This piece of work aims to understand the role of human resource management (HRM) at small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Portugal, as well as to contribute to a better knowledge of this area, still briefly studied. More particularly, it aims to understand the level of implementation of human resource practices in SMEs. This research in centred on the Portuguese best 1,000 SMEs. In what concerns the method, we implemented a questionnaire addressed to the enterprises managers and utterly analysed with the statistical package for social sciences. Although we can not generalise it to the national background, this study allows us to conclude that HRM is not yet a reality in SMEs. Moreover, human resources are not seen as a strategic factor for the organisation. SMEs only apply some human resources parcelled and reactive practices, without any strategic integration. However, we can affirm, even that informally, that there exist HRM in SMEs.

Main aim: This paper examines the main topics of research in the literature studying the topic of sustainability in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), and aims at presenting a future research agenda. Method: We conducted a systematic literature review based on articles published between 2000 and 2020. From an initial set of 88 papers taken from WoS in the period under analysis, 42 papers were effectively analyzed. Main results: The results of an in-depth reading reveal four clusters representing the main topics of research in the field: sustainability and SMEs’ performance; green and environmental management issues; social and cultural issues and their impact on sustainability policies; values, skills, and capabilities. Key findings suggest that the following angles of research appear to be underexplored: theoretically grounded research; research using large samples; articles examining sustainability reporting; research looking into non-manufacturing sectors; work examining settings in developing countries; research undertaking international comparisons; articles exploring the complementarity between the literature on sustainability in SMEs and on family-owned businesses; and the influence of the social and cultural context on SMEs’ engagement with sustainability. Main contribution: This paper offers insights to academia, practitioners, and policy makers to help SMEs engaging with sustainability and may assist also the latter to develop strategies to improve SMEs’ social and environmental reporting. Given the current pandemic crisis, and the urgency for sustainable business practices, we expect to contribute to expanding knowledge in this field of research.

Contextualization: From a very early age, assuming more prominence over the last decades, issues related to sustainability have been taking on a particular interest in the field of research. Although initially the basic concern was at the level of environmental sustainability, the truth is that, progressively, education for sustainability, deeply linked to the science of sustainability, constitutes, together with the latter, the scientific basis for education for the sustainability in higher education, thus emerging a research niche capable of providing greater openness and interaction between higher education institutions and their surroundings. Main aims of the study: Due to the importance that this issue assumes, this article seeks to address the issue of sustainability in higher education, giving particular focus to the analysis at the level of studies that have been developed, which are the main countries and institutions where this has been most researched, as well as which main researchers have been working on this issue. Methodology: For this purpose, and using information taken from the Scopus Database, a bibliometric analysis was carried out, which based on the items “higher education” and “sustainability” allowed to identify a set of 4410 publications. Main results: The results obtained allow to conclude that the number of publications in this area has been observing a significant increase over the last 30 years, with the United States, UK, Spain, Australia and Germany emerging as the countries which publish the most, and within these the Leuphana Universitat Luneburg, RMIT, Hochschule fur Angewandte Wissenschaften Hamburg, Manchester Metropolitan and the Arizona State universities that most publish in this field of research. The five main researchers in the field of higher education for sustainability, were also highlighted. Main contributions: Theoretical and practical contributions were highlighgted, namely, the contribution for government entities and the respective HEIs to reflect on the possible synergies to be developed, as well as to establish strategies and policies promoters of a more efficient and effective investment in research in higher education for sustainability.

Supported by a literature review, the present article looks to address the issue of sustainability in the modernization of higher education. Education for sustainability and the encouragement of a sustainable lifestyle are increasingly present in the academic and professional training of individuals. Progressively more responsible for the environment in which they operate, individuals, in order to preserve their quality of life and, above all, ensure quality of life for future generations, begin to assume new behaviors, such as the rationalization of energy and water consumption, reducing the use of paper, recycling products, and eliminating the use of plastics, among other behavioral changes. In this context, considering higher education institutions as a vital source for the development of sustainability and, consequently, a key lever in the definition and implementation of strategies conducive to sustainable development, it is through the teaching, training, research, and development carried out by them that these behavioral changes occur. Aware of this issue’s relevance, the present article, consisting of a critical review of the literature, seeks to answer a set of questions, such as “What role do academic managers, teachers and students assume in the search for sustainability?”; “What measures/actions have been developed by the HEIs in terms of curricula reform and the promotion of a sustainable campus?”; “What sustainability metrics are used in higher education?”. Giving particular emphasis to some studies about sustainability in different HEIs, the results of the research allow us to conclude that education for sustainability is seen as a tool of crucial importance in the current decade of the 21st century.

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