Search

This article investigates the innovative role of machine learning (ML) in the development of smart cities, emphasizing the critical interrelationship between ML and urban environments. While existing studies address ML and urban settings separately, this work uniquely examines their intersection, highlighting the transformative potential of ML in urban development. Utilizing the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) methodology, a systematic and reproducible approach was employed to review 42 relevant studies. The analysis reveals four key themes: transportation and traffic optimization, people and event flow tracking, sustainability applications, and security use cases. These findings underscore ML’s ability to revolutionize smart city initiatives by enhancing efficiency, sustainability, and security. This review identifies significant research gaps and proposes future directions, positioning ML as a cornerstone in the evolution of intelligent urban environments.

The effects of climate change have a visible impact on all areas, both in the short, medium and long term, but adapting, trying to mitigate and combat the phenomenon, as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, can be elements of the sustainable development of a society, looking at socio-economic and relevant long-term aspects. This paper aims to analyse and present a link between the key concepts of climate change at the confluence of the green economy and the circular economy through a bibliometric analysis, highlighting the importance and evolution of these concepts as recorded in scientific papers in several international databases. The results of our work are intended to complement current research on climate change by interlinking specific terms, thus improving current concepts in the literature.

The risks derived from climate change and the social inequalities of the economic model en-danger the continuity of society as we know it. The investment community is developing financial products in order to channel the environ-mental and social transition process, with green bonds and social bonds being key instruments to facilitate the change of model. In just a few years, investments made in assets that respect environmental sustainability, social responsibility and good management practices have in-creased from 12% to 42% of total investments made by investors around the world. The current paper it is intended to discuss the regulation and evolution of green bonds since its inception in 2007, globally and nationally, focusing on the principles of implementation, benefits and role of the COVID-19 pandemic in issuing green bonds.

Art and technology. Most of us when we are thinking of fine art we are thinking of the paintings and sculptures and we are less inclined to associate the art with technology. Yet, there are many developments in this area and technology intersects the fine art industry in different points and takes different shapes. The purpose of the paper is to identify where technology is interfering in the fine art industry.

Romania is in a rather dishonorable position from the financial literacy perspective in the European Union, ranking last among countries. To increase the level of financial education of the Romanian population, public and private institutions, organizations, and companies have recently taken the initiative in this field, mostly after 2015. Our contribution builds on these recent developments and aims at testing the level of basic financial literacy of Romanian university students, enrolled in business and economics studies, using the OECD Financial literacy test. Data was collected through an online survey on a voluntary basis, and the responses were analyzed using statistical indicators. Results indicate a rather high level of financial literacy among students, but also significant differences among respondents that may be explained by several demographic characteristics and specific attributes. The most important characteristics that influence the degree of financial literacy of students are age, students’ cycle of studies, the way the students live, property ownership and students’ involvement in financial market transactions and contracts. We stress towards the need to act through concrete measures to improve young people financial literacy, as a necessary condition to navigate in an increasingly complex environment, where finance plays an essential role.

Shadowed by the pandemic effects, BREXIT started on 1 January 2020 with a transition period and will have its full effects on 1 January 2021. Although it is too early to measure the effect of BREXIT, at the end of 2020 the art world had signals of the potential difficulties might incur. The article's objective is to identify what effects will have BREXIT on the European art market, considering the role of the UK in the global and European art world.

Globalization is changing the rules of how to achieve long-term success by companies in their pursuit to meet growing customer requirements spanning various industries from manufacturing and retail to public sector. Traditional focus on simple stand-alone products or services aiming for low cost or product performance is over-ruled by the increasing demand for designing and offering customer solutions. They are defined in the extant literature as a combination of goods and services designed to satisfy the business needs of a customer. To consider the shift towards developing, selling and implementing effective customer solutions, the firms must transform many aspects of their business. The challenges they are facing are discussed in this paper by conducting an empirical research study within the Romanian IT industry and concluding that the contextual dimension must be considered in order to capture the complexity of integrated solutions agenda for both scholars and practitioners.

In modern societies, digitalization plays a tremendously important role for people and businesses. Apart from an economic representation, competitiveness characterizes a society from political, cultural, or human points of view. In this article, we aim to highlight the role of digital development from a competitiveness perspective, as there are few studies related to this relationship. The empirical investigation is based on panel data analysis for European Union countries for 2017–2022, considering the digital economy and society index (DESI) and the index developed by International Institute for Management Development (IMD), respectively IMD world competitiveness index. The results obtained are reported both for general indices and for the components of DESI, presented separately for the groups of Central and Eastern European countries and Western European countries. They indicate different influences for the two groups of countries, with only a few common aspects. The most obvious is the case of skilled labor. This aspect demonstrates the link between the various dimensions of digitalization and changes in human capital development strategies, as they appear in the specialized literature.

Considering the fact that in China, in 2016 solely, the mobile payment volume was around $5 trillion – half of its gross domestic product, carried out through two main competitors – Alipay and Wechat Pay, it is becoming clearer that companies will invest piles of money in order to process the payments of the millions of potential users. With the banking industry shaken by the different modifications of rules and regulations and consumers addicted to the latest gadgets, the tech companies may have the pole position in this race. Apple is charging each Apple Pay user with 0.15% per transaction which may not seem a lot, but taking into account that in 2015 iPhone users traded over $10.9 billion we can see why tech companies are eager to develop payment applications. In this paper are presented briefly the newest means of payment and how are those influenced or not by the emerging technologies. The most important piece in the puzzle – end-user – has to keep up with all the novelties in this sector and, as consequence, some behavioural patterns occur. With the appearance in the landscape of emerging technologies like 5G, augmented reality, virtual reality, blockchain etc. new waves are expected to redefine mobile payments. Those are presented further in the text altogether with some trends in financial services that may influence the mobile payments market as we know it.

In their international activities multinational corporations (MNCs) face various risks. Political risk is one of them. Expropriations, transfer and convertibility restrictions, breach of contracts, acts of terrorism, domestic political violence or other adverse regulatory changes and/or negative government action represent forms of political risks. Incorporating political risk in their risk management strategies becomes a necessity for MNCs in their search for profits and new markets. This article presents how MNCs use lobbying and advocacy as means to engage with governments and politicians in the country of origin (home country), in the country where a MNC has operations (host country) or at international level (by creating ties with international organisations) in order to mitigate political risks. The case of Repsol and its investment in Argentina is used to demonstrate the application of such tools. The article presents two limitations that might determine the success or failure of MNCs’ lobbying and advocacy activities: governments' unpredictable views towards MNCs and reputational risks. The article has also identified a main difficulty in identifying and examining MNCs way of using lobbying and advocacy to engage with government officials and politicians. This difficulty comes from the informal character of such contacts which makes lobbying and advocacy almost impossible to identify.

Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), and in particular the possibility that they offer international arbitration of disputes between the foreign investor and the host country, represent one of the methods that multinational corporations (MNCs) can use as part of their risk management strategy to mitigate political risks. This article aims to present the constraints identified in using the arbitration procedures of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID): Member States’ ignoring arbitration decisions, ICSID’s lengthy procedures, calculation of the amount for compensation and the general critics on ICSID arbitration. The article also analyses the effectiveness of BITs compared to the use of other methods to mitigate political risks. The case of Repsol and its expropriation in Argentina is used to demonstrate the presence of those constraints. The article concludes that MNCs’ use of BITs to mitigate political risks in order to protect their foreign investments should be left till last after all other methods have been exhausted.

Considering the fact that in China, in 2016 solely, the mobile payment volume was around $5 trillion – half of its gross domestic product, carried out through two main competitors – Alipay and Wechat Pay, it is becoming more and more clearer that companies will invest piles of money in order to process the payments of the millions of potential users. With banking industry shaken by the different modifications of rules and regulations and consumers addicted to latest gadgets, the tech companies may have the pole position in this race. Apple is charging each Apple Pay user with 0.15% per transaction which may not seem a lot, but taking into account that in 2015 iPhone users traded over $10.9 billion we can see why tech companies are eager to develop payment applications. In this paper are presented briefly the newest means of payment and how are those influenced or not by the mainstream legislation. The most important piece in the gear – end-user – has to keep up with all the novelties in this sector and, as consequence, some behavioral patterns occur. Those are presented further in the text altogether with some trends in financial services that may influence the mobile payments market as we know it.

As part of their political risk management strategy, multinational corporations (MNCs) can use joint ventures as a tool to reduce their exposure to political risks in international activities. The aim of this article is to present the main benefits for MNCs in using joint ventures with a local partner to mitigate political risks in developing countries and to put forward three risks that MNCs have to consider when choosing the local partner (the risk of opportunistic expropriation, the risk associated with transferring of intellectual property rights and reputational risk).

In the aftermath of the economic crisis, measures have been taken in order to set the paths towards a sustainable growth in the European Union. One of these measures was objectified through Europe 2020 Strategy that was meant to ensure a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The smart growth was expected to be achieved through improvements in research and development, innovation and education. In this paper we decided to address Europe’s smart growth, taking into consideration one of its main pillars: research and development. We have taken into consideration data for the 28 European Union member states and applied a comparative analysis of the dynamics of research and development expenditures for the last ten years, analyzing data from Eurostat database. Our results highlighted the increasing interest in the research and development activities in the last years. For a better understanding of the dynamics, we analyzed also the structure of the R&D expenditure, by the following four institutional sectors: business enterprise, government, higher education, private non-profit with the total of sectors. In most of the European Union member states the main sector of performance in R&D expenditures is the business sector, followed by higher education sector. However, this is not the cases in all countries, some of them having a different structure in this respect. In some countries, as Latvia and Lithuania, the higher education sector is the main funder of R&D activities, while in other countries, as Romania, R&D activities are conducting with the support of both private and public funding, in almost equal contribution. However, despite the differences in structure, the general trend is of increasing R&D funding, highlighting the increasing interest for innovation and more knowledge intensive outcomes. Even if progress has been registered, in most European Union member states efforts should be made in order to support R&D activities, as to meet the Europe 2020 target, but primarily for boosting innovation.

Confronted with a variety of political risks that affect their international activities, multinational corporations (MNCs) can use Political Risk Insurance (PRI) as a method to mitigate some of those risks. The aim of this article is to present the main characteristics of the PRI policies and participants, to highlight its benefits and to put forward three limitations that prevent MNCs in using PRI in their political risk management strategy (fluctuating capacity on the market, high premium rates and small compensation value). The recent trend in incorporating corporate social responsibility requirements as a pre-condition for providing PRI can contribute to lowering PRI premium rates.

Taking into consideration the determinants of the economic crisis and of the sovereign debt crisis, we aim to analyze the dynamics of the European economies and discuss changes related to macroeconomic imbalances, as highlighted by the recent crises as an important factor of the unfavorable dynamics registered during the last years. In this respect we considered both internal and external imbalances, as specified in the macroeconomic imbalance procedure that was implemented for the European Union member states since 2012, as a response to the crises that affected all open economies of the world. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive analysis of economic imbalances in the European Union and to determine their influence on economic growth.

The field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has grown exponentially in the last two decades. There are different views of the role of the firm in society and disagreement as to whether wealth maximization should be the sole goal of a corporation. Nevertheless, there still remains a debate about the legitimacy and value of corporate responses to CSR concerns. This paper examines the effect of CSR on financial performance. It examines the effect CSR- related shareholder proposals lead to positive announcements returns and superior accounting performance. Also, the channels through which companies benefit from CSR are examined. The paper finds that CSR improves employee satisfaction and helps companies cater to customers that are responsive to sustainable practices and that the adoption of CSR proposals is associated with an increase in labor productivity and sales growth. The results indicate that the sign of the relationship is positive and statistically significant relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance, supporting the view that socially responsible corporate performance can be associated with a series of bottom-line benefits.

The objective of this paper is to analyze fiscal revenues registered by the European Union member states in order to determine groups with similar fiscal structures, their composition and to identify the similarities that characterize European countries in this respect. The research conducted in this paper is relevant especially for countries as Romania, which is in the process of adopting the European single currency, as is allows us to determine which countries are similar in terms of fiscal structure so that the comparison is carried out mainly with those countries. The analysis of European fiscal structures allows a better identification of tax preferences within the European Union and highlights the types of taxation that would allow leeway in implementing long term fiscal strategies, which could lead to improvements in macroeconomic dynamics registered by each member state and also at Union level.

The financial product designed by the authors belongs to the class of derivative financial instruments, having “weather conditions” as basic variable; the settlement is oriented to options on OTC markets, which are able to adapt to the farmers’ risk exposure level. Unfortunately, they cause certain problems at position liquidation, and, moreover, due to lack of stock prices, they require proper evaluation models. The transformation of the weather risk into financial risk and its trading on financial markets relies on the willingness for risk taking of those groups of farmers which are using this particular financial instrument. One needs to emphasize that the proposed product is covering the risk for the production segment only of a specific crop that cannot be covered by the regular agricultural insurance, and it is based upon the Selyaninov index. The calculation formulae for a put type option will be presented: pay-off, strike, tick,and the level of the insurance premium for cereals. The reference weather stations will be: Tulcea, Brăila, Buzău, Galaţi, Focşani and Medgidia.

In recent years the mergers of companies have seen a setback due to the economic crisis and the implications that it has generated in the market. As such, the reasons behind the implementation of mergers have changed, if, in prior periods the common reason for merger was the desire to integrate into current business activity and the profits resulting from the resources which were to be invested in that business creation and development, under the present conditions, the mergers are becoming more and more a way to keep the business or selling on the best terms. One of the options available, especially for small and medium sized private companies, seeking new sources of funding, is to achieve a reversed merger. The objective of this paper is to present the concept of reversed merger in relation to Initial Public Offering. A company must always set to the smallest detail, the reasons for wishing to change its status from private to public. One way to obtain public status is given by the reversed merger, an alternative to the Initial Public Offering. The private company that wants to go public, purchases over 80% of a public company but inactive, company called shell company. Once this shell company merges with the operational company of the buyers, they form an active company, a listed company, in which the majority of the shareholders are represented by the major founders of the operating company.

We live in a time when the world economy is constantly changing. Foreign direct investments is one of the most dynamic part of the world economy and in a continuous globalization, those international financial flows determining the traders to know their defining elements and to adopt a specific management in the international affairs field. We are viewers of an unprecedented expansion of foreign direct investments, essential factor of the globalization development process. The paper analyzes the evolution of FDI so far, along with a brief illustration as the main trends of international financial flows for 2010 and 2011. In the context of economic globalization, it is absolutely necessary to clear out a study on the various economic activities, especially on the differences between countries. The analysis of these differences is particularly important as it helps improve and optimize the strategies adopted by foreign transnational companies. In the past 15 years, one observes that most companies in emerging countries, characterized by a great expansion, have adopted in the first phase of their existence, corporate strategies that gave them the opportunity to become global companies. According to surveys, after reaching the first goal, becoming a multinational or a transnational company, they have developed new business models beyond the classical principles and strategies. It is anticipated that in the coming decades, the strategies of emerging companies will be influenced by functional specialization, which, according to experts, influence the process of globalization. The analysis of strategies adopted by companies in emerging countries is absolutely necessary because the results cannot be overlooked. For example, until 2004, only five Asian companies were part of the top 100 transnational companies. The study was carried out by UNCTAD and the identification criterion was the size of foreign assets. In 2006, 14% of world total FDI came from emerging countries. In the global economic crisis, foreign investment flow analysis is a dynamic element that can help the economy of a country. This is not the first time when the world economy is facing recession, but it happens after many years, namely after the Great Depression that began in 1929 and after Breton Woods System Fall in 1971. In addition, we can say that it is for the first time after a long period when the crisis is located at the level of developed countries, not only in emerging economies. The FDI expansion is indeed a fabulous one, aspects of their development periods of time are presented in detail in this paper. In the last decades of the twentieth century, international investment flows have risen to unprecedented growth. The climax was reached in 2000, next period representing a regression of foreign investments. From 2003 to 2007, it was a period marked by a continuous expansion and increase flows until 2008, when the global economical crisis has had an impact on the entire world economy, including foreign direct investments. Undoubtedly, the world economic crisis had a negative effect on FDI. The negative impact mostly consisted of two elements, namely: reducing access to financial resources, which affected the ability of firms to invest, and the tendency of companies to invest because of gloomy prospects for the economy, markets and risks.

The economic crisis, followed by the sovereign debt crisis, resulted in high unemployment, unsustainable public finances and deepening disparities between Euro Area member states, and underlined the necessity of strengthening economic coordination. In order to lessen the effects of the crises, to prevent further deepening of the economic context and the appearance of new similar situations, the European framework was improved by the provisions of the new economic governance. The aim of this paper is to assess the effects regarding macroeconomic stability within Euro Area member states, achieved under the new economic governance framework. In this respect, the first part of the paper consists in an overview of the provisions imposed through the European Semester, the reformed Stability and Growth Pact and the other elements of the new European governance. In order to assess the achievement of economic stability we analyzed data for Southern Euro Area member states, during 2009-2013, as this group of countries registered most issues during 2013. We took into consideration five important indicators, essential in any economy that form the macroeconomic stability pentagon: economic growth rate, unemployment rate, inflation rate, budgetary balance and current account balance. By comparing the area obtained through the macroeconomic stability pentagon, we conclude on meeting one of the main objectives of the new European governance: economic stability.

Recently, a series of heterodox economic trends (bioeconomics, ecological economics, behavioral economics, neuroeconomics, etc ) have become more and more present in economics (even more, due to the coming and the development of the unprecedented economic crisis). Moreover, the revival of the evolutionist economic science from the last two decades has brought a significant contribution to the theoretical development and an important interdisciplinary and/or cross disciplinary import. The bioeconomic approach becomes necessary due to the worldwide ecological crisis which closely affects almost all the sectors of our industrial civilization. Having the work of Nicolae Georgescu-Roegen, the father of the bioeconomic science, as guidelines, we consider that the Romanian economic science should focus more on the study of the opportunities offered by this new direction.