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The world’s population continues to increase rapidly, and, within the next 30 years, more than half of all people will choose to live in large urban centers (Faria et al., 2018). This has led to a number of problems, such as congested people and transportation traffic and increased pollution that produces climate change. The concept of “smart” cities has emerged as a way to deal with these issues, in which these cities are defined as an ecosystem that seeks to improve citizens’ quality of life through a combination of technology, sustainability, and physical infrastructures (Estrada et al., 2018). Smart cities have to use new technologies ranging from the Internet of Things (IoT), which facilitates connections between everything, to home automation (i.e., the ease with which citizens can manage daily routines through their homes).

When implementing sustainable development principles, business should play the core role, and the corporate social responsibility is one of the examples of the active role of enterprises in implementing sustainable development goals. The corporate social responsibility (CSR) describes the companies that are aware of their mission and take responsibility for their impact on society in general. The CSR is vital for sustainability, competitiveness, advance of companies and development of the world economy. The CSR provides benefits for risk controlling, allows cost savings and stipulates affordability of the capital, facilitates stakeholders’ relationships and improvement of human resource management. In practice, human rights and corporate social responsibility have become an important aspect of business strategies for many companies.

Due to the pressure of global competition, shortened product-life cycles and the increasing opportunity to imitate product designs or their elements, companies continuously focus on innovations as one of their main agenda in order to maintain their global or national competitiveness. Besides, these innovations are considered as an ultimate source of productivity improvement, the growth in sales volume, and the capability of a company in question to stay competitive on the global market (Liao, Hu, Chen, & Lin, 2015). Companies perceive the need to continuously adapt, develop, and innovate as an economic necessity that results from global market pressures. The enhancement of product design and quality, accessorial technological services, their accessibility and reliability are no longer only seen as a benefit but rather an ultimate condition for the sustainability of company competitiveness.

The discourse – conversation – surrounding ethics has its roots in the Socratic and Platonic tradition, which displaced that of the pre-Socratic philosophers such as Thales and Anaximander. Taking a rationalist approach, i.e. the inseparability of ethics from knowledge, Socrates and Plato entirely changed the landscape in terms of the epistemological discourse. Plato (2006) develops the idea of Socratic rationalistic ethics and considers good (alongside beauty) and justice as fundamental to reality. Aristotle (2011) holds that wise decisions are an indication of a virtuous way of life and a social order that is just. Unsurprisingly, in his view ethics is the common, indissoluble link between individual activity and social relations. Similarly, for Thomas Aquinas (1948-1949), ethics encompasses rules that govern our actions and virtues, both of which are milestones for the individual. Immanuel Kant (1997) stresses the rationalistic principle of ethics by appealing to practical reason, i.e. reason as a guide to practical activity.

Today’s highly volatile business environment has initiated a wide variety of changes within organizations of all industries (Hurn, 2012). Change dynamics, in general, is likely to increase in organizational context due to: Digital and innovation disruption; Shifting social and demographic trends; Growing knowledge-based economy and knowledge workforce development; More sophisticated customer needs; and Global economic integration and liberalization. Regardless of its root-cause, it has been argued that change occurs in various shapes, forms and intensity (Jarrett, 2008). Accordingly, many authors recognize that key factor of an organization’s effectiveness lie in the ability to adapt to ever-present change, while successful change management became a pattern for organizational survival and long-term sustainability.