Abstract
This paper situates the process of economic sustainability in the wider context of regional specialization and geographic concentration. The main object is to analyze the implications of increasing importance of sustainable development. In this context, the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) is at the same time a part of the problem and solution. The focus of this paper is also the ICT firms themselves. This research aimed to explore the ICT firms operating in the ICT sector and focused more on the ICT firms’ sustainability in connection with industry geographic concentration and regional specialization. The economic sustainability (evaluated by sustainability sub-index) and geographical and regional analysis were studied for 62 Computer Programming and 63 Information Services sub-divisions of the ICT sector. The results confirm a strong correlation between economic sustainability and firm geographic concentration. Results show that a worsening value of economic sustainability does not always lead to the worsening conditions in the industry and there is a strong relationship between the economic sustainability and regional analysis.
Highlights
Within the last years, sustainability has passed from an ambiguous concept promoted by public bodies in developed countries to a daily concern of a majority of people, organizations, and companies across the world
The information and communication technologies (ICTs) sector according to the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic [33] categorization (SK NACE rev.2) is defined as the sector including Publishing Activities, Film, Video, TV Production, Broadcasting, Telecommunications, Computer Programming, and Information Services
ICT Sector in the Slovak Republic is defined as the sector including: 62, Computer Programming; and 63, Information Services (Table 1); and Telecommunications, which are excluded from the research
Summary
Sustainability has passed from an ambiguous concept promoted by public bodies in developed countries to a daily concern of a majority of people, organizations, and companies across the world. There is clear evidence that ICT may positively influence enterprise competitiveness and social and environmental issues [2] and the impact of ICT on sustainability is ambiguous: whether ICT constitutes a threat or a cure to environmental degradation is controversially discussed [3]. One thing is for sure, ICT has offered many new opportunities to address and improve sustainability topics from the local level up to global concepts such as the EU’s emission trading system. Many enterprises adopt and use information and communication technologies (ICTs) to achieve their social mission. Some organizations have planned sustainable strategies that minimize the environmental impact and increase their business competitiveness [6]
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