Smart Organizations as a Source of Competitiveness and Sustainable Development in the Age of Industry 4.0: Integration of Micro and Macro Perspective

Abstract

The Industry 4.0 Revolution that is taking place nowadays means that organizations face not only new opportunities, but also challenges related to the identification of their role in creating a modern smart world. The economies of many countries are under the significant and growing influence of various types of organizations, not only strong international business corporations, but also, more and more often, smaller but intelligent ones called smart organizations IR 4.0. Due to their unique characteristics, intelligent organizations are better able than others to cope with technological breakthroughs, social, and cultural problems as well as to compete effectively and develop in an environmentally sustainable way. With their growing potential, they are strengthening the economies of their countries of origin and daily operation. Their growing role is also visible in the processes of shaping competitiveness and achieving the sustainable development objectives of the European Union (EU). The countries that are able to organize an environment on their territory that is conducive to the smart organization’s development are clear examples not only of a high market competitiveness, but also of a dynamically growing commitment to the effective implementation of the challenges associated with the 17 objectives of sustainable development of the contemporary EU, according to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This allows for a conclusion that the identification of the key factors for a smart organization’s development makes it possible to monitor and provide targeted support for the development not only of these organizations, but also for the competitiveness and sustainability of individual countries, both from the EU and other regions of the world. In light of the above, the aim of this article is therefore to propose an effective tool to monitor the use of power of smart organizations in the processes of building the competitiveness and sustainable development of countries, with particular reference to the EU. To achieve this objective, we constructed a synthetic power of smart organizations index (PSOI) based on previously collected data from EUROSTAT. This tool allows for the integration of micro (organization level) and macro (country level) economic aspects into a single construct. Based on the analysis of its results, countries wishing to actively engage in the development of their own and the EU’s smartness and sustainability can be offered several more or less intense navigation paths to market success, based on the development of smart organizations.