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Our multidisciplinary review paper aims to explore the research paradigms of unethical behavior from different academic perspectives. By doing this, our paper contributes to a better understanding of unethical behavior by drawing knowledge from alternative understandings of such behavior. More specifically, our multidisciplinary inquiry aims to summarize the main findings documented by scholars from different disciplines that conducted independent research on the topic using unique perspectives and ideas associated with the field. As such, in order to gain a better understanding of how unethical behavior is examined through a range of different disciplines and areas of research we assessed the highly cited papers found at the intersection of various categories and research areas such as management, business economics, and psychology, ethics, engineering, and environmental sciences and ecology, public environmental occupational health. Having the goal to offer the most representative research on the topic, we based our review on the highly cited papers examining unethical behavior from the Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science (WoS), the world`s leading scientific citation search and analytical information platform. The results show that the highly cited papers analyzed cluster around two major research themes as antecedents and factors increasing/enabling unethical behavior (e.g. propensity of moral disengagement, psychological entitlement, self-serving justifications, job insecurity, air pollution, polluted social contexts, creativity, favorable attitudes of upper-class toward greed, etc.) and factors deterring or limiting it (e.g. religion, ethical leadership). Given our multidisciplinary review, our study helps provide alternative understandings and important insights on the research of unethical behavior to serve for novel investigations in both practice and theory.

In the first decades of the 21st century, in a period characterized by turbulent, liberalized economic environment, in a world marked by a strong demographic growth, depletion of natural resources, climate change and destruction of ecosystems, we are more concerned than ever about the issues related to economic growth and development. In the first part of the paper, we presented the result of an overview study, based on which we synthesized the dynamics of the determinants of economic growth, after which we carried out a comparative study of economic growth and development. The second part of this paper presents a review of those economic indicators that are considered to be the most relevant in measuring economic development. The conclusions of the paper converge on the idea that, despite controversies regarding the importance of GDP as an indicator of economic development, it continues to remain the most present and important reference indicator in economic statistics. However, in order to obtain an accurate and more complex image of the economic and social performance, it is recommended to use several indicators in combination with GDP.

The present article investigates the impact of social networks in the tourism industry, highlighting their transition from simple social platforms to marketing tools. The paper focuses on analyzing the impact of digitalization on consumer behavior in tourism, proposing strategies for optimizing tourism marketing in the current digital context. Moreover, the article is part of a broader research that primarily employs literature review as its research method. At the same time, it paves the way for further in-depth analyses. The introduction emphasizes the changes that digitalization has brought to tourism with a focus on social networks. It discusses the importance of two-way communication as well as the influence of user-generated content and the role of emerging technologies. The chronological analysis of social networks from Myspace to Instagram and TikTok highlights the fact that academic literature was examined to illustrate how technology adaptation has improved over time and can be enhanced. The section on budget allocation and performance evaluation details the importance of adaptable strategies for maximizing ROI and underscores the importance of a complex approach based on quantitative and qualitative metrics. As part of extensive research, the paper contributes by encouraging the development of new strategies for digital tourism promotion adapted to the rapidity of changes.

This paper explores the multifaceted nature of digital entrepreneurship, tracing its evolution alongside the digital transformation of the broader economy. Entrepreneurship research has expanded to encompass a wide range of theoretical perspectives. It outlines the evolution of theoretical perspectives in entrepreneurship studies, shifting from a focus on individual characteristics to a broader emphasis on environmental, social, and institutional factors. The paper highlights the diversity of methodological approaches utilized in entrepreneurship research, ranging quantitative, qualitative, and computational techniques. The advent of the internet opened the door for e-commerce in the 1990s, followed by the rise of Web 2.0 social platforms in the 2000s, further empowering entrepreneurs through user-generated content and the power of networks. The current phase of digital entrepreneurship is characterized by data-driven platforms, sophisticated algorithms, and the blurring of physical and digital boundaries. Theoretical frameworks, including innovation theory, resource-based views, lean startup methodologies, and institutional perspectives, aid in understanding the opportunities and challenges within this dynamic field. Digital entrepreneurship is presented as a dynamic force reshaping the modern economy. The paper traces the evolution of digital entrepreneurship through three key phases: the emergence of e-commerce in the 1990s, the rise of Web 2.0 social platforms in the 2000s, and the current dominance of data-driven platforms. The ongoing digital revolution has profoundly altered the entrepreneurial landscape, demanding new skills, strategies, and models for success. The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated digital adoption across businesses and society. The paper underscores the significance of digital entrepreneurship within the context of technological advancement, institutional shifts, and evolving market dynamics.

This paper examines the current approaches to economic science, particularly on collaborative and circular economies. Economic science is closely related to the concept of limited resources. This is because economics is concerned with managing limited resources to satisfy unlimited human needs and wants. The idea of limited resources is central to economic science because it influences every aspect of how people make economic decisions and manage economic activities. Effective management of these resources is essential to achieving long-term economic and social goals. The collaborative economy and the circular economy are two key economic concepts that address how resources are used and distributed sustainably and efficiently in society. Both concepts are frameworks that aim to address the challenges of sustainability and resource efficiency, albeit in different ways. The collaborative economy is characterised by individuals and organisations sharing resources through digital platforms, such as goods, services, or information. This model promotes resource optimisation, cost-sharing, and social cohesion. On the other hand, the circular economy is an economic model that seeks to systematically reduce waste and maximise resource efficiency by designing products, services, and systems that prioritise the longevity and recyclability of materials. The paper explores collaborative and circular economies’ theoretical foundations and practical applications. Although they have some overlap, these two concepts have different perspectives and approaches regarding resource management and sustainable economic growth. While the collaborative economy focuses on sharing and exchanging existing resources, the circular economy focuses on reshaping systems and products to reduce waste and sustainably optimise resource use. The study findings are based on a comprehensive literature review and empirical research on collaborative and circular economies. The analysis reveals that collaborative and circular economies have unique strengths and limitations. However, they also share common objectives, such as promoting sustainability, resource efficiency, and social inclusivity. These concepts have the potential to complement each other and contribute to a more sustainable and resilient economy.

he rising income inequality around the world and its persistence represent a social phenomenon raising concerns at all levels (global, regional and country) for governments and pose huge challenges to master it and to identify effective solutions. The aim of the paper is to provide a comparative insight at the European Union (EU) level involving 25 Member States regarding the interplay between income inequality, economic growth, and institutional quality. Gini Index sourced from World Income Inequality Database, GDP per capita series extracted from the World Bank database, and institutional indicators collected from the World Governance Indicators database represent the examined variables over the period 1990-2022. Their dynamic is comparatively analysed and discussed. The clustering method is applied to identify similarities and differences between European Union countries in terms of the interplay between income inequality, economic growth and institutional factors and to draw relevant conclusions for future effective policy measures meant to reduce inequality and to boost economic growth. The clustering analysis based on the average growth rate of income inequality and per capita GDP revealed that European Union countries are differently facing the challenge of income inequality rising. Six groups of countries with similar paths regarding the income inequality and economic growth were identified. High-income countries face low levels of income inequality but with an upward trend. Economic growth is accompanied with high levels and increasing levels of income inequality. The institutional quality level may strength the capacity of a country to address the problem of rising income inequality, but it remains unclear the interplay of institutional quality dynamic in reducing income inequality. The implications of the paper’s findings are framed in the context of the European policies.

This study explores the evolving role of universities in the modern economy, focusing on their transformation from traditional centers of education and research to dynamic hubs of entrepreneurship and technology transfer. Drawing from Schumpeter’s theory of entrepreneurship, which emphasizes the critical role of innovation and the entrepreneur in catalysing economic change, this paper argues that contemporary universities have adopted a third mission of economic development, complementing their foundational roles in teaching and research. The paper introduces the concept of the entrepreneurial university, a term that captures the institution’s enhanced involvement in technological innovation and its contribution to economic growth through the commercialization of research. The research discusses various models of innovation that have shaped our understanding of the knowledge transfer process, including the linear model of innovation, the triple helix model, and the open innovation model. These models provide a theoretical framework for analysing the mechanisms through which universities contribute to the economy, highlighting the importance of collaboration between academia, industry, and government. The paper pays particular attention to the role of Technology Transfer Entities (TTEs) within universities, which are instrumental in managing intellectual property, licensing inventions, and fostering partnerships with external stakeholders. Through a comprehensive analysis, the paper reveals that while the financial benefits of knowledge transfer from universities are increasingly recognized, there remains a significant research gap in understanding how university knowledge can be effectively transformed into economic benefits. This gap is particularly pronounced in the context of transition economies, where data on knowledge transfer mechanisms and their impact on innovation and economic growth is scarce. The study emphasizes the need for a multidimensional approach to assess the effectiveness of university TTEs, considering individual, organizational, and ecosystem-level characteristics.

This paper examines the relationship between property tax systems and housing affordability in European countries. The research contains not only theoretical section, but also empirical analysis. The statistical data used in research was extracted from Eurostat, OECD, and Tax Foundation. As housing affordability increasingly becomes a pressing issue in many European cities, understanding the role of property taxation in shaping affordability dynamics is crucial for policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders. Addressing housing affordability challenges requires a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing housing costs, with property tax systems playing a pivotal role in shaping housing market dynamics. Through a comprehensive literature review, the paper explores existing research findings on the correlation between property taxation and housing affordability. Utilizing data from the Eurostat database, I conduct a comparative analysis of property tax collection statistics across Europe. It focuses on property tax revenues as percentage of total private stock. In assessing housing affordability, two key indicators were extracted from the Eurostat database: the housing cost overburden rate and housing costs as a proportion of disposable income. Housing costs encompass various expenses associated with dwelling occupancy, including utilities, maintenance, taxes, and insurance. The housing cost overburden rate measures the percentage of households where housing expenses exceed 40% of disposable income, providing insight into the burden of housing costs relative to income. Additionally, paper analyses the proportion of disposable income allocated to housing-related expenses, offering further insight into affordability trends. The findings contribute to understanding the impact of property tax systems on housing affordability in European countries. By evaluating the relationship between property taxation and housing costs, the strategies can be developed to mitigate housing affordability challenges and promote sustainable housing markets.

The armed conflict that erupted in Ukraine has had profound economic ramifications, not only for the country itself but also for the wider region. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine, exploring its impact on various sectors and long-term development prospects. Drawing upon a range of primary and secondary data sources, the study presents a multifaceted assessment of the economic effects, considering both immediate and long-term implications. The paper examines the direct costs of the conflict, including the destruction of infrastructure, loss of human capital, and disruption of production and trade. It investigates the impact on key sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, energy, and finance, highlighting the challenges faced by businesses and the labor market. It examines the role of external financial assistance and the effectiveness of economic policies implemented during the crisis. Finally, the study concludes by synthesizing the key findings on the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine. These recommendations encompass both short-term measures to address immediate challenges and long-term strategies to foster sustainable economic development and reconciliation. This comprehensive analysis of the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine contributes to the existing literature by providing a nuanced understanding of the multifaceted impacts of the conflict. It offers valuable insights for policymakers, international organizations, and researchers seeking to comprehend and address the economic challenges arising from war-affected regions.

The paper aims to provide an image of the future of teaching and learning in the context of artificial intelligence transforming various industries, including sports, education, and construction. Its place in education is a frequently discussed topic. While some argue that artificial intelligence will revolutionize education, others worry that it will take over to the harm of educators and students. Though robotics in the classroom is still a ways off, artificial intelligence is finding its way into the classroom. AI has the power to improve teaching and learning methods, solve some of the largest issues facing education today, and hasten the achievement of inclusive and equitable quality education. In addition to delivering artificial intelligence courses, EdTech businesses are increasingly using eLearning solutions to personalize learning experiences, pinpoint knowledge gaps, and give focused feedback. Also, AI-driven education is upending conventional teaching methods and influencing how this field will use technology in the future. With the use of complex algorithms and massive data sets, artificial intelligence solutions for education may provide a lot of advantages, yet as with the use of artificial intelligence in any context, there are significant ethical considerations which are a hot topic of discussion in the technology world and beyond, and the majority of university degree programs are including courses on AI ethics in their curricula. Therefore, the paper presents the benefits of AI in the classroom, such as engagement and assistance for students, assessment and evaluation, and individualized learning but also about the difficulties and worries associated with AI in education, including prejudice and privacy issues, as well as the moral issues raised by AI-powered learning. It also discusses the possible effects on the educational system and how students are trained for the workforce of the future as potential applications of AI in education are explored.

Digital transformation is anticipated to be the fourth industrial revolution. Considering this phenomenon, some economic entities tend to group and collaborate using digital technologies, thus forming economic ecosystems. The notion of ecosystem is a relatively recent concept used in economic language, coming from biology. Because of this, the ecosystem and the specific types of ecosystems, such as business and digital, are not consistently defined in the literature. There are multiple conceptualizations of these concepts, which in practice leads to confusion and even misuse of the terminology. The main purpose of the paper is to revise the concepts related to the ecosystem construct, but also the most important types of ecosystems for the world economy, namely the business and digital ecosystems. The methodology used is the analysis of the main sources dealing with ecosystems, particularly digital and business. We have reviewed papers from the following journals: Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Journal of Business Research, Technovation, Digital Business, International Journal of Information Management, and Technology Innovation Management Review. It is important to note that the analysis of the articles was carried out from a managerial point of view, without adopting a technical perspective. Following this analysis, we made a comparison between the two types of ecosystems, highlighting their common features.

Project management maturity models (PMMMs) have evolved significantly over the years, eliciting both enthusiasm and critique from professionals in the field. The former reflects the promising prospects for enhancing organizational value through the adoption of refined practices, while the latter underscores concern regarding the associated costs, applicability challenges, and the resilience of these models. This paper embarks on a comprehensive exploration, surveying the landscape of established models while pinpointing the principal obstacles linked with their implementation. Acknowledging both the significance and the shortfall of current models, there is a growing consensus within the literature regarding the imperative for further advancements in project management practices. Criticisms directed towards existing models often revolve around economic feasibility hurdles, inflexibility, scalability issues, and overly prescriptive frameworks. This paper undertakes a critical examination, contemplating the integration of digital capabilities as a means to mitigate these drawbacks and refine project management maturity models. Central to our paper is the notion of leveraging digital affordances to enhance the efficacy of PMMMs. By amalgamating technological innovations with established methodologies, we endeavor to address prevalent criticisms and propel the evolution of project management frameworks. Our approach is multifaceted, encompassing a thorough exploration of the technological substrates underpinning PMMMs. In delineating the technological landscape, we identify three primary layers of technology integration in PMMM development: Microsoft Excel, Online Questionnaires, and Advanced Platformization Initiatives. Each layer presents distinct opportunities and challenges, underscoring the complexity inherent in modernizing PMMMs. Proposing a forward-looking strategy, we advocate for the development of PMMMs that capitalize on the latest digital affordances. By prioritizing user-friendly interfaces and streamlining the completion process, we aim to foster greater engagement and uptake among stakeholders. This approach promises to transcend the limitations of traditional models, catalyzing a paradigm shift towards more dynamic and responsive project management practices.

n the ever-evolving world of digital technologies, bookstagram is taking over the literature landscape, with the phenomenon of digital book lovers sparking a variety of research. Thus, the online space created specifically for readers around the world starts from its emergence as a hashtag and is shaped by the evolution of social media applications and, by extension, consumer demands. In such manner, keywords and themes relevant to a better understanding of the Instagram trend are established in articles from online databases that this study aims to examine. In other words, the research investigates the nature of bookstagram present in the literature through a quantitative analysis of bookstagram articles from their first appearance to the present, starting with 90 and narrowing our study to 15. Thus, the VOSviewer software is chosen as a tool, which provides a bibliometric map of all implemented papers from the Web of Science database interpreting data about the aforementioned trend. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to better understand the #bookstagram phenomenon since its first appearances in the literature, laying the foundations of relevant concepts and ideas to characterize it. So, bookstagram is relatively new in the Internet ecosystem, but it is strengthening every day the interest of digital users to discuss and learn about books, regardless of the social media platform used. There is also a growing interest in the impact the trend is having on modern literary culture. Moreover, the research will be an important pawn in the growing value of information encompassing the modern phenomenon of reading lovers on the social media platform Instagram.

Today’s business world is highly dynamic, volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA). It is driven by ever faster, more efficient, and more numerous technological advances. Digital technologies have a huge impact not only on how an organization works but also on its business model. This has led to fundamental changes in the nature of leadership as well, from the underlying traditional forms of leadership to modern forms of leadership. In this context, the ability to successfully navigate these new technological waves has become an essential challenge for leaders. The digital transformation of organizations in the digital era marks the need for a holistic and integrative approach to the concepts of digital leadership and e-leadership, which are becoming a priority for organizations in their desire to remain competitive and successful as long as possible. The leadership process itself is a predictor of how change is perceived, managed, and integrated within an organization, not just at the surface level but also deep into its structure. This paper explores in detail the concepts of digital leadership and e-leadership, examining their importance and how they act to ensure that organizations are effectively guided through the digital transformation process, advancing with digital technologies. The research method is bibliometric analysis to mark the synapses between the two concepts and their network with other key notions. The main conclusion of the paper is that digital leadership and e-leadership are integral and complementary; they act together, without putting a sign of equality between them, to ensure the success of organizations in addressing the new technological requirements and disruptions encountered in their business environment.

he paper discusses the issue of operational excellence in automotive companies active in Romania. Operational excellence is the strategy for organizations striving to deliver a combination of quality, price and ease of purchase, and service, that no other organization in their market, or industry, can match. The paper discusses the degree of application in companies from automotive industry of the main seven principles of operational excellence and the main features of the process aimed to achieve operational excellence. Another topic discussed refers to key performance indicators (KPIs) of operational excellence that are used by companies. The research method is qualitative and uses the interview as instrument. The findings indicate that automotive companies in Romania are applying most of the seven principles, and that some just started the process of achieving operational excellence and therefore are applied only to some extent. The main tool for achieving operational excellence is Continuous Improvement used on all levels of the company. We found that companies use a KPI system with several layers of KPI’s, such as cost improvement savings (increased efficiency, reduces waste,…), cost improvement savings on material (WIP reduction), GPPH (good pieces/hour/operator), IPPH (indirect labor overhead hours/ production volume, and others. Conclusions and recommendations are formulated.

Globalisation, digitisation and technological advances describe the present and future of accounting. In order for accounting professionals to remain always connected to the present and prepared for the future, they constantly need to update their knowledge and skills acquired to date and not hinder their continuous learning process. The focus of this paper is on the digital skills of accounting professionals, which are an imperative in a digital economy. This paper is based on the analysis over time, using mathematical calculation methods, of 5 indicators, which describe the level of information and communication technology skills of the European population. The aim of this analysis is to determine the level of digital skills of the Romanian population in comparison with other EU member countries. Romania, in terms of the 5 indicators, ranks lower in the European ranking. This analysis shows that Romanians, compared to other European populations, use basic digital technologies, are more adaptable in their use, but do not use technologies in a competitive way and do not use them in a more efficient way. For Romania's population to achieve an advanced level of digitisation, they need to develop digital and information skills, digital problem-solving skills, digital communication skills and cybercrime safety skills. These skills must be mandatory in the knowledge portfolio of accounting professionals. These are the most current requirements of financial jobs. Accounting professionals must comply with the new requirements of the digital economy which is extending to all fields of activity, such as social relations, health, public administration.

The goal of this paper is to better comprehend the importance of digitalisation related to Romanian accounting profession. In this regard we started by reviewing the scientific papers approaching the digitalisation and artificial intelligence topic in accounting field. Then we conducted an empirical study that analyses students’ behavior when dealing with digitalisation in accounting field, having as main objective to illustrate both the positive and negative aspects perceived by students regarding the digitalisation of the financial-accounting field, especially the accounting profession. The empirical research was carried out between April 2023 and May 2023, and the research method used was the survey, the instrument used being the questionnaire. This has been fulfilled by 118 at the bachelor level students in the accounting field from the Faculties of Economics, within the University of Oradea. This paper is going to validate the different importance given to digitalisation, by accounting professionals in Romania. The research questions that this study aims to answer are: How necessary do they consider specialized courses in digitalizing accounting to prepare them for the changes brought about by this process? What are their preferences regarding teaching methods in accounting digitalisation courses: online, onsite, or in a hybrid format? A significant part of those surveyed considers that the positive effects of digitalisation in accounting include reducing waiting times, increasing work efficiency, facilitating access to information, and reducing paper consumption. However, there are also negative aspects, such as the risk of data loss due to technical issues or security breaches. To maximize the benefits and minimize the risks, it is essential for accountants to understand and apply accounting principles and standards correctly. Digitalisation should complement, not replace, professional judgment.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the physical, economical, and strategic evolution of the Romanian railway infrastructure based on data extracted from EUROSTAT. The timeframe chosen for this study is between years 1990 and 2019, from the fall of the communist regime, through 2007 when Romania became a member of the European Union, until the beginning of the Covid - 19 pandemic. The Romanian railway infrastructure is analysed and compared with those from other European countries. One of the first observations is that the Romanian railway has one of the largest networks in Europe, being placed 2nd in terms of length in year 1990, after Poland. Unfortunately, in contrast to having one of the largest networks, economically it situated at the end of the hierarchy, being one of the most inefficient. Having constant decreasing amounts of transported goods over time, the sector doesn’t have enough cash flow to secure the necessary funds for maintenance and mandatory technological upgrades. The sector is badly managed and cannot sustain itself anymore. The high number of victims each year makes it one of Europe’s most unsafe railway networks and this hinders the level of trust and willingness for collaboration from private entrepreneurs. The private sector should be encouraged to increase the volume of goods transported as well as participate in investments. The Government could even consider a Public Private Partnership strategy to attract a cash infusion into the sector. There is great potential for a positive impact on the country’s economy if the Authorities would implement a strategic investment and development master plan to bring the railway infrastructure to a level of reliability that would attract businesses and stimulate the movement of goods. The geographical location of Romania could accelerate such development since it could be an important logistics hub linking the Black Sea to the Central European market. Empirical results show that the length of railway network is negatively correlated with income and negatively associated with the volume of transported goods in Romania over the period of 2004-2019. It is apparent that for this sector the size of the current network should be sufficient, but quality should be improved, since this is the element that enhances operation safety and operation characteristics such as speed and volumes of goods transported. The paper includes recommendations for public policies regarding the transport infrastructure sector.

Inflationary pressures, but also the uncertainty regarding the duration and severity of the Covid-19 pandemic, have significantly increased in the last year. Moreover, the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine on February 24, 2022, further called into question the upward trend in the inflation rate. In this sense, the sudden and continuous increase in energy, fuel, and food prices constitute new challenges for decision-makers. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the evolution of inflation in Romania from the period 1990-2022 because this constitutes a topical macroeconomic challenge. Compared to the way of presenting the information from the bibliography used and found at the end of the paper, in this paper only the essential aspects, the particularities of the chosen research topic, which finally provide an overview, can be found.

This paper intends to analyze how the crisis produced by the Covid-19 infection has influenced the employees, respectively the employers. Thus, we try to see if they still approach the workplace, working hours, etc. in the same way or if their perception has been decisively influenced by this crisis. Certainly, there is an impact on the business environment around the world, respectively in Romania. Thus, employers and employees, like the whole world, had to adapt and reorganize in the given conditions. Some views support the theory that, for employers and employees respectively, nothing will be the same, and the approach and expectations of both parties will be different. Other views argue that this crisis will not cause major changes in perception on the subject. Be that as it may, through this paper we try to analyze in what way and above all, what changes this crisis has produced on the employees, respectively the employers. For the most part, for the employee, the workplace is the place from where he procures an important part or even all of his financial resources. Besides, the workplace is also the place where he can prove his skills acquired in school, the place where he socialises, the place where he develops professionally and not only that. The employer, in general, wants a competent and efficient employee. Both regarding employees and employers, the crisis caused by the Covid-19 infection has produced important changes that we will study in the analysis below. The business environment around the world has seen changes with the situation caused by this crisis that has faced all of humanity. Also, before analyzing, in broad terms, the impact on the business environment, we must observe how people saw the involvement, from a diplomatic point of view, in Romania’s economic development. Economic development must also be supported at the diplomatic level, not only through the other available levers.

Transition from the linear to the circular economy is not only a desideratum of all developed economies; it ultimately represents the chance for the world we all live in will to continue to exist. If in the first part of our paper we analysed the main characteristics of both the linear economy and the circular economy, in the light of an extensive literature, while focusing on the mechanisms that would allow a transition as smoothly as possible; in the second part of the paper, we aimed to analyse the state of play in the city of Oradea in terms of intelligent, selective waste management. Our analysis focused on two main strands: the selective collection of waste and the implementation of a recycling program for biodegradable waste. If in the first part of the analysis we came to the conclusion that it is necessary to involve all stakeholders, including public authorities, the private sector and civil society, in the second part we needed a statistical data analysis in order to be able to deeply understand the economic mechanisms behind the population’ and businesses’ behaviour. In that regard, we ran a statistical analysis of the amount of waste collected in the city of Oradea using the dedicated software SPSS 24 (Armonk); all outcomes were considered significant at a significance level of 0.05, while the connection between the variables was linear and of medium intensity. The conclusion we reach is that a positive evolution can be observed in the waste management following the implementation of the management system.

In this paper we investigate a modern topic in the regional economics literature, namely the concept of microeconomic competitiveness. Particularly, we investigate the influence of the collaborative activities of the large and medium firms, as a regional prerequisite for cluster formation and development, and the relationship with various regional level performances. For years already, scholars debated within the economics literature if the regional clusters drive the regional performance. Therefore, we contribute to this stream of research through investigating if the specific conditions in the regional context, in our case the collaborative aspects of the companies operating in the region, influence the regional performance. Through a statistical analysis of the data provided by 40 best performers medium and large companies, operating in three regions for economic development in Romania, we found significant associations between the proposed variables. Specifically, we found that the regions in which the companies reported higher scores for proactivity regarding collaboration identification and formation, higher commitment for collaboration participation, respectively higher scores for their collaborative competences and abilities are the regions which also reported higher regional level performances. The results from our study are valuable for the regional economics literature since underline the fact that in order to build regional competitiveness, respectively to accelerate the economic growth and development, the existent companies operating in the regions also need to take some specific actions. The companies and firms play an important and active role in the regional economic development. In contrast to a ‘orthodox’ top-down approach for economic development, the paper brings support to the stream of research on regional economics which militates for collaboration between the public and private sector, and for regional development through microeconomics competitiveness building, local and regional.

Combating poverty represents one of the challenges of the modern economy and Europe's geopolitical situation contributes to worsening this problem. Economic growth and employment rate are determinants of the level of poverty in a society. Unemployment and its consequences are widely approached both in economic literature and in sociology and psychology. In the first part of the paper, we carried out a conceptual presentation of the economic and social consequences of unemployment at the national, individual, and family level. In the second part, starting from Okun's law, we made an analysis of the relationship between the gross domestic product and unemployment rate for the period from 2005-2022 in Romania. In order to carry out the research, we used a series of statistical data regarding the unemployment rate available in the Monthly Bulletins of the National Bank of Romania (NBR) and data on GDP available on the website of the National Institute of Statistics of Romania (NIS). We worked with data regarding the situation in Romania from the first quarter of 2005 – fourth quarter of 2022. The conclusions of the paper converge towards the idea that unemployment is, nowadays, an increasingly complex phenomenon, being generated by a multitude of factors and which, in turn, determine multilevel direct and indirect consequences.

Unpredictable events, such as: international market prices evolution of construction materials, fuel and energy, changing rules regarding labour, wages and mobility of goods may lead to cost escalation during works contracts implementation. A proper value adjustment formula may contribute on managing emerging financial risk. Generally, those formulas are subject to national rules, but only for public investments, of great value and long duration, the rest remaining to the contracting authorities’ decisions. Looking for the right formula in those cases of non-regulated situations induces stress for personnel, and also the risk of affecting investments performance through wrong decision. The paper’s objectives are both qualitative and quantitative, searching, through a relevant Romanian legal frame content analysis for answers at two research questions: how a works contract value could be adjusted, and how can be choose the most appropriate one among different value adjustment formulas? A selection of contemporary relevant national rules and regulations on value adjustment formulas was studied to answer at these questions, revealing specific approaches on treating adjustments. Results of this content analysis refers to the presenting and discussing various models of value adjustment approach in Romanian works contracts. Paper’s conclusions could be used by researchers in further investigation of relationship between various value adjustment formulas and investment's performance. Conclusions could be also useful for practitioners, in selecting the appropriate value adjustment formula in case of non-regulated such as relatively small value and short duration works contracts. As a personal contribution, a model on selecting a value adjustment formula is here presented.

Despite all controversies, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues its course in becoming more and more present in our world, with a huge perspective on modelling it. Using its capacity to assist various processes, it becomes a strong support of increased productivity being also perceived as a threat for jobs, professions and society as well. The aim of this qualitative research is to explore the how AI is perceived as impacting on jobs, and about future jobs' prospects in accounting, and financial auditing. We conducted a summary recent literature review regarding AI increasing use in audit and accounting. As existing hundreds of published papers on AI robots and human labour interaction, in the purpose of selecting relevant literature and for reaching to the mainstream consensual conclusions, input from three AI bots was used, as paper further describes. This paper is structured so readers may follow and further debate this issue around three research questions: are accounting, and financial auditing suited to be assisted by AI, what about existing jobs in this phase of AI usage, and what should happen next with professional’s jobs as long as AI keeps spreading and developing? Conclusions of this explanatory – predictive research are aimed to support future accounting and financial auditing related educational initiatives in the context of AI development and pervasion, but also future research on more detailed aspects of interrelations with human increasingly adapted work.

This study paper looks at the possibility of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as the next step in the evolution of money, and as they have gotten lately a lot of attention from lawmakers, researchers, and financial institutions. This is because technology is changing quickly and financial systems are becoming more and more digital. The goal of this study is to look into the advantages and disadvantages of CBDCs, as well as their ability to change and impact financial systems. The first part of the study gives a broad review of CBDCs, explaining what their main features are and why they were created. Using current case studies, and the views of experts, the paper gives a critical evaluation of the benefits of CBDCs. It looks at how giving unbanked and under banked people access to digital payments and banking services could improve financial inclusion. Also, it looks at whether the use of CBDCs could make banking deals faster, cheaper, and more open. But the paper also talks about the problems and risks that come with putting CBDCs into place, about things like privacy, data protection, the effects on monetary policy, and how the current financial environment could be changed. In order to make a fair analysis, the study takes into account the views of central banks, financial companies, regulatory bodies, and customers, among others. In the end, the goal of this paper is to add to the current discussion about CBDCs by giving a thorough look at how they could be the next step in the evolution of money. It talks about the ways in which CBDCs can change things, as well as the issues and factors that need to be dealt with for them to work. This study paper aims to help lawmakers and other interested parties figure out how to deal with the changing environment of digital currencies and monetary systems by putting light on the possible benefits, challenges, and effects of CBDCs.

Since the first initiatives of integration on the European continent, promoting economic, social and territorial cohesion has remained one of the key principles of the European Union. Over the past decades, the stability and prosperity of the European continent was threatened by diverse and turbulent events, ranging from economic and financial turmoil to sanitary and social crises, which have emphasized the need to strengthen the cohesion between Members. The aim of this paper is to study the economic landscape of the European Union by looking at the evolution of the GDP per capita between 2000 and 2022. Using β- and σ-convergence, we have tried to answer the question if the European Union has come closer to the objective of cohesion in the last two decades. By applying cross-sectional regressions in order to estimate β-convergence, we have identified a convergence speed of 2% for European Union between 2000 and 2022, with higher growth rates experienced by the new member states from Central and Eastern Europe. Complementary, σ-convergence illustrates that income divergences generally decreased both at the aggregate level and in the case of the new member states. However, the progress achieved in terms of cohesion was reversed by Covid-19 pandemic, the gaps significantly increasing mainly in the case of the old members. Considering the divergences that still persist in the European Union, being emphasized by the recent crises, this paper suggests that political decision-makers should strengthen the measures oriented towards promoting cohesion, with the purpose to avoid the division on the continent.

Since it is one of the most fundamental elements of establishing a relationship, effective communication is necessary in almost all professions. Business thrives on communication since it depends so heavily on relationships between diverse people. Any type of communication is always important to business. It increases a company's efficacy and efficiency and keeps the appropriate ratio of different strategies for projecting the ideal image. The two types of communication in business are internal and external. Communication between two organizations, as well as between a company and its clients, is referred to as external communication. Information exchange within a company is referred to as internal communication. It happens amongst co-workers as well as between employers and employees. Internal communication is therefore essential for connecting with employees, running the business, and improving the company's reputation. No matter how big or how profitable a business is, internal communication is crucial. It significantly affects an organisation's success, since effectively articulated strategies help enhance employee productivity, employee engagement and team collaboration. The open and transparent environment created by the communication process helps employees comprehend the company's objective and their individual role in achieving it. It guarantees excellent employee cooperation in achieving the shared objective. Good internal communication promotes exceptional staff engagement, which in turn increases corporate performance and ensures high levels of customer satisfaction. Internal corporate communication is essential for impacting daily operations, fostering cross-departmental relationships, and, most significantly, dismantling organizational silos. It aids in creating a united culture throughout the company to enable all employees to make the best judgments. Consequently, internal communication has an impact on a company's productivity, profitability, and overall brand image. It also influences both bosses and employees' morale. Thus, one must create a successful internal company communication plan to engage the workforce for greater production and pay attention to their worries and anxieties over their jobs. Therefore, the paper's main goal is to analyze internal communication tasks while concentrating on how they affect various areas of business performance. The paper is based on a critical analysis of the relevant literature, taking into account works that address the problem's practical aspect.

Modal verbs are an important chapter in learning German. The paper presents how the modal verbs are thought to the economics students in our university, emphasizing the common mistakes of the students and possible measures the teacher should take in order to diminish the number of learning mistakes. The first part of the paper deals with the theoretical background, thus being such a difficult subject for the Romanian student, the paper brings up even the conjunction differences on this subject, dealing with different verbal tenses in the German grammar. The second part of this paper presents a text full of modal verbs, in different tenses, the students are asked to recognize them. In the paper I will show the mistakes the students usually make and the proportion of the right answers at this task. The following part deals with different exercises, in order to conclude the mistakes and the proportion of the right answers at this challenge. The final part shows the conclusions of this study that reflects on the results of the conducted measurements. The modal verbs play an important role in facilitating an efficient and understandable communication pattern in the society and therefore, they form significant aspect in the human language. Modal verbs add to the text precision and clearance in its meaning.

Currently, there are many discussions about the impact of digital transformation on company management, with success primarily reliant on firms’ ability to adapt to new market demands. Consequently, to maintain their positions or to evolve, companies across all industries need to regularly update their structures and ideals in line with digital transformation. Although the precise definition of digital transformation is still unclear, as evidenced by inconsistencies in the literature, it is already influencing management practices carried out by companies. The goal of this paper is to analyze the impact of digital transformation, with its highly dynamic characteristics, on strategic management. In this sense, we perform a literature review of the papers which describe how the two topics are related. We discover that strategic management has evolved in response to digital transformation as conventional managerial practices nowadays would no longer work at maximum efficiency. Strategic management has changed, adopting new features, most notably faster decision-making and less arduous tasks for top managers, allowing them to focus exclusively on performing tasks that match their specific competencies. These results are useful for both practitioners and researchers in performing their daily strategic management activities, and research efforts, respectively.

The paper discusses the characteristics of the management of medical military supply chain in the state of Israel, based on a mixed research method, quantitative and qualitative. The medical military supply chain has the mission to ensure the combat effectiveness and readiness of the military in times of peace and war. The paper approaches the management the supply chain of medical equipment for military hospitals using the modern management approach based on various multiple stakeholders goals and interests, such as the accuracy of inventory management and its influence on the end-user units of the field and operational competence of the operational units, how it can be used in the supply and centres and in the unit. The researchers formulate several recommendations about various ways how to cope with urgent and operational requests and to improve the management of the medical military supply chain.

The current research reports on a pilot study that was conducted to test the feasibility of a larger study exploring a leadership development program at a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) in the ICT (Infocommunications) sector in Hungary. The study employed a mixed-methods approach to data collection, which included literature review, document analysis, and structured interviews with various participants involved in the leadership development program. The literature review focused on the history, current state, existing gaps and limitations, and theoretical frameworks and concepts related to the research topic. The document analysis aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of the research topic and complement the findings from the literature review. The structured interviews were designed to be consistent and standardized, with a pre-determined set of questions asked to each participant. The interviews were conducted with a diverse group of participants, including the CEO, People Development Manager, Hiring managers, Domain Engineering Leads, the Human Resources team, and participants of the leadership development program. The current research is a smaller-scale version of a full-scale study (also called a “feasibility” study), as well as the pre-testing of a particular research instrument, in our case, document analysis and interview schedule. Pilot researches are a crucial element of a good study design, as it does not guarantee success in the main study, but it does increase the likelihood of success. (Polit et al., 2001, Teijlingen et al., 2001) The paper also discusses the importance of leadership in the ICT sector, citing a survey of Society for Information Management members that identified leadership as the most important soft skill for employees in the sector. The article notes that understanding the preferences of different generations at the workplace is essential to create an effective leadership development program. Out of the total number of employees, 52 currently work in the company’s software development division, and the preferences and motivations of these employees will be a critical factor in designing a successful program. The paper concludes by stressing the importance of pilot studies in research and how they increase the likelihood of success in the main study. The study’s authors hope that the results of this pilot study will provide insight into the characteristics of a leadership development program and assist in developing a more extensive study on the topic.

he goal of this paper is to better comprehend the importance of ethical behavior related to gender and religion in the Romanian accounting profession. In this regard we started by reviewing the scientific papers approaching the ethics topic of research. Then we conducted an empirical study that analyses students’ behavior when dealing with ethics in accounting field, having as main objective the assessment of the students’ perceptions regarding the importance of the ethical behavior, as potential or current employees in the field of accounting. The empirical research was carried out between May 2022 and June 2022, and the research method used was the survey, the instrument used being the questionnaire. This has been fulfilled by 100 master students in the accounting field from the Faculties of Economics, within the University of Oradea as well as the University of Arad. This paper is going to validate the different importance given to ethical behavior, by accounting professionals in Romania depending on gender. The research questions that this study aims to answer are: Does the accountants’ gender influence the ethical behavior of the accounting profession? And Does the accountants’ religious background influence their sense of ethics? Results obtained document a different level of given significance to ethical behavior depending on gender, but not on religious background. A significant part of those surveyed considers that under pressure or salary motivation from the management of the entity, they could decide to change an accounting policy that could affect the true image of the company.

Trade is at the centre of Europe’s model of economic prosperity and competitiveness. As stated in the new Trade Policy Strategy set out by the European Commission (2021), the trade policy has a key role to play in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, this role was emphasised even better by the effects derived from the war in Ukraine. As the pandemic hit in 2020, the growth drivers of the EU’s economy relented, among which the external trade, putting million jobs at risk and leading to rise in unemployment and to depression of economic activity, while many companies had to close down. Competitiveness is a term which increased in significance in the last few decades. Trade competitiveness and, especially, export competitiveness is one of the most valuable variables a country must improve in order to increase its overall competitive position among nations and also the welfare of its citizens. The export statistics of many EU’s economies changed since the COVID-19 crisis and later, the war stroke. The research questions this paper addresses are: what is the extent of these changes in which sectors? Have they come to an end or the process of recovery has already started within the EU? What effects has the war in Ukraine onto the EU exports competitiveness? Are there any chances for the EU to maintain its exports competitiveness after these crises? What is to be one and what measures to be taken to recover? After introductory theoretical remarks and a brief literature review followed by a survey of various techniques to measure export competitiveness, the paper shifts its focus on statistical data and analyse how much damage has the pandemic and nowadays, the war caused to the EU’s export competitiveness, and which EU Member States were the most affected, based on statistical data analysis and other various indicators.

People have been moving from one area to another since ancient times in order to exchange products from one nation with those from another in order to obtain what was lacking in the nation where they resided. These were the first product-to-product trades, and the latter was placed into circulation on money as a product-to-product trade. These early types of commerce have evolved significantly, and they continue to do so now as capital flows from one country to another. This phenomenon, which has influenced worldwide economic growth and improved living standards, saw significant expansion in the twenty-first century in the form of loans used to fund economic development in many nations, as well as ownership of financial assets. In the present era, domestic capital is insufficient for countries to thrive and remain competitive in global markets. For emerging economies, foreign investments that enter the host country as debt or money are crucial financial resources. In this paper, we will discuss the data on the development of exports and FDI of 22 countries from around the world and analysed the evolution of FDI, GDP and exports over a period of 40 years to see trends and patterns of FDI and Exports and their contribution to the economic growth of countries. Broken up in groups, the paper will compare and assess certain countries/regions, grouping and pairing them with economies or countries of similar growth/stance. Corroborating this statistics with recent global events and based on the previous statistics, this paper will try to predict the future trends of FDI around the world.

Language is made up of five basic components: morphology, phonology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Morphology in linguistics represents the study of the words, how they are formed and their relationship with other words in the same language; phonology involves the rules regarding the structure of the speech sounds and their sequence; syntax is the study of morphemes and how they form larger units; pragmatics involves the rules for appropriate and effective communication; semantics deals with vocabulary and the way concepts are expressed through words. Thus, vocabulary is one of the constituent elements of the language. Words carry meaning and have their own energy representing the building blocks of communication. According to the context they are used in, their meaning differs, therefore, vocabulary acquisition is crucial when talking about English for Specific Purposes, in our situation, Business English. But how is vocabulary acquisition in second language done? Vocabulary building often occurs through reading, however, it is unlikely for the students in foreign language to acquire the basic specific vocabulary through reading. The present paper deals with the strategies a Business English teacher approaches in order to assist students to learn vocabulary as well as to equip them with methods to turn perceptive vocabulary into context vocabulary. How can vocabulary be taught efficiently? How can teacher provide learners the needed input in order to shift vocabulary from input to output? How can teachers introduce vocabulary in order for optimal retention to be ensured? These are some the questions the present paper addresses.

E-leadership research has evolved significantly in recent times, influencing the development of the education system, which has been affected by the effects of the pandemic. In order to keep up with the changes, teachers have had to adapt to the ever-changing requirements and opportunities. The topic of the paper refers to the perspective of Romanian pre-university teachers regarding the connection between e-leadership and motivation. The reason I chose to do this research is because e-leadership is a current topic. On the other hand, I am a teacher in the pre-university education system and I started my teaching activity in the middle of the pandemic and I can say that it was a real challenge for me to integrate remotely into a new team. Therefore, I found it opportune to study this subject, the paper being based on the identification of the main advantages and barriers of e-leadership in motivating employees. For this, I will look for the answer to the research question “What is the perception of pre-university teachers regarding e-leadership?”, by sending a questionnaire among teachers. To answer this question, I carried out a quantitative research of a structured survey type, based on a questionnaire with 16 items, addressed to pre-university teachers, regarding the link between e-leadership and employee motivation. This survey was conducted online, in 1st-4th November 2022, through Google Forms, and I processed and interpreted the obtained data, using Microsoft Excel and SPSS statistical software. I hope this paper will be useful to all those interested in this topic, especially PhD students and leaders who want to deepen this topic.

Bibliometric research has recently gained much interest from academics seeking to investigate a particular topic. This study aims to explore the interest of marketing specialists in investigating marketing-related topics using bibliometric analysis. The paper includes the following sections: general information about bibliometric analysis, research methodology and how the database of articles was designed, data analysis results, conclusions and other insights. In this study, we considered the Scopus database for selecting the set of scientific papers. The applications used in the data analysis process are VOSviewer and QDA Miner. To achieve the purpose of the research, we analysed the productivity and impact of countries, journals and papers on the topic of bibliometric analysis in marketing. We also tried to identify the marketing-related concepts that generated the most interest from the specialists in their bibliometric analysis. The study aims to highlight the favorite topics related to marketing that specialists are interested in exploring through bibliometric research.

The education system plays an important role in human development. It is not only in terms of improving knowledge, solving social problems on many levels but also contributing to the development of the economic activities of a country. Moreover, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial activities are also strongly influenced by the education system of the country. Today, entrepreneurial activities play an increasingly significant role in the development of the country. Therefore, it needs to be paid attention to and focused on the building of an educational environment suitable to the characteristics of entrepreneurship. From there, it is possible to create a dynamic environment, promote business development and start business activities of the country. This paper first provides a brief overview of the role of education in entrepreneurship. Next, the research method and research results are presented on assessing the current status of the role of the national education system in starting a business in Vietnam. The study is based on the analysis of data collected from the report provided by The Amway Global Entrepreneurship Report in 2018 (AGER) on national entrepreneurship in the specific case of Vietnam. Finally, the paper ends with some suggestions and conclusions of the study.

One of the main limitations identified in the specialized literature is represented by the insufficient quantification of the environmental externalities in the process of carrying out the economic analysis within the cost-benefit analysis for the urban mobility projects specific to the local public authorities. Cost-benefit analysis is an essential tool for prioritizing public investment. The research methodology used in this paper includes data analysis, observation and data modeling. The purpose of this paper is represented by the analysis of the monetization of the environmental externalities specific to the economic analysis of the projects in the field of urban mobility of Oradea Municipality. Economic analysis involves estimating the contribution of a public investment to the economic well-being of a city, region or country and is very important because it also includes the economic and social benefits of an investment. In Romania, the economic analysis is mandatory for all investment projects that involve conducting a feasibility study. Socio-economic analysis involves making fiscal corrections, corrections for externalities and transformation into accounting prices. Externalities can be positive or negative and can be caused by production or consumption. Negative externality is an external cost and positive externality is an external benefit. In performing a cost-benefit analysis when an investment is analyzed from an economic point of view, externalities must be quantified from a monetary point of view. Shadow prices are monetary values attributed to externalities. These shadow prices are used in economic analysis specific to cost-benefit analysis. Shadow prices are assigned when market prices are not known accurately or when it is difficult to quantify certain costs. An example of a shadow price is the value attributed to the emission cost of one tonne of carbon dioxide. A limitation of this paper is represented by the fact that we analyzed only the environmental externalities specific to urban mobility. In future works I want to expand the research of other externalities and to carry out the economic analysis at the level of investment projects of local importance.

This paper aims to bring to attention an issue which involves both economical and juridical aspects: agents' obligation to give an account to principals, derived from mandate contracts. The legal doctrine, both Romanian and European, has largely debated upon this aspect, particularly the form in which the accounting report must be given, as well as the possibility of tacit extempt from the obligation of the trustee to hand over the management account, in cases in which the contractual relations of the parties are based upon a high degree of trust. As shown in this paper, we believe that a genuine accounting report is required from agents only if the principals explicitly demand it. Also, since the legal provisions on the matter do not expressly impose any formalities for the completion of this report, we believe that it is the principals' decision to establish the form in which the trustees must hand over the accounts.

The economic impact of tourist activity depends largely on the character of the area or space where it is practised (e.g., developed, developing or less developed). It also depends on the administration or, in broader terms, management of this complex activity and finality through consumption. The latter is related to both customer satisfaction and the satisfaction of the travel agency providing services, to the degradation of certain traditions and the disturbance of the economic, social, cultural, demographic and environmental balance in local communities. The globalisation process and the technological evolution determine visible and behavioural changes because competitiveness is related to technological efficiency. Tourism can generate substantial income, thus contributing to regional development and dynamizing the labour market and companies activating in that sector. By allocating various funds, we can improve the quality of services and renovate accommodation facilities, which enhances the popularity of the location and increases income, implicitly. This paper approaches rural tourism and entrepreneurship within a microeconomic approach. It is motivated by the fact that the most common tourist activities are small and medium enterprises, which are not always sustainable enough businesses. Hence, awakening the entrepreneurial spirit is one of the most notable challenges for the actors involved in small and medium enterprise development in rural areas. This paper highlights the role and challenges of small and medium enterprises activating in the tourism field in rural areas. In addition, the paper proposes a way for overcoming the constraints and difficulties imposed by rural communities, based on the connection between the traditional rural community and a human network existing outside the traditional territorial community. This network extending beyond the traditional territorial border may be complementary to the rural community. In this context, strategic cooperation becomes relevant; it is the solution for overcoming the challenges faced by other industries, too. Furthermore, rural tourism allows producers to mobilise (on a wider scale) the local resources redeemed within the mono-farm activities. Thus, they may attain the goal of using and preserving their rural heritage.

The COVID19 pandemic seems to have affected the financial results of the companies operating in Central and Eastern Europe. This paper has as a main goal to analyse the impact of COVID-19 crisis over companies which operate in the pharmaceutical sector. Since two of the authors developed an article in 2018 concentrated on the Early warning indicators and their impact over the medical companies registered in the Bucharest Stock Exchange, the current article analysis the same indicators but extends them at the level of four countries: Romania, Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary. Within the paper the authors will compare the evolution of several financial indicators: liquidity, financial leverage, solvency, annual return, ROE, ROA, so on in context of COVID-19. The main reason for the selection of medical and pharmaceutical sector is constituted by the discussions that these companies benefit from the effects of COVID19.

Nowadays, digital promotion is a new 'means' of communication between companies and the potential customer. One of the basic tools as regards the online promotion in the tourism industry, respectively the hotel industry is the website. This is a complex business card, conveyed by technology, a digital sample provided to the customer, a first impression that may bring less or more value. The website aims to direct all efforts in making known the package/service offered, to provide potential customers with all the necessary information, to determine potential customers to visit and also to act. Thus, this paper aims to analyze how hotels in two tourist resorts situated in Bihor county, namely Băile Felix and Vârtop Arieșeni, are promoted via the website. The paper proposes a specific grid for websites analysis, based on observation, using the Fisher-Rosenberg pattern as a method of scaling and drawing a series of conclusions, of trends and main shortcomings and possibilities for improvement.

Through this paper we aimed to develop a comparison between ARIMA, Prophet, KNN and Neural Networks in terms of stock prices forecasting. After reviewing the literature, we noticed that there is a plethora of studies that address this problem of forecasting, but very few have made comparisons that include ARIMA, machine learning, but also the Prophet forecasting model developed by Facebook, which brought interesting results for certain data series. Based on methodologies validated by other authors, we compared these models in our paper and we sought to obtain promising results regarding performance evaluation. The comparison was made in-sample, the training period being 01/01/2010 - 31/07/2021, but also out-of-sample (01/08/2021 - 31/10/2021). The study was performed for Societe Generale’s stock, using daily observations. Statistical loss functions such as RMSE, MPE, MAPE, MAE, and ME were used for comparison. The results indicated an outperformance of Neural Networks, both in-sample and out-of-sample, this model being on the 1st place according to the aggregated score. It is also noteworthy that the ARIMA model was in second place in-sample, ahead of KNN, but for out of sample these two algorithms changed their positions. On the other hand, the Prophet algorithm performed the weakest, both in-sample and out of sample. Also, we must underlie that all four algorithms had a clear tendency to overestimate the price of Societe Generale, according to the results of the statistical loss functions ME and MPE. Finally, it should be noted that the results were consistent with what other authors found out, especially for the out-of-sample period, where the machine learning models performed best.

The way people carry out their daily activities has changed with digitalization. The digitalization process has highlighted its own effects on the economy as well as on society. Also, the way people travel has changed in terms of digitalization. Opportunities offered by this digitization process bring significant potential benefits. Thus, this paper proposes to make a brief foray and analyze the official documents that speak, plan and design the digital economy, which provides a set of projections of the digitalization of the economy, especially in the field of tourism. The analysis will be theoretical. In addition, this paper aims to give a brief overview of the current framework of the digital economy and to provide an analysis of the degree of involvement of public authorities at national level in the digitization of tourism in European countries and the number of online bookings in the same countries.

Marketing communication for green brands and products should not be seen exclusively as a means to attract and impress consumers with the most beautiful and spectacular green messages. All messages communicated to the public must have a solid foundation, which most of the time can be represented by the attributes of the green product or by its benefits for the environment, community and for the current and future generations of consumers. In this regard, marketing communication, as part of the green marketing strategy, faces several challenges. On the one hand, green communication has the role of educating and informing the public about the specific benefits of green products in order to determine the public to adopt a pro-ecological behavior. On the other hand, the communication approaches must respond to the exigencies of the green field, in order to avoid the social and ecological criticisms, as well as the categorizing of the organization's actions as part of the greenwashing phenomenon. Therefore, the purpose of this theoretical paper is to identify the typology of green marketing communication strategies. The paper is based on secondary data sources, namely the literature on green marketing communication, focusing on specific communication strategies. This study reviews and synthesizes 39 relevant articles related to the researched subject, which have been identified in academic databases. In literature have been identified five defining criteria for communication strategies, along with specific strategic alternatives. We note the need to continue the research in this field, in order to develop other strategic alternatives that respond to the specific problems of this market and that offer the opportunity for green brands to position themselves effectively.

Nowadays, tourism plays an essential role in economic growth and development in many countries. Tourists have different travelling motivations and behavioural manifestations, helping tour operators decide suitable for them. Developing a dark tourism niche concept is a necessary step for correct use of it in theory and practice. Dark tourism is an important concept studied in the past twenty years in worldwide literature. This empirical paper aimed to determine the tourists’ motivations for travelling to Romania’s dark tourism destinations and establishing them. A quantitative research method was applied based on a survey using a non-probabilistic technique based on convenience sampling. Secondary, it was studied the relationship between motivational determinants and tourists’ attitude-behaviour in visiting dark tourism sites (Theory of Planned Behaviour, TPB). The survey conducted online was primarily made of 40 items evaluated on the Likert scale. It has been used a sample based on 475 Romanian respondents: 72.3% who had already visited a dark tourism destination in Romania, and 27.8% who stated they planned to visit one. The theoretical framework has analysed five constructs as motivational determinants in the relationships with behavioural construct attitude (TPB). The results show support for two of five research hypotheses (H1 and H4). Dark experience (H1) and Unique learning experience (H4) have a significant and positive effect on Attitude. We did not find any significant effect of Engaging entertainment, Casual interest, and Emotional recreation on Attitude. Hence, H2, H3 and H5 are not supported. Based on these results, the government can develop tourism economic and marketing policy to develop dark tourism as important post-communist niche tourism. The practitioners can develop and promote tourism packages and products by applying the correct use of dark tourism sense. The present scientific paper’s originality is given by the lack of literature review studies based on empirical research on this topic. Limits of the research and future research directions are also pointed out in the conclusion part.

Insurance services are a special category of services, characterized by a high standardization and at the request of customers to protect themselves from a number of financial losses that they may suffer as a result of risks. For this reason, it is very important that insurers provide quality services to customers. Customer satisfaction is paramount for attracting new customers and retaining existing ones, thus achieving a loyal customer base. They will recommend the insurance company and other potential customers if they are satisfied, thus increasing the market share of the insurance company. The quality of insurance services and the relationship between the insurance company and the client have been the subject of many studies over time, most often being followed by the impact that the quality of services has on their behavior. Starting from the identified problem, I set out in this paper to look at how consumers' perceptions of the quality of insurance services influence their perceptions of their relationship with the insurance company and implicitly their behaviour towards it. Starting from these approaches, we aimed in this paper to see what is the meaning given by the consumers of the insurance services of the company Allianz Țiriac to the concept of quality of insurance services. Our study consisted of an extensive process, carried out in several stages of work, namely: elaboration of the questionnaire addressed to the insurance company's clients, establishing the sample, collecting data based on questionnaires, centralizing and processing the data and interpreting the results. The case study took place over a month, on a sample of 300 people, most of the respondents are between 26 and 45 years old, who work in the private sector and came monthly between 1800-290 lei. The GAP analysis highlights some aspects of the services offered by Allianz Țiriac. A negative GAP highlights the unfavorable aspects of the services provided by the insurance company and raises an alarm about the situation of the company.

This paper follows the already existing literature to address three main pressing concerns that Romania is currently facing with respect to sustainable development and economic growth, which has likely been impeded as a direct consequence of the ongoing sanitary crisis. The research questions of this paper were asked with the consideration of finding possible solutions to the current developments. These questions were “How will the global health crisis project on Romania’s GDP growth in 2021 and going forward?”, “To what extent can Romania face its current challenges with respect to the budgetary pressures?”. The research itself was conducted using the R programming language with quantitative data, namely quarterly GDP starting from 2005 Q1 onwards and its main objective is to simulate Romania’s GDP to answer the aforementioned questions. Therefore, this research is empirical in the sense that it derives the simulated data from real data which was taken from Eurostat. The main findings of this research were that Romania’s GDP could grow by a mean 3.2% in 2021, which is more conservative than the existing institutional forecasts made by the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the Romanian National Commission for Strategy and Forecasting, implying that the majority of the simulated outcomes have been in that respective range of values. Moreover, this research also finds that consumption is expected to increase by approximately 4.2% and that the budget deficit relative to GDP could go as low as to negative 7.8%. This paper creates value for future policymaking as it proposes solutions which could help Romania going forward. Thus, this paper creates value for not only the policymakers but the society as a whole.