Economic globalization has created many challenges for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) due to the rapid increase in competition. Therefore, the downfall rate of SMEs is relatively high, a short period after their commencement. Accordingly, SMEs need to adopt survival strategies and strategic methods to succeed in confronting the various global challenges faced by the SME sector. This study critically examined the existing literature on global challenges for SMEs to understand the SMEs’ survival and successive mechanisms in the present competitive business background. Published information related to the field by the multilateral institutions and 110 research papers published by four recognized publishing companies, i.e., Emerald, Elsevier, Taylor and Francis, and MDPI, were chosen for this study. The review revealed the critical global challenges for SMEs within the context of economic globalization. They are the global market competition, global finance and economic crises, information communication technology, the emergence of multi-national corporations, transnational corporations, consumer changes and especially their preferences, trade dumping, international terrorism, and religious conflicts and trade wars. Furthermore, the study considered the survival strategies of SMEs in the industrial platform to recognize sustainability-related policies, specifically, the necessity for a robust theoretical examination on the survival strategies of SMEs in the field of global challenges.

This study examines the nexus between energy, trade, urbanization and environmental degradation in Sri Lanka. The time series data has been checked for unit root problem along with unknown structural break. The bounds testing approach confirms the long-term relationship among carbon emissions, energy consumption, income, trade openness, and urbanization in the presence of structural break. The results of the study do not confirm the presence of the EKC (Environmental Kuznets Curve) hypothesis in Sri Lanka. This study finds that energy consumption leads to carbon emissions in both the long term and the short term. Trade openness is degrading environmental quality, as trade is responsible for the accumulation of carbon emissions in the atmosphere. The results of the study confirm that urbanization has been found to have significant and negative effect on carbon emissions. The study finds that the model is in equilibrium and the model will return to equilibrium from any external shock in less than two years. Policy measures are recommended for sustainable environment of the island.

In many developing countries, lack of access to water and its unsustainable use and adverse health impacts are important policy issues. The challenge of improving water services in developing countries is not only limited to the provision of new connections for non-piped-source-dependent households but also to improving the service level for the already connected households to meet peoples' needs. We conducted an empirical study in Sri Lanka on 307 households with piped water supply. A choice experiment was used to assess the potential welfare gains from alternative water supply schemes in terms of water quality, reliability, and pressure, and how the schemes are managed. Currently, over 20 different water supply systems managed by either governmental organizations or community-based organizations (CBOs) provide piped water supply. We found that households are willing to pay a substantial amount for improved water service, particularly for water quality improvements. Using the latent class and random parameter logit models, we found evidence of heterogeneity in the preferences for water service improvements. We suggest that the heterogeneous preferences of the household groups should be considered in the cost–benefit analysis to pave a way for rational policy-making on water service improvements.