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The aim of this paper consists in presenting the dynamic evolution of the Romanian beer sector at both national and European levels during the period 2018-2022. From an economic standpoint, the beer industry stands out as one of the biggest and most significant revenue contributors worldwide, with beer representing the most widely consumed alcoholic beverage globally. The need to carry out this paper emerges from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, following the effects it had on the active population and implicitly the changes in consumption behaviors. Moreover, considering recent times, the war in Ukraine is a factor that can seriously affect the imports and exports of surrounding countries of grain necessary for the production of beer, this aspect being really important in observing economical changes. This paper relies heavily on a thorough examination of the demand and supply dynamics within the Romanian beer sector, assisted by a comparative analysis of its standing among European beer trends. Notably, Romania holds a prominent position as one of the highest per capita beer consumers. The main hypothesis of this study consists in the fact that the demand and supply of beer did not increase during the pandemic, and that the expenses for this product suffered considerable increases. This is proven through a quantitative analysis in which indicators such as beer production and consumption, average expenses, imports and exports were analyzed. For this achievement, national, European and international databases were accessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly changed the Romanian banking sector, which was forced to adapt to digital technologies and to provide accessible banking services for all kinds of custsomers. The corporate social responsibility practices evolved during the pandemic, from general causes to more targeted initiatives, the Romanian banks offering innovative solutions to fight against the health crisis. The present paper provides a good insight in the corporate social responsibility practices before the pandemic and during the COVID-19 crisis, exploring the best practices of the most representative banks in terms of total assets. The investigation covers five years, from 2017 to 2021, and was based on a content analysis of the sustainability reports of the banks from the sample. The data was processed through the MAXQDA software, revealing a clear correspondence between the corporate social responsibility practices of the banks and the theoretical concept of sustainability: Profit – People – Planet. The qualitative analysis was completed by a quantitative investigation based on a questionnaire applied on a sample of 344 respondents. The comparative analysis outlines the moral implications of corporate social responsibility in the COVID-19 unique environment, considering the balance between the individual health of clients/employees and the profit dimension of corporate social responsibility. The paper focuses on the recovery stages of the banking sector after the critical point of restriction measures, emphasizing the clients' perceptions and attitudes towards digital banking, as a form of social care during pandemic. The banks responses to the COVID-19 pandemic were examined by using a sequential mixed-methods approach, suggesting an amplified economic dimension of corporate social responsibility during the COVID-19 pandemic through digital banking services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 crisis, along with the other associated complex crises, has amplified the gap that exists in terms of the number of women reaching leadership positions, despite the quality of their work and their important contributions in various fields. This paper aims to explore women's leadership qualities, and perceptions regarding leadership, based on quantitative data originating from four studies. Concerning the research methodology it includes qualitative research and a comparative analysis of global studies. The paper focuses on women, looking mostly for the proportion of women within organizations, and the main characteristics of women's leadership. The analysis then turns to Romania, where we have identified the proportion of women leaders. The main goal of the paper is to investigate the representation of women leaders in EU countries and in particular in Romania. The results of the study illustrate that favorable work conditions have a greater impact on women's aspirations to become leaders. Extrinsic structural inequalities, such as bias against women in certain professions, and gender, racial and other discrimination, are barriers to women's access and advancement in leadership positions in the workplace. Intrinsic individual characteristics of successful women leaders, namely conscientiousness, respect, confidence, acceptance, and resilience have facilitated their success in obtaining and maintaining leadership positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 health crisis generated an economic crisis at global level and consequently determined numerous economic disturbances at different levels. The study of the economic impact of the health crisis at various levels became legitimate in order to identify the influences of the health crisis on the economic activity, among others. This paper concentrates on the study of the impact of the COVID-19 health crisis on international trade with the focus on two countries. The regression method was used to measure the impact of the COVID-19 burden (number of cases and number of deaths) on the international trade flows of two Central and Eastern European countries from European Union, namely Romania and Poland. The analysis includes the first two years of the pandemics, 2020-2021. The results of the analysis illustrate that the COVID-19 burden had an effect on international trade in the two countries. The import flows were more affected than export flows by COVID-19 in both countries in the analyzed period. However, the influences differed in the two countries, with international trade in Poland being more affected by COVID-19 than that in Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper uses qualitative research to provide a brief overview of the role that central banks can or should play in supporting the efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change, a topic that is currently under intense public scrutiny. In terms of their mandate, independence and responsibility, an implicit mandate regarding climate change objectives seems to be a safer option, as an explicit one would charge the central banks with an objective that they might not be well equipped to achieve. In terms of what central banks can do, the potential actions were separated according to monetary policies (quantitative easing and a reconsideration of the collateral that central banks accept in their operations, with a focus on green assets) and regulatory approaches (measures taken under the current Basel 3 regulatory framework, according to the three Pillars). Overall, it is showed that central banks can and very likely will have to play a role in these efforts, as the case studies included in the paper also hint. In particular, one main area for future research will be the options to adapt the regulatory framework to better support the efforts to mitigate climate change effects (macroprudential tools, different treatments of exposures according to their classifications as green or not etc.). Nevertheless, it is important to acknowledge that the bulk of the measures needed to achieve the desired climate change objectives will rest upon Governments, with the central banks' actions being a complement to these measures, not a substitute of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technical changes are part of the product or process life cycle. Their role is to develop the product and achieve the best production process. If it is functional, then engineering modifications are the best way to go. This work paper considered, the principles for change, how to effectively implement change in an organization, the importance of managing change and the role of management in change. The theoretical part of the work paper offer information about internal performance, and the implications during the implementation of changes in production system. From presented analysis show that the human factor is the key to the successful implementation of changes. After a successful study of the topics, it emerged that change requires management and full support of employees. Proper timings should be designed during change implementation. Lastly, a successful change agenda considers both internal and external stakeholders, that is, employees, management, and customers. To better the writings on the concept of change and management, this study is open to future research and more insight on change. The internal project team will use all these information in scope to ensure the success of the change. The analysis of engineering change request data shows that even though the quality of the engineering change request varies, there are several often-followed guidelines and best practices, in addition to the formal requirements for an engineering change request. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Green Deal sets out a detailed vision for Europe to become a climate-neutral continent by 2050 by providing clean, secure, and affordable energy. Thus, with the aim of providing a market-oriented perspective on the economic potential of biomass-related activities, several data were analyzed in this research paper. The positive impact of the green transition is necessary to be studied both at macroeconomic and microeconomic levels. In this context, the research question addressed was: What is the impact of the green transition on farms' performance and national economy? A descriptive statistical analysis was carried out in order to prove the importance of specific crops, taking into consideration the movements in the energy market and the farmer's constraints in the era of the European Green Deal. The main objective of this research was to determine if biomass is one of the optimal solutions able to gather all these European desiderates. This conference paper identifies the best scenario for an agricultural farm using diversification activities and the macroeconomic impact of the biomass crops. Currently, the European context is the most favorable for resorting to biomass crops, especially if considering the recent global energy market dynamics. Additionally, there is a need for activities diversification at the farm level in order for them to become greener and to boost their socio-economic and environmental performance. Results confirm that there is considerable economic potential for biomass production in Romania. The added value of the paper is provided by both microeconomic and macroeconomic approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The year 2020 began with a health crisis, asserted in the same year, as the coronavirus pandemic. In this sense, world governments have taken measures to protect their national economies, measures such as limiting exports or social distancing. In 2022, the economy showed signs of recovery, when in February, war broke out between Ukraine and Russia. Thus, the two events negatively impacted world trade. In this paper, the aim is to point out the impact of the health, economic and war crisis on Romania-Brazil commercial relations, in the period 2019–2023, on Brazilian investments in Romania and on Romanian investments in Brazil. Romania is part of the European Union, being also a military, humanitarian and economic support for Ukrainians. Otherwise, Brazil is part of a totally different political structure, being a partner and ally of Russia. A descriptive research will be carried out on Romania-Brazil trade, in the period 2019–2023, based on the information on the Comexstat platform. In order to identify Brazilian investments in Romania, the research will be carried out conformable of the information provided by the National Trade Registry Office, and the research on Romanian investments in Brazil will be carried out conformable of the information provided by Banco Central do Brasil. The year 2023 represents the best economic year for trade between Romania and Brazil from the period 2019–2023, as commercial exchanges increased by 16% in 2023, compared to 2019. Regarding Brazilian investments in Romania, they are increasing, but Romanian investments in Brazil are decreasing. This work is innovative, because it sheds light on the commercial relationship between two countries with a similar culture, during a period of crisis, countries that are located in two different political and ideological blocs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the EU-Russia energy relations in the period 2010-2022. Although in other sectors the European Union has a competitive advantage, in this area the vulnerability of the EU to Russia is fully felt. The gas crises (2006 and 2009) and the conflict in Ukraine (2014 and 2022) highlighted the European Union's over-reliance on Russian energy resources. The escalation of the conflict in February 2022 has created a state of uncertainty about the evolution of the energy cooperation between the EU and Russia. The aim of this research is to identify and assess the impact of sanctions and counter-sanctions on trade in the energy sector between the EU and the Russian Federation, as well as the problems and prospects of EU-Russia energy relations. In order to achieve the proposed objectives, this paper is the result of a mixed research design, based on a quantitative and a qualitative component, respectively. The topicality of the debate on EU-Russia energy relations is reflected in the field of scientific investigation through a significant literature. Official documents of the European Commission and the European Parliament, academic articles and studies conducted by various prestigious think-tanks were analysed. Also, the research is based on data published by Eurostat and International Energy Agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought considerable transformations to the worldwide markets, creating an economic and sanitary crisis. Distribution channels were disrupted, affecting supply networks and business models. With restaurants and bars closed down, banned airlines and travel restrictions implemented, the economic well-being of worldwide industries got disturbed. As global decreases in alcohol trade were registered, wine market was appraised an industry worthy of being taken under consideration, with focus on its market size, incurred revenues, price evolution and degree of embracing digitalization to adapt to the ongoing restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The latter one referring to traditional wine tasting rooms which were banned due to the lockdown, wine industry found online wine tasting as a profitable alternative. The presented metrics were analyzed in Europe, with a high focus on region's main wine producers: France, Spain, Italy, Germany and Portugal, but not only. Research followed an exploratory approach to determine changes under pandemic restrictions, lockdown and finally economic crisis in the selected industry, by engaging international available data and statistics. The study, therefore, formulated relevant hypothesis based on market size and registered revenues, price evolution and adoption of online wine tasting strategies. Results of the paper highlight decreases in market size and revenues of European wine market, however, on the long-term, industry revival is forecasted. Prices slightly decreased mainly for prestigious wines (AOP labelled), showing consumer budget restraints brought by the crisis. European's wine market digitalization show differences among countries, with Germany being a leader for engaging such technologies. Our paper brings a snapshot of current trends and barriers under the COVID-19 pandemic, acting as a future basis and guidance for researchers in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this paper is to explore sourcing as a business model that can be used by companies for obtaining competitive advantage over their rivals in a global environment. The strategic approach of sourcing has become an important capability for firms over the last 20 years as the international competition has intensified and given also the limited internal resources. This analysis approaches the worldwide necessity of identifying strategic sourcing relationships for creating new capabilities. A developed international sourcing based on partners/ suppliers was paramount for some companies to overpass the Covid-19's disruptions in production and supply of different products and to overcome their competitors. Although these companies were affected on short run, they showed a high shock absorption capacity and ability to recover quickly after the shock. In a nutshell, they were more resilient to external shocks, and they succeeded to overcome the difficulties through an agile business reaction. Based on available theoretical data on sourcing, this paper takes a step forward by sketching a practical guide allowing companies to understand if they need to source totally or partially their portfolio of products. Furthermore, for those companies to which the sourcing solution becomes a necessary strategic move, this paper provides a view on the process they should follow to obtain a competitive advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic is presenting a serious health crisis to humanity. This pandemic is also raising questions for both academic and policy administration. Using a global database, this paper aims to clarify the relationship between COVID-19 statistics and some macroeconomic indicators in 206 countries worldwide. The quantitative analysis process is done by two methodologies including the Pearson correlation and the Pooled-OLS regression. The result shows that the number of infections and deaths has positive and significant relationships with the population, the median age, and income per capita. The information from this paper can help policymakers have a better view of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as prepare effective responses in combating potential pandemics in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the economy develops, self-financed capital investments are less frequent, being replaced by financing through banking intermediation and later through capital markets. The development of financial systems has a positive effect on the mobilization of resources, improving corporate governance and risk management, leading to economic growth. The preponderance of previous research papers shows a positive relationship between financial development and economic growth. Studies using cross-sectional methodologies discover almost unanimously a positive link between financial development and economic growth, while studies with methodologies based on time series, panel data or case studies reach different conclusions depending on the period considered, the countries' initial level of development and the structure of the financial systems. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of financial systems on economic growth using panel regressions based on annual data regarding measures of financial development for the member countries of the European Union, for the period 1990-2020. The findings show that the development of the financial systems, through the activity of banks and capital markets, has a positive effect on the allocation of resources, the mobilization of savings and the efficient management of risks, leading in turn to economic growth if there is a correlation between the funds invested and the output of the real sector. The paper's contribution to the field refers to the study of the long-term relations between the financial systems and the economic growth using data for all European Union countries, the findings helping to formulate public policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All companies strive for sustainable growth and performance, a complex task in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment, with evolving legislation transforming the roles and responsibilities of leaders, while being closely watched by investors. Besides the ongoing effect of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the 2020 multidimensional crisis challenged the worldwide status quo in many respects, accelerating the rhythm of change for business models and questioning the leadership competences, motivation, and practices, due to new ways of working, interaction, and collaboration, and different ways the teams are now led and are expecting to be led. The career success is a dynamic concept that evolved over the past decades, being studied through numerous lenses, such as its predictors and antecedents, personal anchors (values and beliefs) and personality traits, own preparation for the professional road (education and learning), drivers, demographics, life choices, and the career capital. This analysis follows the topic of career success over the last six decades, showing the citation evolution of papers on the subject, and identifying the most related articles, as well as the most related journals. The findings are based on a quantitative analysis of Scopus indexed documents, with a qualitative highlight on the most related articles and the most cited articles of the most influential authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic was an unparalleled crisis that has affected businesses, individuals, institutions, and governments in multiple ways. This paper comes to critically analyze the impact of the pandemic on entrepreneurship and innovation. Studies show that crises can also be perceived as opportunities for continuing creating new solutions and adopting innovative ways of doing business. In this sense, the present paper analyzes the current state of the art in terms of the pandemic impact on small and medium enterprises and the innovation status and proposes a systematic literature review and comparative analysis to depict the situation in Romania. For the purposes of this research, the data from the Global Innovation Index Reports is being used. The results show significant positive and negative changes in three main categories, namely business sophistication, infrastructure, knowledge & technology output. The paper contributes to the existing body of knowledge by summarizing the main findings from multiple publications and proposes recommendations for policymakers and institutions to provide the corresponding framework so that entrepreneurs could benefit from innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As digitalization in Europe is becoming more and more a priority, research has identified that there is a constantly existing gap between the European Union and the United States when it comes to the digitalization of enterprises. The situation is particularly obvious when it comes to the digitalization of small and medium enterprises. Published reports have noted that lack of access to financing is not seen as a debilitating factor, while developing economies in Europe, which the paper focuses on, do not report lack of infrastructure. As such, the paper produces, through a combined qualitative and quantitative pilot study, additional potential reasons for the lack of digitalization of SMEs in Europe which should be researched in the future: reactive mindset of waiting for growth in order to justify digitalization investments, lack of options for SMEs that do not necessarily desire to grow to large enterprises, and the lack of understanding of innovation and digitalization benefits for enterprises that do not have a culture for innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last three decades, agricultural systems have been at the center of numerous policies designed to deliver society closer to a more sustainable future. Emergent research show agriculture as a vector of change that can significantly contribute to transforming economic models–from linearity to circularity–one of the premises of the circular economy. Turning waste into resource suggests new windows of opportunity for agriculture, as well as its potential to gain competitive advantages in relation with other economic sectors and become highly performant in this regard. Considering the new meanings of competitiveness and performance in the economics of sustainability, the objective of this research was to carry out a literature review on three types of environmentally friendly agricultural systems (ecological, organic, regenerative), and explore how the concepts of competitiveness and performance converge and/or diverge based on the different characteristics of each type of agricultural system. The literature is generally convergent towards the fact that ecological, organic, and regenerative agricultural systems are highly competitive in terms of low environmental impact, especially if compared to conventional agriculture, yet they are poorly competitive from a legislative point of view–as it is considered that those three agricultural systems are highly reliant on incentives and political support. From an economic perspective, they are also not the best-performing in terms of cost generation, yields, and income volumes. More research is still needed in order to identify pathways for the large-scale practicing of profitable, resilient, and environmentally friendly agricultural systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unquestionably, the COVID-19 epidemic has accelerated the growing interest in the topic of digital transformation and organizations seeking a competitive advantage. Since this is a new topic, little is understood about the interactions and the effects between Covid-19 and digital transformation. The paper seeks to provide an overall view on this subject and see the common view by academic environment through a bibliometric analysis, which was built on data extracted from WoS - Web of Science database and using VOSviewer software. It also aims to identify the main topics that configure the studies on digital transformation, identify the main clusters, and to identify a research trend in this topic. This analysis highlights how a certain (major) event, such as Covid 19, influences both the functionality and results of some organizations, through the lens of associated factors, as well as the fields of scientific research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is undeniable that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused serious problems to education on a global scale, as well as to health systems and national economies. As a result, governments around the world have had to make extraordinary efforts to solve the various problems encountered not only in the area of health and the economy, but also in education. In terms of education, the changes include, but are not limited to, curriculum revisions, the provision of technology resources and infrastructure, changes in the academic calendar, and policies regarding instructional delivery and assessment. To limit the spread of the pandemic, universities, institutes and academic schools had to switch to online education using available educational platforms. This has been reflected in the emergence of numerous publications dealing with the subject. The study aims at the quantitative evaluation of the research carried out and published in the field of e-lerning in the university environment in the context of the pandemic crisis, starting from a comprehensive bibliometric analysis based on Scopus publications. The distribution of published papers in terms of years, authors, institutions, countries, journals, the network of co-authors, co-citations, and the cooccurrence of keywords is discussed. The main conclusions regarding the research trends in the field are drawn. The study represents a useful resource for those interested in the field of e-lerning in the academic environment in the context of COVID-19 that captures the main changes produced in the field and the potential research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees anticipate that their leaders will demonstrate greater empathy for the unexpected issues in the workplace. According to recent studies, the present and future require leadership to reimagine human resources leadership and the entire employee experience by focusing on people, cooperation, tight communication, and reestablishing connection and trust. In their 2021 report on the future of work after Covid-19, McKinsey Global Institute notes that hybrid remote work could continue to address the fact that 20 to 25 percent of workers in advanced economies and around 10 percent in emerging economies could work from home three to five days a week, primarily in computer-based office work, including offices of all sizes and corporate headquarters. In this light, the purpose of this research to provide an overview of the relationships between the leadership style, employee engagement, as well as their wellbeing versus burnout. The paper intends to propose a bibliographic analysis of the scientific articles simultaneously tackling the main envisaged constructs, respectively leadership, engagement, well-being and burnout. Given the fact that the inclusion of the Covid-19 pandemic would have narrowed down too much the analysis, the term was not considered in the searches. The bibliometric analysis was performed by means of VOSviewer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the beginning of 2020, a virus originating from Wuhan, China, spread throughout the world, which in March of the same year was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. According to scientific studies and specialized publications, the pandemic had positive effects on the pharmaceutical industry and e-commerce, which accelerated the digitization process. The negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic consisted in the reduction of companies' revenues, the reduction of the number of customers, the reduction of investments and the temporary suspension of production. The research of this paper is descriptive, based on statistics and data from the official reports of the National Trade Register Office. The methods used are observation, analysis, data processing and synthesis. The aim is to identify the number of new investment sectors, newly established enterprises, companies that suspended their activity and those that entered insolvency in the period 2020 and 2021, compared to 2019. The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on entrepreneurship in Romania was not devastating, the entrepreneurs keeping their confidence in the stability of the market. Thus, in 2020, the company establishment rate was affected, because new entrepreneurs no longer had the courage to invest their money, but the companies already present on the market were not strongly impacted. The year 2021 is the surprise year, being the most favorable for entrepreneurship in the period 2019-2021. The most companies were established, and the rate of suspension and insolvency was the lowest. The contribution in this paper consists in the fact that it is demonstrated that the pandemic did not destroy the entrepreneurial activity in Romania. On the contrary, there was a sector, Information and communications, which experienced rapid development, thus developing the concept of "knowledge economy" in this country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historical events of COVID-19 pandemic reshaped society forcing an advancement in digital transformation. All the domains had to change and introduce innovation to be able to continue activities in a social distancing context. This was also the case for education which proposed the movement to online education as a solution for reducing the spread of the virus. This paper seeks to present the journey of a school in a rural area of Romania through the pandemic period. The changes they had to make and the lessons they learned are also highlighted. In the end, a glimpse into how things are in the present and how the pieces of digital methods used in the pandemic period bleed through to the present day-to-day activities in a face-to-face context is shown to underline the advancement in digital transformation that the COVID-19 pandemic imposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leadership for the digital and entrepreneurial society is a relatively new and emerging area of study, as the rapid pace of technological change has brought new challenges and opportunities for leaders. Forasmuch as digital society continues to evolve and grow, and as COVID-19 has had a significant impact on leadership practices and has brought about some notable changes in how leaders approach their roles, new leadership models are emerging to meet the unique provocations and chances of this context. The scientific literature on this specific topic is still emerging, but some key themes have already come up emphasizing the importance of agility and adaptability as organizations have to rapidly pivot their operations in response to the increasingly necessary digital expansion accelerated by the pandemic. As traditional business models are disrupted, leaders who are able to effectively leverage new technologies while thinking creatively and taking risks are more likely to succeed. Therefore, considering that the subject is still in its early stages, the research topic is to examine the leadership models that should be utilized in order to improve the digital and entrepreneurial context answering the main research questions related to the steps and leadership practices that will make a significant difference in both digital and entrepreneurial societies. The past literature on empirical and theoretical topics is compiled via a systematic review. An analysis of the content that is qualitative and descriptive was planned. Scopus, Web of Science or Google Scholar search results were of great help in carrying out the study and various leadership models were examined. The paper's theoretical contribution is the definition of a set of rules and criteria on where to focus on leadership. The collection of data for new performance, ownership, efficiency, and business value generation indicators is promoted at all levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theme of the paper is the impact of the cosmetic industry on the economy. The reason for choosing this theme is the passion for cosmetics and personal care and belief in the importance of this aspect in people's lives. Although the subject is very broad, with many data and details that extend over the decades since the establishment of this industry, the paper tries to summarize this information. This topic is discussed from the perspective of several mini chapters such as the socio-economic contribution of the European cosmetics industry, the impact on people's lives, the past vs. the present cosmetics industry and the impact of COVID-19 on this industry. This article assesses the short- and medium-term impact of the beauty industry, based on multiple market reports, literature review and official statements by market leaders. When talking about the beauty industry, we consider the categories of makeup, perfume, personal hygiene and skin, hair, and body care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Each individual is unique, and the digital identity associated with a person should model and guarantee this uniqueness and the ability to reliably recognize him/her. In this paper, we review the challenges posed by the sudden transfer of a significant part of the social activity in the online realm, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with unforeseen consequences on the educational process in particular. If there was a fairly large spectrum of economic activities that were taking place or were facilitated via a digital medium prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the education system worldwide proved to not have been prepared to provide an effective and consistent response to the going online approach, which was merely a choice, but rather the only embraceable option. In the context of online education, this paper can design a comprehensive and integrated framework for assisting the process of students' digital identity validation, particularly when attending an examination or any other form of academic evaluation conducted remotely. We also consider the integration of digital identity validation with platforms that offer educational content, knowledge evaluation tests, and other elements to which access must be ensured only for authorized users, based on a strict identity identification process to eliminate those who want to defraud or disrupt the functionality of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The usual and rather linear functioning of a country's economic and social structures is mandatory for setting stable grounds towards wellbeing. However, disruptions may appear in the ordinary flow of a community and produce a new order of action, prompting social ecosystems to focus on core operations. The COVID-19 pandemic, that has profoundly affected humanity in 2020 on multiple channels, has imposed a novel strategic thinking both for individuals and businesses, demanding an enhanced societal approach more than ever. Faced with such a major crisis, known in literature as a "black swan" event, social enterprises must show developed capabilities, flexibility and proactivity. Given the inaccurate evidence of social enterprises activating in Romania and of the limited studies focusing on their risk-response behavior, the paper explores the impact triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic over social entrepreneurship and in particular on Romanian social enterprises. To investigate the ability of these entities to successfully cope with this groundbreaking challenge, the paper firstly performs a literature review analysis on the reorganization of the social and economic sphere, in light of the pandemic. Furthermore, it approaches the challenges posed by the pandemic on traditional and social entrepreneurship, together with their reshaping of organizational resilience. Building on literature review and on document analysis of reports regarding essential actions to be embraced to maintain stability during the COVID-19 crisis, issued by renowned consultancy companies and organizations supporting social enterprises, the paper formulates an instrument for mapping the ability of Romanian social enterprises to overcome the pandemic threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global socio-economic and sanitary crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has generated many different effects on the links of the global agri-food value chains regarding the production and consumption behaviors of agri-food products. Depending on the link, these effects can be positive, negative, or even a mix of both. However, all these sudden changes, beneficial or not, they result in deepening the economic tensions existing along the agri-food value chains. In this context, the aim of this research was to explore the rising tensions along the Romanian agri-food value chains during the different stages of the COVID-19 crisis in Romania, while bringing the HoReCa industry in the spotlight of this study, and, more specifically, the food service component. This paper brings contribution to the literature concerning the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic at the level of the agri-food value chains based on a statistical analysis carried out with the data available from two open access sources: Google Trends and the Romanian National Institute of Statistics. A short bibliometric analysis was also elaborated on the papers tackling the topic of the rising tensions along the agri-food value chains during the pandemic. Research results show that the Romanian HoReCa industry has been subject to various challenges emerged from the need to limit the spread of the COVID-19 disease. This has generated a lot of concern – not only from the food security perspective, but also from the perspective of the entrepreneurs active in the agri-food value chains. Food-ordering companies with homedelivery have been of high interest during the COVID-19 pandemic, as they connect two major links in the food chain: restaurants and consumers. While consumers have become more dependent than ever on digital solutions to purchase food, a lot of pressure is put on indoor restaurants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 crisis affected the global economy at unprecedented and unexpected levels. Practitioners and researchers are concerned about the economic consequences of the crisis and analyses of the economic impacts of the health crisis are required. The present paper had as main objective to analyze the economic evolution of European countries during the main years of the COVID-19 pandemics, respectively 2020 and 2021. The methodology used is based on descriptive statistics for a few macroeconomic indicators and for the evolution of the COVID-19 cases and also on statistics based on correlation between these indicators. The European countries were categorized in four groups according to geographical region and size and a few countries were selected for analysis from each group. The research revealed that the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak was large in all analyzed economies in respect to GDP evolution. Inflation seemed to be highly affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, both in terms of evolution of the indicator with increases in all countries, but also in terms of correlation with the number of COVID-19 cases in the case of Western European countries. CEE countries were more affected by the COVID-19 crisis in terms of inflation, compared to Western European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We live in a dynamic and ever-changing world. It continues to be disrupted in multifaceted ways, facing multiple challenges. As organizations step up learning how to distribute budgets and reinforce the commitment to meet continuously changing business needs, there is also an increased emphasis on strengthening the learning skills inside universities, as the parallel between private sector and teaching universities is growing at a fast pace. The COVID-19 health crisis has gone as far as shutting down countries, putting people in vulnerable positions. In this crisis, a leader, even if we speak from a private organizational level or an academic teaching institution, must stay focused on his purpose as it is not negotiable. The research from this article gathers information from the literature review and from the author's experience in the private and academic sector as well. The purpose of the article is to increase awareness on the needed leadership skills in this changing times and to emphasize the strong bound that needs to be created between organizations and leadership skills inside universities, for students, as they are the next managers and for universities' managers as they need to align to the business environment in order to offer a better structure for the next generations. As talent mobility and upskilling are currently the main focus of organizations, with this paper we are looking at several aspects on how to build the most suitable profile for the next generation of leaders. Our paper is built more on qualitative research, where we explore in depth the attributes of leadership with the aim to highlight the best frame possible for business, in this changing time, when we are expecting to approve the work from home system at a greater level and we believe that online and remote meetings are likely to become the norm, as organizational and education sector has undergone a set of major changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence solutions are not present only in big companies, but the new trend is to start changing the accounting profession also in small and medium companies. In order to shorten the period in which they will have access to artificial intelligence solutions, the artificial intelligence needs to be offered in a more accessible form. This paper represents the first step in a more in depth research about the way available resources for an organization to implement artificial intelligence solutions in their financial departments. This decision has the potential to bring fundamental changes to accounting and auditing, and in the entire financial markets. This paper explores the potential of artificial solutions adaptation in accounting, identifying the steps already taken in this field of activity which will help them to implement further changes. We investigate mainly the organizational changes brought by cloud computing and its potential for the accounting field to adapt to further technological solutions. We assessed the cloud computing's effect on the accounting profession, and the potential role of these professions in further implementing more intelligent solutions, as well as the main advantages and disadvantages in order to understand the reasons for high interest in migration to cloud computing, especially during the COVID-19 crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the COVID-19 pandemic has radically changed the business landscape in the last years, some organizations were able to adapt to the new environment and continue to function, some thrived, seeing unmatched growth, while others disappeared forever. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, adaptability had already been deemed to be an important organizational capability, which ensured an organization stayed relevant in the market. With the pandemic, the ability to adapt has become essential to the organizations' survival. Additionally, a large body of research was dedicated to the importance of innovation, which has been shown to have a positive impact on organizations' competitiveness, growth and overall results. While adaptability is a response to the changes in the external environment of an organization, innovation consists in the change being generated inside the organization. Thus, an organization reacts to change by being adaptable and generates change by being innovative. Given that both capabilities are of importance to an organization's success, this paper performs a literature review of the factors influencing the organizations' adaptability and innovativeness, specifically the cultural factors, based on the well-established Hofstede Cultural Model. The results show that both adaptability and innovativeness are influenced by the cultural dimensions in different ways. However, not all cultural dimensions can be influenced to the same extent, some being more malleable than others. This means that organizations must aim to influence the most malleable cultural dimensions in order to increase their adaptability and innovativeness, to improve their overall performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of the organic farming system is to produce cleaner food, more suitable for human metabolism, in full correlation with the conservation and development of the environment. One of the main purposes of organic farming is to produce fresh and authentic agri-food products that respect natural and environmental factors. We can also talk about another alternative in which not only human consciousness develops but also the resilience of all levels of the biosphere. This will create favorable conditions for mankind for its day-to-day work to be fully successful, creating a continuing utility for society, both nationally and globally, as a result of which important social forces are freed from unproductive and controlling activities, and can be used directly in production activities. The present specialized paper was born through the analysis of the organic- natural household system, without chemicals, being in accordance with the second development alternative, presented above. The starting point of the paper is the notion of bio-agriculture. It will be investigated first of all, the right of existence of this way of conception, the special way of life and the methods of organic agriculture in the European space, as well as in the light of the development processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital revolution that we are currently experiencing is causing a lot of young people to ask themselves if formal education is still worth it. As the digital environment exponentially evolved in the last couple of years, you can now find almost any curriculum on the internet for a fraction of the price you would pay to study it in a university, or sometimes even free or charge. Furthermore, employers all over the globe are starting to put more emphasis on the experience accumulated by the individual rather than its formal studies, encouraging young people to start working early in their lives. The present paper approached this hypothesis from two different angles: the first part of the paper was focused on individuals in their early "work-life", more precisely millennials that graduated recently, while the second part of the paper looked at the wealthiest people on the planet, the ones indicated by Forbes Top 30. Insights about how millennials with higher education see work in relation with their formal studies were obtained using a questionnaire, their overall feedback being a positive one, against all previous expectations. Also, interesting patterns emerged from the data about the Forbes Top 30 billionaires after researching their educational backgrounds. As it turns out, financial success is not necessarily correlated with formal studies, but links between high performance / innovative individuals and previous formal studies have been found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pandemic changed the paradigm of education at all levels. From primary schools to universities, teachers and students must conform to new patterns for teaching and learning. The goal of this paper is to share the experience resulted from the pilot project developed at the National Institute of Administration in order to deliver online training for public administration in the pandemic context. The project entitled PPP online (Romanian abbreviation for "online training programs") was a challenge which supposed the redesign of the curricula and finding the best alternatives for delivering knowledge and interaction between trainers and participants. We must emphasize that there was only very limited experience in online training for Romanian public administration until 2020. In this paper we expose the choices considered for the transition to online training and the results of a study about participants' perception regarding difficulties they encountered and the quality of programs. In this regard, we collected and analysed the feedback from more than 1000 participants (respondents to an online questionnaire). Our study has an optimistic conclusion about changing teaching and learning through technology in public administration. It can be appreciated that both trainers and participants can rapidly adapt to the conditions of the online learning environment and the proposed structure of training programs was validated by the results and positive feedback. We also present some best practices achieved during the pilot project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID crisis affected the whole world at an unprecedented and unexpected level. There are concerns about the economic impact of the crisis and about how the world will be after the COVID-crisis ends. The present paper had as main objective to analyze the opinions of specialists about two aspects: a) economic impact of the COVID crisis at different levels in the economy (world, national economy, industry, business) and b) how will be the world order in the aftermath of the COVID crisis. The methodology used is literature review and documentation, followed by content analysis. The research revealed that the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak was huge at all levels in the economy, resulting in a global recession. Also, specialists appreciate that the world will not go back to how it was in 2019, there will be a clear distinction between the pre-COVID and the post-COVID eras, with a need for a new economic order after the crisis, that will emphasize global solidarity for the purpose of the common good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional educational models have been challenged by the appearance of the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, which made online education an imperative almost everywhere in order to ensure a minimized health risk for population through social distancing while continuing the educational and administrative activities of educational facilities. As a measure of protection for their students and personnel educational facilities in the European Union decided to close and continue the activities online starting with March 2020. By using the Delphi method with two rounds of questionnaires the present paper intended to inquire the experience of students from the German department of the Faculty of Business Administration of the Bucharest University of Economics Studies in Romania in the early stage of complete online teaching due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The results of the inquiry indicated the majority of students evaluated positively the easiness and accessibility of information and tasks during the online courses, tended to feel still as a community and not as isolated individuals and preferred to continue with both online and face-to-face classes in the upcoming period, thus, overall rating positively the online teaching of the second semester between March 2020 and May 2020. The study offers a basis of inquiry for future research papers in the sense of analyzing the public perceptions of a sample of students from the included faculty in order to determine improving directions for the future of online learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on SMEs' work environment, human resources processes, how the companies reacted and adapted, what forms of support were offered by the authorities, with a particular interest for e-learning tools and systems, that may prove to not just a temporary coping mechanism, but a functional, wide-spread approach. The scale of workforce transitions (jobs that disappeared versus jobs that opened) generated by COVID-19 on labor trends heightens the pressure for businesses and policymakers to act to support supplementary training and education programs for employees and encourages companies to address the issues related to the workforce with e-learning solutions that focus on flexibility and digitalization, as usual practice. Consequently, the paper reviews the current options of learning management systems, aiming to support managers' decision-making process on this matter, taking into consideration infrastructure, contents, services, flexibility, and other criteria. Furthermore, the issue of implementing an e-learning project is carefully considered, in order to achieve the desired results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the virtual environment has grown, experiencing new perspectives of use and an increasing number of new users. Older studies showing that the desktop and laptop will be abandoned, and information will be produced and disseminated online via mobile telephone have proven to be relevant, and these things are happening nowadays. This paper highlights a brief analysis of existing management processes and proposes an improvement of the communication process through social media networks in industrial organizations. Social networks have developed a new side, a commercial one, which has changed simple users into real consumers, outlining a new, different nuance of the way of communication. The attitude of social media users is also influenced by other personal characteristics, such as age, gender, job, or time spent on virtual activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This sports media research uses a single case study approach to investigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mediatic consumption of sports heroes. The case of airing the "3mm" documentary film about WTA tennis player Simona Halep on Romanian television is being analyzed. The theoretical framework is set around the concept of parasocial interaction specific for the mediated relationships between sports fans and their favorite sports brands. The research question asks about the factors induced by the COVID-19 pandemic that might have influenced the rather low audiences of the broadcasted documentary. Results show that, indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic might have well had a considerable impact upon audience figures, mainly because, due to the pandemic situation, the patterns of parasocial interaction between sports fans and sports brands have been altered. The paper discusses the changes in parasocial interaction which occurred due to the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, tourism in Vietnam has seen unprecedented growth, and it is now one of the country's most important economic drivers. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has halted this growth trend, and between 2020 and 2021, Vietnam's tourism industry suffered significant losses. Nonetheless, there are encouraging signs as the domestic tourism market played a significant role in Vietnam's tourism industry's recovery in 2022. Now that the pandemic has ended, the tourism industry must adjust its development strategy to enter a new phase. The purpose of this article is to perform an analysis of the development scenario of Vietnam's tourism industry over the past few years, perform an analysis of possibilities and obstacles, and provide some solutions for Vietnam's tourism industry in the post-pandemic period in the near future. The novel contribution that this paper makes is to present evidence that the demand for domestic tourism can be leveraged as a significant driver for the tourism industry to rebound after it has been affected by the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 virus has led to a globally general panic, followed by social and economic decline especially in 2020, but with consequences also extending to 2021. However, worldwide the agrifood sector has been only slightly affected due the fact that is a strategic sector, of major importance, and the global value chains have worked through the innovative solutions and the agility of producers, distributors and retailers. Governments have also played an important role through concrete measures to support the agri-food sector. The objective of this paper is to analyze COVID-19 impact and to highlight the effects on Romania's agri-food trade. The analyzed period is 2010-2020, but with a particular focus on the last two closed years, 2019 and 2020 (before the pandemic and during the pandemic). The results show that the coronavirus pandemic was not an opportunity for the Romanian agri-food sector, as the value of exports decreased in 2020 compared to 2019, due government's decision from 10 April 2020 to ban grain exports outside the EU. Another determining factor that caused these negative results in 2020 was the severe drought and the sensitivity due to rudimentary agricultural practices, lack of automation, lack of modern equipment and innovation. On this negative background the agri-food trade deficit increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last five years have marked the global economy with a series of shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, supply chain bottlenecks, the surge in inflation, and the energy crisis, whose magnitude and duration were challenging to predict. Moreover, the impact of those shocks significantly affected the accuracy of macroeconomic forecasts. Thus, assessing the effects of the shocks became extremely important and conditioned by the econometric models that can capture a large amount of information. This paper proposes a Bayesian Factor-Augmented Vector Autoregressive Model (FAVAR) to assess the effects of the most prominent shocks that recently hit the real Romanian economy. We use a high-dimensional data set of quarterly indicators from 2005Q1 to 2023Q3, covering the real sector, price indexes, sentiment indicators and financial variables. Our main results suggest that tightening monetary policy shock decreases both the real economic activity and prices, while a supply shock produces a delayed negative and persistent effect on real economic activity and on the majority of the indicators introduced in the model. The results of the uncertainty shocks are characterized by wider confidence intervals and the effects are estimated to have a lower magnitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 outbreak had a profound effect on many industries, and the financial sector was not an exception. Due to all the constraints imposed during this unprecedented event, banks had to rapidly reassess their strategies and adapt to new ways of working, without compromising the quality of their services, nor put their clients at risk. On the other side, the customer behavior changed too, mainly due to a significant movement of economy in the online world. Even though digitalization was not new to the financial institutions, the banks' willingness to invest and customers' readiness to adopt new technologies was not consistent, but the pandemic increased the pressure on banks to quickly find new opportunities and accelerated the deployment of data-driven technologies, while customers were compelled to embrace them and change their behavior. The main purpose of this paper is to understand the use of emerging technologies in mitigating the impact of the pandemic, but also the main changes and value add in key area fields like customer experience, process optimization and cost-savings, but also in the fraud detection and risk management areas. Moreover, the articles and studies considered for this paper highlighted the significant progress of banks in their digitalization journey during times of pandemic, mainly due to a rapid move of services in the online world. However, this shift is not risk-free, the reason why organizations need to consider the cybersecurity challenges and acknowledge the vulnerabilities of their platforms to take preventive measures to avoid or minimize potential negative effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a multiple regression analysis, this paper studied existing links between person-job fit and subjective underemployment. Subjective underemployment is a contemporary topic especially in multinational companies, characterized by procedures that often make employees perceive themselves as un-fit with their role. Ten hypotheses were developed in order to test what factors might impact upon subjective underemployment. Results showed that accepting a job out of necessity has got negative consequences on the employee's perceived fit with the job. On the other hand, positive consequences have been identified for correspondence with the job: the better the skills, qualifications and personality of an employee correspond to the job, the higher the perceived fit. A positive relationship has also been found between net income and job-fit: the higher the income, the better the job fit (or, else said, the lower the perception of underemployment). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely recognized that the tourism and travel industry was among the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even in this context, the tourism sector has proven its strength to recover and adapt to the new tourist perceptions and behaviours, which have led to changes in travel patterns, resulting new travel trends. There is concern in the scientific literature for the topic of travel trends in terms of identifying them and finding solutions for tourism recovery. The research methodology of this paper is based on content analysis and the main purpose is to answer the question, what are the travel trends during the COVID-19 pandemic? The results of the research are derived from the perspective of the world's leading online travel agencies. In this study, several travel trends were identified during the COVID-19 pandemic, the main ones being domestic travel, tourists' preference for bookings with flexible cancellation terms, buying holidays shortly before the departure date, choosing destinations and locations where safety and health measures are valued, opting for shorter trips and moving towards more sustainable tourism. The authors consider that the contribution of this study in the field of tourism is represented by the actuality of the topic analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous learning culture frontlines the purpose into developing such research on learning and skills relevance and the adoption of a learning culture. Ignoring the elements of development and skill relevance in the business world, implies a full dependency on robots (which is highly unlikely, still) or a risky ignorance into sustaining a poor business strategy. Based on such business assumptions, the paper is aiming to identify the current perception of leaders towards learning practices and similarly of their direct reports, in understanding the triggering elements for consuming knowledge and maintaining the learning appetite. While the economic landscape is now shifting into developing a green economy, with green skills, this research goes into the understanding of the human behavior and development need, to generate a sustainable business. While development is a continuous act and people dependent, the effects of it are directly impacting the business deliverables. The current paper investigates the learning practices, by running a study within an organization on a large-scale operational team. The method of data collection is a set of interviews with the top management, then a larger qualitative data collection through focus groups and the third approach is deploying a survey with the most tenured employees. By understanding their perspectives and expectations, and compared with historical training attendance records, the authors proposed a set of recommendations towards developing that culture of knowledge that enables growth and in the long term the mobility of other job opportunities within the organization. The results are proposing a slight adjustment towards the learner's needs, by addressing it with micro topics, bite size learning, for immediate applicability and a better communication strategy for content awareness, given the vast inflow of learning opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all economic sectors, and the shocks have been felt strongly in the labour market. The objective of this paper is to identify the trends on the Romanian labour market, to approximate and evaluate the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the sectors of activity and, implicitly, on the employees of these sectors. In order to carry out this analysis, relevant indicators are used for the evolution of the salary and the number of employees, for the period January 2016 - October 2021. After this section, the analysis is focused on the period 2020-2021, when the entire society faced the negative effects generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, the disproportionate impact of the crisis at the level of the labour force is highlighted, the employees working in the Manufacturing sector being the most severely affected, almost half of the jobs lost during the lockdown period being in this sector. Another sector that was strongly impacted by measures to prevent the spread of the virus is Accommodation and food service activities. However, in this case, the number of employees returned in 2021 to the value recorded in the pre-pandemic period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European dimension of education must not limit the ability of young people to freely build their own identity. To be able to choose, however, they must firstly learn to know what the alternatives are, especially in the field of education, where orientation is more difficult chosen if models are abandoned in order not to limit the individual's freedom. In this regard, the European dimension facilitates the formation of the cultural and moral identity of the individuals. In this paper, the authors are providing an overview of the Montessori educational alternative. A history of Montessori development in Romania is described, then the authenticity of Montessori education is presented, followed by the key aspects to be considered in the daily team management and a development plan for the next 5 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper represents an analysis of Romania's possibilities of achieving Objective 11 of the 2030 Sustainable Development Strategy, entitled "Sustainable Cities and Communities". In order to determine the possibilities to achieve the objective, the average evolution rate method was used to predict the evolution of the indicator "share of the population served by the public water supply system" until 2030. Also, given the very large regional gaps between the 8 development regions of Romania, with the help of the rank method, the regions were ranked according to three important indicators that can be the basis for achieving objective 11, respectively: the share of the population served by the public water supply system; gross investments in tangible goods from local units active in the production and supply of electricity and heat, gas, hot water and air conditioning and water distribution and sanitation, waste management, decontamination activities, per capita and gross domestic product per capita. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With knowledge being at the center of societal development, global policy forums, such as OECD, promote policies to improve national education systems. According to the most recent PISA evaluation, 40% of Romanian 15-year students are considered functionally illiterate. The Romanian education system's mission to catch up with international standards was challenged by the policy shocks following the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In an attempt to adapt to the new situation, the Minister of Education implemented a substantial reduction of the curricula covered by the National Evaluation exam held in 2020. In 2021, the exam was restructured so to resemble the PISA tests. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how these changes have impacted the Romanian upper education system. We used the 2019-2021 high school admission data published by the Ministry of Education. Our results indicate apparent progress of high school efficacy due to the inflationary grade effects. We provided an alternative metric based not on grades but high school candidates' rank. The classification of high schools based on this instrument is revealed as more robust. Most high schools in Bucharest run in the lowest performance category with the upper education system relying on a few top-performing high schools. For administrators and policymakers, this type of instrument is crucial for a proper evaluation of educational institution efficacy and authentic progress. This type of evaluation is the first action in the process to meet OECD requirements to close the gap between the lowest and highest education institutions in the EECA region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]