surface on the family involvement in business, there is that irritating question on what effect is brought about by family involvement to the business. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore business advantages and disadvantages generated by family involvement in businesses in Sri Lanka. The present study attempted to address the above knowledge gap, using qualitative research approach and multiple case studies as the strategy of inquiry. Purposive sampling technique was used to select both cases and respondents. Privately held, successfully conducted four family businesses were selected as cases and, existing business owner and one family related manager from each case were taken as respondents. Data was collected mainly via semi-structured, in depth interviews, observations, and secondary documents. Data collection from interviews consisted of 15 interviews with 09 different people from four cases. Before the data analysis, coding and categorization of respondents’ views from interviews helped to identify common patterns and themes from both within the case and across cases. The analysis was carried out in the light of Agency Theory and resulted in a rich understanding of business advantages and disadvantages of family involvement in businesses in Sri Lanka. The findings of this study indicated that the agency cost is created not only on business matters but also on family matters. Further, findings revealed that agency benefit also can be obtained by family business by handling the family matters carefully in line with business matters. Findings of this study clearly indicated that an extension to Agency Theory is required to explain owner agent relationship in family businesses.

Abstract This article presents a synthesis of knowledge about safety management procedures for critical infrastructure in the context of risk management theory and the provisions of the Polish law on emergency management launched on of April 26, 2007. In this paper, the inadequacy of the accepted procedures at present is highlighted, as well as their continuous improvement and adaptation to prevailing political, legal, social, and economic conditions. This paper proposes using the concept of situational management and knowledge management to develop a new method of predicting, preventing, and responding to emerging crises within critical infrastructure. The considerations presented in this paper lead to a proposed concept system supporting critical infrastructure safety management through the implementation of knowledge management methods.

Abstract Implementation of R&D projects determines whether the organization is changing and becoming fully competitive. R&D projects are the basis for innovation policy at the macro level - the state - and the micro level - the organization. Management of R&D projects requires not only high level of skills, but knowledge of highly developed tools to support the development of the organization. In managing this type of project, methods such as management competence, talent and knowledge, knowledge of modern information, and communication technology, stand out. In this study the following issues are presented: analysis of decision-making processes of R&D projects, basic modeling methodology of R&D projects, and analysis of communication systems in project management. The final part of the article presents the problems of commercialization of results obtained from R&D projects.

Abstract This study sets out an original concept of the decomposition process of insurance operations. The first part of the paper presents the concept of the process, the process-based approach and process management. The further part identifies the processes carried out in insurance companies and discusses the purposes of implementing them. The final part of the study presents an example of the practical application of the process-based approach to issues of financial management of an insurance company.

Abstract Advanced training courses in the energetics field is a very important part of human reliability growth. In the words of S.E. Magid, chief of Technical Educational systems in Energy Technologies, UNESCO department: “The number of forced outages due to failures of equipment on the power stations -30 %. The share of operational personnel fault in these infringements makes considerable size (to 15%). As a whole in the Russian Open Society ‘United Power Systems’ the infringements percentage because of the personnel from infringements total makes 2%. At the same time, on power stations this quantity makes 18%. In power supply systems of Siberia the relative quantity of infringements because of the personnel reaches 50%.” [1].

Abstract The article presents results of empirical research concerning the directions of changes in organizational structures of SME which have occurred during the last few years. The research was carried out in a group of 380 enterprises running their businesses in Poland. The organizational structure generally described in respect of parameters such as centralization, formalization, standardization and configuration. The main part of this article is dedicated to changes that have occurred in organizational structures of SME.

Abstract In the present paper, we propose a new approach to investigate the logistic function, which is commonly used in mathematical models in economics and management. The approach is based on indicating in a given time series, having a logistic trend, some characteristic points corresponding to zeroes of successive derivatives of the logistic function. We also give examples of application of this method.