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Technology and its influence upon society have turned into a controversial topic in today’s fast-developing world, where advances in innovation are continuous, fast, and complex. The relationship between technology and society has become an increasing interest for many researchers, trying to explore and clarify this connection. This article focuses on the psychological impact of technology, expressed through activity tracking devices, upon user’s attitudes towards pursuing an active lifestyle. To conduct the analysis, users’ registered behavioral changes after engaging with technological devices are explored, by examining academic literature reports studies, supplemented by experimental material written by the users themselves on publicly available websites. The study proposes a deductive research design, by constructing its analysis on a relevant theoretical framework, that of Technological Determinism theory, which advocates that technology can influence society, however without being affected by humans. Nevertheless, the results of the research show that the relationship between technology and society is not that linear, as influences coming from the social environment usually interact and impact the way technology is used. This determines the consideration of an additional theoretical concept to the analysis, that of Social Shaping of Technology, and changes the dynamics of exploring the topic. Conclusions demonstrate that the relationship between user and technology can be characterized as a double-way approach, with complex and ambiguous attributes, where both forces interact and can lead to positive and constructive behavioral outcomes but also to critical and hard to control mental conditions.

Electric vehicles and their environmental impact have become topics of increased interest in contemporary days, as innovative technologies developed and influenced the automobile industry. There is constant competition between gasoline and electric vehicles, the latter one trying to gain market share and change people’s perception about what eco-transportation means and the benefits it can bring. The presented paper recognizes the phenomenon of path dependency and lock-in effect that the automobile industry faces as a result of the dominance of gasolinebased cars and illustrates the pressures executed by these forces. The paper aims at bringing valuable solutions for approaching these issues, by bringing under attention relevant concepts such as skeuomorphs and the network effect. For tackling the topic proposed, the research adopts an illustrative case study technique, that offers a detailed and complex outline of the issues considered in relation to the electric vehicle industry.

The primary purpose of this research is to present the evolution and current state of knowledge regarding the dematerialization of banking products and services in the digital age. The paper discusses the central issues regarding the dematerialization of money, the dematerialization of securities and the dematerialization of the contract, trends with direct impact on the possibility of dematerializing the products and services offered by banking institutions, by means of an investigative discourse and viewpoint into and over the shift from tangible to intangible monetary assets. It mainly explores the impact of dematerialization on certain processes performed by banks (customer enrollment and management) and on certain products and services offered by banks (payment services, lending services, etc.) from the perspective of the latest technological innovations and the influence exerted by fintech companies. The chapter clearly establishes the synergy link between environmental factors (increased competition, technological advance, legislative changes) and the ability of banking institutions to adapt to new conditions by changing the business model. The research ends with a series of conclusions regarding the way in which the tendencies towards dematerialization affect the activity and the business model adopted by the banking institutions. The content of the research report is useful both to the managers in the financial field and to the authorities that legislate this field, especially to those in Romania, who can use the conclusions of the report to elaborate policies in order to advance the degree of digitization of the Romanian banking system.

In this paper, we have covered many of the roles that banks play in the financial system. Banks act as delegated monitors that ensure that economic agents allocate their resources effectively, thus leading to the sustainable development of entrepreneurship. Moreover, they also play an important role in sharing risks in the economy and protecting economic agents against market fluctuations through various means such as financial derivatives. These are the positive aspects of the roles of banks, but it should be noted that the way banks act to ensure an acceptable rate of return can cause fragility and instability throughout the financial system. In fact, banks are most often at the center of financial crises, as in the case of the global financial crisis that began in the summer of 2007. Banks may even contribute to spreading the negative effects of these financial crises because small shocks can have major effects on the financial system and economy. Banks also play an important role by facilitating the access of economic agents to financing and contributing to the development of the economy. In addition, they are important for good corporate governance, especially in countries such as Germany where bankers hold positions on the boards of private companies and can represent more shareholders in voting decisions.

The business environment is reshaped by knowledge economy which has taken both competitiveness and doing business to a whole new level. Because knowledge economy plays a key role in the creation of welfare it has been classified as an important reliable indicator for comparing world’s economies. The present paper highlights the geographic distribution of knowledge economy at the level of the European Union by means of factorial analysis. Factor analysis, a well-known statistical clustering technique, has been applied on the 28 EU countries (seen in our study as random variables) with an a priori fixed number of two factors. On each variable, the realisations are given by the scores (normalized between 0 and 1) registered for year 2012 on 12 key Knowledge Economy (KE) indices. The resulting factor structure is compared to the standard geographical grouping of EU countries (NorthWest-SouthEast) in present KE literature. SPSS software has been used for the statistical analysis. The highest correlations attained were in terms of the Global Competitiveness Index, World Happiness Index, R&D expenses signifying that they could also act as predictors in evaluating the status of the knowledge economy of a particular country, whereas weaker correlations can be spotted for enterprises selling online, electric energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and others. In the future, the same relationship can be tested to see whether the influences have changed, in the light of new available data.

The present paper delves into the specifics of knowledge economy with a particular focus on Romania. In the first part, it identifies knowledge economy characteristics and pillars and it analyses them as compared to levels exhibited by countries in the European Union. In the second part it argues for the strategies that could be used for enhancing knowledge economy in Romania. In order to do so we used the Delphi method and we identified 25 experts in the knowledge economy/management field coming from internationally renowned companies, universities and ministries located in Romania, to whom we sent invitations for participating in our Delphi survey that lasted one month. Out of the 25 experts, 10 answered positively and during the research we had an attrition rate of 90%. The experts delivered their opinions on the measures to be adopted in order to increase education and learning, ICT and innovation as building blocks of knowledge economy. Findings reveals that knowledge economy can be developed by adopting measures such as: devising a governmental program that will sustain the development of knowledge repositories at the level of technological clusters, industry associations and other professional organizations by providing financial assistance for hardware acquisition and software development in order to facilitate knowledge transfer; Governmental program for the financial support of schools’ investments in hardware and educational software and the training of staff for the use of ITC in teaching and learning, etc.

We present a critical perspective of the current state of development of CSE and SI as fields of study and practice based on a geographical and conceptual mapping of the actors involved in the two fields. Although these concepts are set into motion by different forces on different paths, they converge towards a common apprehension of social business. CSE has no supporting core and it offers scarce and scattered resources for identity formation, while SI benefits from practitioners’ attention and is thus developing as a proper field of study. Using this knowledge we anticipate what the future holds for these concepts and offer valuable insights for interested practitioners and academics.

After conducting an extensive analysis of both the specialised literature and practice and identifying three types of corporate social entrepreneurship in my PhD thesis titled “Corporate social entrepreneurship - the new paradigm of reshaping and rethinking business”, I decided to determine which of the three approaches is mostly suited for the Romanian market. The three types of corporate social entrepreneurship: corporate social entrepreneurship as local development tool, corporate social entrepreneurship as market development tool, and corporate social entrepreneurship as transformational innovation tool were organised as the alternatives of a carefully constructed hierarchy having as criteria: return on investment (which does not necessarily refer to the money that the company invests in the strategy; the term is derived from sustainability and scalability), degree of novelty, pre-entry knowledge and interest in solving the communities’ social problems. The questionnaire constructed based on the hierarchy using analytic hierarchy processes was distributed to experts (business developers) coming from the following industries or sectors: beverages, IT, banking, furniture, and automotive. The research reveals which is the approach most likely to be employed by Romanian business developers. The results may be inferred to the sum of businesses represented by the expert business developers who were part of the research.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether civil society itself can enhance or stimulate the creation of social entrepreneurs, by studying the traits of the civil society and the various definitions attributed to it. The main question that the paper wants to answer to is Does civil society create social entrepreneurs and the main approach used in this research paper is the theoretical one. By studying existing articles and books on the topic, the paper tries to emphasize the various dimensions that civil society can embrace, as pictured by various authors, as well as how these dimensions can relate to social entrepreneurs and the emergence of social businesses. The paper is not meant to be a breakthrough in the field, but rather to launch a question that is related to very important topics these days, social entrepreneurship, social innovation, social businesses and their connection to a very much debated topic-civil society. The paper is work-in progress and wants to stimulate research regarding the search of the sources of social entrepreneurship, in order to analyze them and better establish them as incubators for the future. It wants to be of use to whoever is researching the concepts illustrated above, as well as for those who want to get in touch with the new buzz words of the academic and entrepreneurial fields. The hereby paper stands, as previously stated, in a theoretical framework and the findings represent a mere analysis of the cause-effect relationship between the characteristics of civil society and those of social entrepreneurs. However, we are of the opinion that it can be a very good starting point for the ones interested in the domain, to analyze more sources of social entrepreneurship or further refine the answer to the question addressed in this article.

Teacher-student communication is one of the most important aspects of the teaching process. For the effectiveness of the teaching process, efforts should be carried out by both of the parties involved in order to fulfill the following conditions: on the one hand, teachers should share their knowledge with the students using appropriate discourse delivery strategies, and, on the other hand, students should assimilate the lessons and internalize them. Thus, we posit that delivering the pedagogical discourse plays a special role in triggering students' attention and engagement. As proven by previous research, the direct structuring of the message is more appropriate when a positive reaction is expected from the interlocutor, while an indirect structuring is more likely to be used in the case of a skeptical audience or of an audience that may be reluctant to the message conveyed. The present research has two parts: one aiming to find out which is the most appropriate way of structuring the message when addressing a group of Romanian students, and one aiming to trace the psychological profile of these Romanian students. Then, the results of both of these researches are confronted in order to see if there is any connection between them, and, if yes, to find the extent to which the later justifies the former. In order to find out which is the most appropriate way of structuring the message when addressing Romanian students, we resorted to three experiments, each conducted on a sample of 30 students from the same university. The first experiment used a direct psychological structure of an unpopular message, the second experiment used an indirect psychological structure of the same message, whereas the last experiment used a direct psychological structured message reinforced by an item of psychological manipulation. The results of our experiments showed the Romanian students' propensity to react more favorably to the direct message. This finding contradicts the expectations fueled by the specialists in the field. Apparently, the Romanian young audience involved in the experiments is not so receptive to indirect messages, especially to the ones starting with buffers. These findings are in accordance with the general psychological profile outlined as a result of the second part of the research pursuit. Hence, we state that the preference for a certain approach of the message is not a matter of random choice. Moreover, if we desire to have a successful communication, the message must have a structure which matches not only the communication aim and context, but also the audience's profile. We can use these findings for improving the teaching and evaluation processes, in particular, and students' engagement, in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper shades light into two very hot topics: food waste and rural tourism. in this very fast-paced and consumerist society the issue of food waste becomes of crucial importance in the context of a sustainable bioeconomy conducted under the context of rural tourism. Therefore, the hereby research. The current paper addresses the problem of food waste in rural touristic accommodation from the perspective of the behavior of the guests towards food consumed while traveling/vacationing. through a comprehensive review of the studies currently available, it is established that there are indications that individuals change their food habits while traveling and that these changes can have a negative impact on the amount of food wasted (i.e., by increasing the amount of food that goes unconsumed). The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings and a series of recommendations both for policy makers and for the managers of rural touristic accommodations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The knowledge economy is defined, according to the World Bank, through the integration of its four main component elements: education and training, innovation systems, information infrastructure, economic incentives and institutional regime. The first part of the paper reconciles knowledge economy and corporate social entrepreneurship, while the second part focuses on the education and training, and innovation pillars of the knowledge economy, and more specifically it resorts to the framework of corporate social entrepreneurship as a transformational innovation strategy for company growth. The current investigation has been conducted by means of case study method having the following research question: "How does corporate social entrepreneurship manifest in corporations?"., accompanied by secondary research questions such as: "How does the company mobilize its resources to create an innovative product/service/approach in order to tackle the social issue?, How does the company contribute to local development?". The findings revealed that the social issue of high levels of nitrates in the waters inspired the company to combine a testing tool (technological innovation) with marketing communication which eventually resulted in an innovative approach for the company to increase the loyalty of their customers and to reach out for new ones. The present paper has been developed based on the author's doctoral research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of governmental funding accompanied by an increase in the demand for social services have urged the universities to rethink their mission and their position on the market. The paper aims to investigate the dimensions of social impact of university entrepreneurship building on recent studies on the social mission of higher education. The existence of several dimensions in academia is tested by using a sample of twelve universities from Romania which rank first in terms of quality and academic results. A comparison is made between the ways in which the dimensions appear in the discourses of the universities to establish if the discourse is unaltered of variable. The examination reveals that the degree of social orientation differs among universities, some relying more on the activity of their student associations to promote social change, whereas others take the matters in their own hands and implement social projects based on European funding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We live in a world where accountability has become an institution and where what gets measured gets valued due to the increasing demands of stakeholders. The purpose of the hereby paper is to address change and the impact of change upon society. Whether the change is caused by social innovation, social entrepreneurial organizations or social responsibility actions, it translates into a modification in the status quo of the society. Thus, the discourse of our paper revolves around social value, social problem, social entrepreneurship and it connects them to the social impact they generate by presenting the methods used to measure this impact and their basic assumptions, who applies the methods and what are their effects. The methods for measuring the social impact found in the literature lean on quantifying everything in money and they also tend to overlook the importance of the psychological impact a company might have over its target clients. Furthermore, social impact is measured from the perspective of the companies and of the investors, neglecting the customers who are the target of the impact. Also findings reveal that there is no proper legislation to regulate this field and no specialized control bodies to oversee the activity of the third sector regarding social impact. We propose three principles underpinning our own social impact measurement model (sustainability, added value and scalability (spillovers). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Romanian market for plant protection products (PPP) is fragmented, dispersed, and very competitive. In recent years, there has been a constant decrease of farmers' profitability, which has cascaded into the distribution of pesticides, fertilizers, and seeds. Since the structure of any market is dynamic over time, companies can determine the effectiveness of their different marketing strategies using analytical tools. As an alternative to econometric tools for predicting the market share in the farming industry, we propose the analytic network process (ANP) model, in which the market share is described as a network of nodes and clusters. Domain experts validate the ANP structure with respect to criteria and alternatives. The model allows the quantification of qualitative judgments provided by either experts or customers, through the highest eigenvalues. The eigenvalues are then further aggregated to deliver conclusive scores for the distribution of a particular market among competitors. The purpose of this research is twofold: (1) to develop an ANP-based tool for analyzing the competitive position (market share) of a company and (2) to help companies use the new tool in order to improve their business. The paper is of interest to PPP distributors, PPP manufacturers, customers, and policy-makers. The first two categories of stakeholders can use the analysis to better direct their marketing efforts, the customers can use it to select their providers, and the policy-makers can use it to evaluate and improve the control of PPP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]