A Multidimensional Evaluation of the Sustainable Development of European Union Countries – An Empirical Study
Dana Kiselakova, Małgorzata Stec, Mariola Grzebyk, Beata Sofrankova
Keywords:
sustainable development, challenges to sustainable competitiveness, a multidimensional comparative
analysis, synthetic measure
Abstract:
The main aim of this research paper is to compare the total synthetic measure value of sustainable
development for each EU country using a multidimensional comparative analysis of the
EU countries in terms of sustainable development. The statistical evaluation of this complex
phenomenon was based on 108 statistical indicators describing 17 goals of sustainable development
which were taken from the Eurostat database. The statistical data applies mostly to the year
2018. The zero unitarization method was applied as a research tool. Passing through consecutive
stages, the values of synthetic measures with variables determining the subsequent goals of sustainable
development were set. Our study led to the ranking of EU countries into groups of high,
medium-high, medium-low and low level of sustainable development. The results confirmed that
the leaders of sustainable development in the EU are Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Austria.
Most EU countries have reached the medium level, while Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Cyprus
have poorly realized the goals of sustainable development. Due to the growing importance of
countries of the Visegrad group in Europe, this article also subjected them to a more detailed
assessment in terms of their sustainable development. Among the Visegrad countries, only the
Czech Republic has reached a medium-high level of sustainable development. The other three
countries, i. e. Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, hold a similar position in the ranking of EU countries
in terms of sustainable development. Considering future generations, the implementation
of the goals of sustainable development as well as the identification of key indicators for each
country are becoming an important challenge in terms of global market competitiveness.
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 A Multidimensional Evaluation of the Sustainable Development of European Union Countries – An Empirical Study [PDF file] [Filesize: 1.28 MB]
 10.7441/joc.2020.04.04
Kiselakova, D., Stec, M., Grzebyk, M., & Sofrankova, B. (2020). A Multidimensional Evaluation of the
Sustainable Development of European Union Countries – An Empirical Study. Journal of Competitiveness,
12(4), 56–73. https://doi.org/10.7441/joc.2020.04.04
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