This paper investigates the impact of renewable energy sources (RESs), CO2 emissions, macroeconomics, and the political stability in a country on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The authors analyse the dynamics of RESs use, CO2 emissions, and GDP development and also test the following hypotheses: (1) The country’s economic growth is related to the energy consumption, in terms of both human resources and capital; (2) the share of the renewable energy consumption of the total energy consumption has a positive impact on the economic growth; and (3) the share of the renewable energy consumption of the total energy consumption is unrelated to the economic growth. To test the above hypotheses, the authors use the modified Cobb-Douglas production function, which also considers RES production volumes, CO2 emissions, and economic growth. The study employs data between 1995 to 2015 from the candidate and potential candidate countries for the EU membership. The data are drawn from the World Bank and Eurostat. The analyses entail panel unit root tests, Pedroni panel cointegration tests, fully modified OLS (FMOLS), dynamic OLS (DOLS) panel cointegration techniques, and the Vector Error Correction model (VECM). The findings confirm the relationship between RESs, CO2 emissions, and the GDP. For the EU countries, RESs as human resources and capital have an impact on the GDP. Moreover, the results reveal a correction retraction when the economic growth leads to an increase in renewable energy consumption. The investigation also finds that candidate and potential candidate countries for the EU membership should foster renewable energy development. The authors conclude that developing affordable and effective instruments and mechanisms to boost the RES implementation is necessary to decrease the anthropogenic impact on the environment (in particular, decreasing CO2 emissions) without any attendant reduction in the economic growth.

The paper analyses the linkages between GDP per capita, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and renewable energy (RE) in the total final energy consumption and green investments (PICE) which are measured as private investments, jobs, and gross value added related to circular economy sectors. The object of the analysis is the EU countries during the 2008-2016 period (crisis and post-crisis period). In the paper, data from the following databases was used: the Eurostat, the World Data Bank, and the European Environmental Agency. For addressing the linkages between the aforementioned indicators, the following methods were applied: panel unit root test, Pedroni panel cointegration tests, and the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) panel cointegration techniques. The findings show that FMOLS and DOLS demonstrate the same results as GHG, PICE, RE influence on GDP of the EU countries. The findings prove there is linking between gross domestic product per capita, greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy in the total final energy consumption and green investments. The findings also show that green investment (PICE) could provoke the growth of GDP per capita by 6.4%, the decline of GHG by 3.08%, and the increase of renewable energy in the total final energy consumption by 5.6%.

Implementing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and increasing environmental issues provokes changes in consumers’ and stakeholders’ behavior. Thus, stakeholders try to invest in green companies and projects; consumers prefer to buy eco-friendly products instead of traditional ones; and consumers and investors refuse to deal with unfair green companies. In this case, the companies should quickly adapt their strategy corresponding to the new trend of transformation from overconsumption to green consumption. This process leads to increasing the frequency of using greenwashing as an unfair marketing instrument to promote the company’s green achievements. Such companies’ behavior leads to a decrease in trust in the company’s green brand from the green investors. Thus, the aim of the study is to check the impact of greenwashing on companies’ green brand. For that purpose, the partial least-squares structural equation modeling (PLS-PM), content analysis and Fishbourne methods were used. The dataset for analysis was obtained from the companies’ websites and financial and non-financial reports. The objects of analysis were Ukrainian large industrial companies, which work not only in the local market but also in the international one. The findings proved that a one point increase in greenwashing leads to a 0.56 point decline in the company’s green brand with a load factor of 0.78. The most significant variable (loading factor 0.34) influencing greenwashing was the information at official websites masking the company’s real economic goals. Thus, a recommendation for companies is to eliminate greenwashing through the publishing of detailed official reports of the companies’ green policy and achievements.

The overcoming of the issues on energy crisis and inequality have become the priorities as far developing as developed countries are concerned. Moreover, energy inequality has increased due to the shortage of natural gas and rising energy prices in retaliation to the economic recovery affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to verify the linkage between the growth of renewable energy consumption and the country’s economic advancement. In this context, this paper determines the main driving forces of renewable energy consumption in European countries during 2000–2018. The annual data for panel regression analysis are retrieved from the OECD. Stat and World Bank Open Data. This empirical analysis employed a set of estimation procedures such as the panel unit root test (Levin, Lin & Chu; Im, Pesaran, Shin W-Stat; ADF-Fisher Chi-square; and PP-Fisher Chi-square methods), the Pearson correlation, fixed- and random-effects models, generalized method of moments (GMM), Hausman and the robustness tests. The results from the Hausman test ratified that the fixed-effects regression model is more suitable for involved panel balanced data. The results of fixed-effects regression and GMM identified the statistically significant and positive relationship between the share of renewable energy consumption of total final energy consumption, GDP per capita, and CO2 emissions per capita for the overall sample. In turn, the total labor force, the gross capital formation, and production-based CO2 intensity are inversely related to renewable energy consumption. The identified effects could provide some insights for policymakers to improve the renewable energy sector towards gaining sustainable economic development.

Digitalization has become a key driver of business innovation in recent years. It provides businesses with new opportunities to innovate and create value. Digital technologies, such as cloud computing, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence, have helped businesses boost the development of new products and services, optimize their operations, and improve customer engagement. This study aimed to analyze the impact of digitalization on business performance within business innovation. This study applied an ordinary least square regression model and an intermediary to explore relationship in the chain of digital capability–business model innovation–company performance. The object of investigation was 1663 listed A-share companies Shanghai and Shenzhen in the software and information technology service sectors. The results showed that digital capabilities could be divided into three dimensions according to the hierarchical relationship: (1) basic digital capabilities, (2) digital operation capabilities, and (3) digital integration capabilities, all of which significantly positively affected enterprise performance. Furthermore, while business model innovation significantly positively affected corporate performance, it was also driven by the preceding variables of digital capabilities. Business model innovation enhanced the positive impact of basic digital capabilities, digital operation capabilities, and digital integration capabilities on company’s performance. Considering the empirical results, this study underlines that the government should promote digital skills development, create supportive regulatory environments, promote access to funding for innovations, foster partnerships between businesses and technology providers, and promote collaboration between businesses, which are conducive to extending digitalization within the business innovation model and improving business performance.