THE FINANCIAL AND SOCIAL IMPACTS OF THE APPROVED PROJECTS IN THE AREA OF DIGITAL AND GREEN TRANSITION ON THE CROATIAN SMES

Objective. The objective of the article is to generalize and analyze the theoretical and methodological basis of the green and digital transition of the European tourism ecosystem in the context of the implementation of the renewed industrial strategy of the EU. Methods. To achieve the outlined goal, such methods of empirical and theoretical research were used: literature review, theoretical generalization (to identify, collect and analyze modern research on the digitalization and greening of tourism), a descriptive method (to highlight the methodology of tracking ecological, digital and socio-economic aspects of tourism according to using harmonized data and indicators for the European tourism ecosystem), data visualization (for visualization and grouping of material). Results. Multi-annual EU Work Plan of the European Agenda for Tourism 2030 is characterized in five priority areas, namely: "Enabled policy and governance frameworks", "Green transition", "Digital transition", "Sustainability and inclusion", "Skills and transition support". The methodology of monitoring the green and digital transition of the European tourism ecosystem using the online tool "EU Tourism Dashboard" is highlighted. The indicators of the panel, which are grouped according to the priority areas: "Green transition", "Digital transition" as well as the blocks "Socio-economic indicators" and "Main descriptors of tourism" are summarized, the sources of information for the calculation of indicators are highlighted. The main tools for financing the green and digital transition and increasing the sustainability of EU tourism are substantiated, namely: private investments and loans, sources of EU funding for tourism, EU technical support for the transformation of the tourism ecosystem, programs at the national and regional levels within the framework of cohesion policy.

The European Commission’s new industrial strategy launched in 2020 looked to lay the foundations for the twin transition to a green and digital economy. Within the same year, the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to accelerate the green and digital development of specific sectors of the European Union’s economy. As tourism was arguably hit hardest by the pandemic, it became the first sector for which a transition pathway was developed. The European Commission’s report entitled Transition Pathway for Tourism, published in 2022, described the measures needed to accelerate the twin green and digital transitions within the tourism industry. This review paper focuses on the European Commission’s report and it includes an outline of the characteristics of the green and digital transitions; a brief outline of the review process; the results of a literature search, undertaken to provide an academic context for the paper; a summary of the European Commission’s report with a specific focus on the ‘green and digital transition’ (European Commission 2022a): some reflections on the green and digital transition of tourism; and a brief conclusion. Keywords: twin transitions, green transition, digital transition, tourism industries, Europe

This article assesses the alignment of the green and digital transitions in the global economy, particularly focusing on EU’s strategies for integrating digital technologies to achieve climate neutrality. It discusses how sustainable digitalization principles can boost the green transition and promote climate neutrality. The study reviews digital solutions that reduce business carbon footprints and mitigate climate change impacts, emphasizing digitalization as essential for driving climate neutrality under current geopolitical conditions. The analysis includes a review of digital tools necessary for analytics, blockchain, energy management, and decisionsupport networks. It proposes creating digital twins of industrial and urban areas to enhance the digital-green transition. Additionally, it explores how the principles of sustainable digitalization act as a booster for both the digital and green transitions, reinforcing each other when aligned correctly. The EU’s policy efforts to promote green transitions in technology sectors and the potential rebound effects disrupting these transitions are also examined. The article underscores the importance of a flexible digital approach, global collaboration, and comprehensive educational initiatives as crucial components for effectively synchronizing the transition towards a digitally-enhanced via climate-neutral economy.

This research paper focuses on pathways towards a digital and green transition. We assess a generic pathway for the transformation of industry ecosystems in cities and regions based on processes of prioritisation, ecosystem identification, and platform-based digital and green transition. We start with problem definition and hypotheses; review related works on transition pathways, such as digital transition, green transition, system innovation, industry ecosystems, and multi-level perspective of transformation; assess the generic pathway with case studies; and conclude with a discussion of findings, outline of conclusions, and policy implications. Overall, the paper investigates pathways, priorities, and methods allowing public authorities and business organisations to master the current industrial transformation of cities and regions introduced by the twin digital and green transitions as an opportunity for radical change of city ecosystems, innovation leapfrogging, and system innovation.

BeWell is an Erasmus+ Funded project that kicked-off in July 2022 and will last for 4 years. BeWell is aiming to prepare the health workforce, and more broadly the health ecosystem, to cope with future challenges and the continuously changing societal expectations by developing a strategy on upskilling and reskilling the health workforce in the context of the green and digital transition. BeWell stands for Blueprint alliance for a future hEalth Workforce stratEgy on digital and green skiLLs and serves the objectives of the European Skills Agenda 2020 that aims to support companies and individuals to develop better skills. The way health and care is delivered is significantly changing due to a number of major trends. Just to mention a few: demographic change, the increasing number of non-communicable diseases, the consequences of our modern urban lifestyle, the use of digital technologies becoming prominent in all phases of care provision as well as becoming essential for horizontal and vertical integration of care, the ambition to reduce the environmental impact of the health sector activities, etc. To respond to these challenges and to manage these changes, health professionals need different sets of skills if they want to keep the quality of care provision consistently high. Appropriate education, lifelong learning, continuing professional development are the key in this equation. BeWell offers to design, develop and implement a digital and green strategy in partnership with a large number of stakeholders representing VET providers, research, professional organisation, social partners, policy-makers, industry and many others. Having mapped the current and future skill needs, emerging occupations, education and training programmes towards the green and digital transitions will be developed and piloted first of all to provide solutions to health professionals, and second of all to help patients to have access to better care. The strategy will ensure that sporadic training initiatives will be coordinated under a long-term common vision addressing not only current skill needs but will also prepare the workforce for the unknown. The strategy will be implemented at local, national and European level through a large-scale partnership under the Pact for Skills. All in all, this oral poster session aims to illustrate how health professionals working in primary, secondary, tertiary or informal care settings could benefit from the outputs of the project. Skills matching labour market demands in the context of digital and green transitions will enable health professionals to provide better integrated care services in all settings.

In an era of increasing global challenges, two paradigmatic shifts – the digital and green transitions – have gained traction due to their potential impacts on industrial ecosystems and societal inequalities. Termed the ‘twin transition’, these shifts underscore the synergies between technological advancements and environmental sustainability. Highlighting its importance in post-COVID-19 recovery, the special issue examines the twin transition’s potential to drive industrial innovation and affect social, economic, and geographical inequalities. The seven articles in this special issue explore the impact of the twin transition on corporate innovation strategies and investment, alongside the economic, social, and geographical implications. Key findings underscore the need for diversified technological investments, especially in AI, and enhanced digital infrastructures. Policy recommendations advocate for aiding firms lagging in digitalisation and developing region-specific innovation policies. The research sets a roadmap for future inquiries into the interplay of digital and green transition, broader economic impacts, and policy-driven strategies.

Closing the prosperity gap between regions has always been a key political aspiration of the European Union – and cohesion policy is the primary means to achieve that goal. Europe is currently undergoing a digital and green transition that is drastically changing the way its economy works. How well prepared are regions to capitalise on the twin transition? What impact will it have on regional cohesion in Europe? We find that greening and digitalising the economy will likely widen the gap between rich and poor regions in the European Union.

Purpose The aim of this paper is to understand how systemic change agents influence the twin digital and green transitions. The authors build on agency-based theories to argue that transition pathways are influenced by a combination of place-based characteristics, the mobilisation and preferences of systemic change agents (such as local clusters), and the institutional and economic context. The conceptual framework defines the different steps of the twin transition, and it identifies how systemic change agents and geographic characteristics determine the direction and speed of the transition pathway. Design/methodology/approach This paper starts with a literature review to identify the different schools of thoughts on transition pathways and the twin transition, before developing a conceptual framework and deriving policy implications. Findings First, this paper argues that each transition involves three steps: framing, piloting and scaling. Each of these steps is driven by systemic change agents who engage local actors in trust-based collaboration, pool resources, create network effects and exchange information to source solutions for industry-level challenges. Second, the combination of place-based characteristics and the actions of local systemic change agents define the path of the transition and the new (post-transition) equilibrium. Finally, this paper sets out implications for policymakers who are interested in using systemic change agents to shape transition pathways in their local area. Research limitations/implications Further research is needed to provide robust empirical evidence from a range of territorial realities for the hypotheses in this paper. Specifically, the role of systemic change agents, such as trade associations, regional organisations, clusters or research groupings, needs to be investigated more closely. These agents can play a key role in progressing the transition because they already focus on sourcing solutions to joint challenges and opportunities by exchanging information, engaging local actors in trust-based collaboration, pooling resources and fostering network effects and critical mass. Future research should investigate how policymakers can best leverage on these crucial actors to progress or steer transitions and how this varies depending on place-based characteristics. This could include, for instance, training activities, networking and collaboration (e.g. through the European Cluster Collaboration Platform) or clearer sign-posting the key next steps required for the transition. Practical implications This paper identifies specific ways in which local actors can influence the direction and speed of transitions at each stage of the transition: at the framing stage, political entrepreneurship can be fostered through collaboration and smooth information flows between different levels of governance, at the piloting stage, commercial and social entrepreneurship require effective knowledge sharing and a wide and open search for solutions which, in turn, may require capacity building at the local level and coordination across stakeholder groups and levels of governance and effective scaling up can be fostered through network effects, joint commitment from a broad range of stakeholders and pooling of resources to achieve economies of scale. Social implications An important implication of the framework is that, if several places are undergoing a parallel or joint transition, the result may not be convergence between these places. Instead, different places may choose different end points and they may proceed at different speeds. For instance, in the context of the European Union’s green and digital transitions, it is unlikely that every region will transition to a similar level of digitisation or make steps in the same direction when it comes to sustainability. Originality/value This paper plugs a gap in understanding how systemic transitions unfold and how their speed and direction are influenced by different stakeholder groups. This paper develops a conceptual framework to define twin transition pathways and it analyses prominent place-based factors affecting these pathways.

Addressing the sustainability crisis requires innovative approaches such as sustainable technological entrepreneurship. The case of Estonia, as an example of a twin (digital and green) transition, is examined. We explored Estonian entrepreneurs’ perceptions of challenges and opportunities related to the green transition. The data were collected via an online survey from 532 Estonian companies, focus groups, and individual semi-structured interviews with 42 experts. Survey data were analyzed using proportional odds logistic regression, and interview data were examined using thematic analysis. Based on the interview findings, the main perceived entrepreneurial opportunities related to green transitions were increasing production efficiency and favoring taxation for green products and services. The main challenges included losing competitive advantage, coping with crises, and the need for long-term planning and significant investments. Survey findings revealed that too much pressure only from politicians and a lack of innovation might increase the likelihood of perceived company cost increases. More pressure from other stakeholders and increased innovation were associated with higher odds of viewing the green transition as an opportunity. This study provides valuable insights into the perceptions of Estonian entrepreneurs regarding the challenges and opportunities of the green transition and contributes to their categorization.

With the global deterioration of ecology and the widening of inequality, achieving green, inclusive and sustainable economic growth has received worldwide recognition. The essence of green transition is the revolution of development mode, which requires a large amount of environmental investment, including enterprise pollution control and green RD on the other hand, the supply capacity of green funds by the financial sector also needs to be improved, so as to reduce the environmental financing constraints faced by enterprises. Therefore, financial development and environmental regulations can produce synergy at both ends of supply and demand of environmental investment and have a coordination effect on green economic transition. This paper exploits a comprehend dataset on the information of industrial production, pollution emission and green innovation of 284 cities in China from 2004 to 2015 to test the coordination effect. In recent years, the innovation and development of China’s financial system are reflected in local small financial institutions, in which the development of city commercial banks (CCB) has become an important symbol. With information advantages, more flexible supervision and diversified ownership structure, CCB can reduce information asymmetry in the lending process and alleviate the financing constraints faced by enterprises. Measuring the urban financial development based on the increase in the branches of CCB, this paper finds that local financial development can significantly reduce the industrial SO2 emission, the main pollutant in cities, in coordination with environmental regulations. The mechanism analysis shows that financial development and environmental regulations can synergistically promote industrial pollution control and green technological innovation, which reduces the emission intensity of industrial pollution and promotes the rise of green industry, thus promoting industrial green transition, without significant reduction of production. The conclusions remain stable after a series of endogenous and robustness tests. Heterogeneity analysis also reveals that environmental information asymmetry, the shortage of market intermediary service agency and the weak of the ability of technology commercialization will impair the coordination effect. The contributions of this paper are mainly reflected in two aspects: First, it reveals the factor of financial development in affecting green economic transition, which enriches the existing literature on financing constraints, financial development and economic green transition, and also provides useful policy enlightenment for the development of green economy. It is necessary to not only strictly implement environmental regulations, but also pay attention to the financial support and guidance role of the financial sector, so as to promote enterprises’ pollution control and green R&D innovation. Second, to improve the supply capacity of green funds, China needs to not only deepen the reform of the financial system and make up for the shortcomings existing in the financial system, but also further improve the relevant supporting systems required for the development of green finance, including improving the enterprise environmental information disclosure and sharing mechanism, developing green financial intermediary service agency, and cultivating professional technical management talents, so as to improve the operational ability of green financial business during the supply of green funds.

The text emphasizes that achieving climate neutrality and sustainability requires the simultaneous pursuit of green and digital transitions. These transformations are essential for economic and social systems but come with significant challenges and trade-offs. Acknowledging the interconnected nature of environmental, social, and economic sustainability is crucial to achieving these goals. Efforts toward sus-tainability and digitization must prioritize inclusivity and equality. Transforming businesses through digital and green initiatives is key to post-pandemic recovery, revitalizing production, and supporting the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRP), offering a unique opportunity for sustainable development. The "double transition" (green and digital) is seen as a cornerstone for post-pandemic recovery, influencing international competitiveness and economic growth. Amid the current global energy crisis and rising costs of raw materials and energy, companies must adapt to remain competitive. Technological investments and sustainable produc-tion are crucial for the future stability of the production system in Italy, Europe, and beyond. The integration of green and digital solutions is identified as essential for creating a competitive, fair, and sustainable future.

The dominance habit, at the core of human nature, continually pushes people into conflict with each other as well as against nature. This tendency has been exacerbated to the extreme during the period of economic neoliberalism. Since economic neoliberalism has lasted for more than four decades, a great many structural imbalances and anomalies of the economic system have emerged. Consequently, the economy, society, and the entire planet have remained in an unsustainable mode. In contrast to the exponential progress made since the start of economic liberalism, during the period of economic neoliberalism the economy and society entered regression, incapable of capitalizing on the growth potential from the last two industrial revolutions (3IR and 4IR). The economy entered a structural crisis because economic rules and policy platform brutally ignored planetary boundaries and the laws of nature as well. Precisely, without inbuilt corrective mechanisms aimed at mitigating the main fractures of the system, the economy has been floating between simultaneous destructions on the supply and demand side, and finally entered a structural, multi, and permanent crisis, simply, a "permacrisis". Furthermore, external asymmetric shocks, such as climate change, pandemics, and geopolitical disputes, have continuously deepened the fractures of the system and created new ones. In this paper, we intend to argue that when the pieces relevant for the functioning of the planet, envisioned as the "system dynamics" of three layers, cannot fit together, it is necessary to start with the reshuffling of the socio-economic layer, as the root cause of today's major planetary problems not only in the economy and society but also in the physical system and biosphere. The imperative of a new era is that economic rules should respect planetary boundaries and be compatible with the laws of nature, primarily reversibility and evolution. The aforementioned implies the necessity to initiate the transition from a "new normal", actually, abnormal, to a "better normal". Negative rebounds can only be reversed through the creation of a new context capable of internalizing negative externalities resulting from prior development. The ultimate outcome of such a radical change could be the birth of a sustainable (and inclusive) economy, both towards people and nature. The transition from an old to a new system is inevitable to steer the economy and society away from the permacrisis and put it on a sustainable trajectory. If the new economy intends to be in harmony with nature, the related transition could be named the "green transition" or the path back to a green planet as the context in which the seeds of human life were originally nurtured. Following the aforementioned logic, the paper is organized into six parts, excluding the Introduction and Conclusion. In Part 1 and Part 2, our focus will be on the root causes of structural imbalances (and anomalies) within the socio-economic system and the physical system, respectively, in the Anthropocene era. Part 3 presents a literature review of the attempts to mitigate inbuilt structural imbalances of economic neoliberalism. The intention is to address the green transition as a prerequisite for a sustainable economy and society. In Part 4, we delve into the strategic audit of Serbia's economy fact sheet at the outset of the green transition. The starting point in advocating for Serbia's return to a sustainable economy path is to provide an accurate diagnosis of the situation, addressing both macro and micro aspects, including everything in between. Part 5 offers an empirical test of attitudes towards SDGs/ESG sustainability metrics in Serbia's business community. Empirical data suggests a subtle inclination toward the environmentalization of the economy and sustainability-related disclosure. Consequently, in Part 6 we discuss the government's role in preparing the green transition action plan.

This paper contributes to the literature that critically engages with the so-called ‘twin green and digital transition’ by assessing the twin transition as a policy discourse. Our research question is: why and how is the twin transition legitimised and implemented in the European Union (EU) despite recognised pitfalls and uncertainties? The analysis is based on interpretative text analysis of high-level EU policy documents about the twin green and digital transition and of Member States’ resilience and recovery plans. The paper assesses the political and socio-economic context as a central factor that explains how the coupling of the green and the digital comes to be seen as desirable. Our results show that innovation associated with the digital imaginary is used to discursively reframe tensions between economic and sustainability policy aims as synergies. Legitimacy is derived not only from the promise of win-win ideas but also from the claimed ability of governing institutions to steer the twin transitions in the desired direction and avoid the recognised risks. With regard to implementation, the twin transition logic guided the allocation of funds by framing the need to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to accelerate the green and digital transitions. Hence, the digital imaginary merges environmental governance with the governance of innovation.

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.

This paper assesses the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) of EU member states and regions to uncover commonalities and differences between green and digital transitions, focusing on the role of institutions, among additional socio‐economic drivers, in modeling them. To that end, relevant indicators have been assembled, and several econometric models have been developed and tested to evaluate institutional performance in relation to green and digital transformations. The study reveals discrepancies in the two explored transition fields and highlights the power of institutional factors in boosting them. Specifically, the findings demonstrate that the green transition in EU regions is positively associated with variables such as life expectancy, institutional quality, tertiary education attainment, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with innovative activities, while the fruits of digitalization are mainly allied to population with higher studies, core creative class employment, accountability of institutions, and innovative SMEs. These insights offer valuable guidance for decision‐makers to draw lessons from high‐performing or successful regions and strategically assign resources. This includes paying attention to regional financial allocations and their alignment with territorial planning and long‐term policies.