In response to the evolving dynamics of global supply chains, business-to-business (B2B) sharing economy models within the logistics industry have gained importance for innovation and sustainability over the last few years. According to a literature review, the sharing economy has become a pivotal innovation in the business environment, especially for resource utilisation efficiency and the potential to advance sustainable development policies. Despite the known positive impact on the economy and environment, integrating sharing economy models into logistics and supply chains remains limited. This highlights a key research area that requires a thorough examination of the barriers and opportunities for business-to-business (B2B) sharing economy platforms in logistics and supply chains that reflect environmental policy goals and promote cleaner, more efficient logistics systems. This paper outlines the significance of B2B sharing economy platforms as a crucial part of smart and resource-efficient supply chains. Using a system theory approach, B2B sharing economy platforms in logistics and SC were identified and systematically and comprehensively analysed across four critical aspects: sharing storage, sharing parking space, shared labour, and collaborative transportation. The scope of the research is limited to the smart and sustainable dimensions of logistics and supply chains, with a particular focus on the analysis of B2B sharing economy platforms. The novelty of this study lies in its empirical and theory-informed analysis of B2B sharing platforms as a key driver for smart and resource-efficient logistics. While prior studies have largely focused on consumer-facing sharing models or conceptual frameworks, this paper systematically evaluates operational B2B platforms. The analysis reveals that while B2B platforms offer valuable solutions in collaborative transport, storage, labour, and parking, they are underutilised and insufficiently aligned with environmental and digital objectives. The study introduces a spider chart analysis grounded in system theory to evaluate platforms against six dimensions, uncovering trade-offs between flexibility and sustainability. These insights contribute to understanding the strategic positioning of such platforms and propose a direction for smarter, resource-efficient supply chains.

This paper explores the findings from a survey conducted among 615 logistics companies in Slovenia, investigating the priority areas for employee training in the logistics sector. The study focuses on two critical areas: digital skills and the green transition. The goal is to identify the specific skills logistics companies require to adapt to digital transformation and sustainability challenges. The research highlights priority areas of automation, artificial intelligence, circular economy and sustainable energy self-sufficiency to ensure competitiveness in business logistics. Furthermore, the paper emphasises the importance of lifelong learning and upskilling initiatives in bridging existing skills gaps and equipping employees with the necessary tools to meet technological advancements and environmental sustainability goals.

NaTech (Natural Hazard Triggering Technological Disasters) refers to events where natural disasters—such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, or landslides—trigger technological failures, leading to the release of hazardous substances, fires, or explosions. These compound events reflect the intersection between natural and technological hazards and represent an increasingly relevant risk in the context of accelerating climate change. Even more severe are the consequences related to NaTech events in SEVESO sites. Slovenia is exposed to multiple types of natural hazards, including floods, landslides, earthquakes, wildfires, and extreme weather events. In particular, the frequency and intensity of floods and landslides are increasing as a result of climate change, elevating the risk of NaTech incidents. Strengthening the climate resilience of industrial and critical infrastructure is therefore essential.

This paper addresses the integration of sharing economy models into logistics and supply chains, exploring their potential contribution to the goals of sustainable development and the green transition. Based on resource-sharing through digital platforms, the sharing economy optimises logistics processes by reducing underutilised capacities, increasing operational flexibility, and lowering greenhouse gas emissions. The central research question is: How can sharing economy models contribute to optimising logistics processes and achieving the green transition goals within the sustainable development framework? The study aims to identify the benefits and challenges of applying the sharing economy in logistics, focusing on its environmental efficiency. A qualitative method was used, combining a review of scientific literature and case studies, upon which a SWOT analysis was conducted. The results confirm the sharing economy's potential to support systemic logistics changes by enabling more sustainable, flexible, and inclusive supply chain systems. Despite regulatory, technological, and social challenges, the sharing economy offers concrete opportunities to accelerate the green transition in logistics.

The global logistics industry has grown significantly in the last decade and has become essential to global business activities. In addition, the logistics industry is vital in transportation, urbanization in the Middle East, and transshipment through the Middle East. Due to their increasing importance and size, there is an increasing demand for adequately qualified people capable of managing the logistics systems and supply chains holistically and sustainably to avoid problems caused by unsustainable practices in mobility, transport, and supply chains. However, it is unclear whether the logistic and supply chain education of future leaders, managers, and engineers will follow SDG goals, the rise of new trends, and green technologies or lag behind. This paper pioneered a systematic approach and analyzed Middle Eastern countries regarding their sustainability integration into higher education programs related to supply chain management and logistics studies. It revealed enormous differences among countries and a lack of sustainability topics in most studied countries. Some countries are also significantly more oriented toward partial logistics challenges such as transport efficiency instead of sustainable supply chains, which are becoming critical challenges for the near future and must be accompanied by formal and life-long learning on sustainability-related topics. The circular economy and corporate social responsibility are especially neglected. It was also revealed that sustainability integration in higher education does not correlate with sustainability scores and the ranking of countries within the sustainability index.

A smart city is a complex system emerging from a million individual actions of citizens and producers, which city planning attempts to coordinate and give coherence. It is a cyber-physical engine for improving logistics resources of the supply chains, integrating digital and non-digital components. Standard ISO 37120, Sustainable cities and communities - Indicators for city services and quality of life, defines indicators to measure smart city performance and on the level of management supports standard ISO 37101, Sustainable development in communities Management system for sustainable development - Requirements with guidance for use on the level of leadership. With the help of the first mentioned standard, the situation when existing indicators at the local level are often not standardized, consistent, or comparable over time or across cities is exceeded. These indicators can monitor city performance progress to achieve sustainable supply chain development. Some indicators are directly related to individual logistics resources and supply chains, and some are indirect. This paper will describe a model using the indicators and their application in logistics and supply chains.

Due to recent supply disruptions, the corona crisis and the limited supply of all kinds of raw materials, components and goods due to global polarisation, the importance of logistics and supply chain management is boosting.This study is therefore a continuation of a study carried out in Slovenia and is investigating higher education study programs in the field of logistics and supply chain in the Middle East.It is oriented towards logistics, supply chains, management, and sustainability topics, which create core competencies for logistics leaders, supply chain managers, and future experts.Keywords were selected to identify key logistics, management and sustainability issues related to higher education sector in the Middle East.It was revealed that some countries are much more focused on company logistics and others more on supply chain challenges.It was revealed that some countries do not give any attention to one of the top priorities of global managers -corporate sustainability.To be able to supply a sufficient amount of logistics experts for managing current and future challenges of resilient supply, onshoring, increasing transparency, and fast response, Middle East countries should develop logistics education even more rapidly.

As important as the classical approaches such as Akaikeꞌs AIC information and Bayesian BIC criterion in model-selection mechanism are, they have limitations. As an alternative, a novel modeling design encompasses a two-stage approach that integrates Fuzzy logic and Monte Carlo simulations (MCSs). In the first stage, an entire family of ARIMA model candidates with the corresponding information-based, residual-based, and statistical criteria is identified. In the second stage, the Mamdani fuzzy model (MFM) is used to uncover interrelationships hidden among previously obtained modelsꞌ criteria. To access the best forecasting model, the MCSs are also used for different settings of weights loaded on the fuzzy rules. The obtained model is developed to predict the road freight transport in Slovenia in the context of choosing the most appropriate electronic toll system. Results show that the mechanism works well when searching for the best model that provides a well-fit to the real data.

The environmental and climate crisis is gaining priority among critical human concerns; therefore, environmental knowledge and sustainable solutions play a significant role and gaining global popularity as an academic discipline. Additionally, United Nations Sustainable Development Goal no. 4 acknowledges education's role in promoting sustainable development, sustainable lifestyles, human rights, social responsibility, circular economy, and greening our economy and society. In this paper new conceptual framework that focuses on systematically analyzing environmental sustainability integration in study programs and subjects is developed. The main aim is to reflect the conceptual basis of education related to environmental sustainability topics such as sustainable development, social responsibility, circular economy, ecology, environmental protection, and greening to boost future environmental management practices in industry and services. Defining the level of integration of environmental and sustainability-related topics is divided by research field classification and study cycles (BSc, MSc, PhD). The specific added value of the developed conceptual framework is reflected by defining cross-sections and inter-and trans-disciplinary of sustainability topics integrated within specific programs and subjects. The conceptual framework was tested by assessing 1051 programs in progress in Slovenia. It was revealed that the highest share of study programs has an intermediate level of environmental sustainability with 2-3 subjects (392 study programs). These are represented mainly by integrating environmental protection, ecology, and "greening" but less with circular economy and social responsibility. Significant differences among specific study programs and study fields reflect that young intellectuals will not be equally educated and qualified for future managerial challenges. Master students gain the best insight into core sustainability and environmental topics needed for future environmental managers.

Digitalization is undoubtedly of high significance after three years. As professional logisticians and supply chain experts, who are mainly involved with IT and related digitalization, trends and challenges in aforementioned fields are researched frequently. Despite constant progress and development, determining the quality of digital competencies poses a significant challenge. The literature offers a variety of frameworks, guidelines and standards for teaching, selection, and use of technologies for educational purposes, as well as provisions on quality education. Due to the burning topic, the purpose of this paper is to present ongoing research, which was produced on the basis of the European Digital Competence Framework for Educators (DigCompEdu) and the document Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG). The DigCompEdu framework ensures that quality objectives are set and achieved by promoting improvement, while the ESG document provides a set of standards and guidelines for internal and external quality assurance in higher education. Based on the latter, questionnaires were prepared for both educators and students, who were interviewed on digital competencies quality provision in higher education. The objective of this research is conceptual model development, from which questionnaires were derived for the comprehensive assessment of provision and quality of educators' and students' digital competencies in the international higher education systems. This paper presents foundation for further research on digitalization within aforementioned fields, as it provides insight into the perception of the digital competencies' quality and the identification of the existing gap between perception of educators and students. Logistics is the foundation of a well-designed supply chain and its smooth operations. This research topics' significance is heightened through its advantages and challenges. The latter should be thoroughly examined to obtain comprehension about errors' elimination and higher education optimization.

At the beginning of the 21st century, smart cities became a favourite concept worldwide. There are many reasons why cities should be redesigned and continuously evolved into smarter ones. Of course, the realization of a smart society requires the cooperation of all stakeholders and various organizations. The concept of smart cities includes transport and transport systems management, smart urban and micromobility, logistics, smart infrastructure construction, etc. Noteworthy is also mobility to create connected transport systems that allow flexibility and efficiency. There is increasing emphasis on creating 'walkable neighbourhoods, i.e., safe walking and cycling infrastructure, preferably completely free of vehicles, with a regulated public ecosystem in interconnected areas, with quick access to a public or micro-mobile provider. Introducing walkable neighbourhoods and making; therefore, the city more liveable is one of the most talked-about methods of transforming a city into a smart city. The notion of walkability and walkable neighbourhoods has recently become an emergent narrative in city planning. Improving walkability in cities is very important and must ensure citizens safe walking environments, sidewalks and excellent and secure cycling infrastructure to meet most of their daily needs by foot, bicycle or local transport a few minutes from home. This study investigates smart mobility concepts, walkability, and walkable neighbourhood principles through a comprehensive literature review, representing essential dimensions of the smart city concept. This study aims to describe the conceptual framework for a better understanding and define the idea of walkable neighbourhoods that are fundamental to creating a liveable, smart city.

Abstract In the era of a digital transformation of the manner of presenting and distributing content determined by activeness of Internet users, there is a necessity to identify optimum content creation. This aspect is analysed both in the dimension of information as well as marketing strategies. An important element then is to determine both technological as well as behavioural reasons that influence the form of the disseminated information. The paper will present marketing formats of content creation in the processes of disseminating knowledge on health and safety. In this light the Author will also analyse the effectiveness of particular types of content. Classification and characteristics of content will be presented in it as well. The research will be supported by selected tools of internet analytics so as to identify the types of content transfer carriers and the scale of their impact (such as, for example, Google Trends, Google Planner, Ubersuggest, Buzzsumo, Brand24 itp). The presentation will also include expert industry reports that indicate the extent to which in a general grasp the presented creations are applied to formulate interdependencies of applying the identified contents in the scope of the issues related to health and safety. Identifying potential division lines within the content category will allow to formulate a profiled methodology of their application within this specialist area.

Forecasting is important in many branches of logistics, including the logistics related to Tourism supply chains. With an increasing inflow of American tourists, planning and forecasting the US tourists’ inflow to Slovenia have gained far more importance attention amongst scholars and practitioners. This study, therefore, was conducted to forecast the American tourists’ inflow to Slovenia using one of the predictive models based on the exponential smoothing approach, namely Holt-Winters damped additive (HWDA) exponential smoothing method. The model was modified by several improvements, while the obtained results were generalized to other supply chain components. The results show that the forecasting system can predict well the observed inflow, while the methodology used to derive the model might have enriched the plethora of existing practical forecasting approaches in the tourism domain. Benchmarking demonstrates that the proposed model outperforms a competitive ARIMA model and official forecasts. The practical implications are also discussed in this paper.

Abstract Green Supply chain, Green Packaging, Eco-labels, and Eco-design strategies are concepts that are discussed frequently within scientific and political debates. Eco-design strategies for Lifecycle Design include the Eco-design Strategy wheel which presents eight Eco-design strategies: New concept development, Selection of low-impact materials, Reduction of materials usage, Optimization of production techniques, Optimization of distribution system, Reduction of impact during use, Optimization of initial lifetime, and Optimization of end-of-life system. This research investigates specifically the selection of low impact raw materials phase using the European Union as a benchmark to improve the Egyptian situation and aims to apply the closed loop cycle to the Egyptian Plastics Industry. Its goal is to enlight the way towards Sustainable and Circular economy system in Plastics manufacturing sector in Egypt while emphasizing the financial benefits from the Business and Marketing perspectives rather than the Environmental perspective only.

The adoption of market orientation practices at the Higher Education Institutions is a rising trend, since the challenges of changing the global higher education environment raise a growing issue for meeting the needs of the global market. Developing an appropriate strategy to cope with all of the requirements of the global education market changes and competitive pressures is especially challenging for University Business Schools in transition countries. The paper is based upon an identification of a variety of theoretical perspectives about the global education market, its trends and influences on those schools in the aspects of market orientation. Conceptual framework analysis was used to characterise the market orientation of Business Schools as an opportunity for the strategic business model of University Business Schools in transition countries. Key factors and indicators for understanding their environment were identified, structured and categorised within a theoretical framework. These factors reflect the evolving context of reformation of the existing business model of University Business Schools in transition countries in a comprehensive way, since the framework outlines the complexity of their adaptation, considering the linkages and dependencies of all the crucial global external in internal environment trends and aspects. The authors suggest that, in order to align their business model more adequately to the global market needs and develop a sustainable competitive position, University Business Schools from transition countries have to follow the market orientation principles, taking into account also the limitations and challenges from a wider social and institutional environment.

Recent trends of spreading of market globalization, technological progress, internationalization, privatization and other relevant changes are strategically changing the context in which all institutions of society operate and prosper. The higher education sector is also affected, and, in particular, the business education has to be better aligned with these external realities. In this dynamic and changing environment, students, businesses and other stakeholders require knowledge and skills that will provide them with competency in relation to the current economic situation and technological advances. Tourism sector and whole economy increasingly depend on contemporary knowledge that provides appropriate job competency to students and competitive advantage to the providers of services. Adjustment of public higher education institutions is important for enhancing their market position in increasingly competitive market for business education. There is an increasing number of private business schools that have emerged recently, also in the field of tourism that have seen their great potential for business success and earnings in the increasingly competitive business education market, framed by a very dynamic and competitive environment of business education. In addition, business schools have to deal with the trend of shrinking budgetary (public) funding of their operation, which forces them to search for additional funding by providing new educational offerings and strengthening of their market orientation. In the debate about the future of tourism education, there lies a gap between the requirements of the curriculum and the expectations of the industry, which argues that higher education has to serve the tourism of the future - that is to prepare students for a more active role in tourism organizations and in their search for improvements and adaptation to different competitive circumstances. Does business schools' curriculum follow the development of key recent trends in the industry? The main objective of this paper is to identify the key aspects of the dynamic adaptation of university business schools and to elaborate on the possible linkage between the development of professional competences of students in the field of tourism and the professional requirements of organizations in this industry. We will use the comparative method (overview and comparison of tourist programs of selected faculties in selected countries of the former Yugoslavia, review and comparison of their programs regardless of any possible accreditation) and benchmarking analysis that will help us identify differences in achieved professional student competencies in selected faculties and compare them against achieved professional student competencies of selected, leading faculties in central Europe in the field of tourism.

National and local governments are harmonizing the regional policies to enable balanced development of regions. Related research is questioning whether priority should be given to information and communication technologies in the implementation of the Smart Specialization Strategy in a regional level. The objective of this article is to find out whether ICTs have any impact on key tourism statistical performance indicators. Such an impact would justify the priority of ICT in regional policies. 2.181 tourism industry entities were checked for web presence; the region of the entity’s activity was recorded. The correlation between the on-line presence and the key statistical indicators was analyzed. Only 655 (30 %) are present on the Internet by a means of a web page. There is a strong positive correlation (τb=0,656, p

In the past few years, excessive efforts have been made to increase the city’s attractiveness and its international positioning. Also studies on the so-called city destination branding are on the rise. Theorists, as Ramirez (2001), Marzano and Scott (2009), among many others, are discussing different aspects of this complex process. Many approaches and strategies are dealing with the positioning of urban environments and city destinations, trying to provide at least some partial answers about achieving this objective. With proper marketing and branding, cities can do a lot to attract tourists and visitors. For successful city marketing and branding and for the successful long-term positioning of the destination in general, it is necessary to involve the key stakeholders and collaborate with as many as possible despite the fact that the branding of a city destination (or any destination for that matter) is a complex process. It is significant that all the stakeholders, who are always carriers of different interests, are invited to collaborate in the planning of the tourism development and tourism development strategies, from the government, the private sector, schools etc. It is also important to involve the citizens, who can provide a valuable opinion about the environment they live in – what they like about their environment, what suggestion would they give to tourists about gastronomy, attractions, shops, events, etc. It is significant that citizens are proud of their urban environment, that they know their own environment, and that they have the motivation for the involvement in the process of improvement of their home environment (through projects, discussions, etc.). It is impossible to create attractive urban environments or cities if residents do not have a positive opinion about the place they live in. That is why it is essential for the education institutions at all levels, but especially for the institutions at the primary levels to educate children, toddlers, pupils, students, about the importance of urban environment development and create a positive learning environment, where children are able to develop as residents with a great understanding of the potential of the environment they live in. The paper explores the importance of raising awareness of the urban environment in primary schools from the theoretical, analytical and practical point of views. In the paper, we will examine whether primary schools in the city of Maribor, Slovenia educate children about their urban environment, if they are creating positive learning environments, where children can develop into proud citizens aware of the significance of the urban environment and its consequences for the quality of their lives. Further on, the curricula in chosen primary schools in Maribor is going to be analyzed. With the survey, we will try to identify the degree of children’s awareness of their surrounding urban environment, the information they receive about their environment, and their attitude towards it. And finally, what is most important, we will try to show the extreme significance of the learning environment and the curricula for raising the awareness of the environment and growing into responsible adults who will also act responsibly towards their urban environments.