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Ecological economics is a multidisciplinary endeavour to connect the social sciences and nature in general. It also connects aspects of ecology and economics to a particular understanding. The created concept centred on the mission to acquire a more advanced albeit better scientific understanding of the complex interconnections between humans, animals and the rest of nature. This is driven towards utilising the obtained knowledge to establish policies that will lead to a more environmentally sustainable world, with a fair resource distribution (both across human groups and generations, as well as between humans, the environment and other species), and also efficiently allocates limited resources such as ‘natural’ and ‘social’ capital. This practice necessitates the development of new methodologies that are comprehensive, adaptive, integrative, multi-scale, pluralistic and evolutionary, while also acknowledging the enormous uncertainties involved.

ISO 14001 standard is the environmental certification developed by the International Organization for Standardization to describe the requirements for a certifiable Environmental Management System (EMS). The standard is included in the ISO 14000 series, developed because of the need for improved environmental quality. The current version of the ISO 14001 is the ISO 14001:2015; the purpose of the revision was to structure all the ISO standard (e.g., ISO9001) similarly and facilitate management systems’ integration.

The literature highlights that many drivers encourage companies to obtain the certification (e.g., need for an improved image of the company, pressure from customers, and ethical reasons), but there are also some barriers to its implementation (e.g., risk of spreading confidential information, reduction in productivity, and cost of the certification). However, the certification is connected to better performances indicated by the increase in process productivity and control, the reduction in resources’ consumption and waste, and the improved quality of products/processes.

While there has been great attention directed at innovation within organisations in business contexts, there has been less focus on the role of innovation at higher education institutions. A changing and turbulent environment is also placing more pressure on universities and business schools to re-imagine, inspire and design an innovation culture. This empirical case presents the innovation leadership team’s point of view on the effect of innovation leadership when integrating the ISO 56000 series-based innovation management system at the University of Ruse in Bulgaria. Several face-to-face interviews and questionnaires are conducted to uncover gaps in innovation leadership based on a comprehensive literature review and the current state of the innovation management system. These gaps hold potential for improvement of the existing management system which are discussed, and recommendations are formulated in the conclusions section of this chapter. Taking into consideration the specific context in which this case study has evolved can help readers and other innovation leaders adapt the facts, conclusions, and lessons learned for universities and business schools. This chapter presents lessons learned and best practices by the innovation leadership team, as demonstrated in several cases at the University of Ruse ‘Angel Kanchev’, Bulgaria.

In the context of the globalization of markets and free trade, the importance of the Internet in the systems of negotiation, communication, and data exchange grows, which puts the problem of information security at the forefront. Actions and improvement activities on the management of confidential information are becoming increasingly important in organizations.

However, information is not just stored in computers; information can be on paper, on a disc, and in the minds of those who work for the organization. Information becomes part of the heritage, and it must be preserved throughout its entire life cycle.

Nowadays, the mere use of some information defence technology is no longer enough; therefore, it becomes essential to implement an efficient Information Security Management System (ISMS) to guarantee a competitive advantage compared to competitors. ISO/IEC 27001 standard outlines the structure for implementing an ISMS and helps organizations manage and protect information assets.

This chapter aims at presenting the ISO 9000 standards and their crucial role in the regulation of the quality management process in a company. To achieve this goal not only have the standards been deeply scrutinized but also evidences of their importance and consequences of their application have been collected after a deep period of study and research.

The chapter begins with a quick review of the standards history, followed by a consistent part that describes the process of standardization and who releases the certifications. The following part is devoted to the analysis of the structure of the standards and the principles in which their content is based. The chapter ends highlighting the areas influenced by the quality standards and the benefits that they bring to the companies.

In conlusion, this section of the book is dedicated to a normative topic that is in continuous evolution and that influences a lot the quality management system.

The aim of this chapter is to highlight the importance of sustainable development, especially its environmental component in trade and retail sector of the Republic of Serbia. Due to a number of factors, such as increased consumer awareness on the importance of eco-products, new statutory and legal regulations, and increased competition, retail chains are increasingly oriented to the concept of sustainable development, in particular promoting its environmental component, eco-products, and eco packaging. Trade, especially retail, plays an important role in linking producers and consumers, and society as a whole. In this way, trade has a good overview of all the changes occurring in the environment, production, and consumer needs. Changes in the environment further stimulate trade to operate in accordance with the principles of sustainable development, including all its dimensions. In this regard, special attention is paid to the protection of working and living environment, as components of sustainable development. The chapter includes a review of literature in the field of sustainable development and application of this concept in the trade and retail sector. The theoretical aspect of the research focuses on conceptualization of sustainable development and its environmental component in trade and retail. With reference to theoretical research on the implementation of environmental component of sustainable development in trade, empirical research has been conducted from two aspects. First, analysis focuses on the performance and socio-economic importance of trade sector of the Republic of Serbia, as well as the number of ISO 14001 certificates in trading companies. Second, analysis shifts to the largest trading companies in the Republic of Serbia, based on available secondary data on the implementation of the concept of sustainable development and its environmental component.

It can be said that the mapping of processes is an intrinsic need of organizations, precisely because they are composed of a multiplicity of individuals. As soon as the number of people in an organization is higher than one, the need arises to define clearly who does what and how, and to be able to measure the effectiveness of the defined processes. This chapter aims to clarify and provide the reader with a possible method for doing this. The authors illustrate the main steps to successfully manage a process mapping project, using objective methods to guide the identification of the most important goals and processes of an organization. After the analysis and the definition, it becomes important to be able to communicate processes in a clear way. It is therefore proposed as a method for the graphical representation of the processes, more intuitive and immediate compared to the classic textual description and alternative to other techniques of BPMN.

This chapter analyzes the indirect effects of environmental management system (EMS) implementation and its certification and relates these to international governance in the context of new public environmental management. Building on a comprehensive quantitative dataset, it assesses the effects of ISO 14001 and EMAS (Eco-Management and Auditing Scheme) certification as well as temporal experience with EMS implementation on organizational activities outside the scope of EMS, while taking into account embeddedness and interaction effects. The analysis reveals heterogeneous effects, with limited evidence of embeddedness and interaction effects. As well, no influences of national business systems can be identified. Implications for the role of national governments in implementing sustainability strategies, even beyond environmental management, and aspects of standard flexibility in the process of governing firms to implementing such strategies in an international context are discussed.

The global higher education (HE) sector is increasingly becoming more competitive and has experienced a significant amount of transformation. Within the last 20 years changes occurred within legal frameworks, governing funding schemes, quality assurance systems and apprenticeship programs for industry across a widening range of HE provisions that support the upskilling of the workforce. This chapter shows that, higher education institutions (HEIs) are constantly seeking alternative ways of developing and consolidating new financial streams (partnering with other HEIs, geographical growth and portfolio development) that allow a sustainable development while maintaining high quality standards. The chapter shows that governments and experts believe enterprise-wide risk management (EWRM) can help HEIs reduce risk but also shows that it is not widely implemented in the HE sector.

This chapter critically discusses the implementation of EWRM in the context of a private HEI case study example with the purpose of ensuring business continuity and sustainable growth, while maintaining and enhancing quality standards. The importance of EWRM is discussed and illustrated through the case study research approach where the author analyzes the importance of risk management starting from preparation to program evaluation. This case study review provides a comprehensive and detailed answer as to how adoption of EWRM has been applied through adopting an international standards approach and utilizing the improvement cycle of preparation, plan, do, check and act. The chapter aligns well with the scope of the book as it provides theoretical and practical insights related to EWRM which is very important in assisting HEI governors and leaders in developing resilient and competitive educational establishments.