New Challenges of Globalization in Striving for Competitive Advantage and Sustainability

in many respects a remarkable meeting. It was a great moment for the School of Business , Montclair State University as we have successfully organized and implemented the 11th event in cooperation with Comenius University and a number of partner universities from around the world. The conference had accepted 219 papers and 7 abstracts after submitting them to a double review process. The conference attendees included about 300 academics representing over 200 universities from 45 countries. The theme of the 11th International Conference was " Striving for Competitive Advantage & Sustainability: New Challenges of Globalization ". With the globalization of the world marketplace, new opportunities and challenges have emerged causing governments , organizations, and businesses to find innovative ways to conserve the environment while developing strategies to foster economic growth and sustainable development. In line with (Langenwalter, 2007), sustainability is a movement that is both global and relatively new, although its roots are decades old in both the environmental and human resources/ organizational development fields. While lean and quality are powerful and effective attributes for an organization, so many companies have implemented these processes in the last 20 years that they no longer provide a competitive edge. Instead, they are expected to be the foundation on which any good business operates. The next competitive edge is sustainability, which incorporates environmental and social values in the corporate focus and organizational goals. Also, sustainability extends lean thinking by including opportunities that are outside of the lean model (Chodikoff, 2009). The competitive landscape is being reshaped by sustainability pressures. What capabilities and characteristics will companies need to cultivate in order to thrive in the future (Hopkins, 2009)? In striving for competitive advantage and sustainability, many new challenges of globalization have blocked the runway (Harris & Twomey, 2008). To discuss and address these opportunities and challenges, the 11th International SGBED Conference incorporated papers and i