Social Aspects of Sustainable Competitiveness in the Selected European Countries in the Period 2012–2015

The paper examines the impact of the social dimension of sustainable competitiveness on the economic dimension, where the social dimension is represented by Indicators of social sustainability, and economic dimension by the Global competitiveness index, GCI. This allows for the identification of various Indicators of social sustainability and their individual and aggregate impact on GCI, which allows for identifying strengths and weaknesses in building competitiveness (from social aspect) and gives recommendations for strengthening and improving competitiveness of the observed group of countries. In this regard, impact model of indicators of social sustainability on GCI is defined, and examined based on a sample of 30 European countries. Data in WEF Global Competitiveness Report for for 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 was used. Analysis included two sets of countries with data on: 17 old free market economy countries in Europe (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK) and 13 post transition free market economy countries in Europe on the basis of the economic historical background (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Rep., Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovak Rep., Slovenia).