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The research aims to explore the topic of supply chain performance in the Industry 4.0 context, based on knowledge mapping. Thus, qualitative and quantitative approaches are combined in a documentary study that uses 354 articles published on Web of Science as a cornerstone. Methods like co-authorship analysis, co-citation analysis, clusters density analysis, and content analysis are employed, and the results bring forward the fact that (1) almost a quarter of the scientific publications regarding supply chain performance in the Industry 4.0 context are concentrated in five high-ranked journals; (2) the most cited articles provide a systematic and content-centric review of the literature, and set the framework for the empirical analysis; (3) the theoretical background of the analyzed articles have their roots in the resource-based theory; and (4) the future research requires establishing a link between supply chain management, Industry 4.0, and sustainable development at the micro, meso, and macro levels.

[EN] The research concentrates on describing how emotions are shared on private and public digital affect cultures. Two case study units are selected from private and public environments. Further, the Facebook page of both units is analyzed and data are collected using Netvizz.App. The collected data are processed using sentiment analysis and social network analysis; the former brings forward the type of emotions that are disseminated within the digital affect communities while the latter is used for emphasizing how the emotions flow among members. The results show that several differences occur between the two entities in terms of behavior and emotional content. The former provides the environment and supports members' interactions; as a consequence, its members share neutral, positive, and negative emotions with the moderator and also with one another. The latter provides the environment and fosters members' interaction with the moderator; as a consequence, it is the main emotional generator while its members act as receivers. These findings have heoretical and practical implications; on the one hand, they extend the literature on digital affect cultures while on the other hand, they help managers understand how their stakeholders feel and how do they chose to share their emotions through social media.

Purpose The paper aims to develop a microcredit evaluation model (MEM) which could serve as a useful tool for banks and NBFIs when SMEs’ economic and financial risks are evaluated. Design/methodology/approach Based on the literature review, a set of 17 qualitative and quantitative prudential indicators is selected. Further, a calculation system is developed which relies on the multiple criteria analysis model elaborated by Altman (1968); starting from this, a matrix is developed and a rating system is built. The model is tested among six NBFIs which operate on the Romanian market; three of them are labeled by the Romanian Central Bank as the worst performers, while the other ones are qualified as the best performers. Data are collected from companies’ annual reports and also from the Ministry of Finance. Findings It proves that the MEM can serve as a useful tool for the national and international NBFIs’ risk assessment. It can anticipate NBFIs’ success or fall. Furthermore, its results can be guaranteed with a probability of 95 per cent, calculated through the VaR method. Last but not least, it can also be used by the international NBFIs which intend to enter in the Romanian market. Originality/value The present paper proposes an original model based on both quantitative and qualitative indicators organized in an integrative equation. The MEM helps both parties involved in the financial grant awarding process – NBFIs are able to better assess requests from SMEs, enabling them to increase the volume of granting, whereas SMEs are able to access money for development projects more easily.

Purpose This paper aims to examine the impact of cultural specificity on hotel’s online reviews and ratings. Design/methodology/approach Using Hofstede’s scale of cultural differences, it analyzes 1,821 comments about the Catalonia Sagrada Familia Hotel across 77 countries. Logistic regression is used for data analysis. Findings It is found that detailed reviews tend to be provided by the guests who belong to a low-power distance culture, are collectivistic, are masculine, have a low uncertainty avoidance, are long-term orientated or are indulgent. On the other hand, the customers who tend to deviate from the prior average ratings come from high-power distance societies, are individualists, are feminists, belong to a high uncertainty avoidance culture, are long-term oriented or are indulgent. Originality/value These findings extend the hospitality management literature and potentially help the hotel managers to better understand their customers’ behavior in a web-based environment.

[EN] The research aims to determine which dimensions of intellectual capital influenced restaurants¿ strategic reaction to the coronavirus crisis. The analysis focuses on 227 restaurants that are listed on TripAdvisor as ¿the best restaurants from Iasi (Romania)¿. Data are collected from the annual reports and companies¿ websites. The relationship between the dependent variable (restaurants¿ reaction to the coronavirus pandemic) and the independent variables (human capital, structural capital, relational capital) is tested using binomial logistic regression. The results prove that the structural and relational capital can predict restaurants¿ strategic decisions in the time of crisis. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications; on the one hand, they expand the literature regarding restaurants¿ intellectual capital and on the other hand, they facilitate managers¿ understanding of how company¿s intellectual capital influences their strategic decisions during crisis.

[EN] This paper analyses how the knowledge shared between employees and suppliers within a private enterprise social network affects process improvement. Data was collected from internal documents, and the internal and external enterprise social networks used by an international insurance company; the average cycle time for handling 8494 claims and 3240 messages posted on the internal and external social networks was analysed. Social network analysis techniques were combined with principal component analysis and structural equation modeling, and the results demonstrate that the knowledge shared within the internal and external social network can explain 35.10% of process improvement variability, while the knowledge shared within the internal social network explains 89.90% of external social network variability. The analysis also demonstrates that: (i) the knowledge shared among employees positively affects process improvement; (ii) the knowledge shared among suppliers negatively affects process improvement; and (iii) the knowledge shared among employees positively affects the knowledge shared among supply chain members. These findings have theoretical and practical implications. They extend the literature in the knowledge management and information management field by offering empirical evidence of how the knowledge shared through an enterprise social network affects business process improvement, using the objective data provided by Yammer. They also provide a strategic tool for managers that will allow them to better understand how they can use the enterprise social network for business processes improvement., The research reported in this paper is supported by the European Commission for the project "Engaging in Knowledge Networking via an interactive 3D social Supplier Network (KNOWNET)" (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IAPP 324408)".

The research aims to perform an intergenerational analysis regarding the impact of counterproductive behavior and contextual performance on employees' task performance. The analysis is performed on a convenience sample of 165 employees from three different generations who work in the banking system. The results show that (1) 33.50% of task performance variance is determined by the variance of contextual individual performance and counterproductive behavior, (2) 13% of the variance of contextual individual performance can be explained by the variance in counterproductive behavior, (3) 33.70% of the variance of contextual organizational performance can be explained by the variance of task performance and counterproductive behavior. In addition, significant differences appear regarding the influence of (1) the counterproductive behavior on the contextual performance (Generation X vs. Y), (2) the contextual individual performance on task performance (Generation X vs. Z), and (3) the counterproductive behavior on the contextual individual performance (Generation Y vs. Z).

The sharing economy is challenging the traditional business models and strategies by encouraging collaboration, non-ownership, temporal access, and redistribution of goods and/or services. Within this framework, the current chapter aims to examine how managers influence, voluntarily or involuntarily, the reliability of a managerial early warning system, based on an artificial neural network. The analysis focuses on seven Romanian sustainable knowledge-based organizations and brings forward that managers tend to influence the results provided by a managerial early warning system based on artificial neural network, voluntarily and involuntarily. On the one hand, they are the ones who consciously decide which departments and persons are involved in establishing the structure of the managerial early warning system. On the other hand, they unconsciously influence the structure of the managerial early warning system through the authority they exercise during the managerial debate.

In the context of globalization, the economic environment started to be more dynamic, complex and uncertain. As a result, some managers focused on developing sustainable organizations while others became preoccupied with creating knowledge based firms. But sustainability and knowledge aren t as different as it seem; knowledge is a resource and sustainability concentrates on the rational use of resources. As a consequence, this article aims to highlight what a sustainable knowledge based organization may be. In order to achieve this goal, it had been employed an ethic approach and a documentary study was combined with a transversal descriptive research. Therefore, the survey based on questionnaire was used as a main research method and techniques like systematization, tabling and graphics were applied. The results collected from 268 Romanian and Spanish knowledge management specialists showed that, in the business environment, the sustainable knowledge based organization is real and may be described as an economic entity that focuses on maximizing its market value on short, medium and long term by dealing with knowledge, economic, social and environmental issues. The findings of this research generated some interesting theoretical and managerial implications. On the one hand, it brought to forefront the need for developing a new type of company and, on the other hand, it emphasized the elements that managers should take into account if they want to ensure their long time success. Based on these, ISO 26000 standards can be transformed into reality and its implementation is not made just for the sake of appearances.

The aim of this study is to analyse the Romanian and Italian smart cities from a knowledge management perspective, and thus 6 smart cities represent the units of analysis (Ancona, Craiova, Padova, Perugia, Sibiu, Timisoara) while a smart city model (which includes 6 dimension and 28 components) is taken into consideration. Each of these components is analysed from a knowledge management perspective due to the fact that the difference among cognitive, emotional and spiritual knowledge may influence the tools which policy-makers could use for smart city development. The results prove that smart city development is based on two pillars: the first one is represented by citizens’ values and beliefs, their vision for the future while the second one reunites what they are able to do in order to transform their vision into reality. Thus, it can be stated that the smart cities model has both a visionary pillar (which incorporates spiritual knowledge) and a practical one (in which knowledge is converted into action). Beyond this, the best Romanian and Italian performers concentrate their efforts on economy, mobility and people. In other words, they focus on creating and disseminating cognitive and emotional knowledge (innovations, emotions, feelings). These findings have both theoretical and practical implications as, on the one hand, they provide the nexus between knowledge management and urban development, while on the other, they bring forward the elements on which the policy-makers should focus in order to foster smart city development.

The current research aims to identify the most suitable intergenerational learning activities for the Romanian hotel industry. A multiple criteria decision-making model is developed in order to determine the most appropriate intergenerational learning activities and the factors that strongly influence human resource managers’ decisions. Data are collected from 35 human resource managers who have extensive work experience in the hotel industry and in managing intergenerational learning activities, and processed using the analytic network process. The results prove that the most appropriate IGL activities for the Romanian hotel industry are mentoring, on-the-job education, and storytelling. Furthermore, the most influential factors are collaboration, commitment, job satisfaction, reward management, and organizational culture. These results have both theoretical and practical implications. On the one hand, they extend the literature regarding intergenerational learning in the hotel industry and on the other hand, they bring forward how the managers could foster intergenerational knowledge sharing and avoid corporate amnesia.

The research concentrates on describing how knowledge is shared within private and public smart and connected communities. The focus is on the type of shared knowledge and also on the knowledge flow direction. Thus, the activity from TripAdvisor and Barcelona CityHall Facebook page is tracked and synthesised from 1 September, 2017, until 1 February, 2018; 469 posts with 150 users liking or commenting 38.119 times are extracted and processed based on social network analysis techniques. The results prove that the smart and connected communities foster the relationships developed among members, and support the acquisition and dissemination of emotional and cognitive knowledge. Furthermore, these findings have both theoretical and practical implications; on the one hand, it extends the theory from the knowledge management area, and on the other hand, it provides a valuable tool for co-creating economic and social value in the digital ecosystem.

The purpose of this research is to determine how managers could influence the results generated by a managerial early warning system, based on an artificial neural network. In order to achieve this goal, a multiple case-study strategy is employed which combines the qualitative with the quantitative perspective. The results prove that 78.10% of the variability of the managerial early warning system reliability can be explained by managers' influence and company's size; the first one is negatively correlated with system's reliability while the latest is positively correlated with system's reliability. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications. On the one hand, they extend the literature regarding managers' participation in the process of developing the future corporate strategy. On the other hand, they offer a better understanding on how managers may influence not only the identification of the weak signals but also the development of scenarios and forecasted business results.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the main strategies used in organizations to enhance intergenerational learning (IGL) and reduce knowledge loss. The emphasis is on universities that have an age layered or nested structure.Design/methodology/approach– The research is based on an integrated approach of literature search, content analysis, survey based on interviews and questionnaires and the analytic hierarchy process method. The research questions are as follows: What is the level of awareness in organizations about knowledge loss and the role of IGL in reducing its consequences? What kind of organizational structure is adequate for promoting IGL? What are the most suitable strategies for enhancing IGL and reducing knowledge loss?Findings– Universities have a nested generational structure, which makes them adequate for IGL. The most used strategies for enhancing IGL are mentoring, intergenerational research teams and intergenerational creativity workshops.Research limitations/implications– Empirical investigations covered only four universities. Research should be extended to a larger number of universities and also to companies.Practical implications– Findings are valuable for organizations having an aging workforce and which want to reduce knowledge loss through the IGL process.Originality/value– The study provides an insight look of how organizations experiencing a workforce aging phenomenon can enhance IGL to reduce knowledge loss.

[EN] The paper aims to identify the individuals who influence the knowledge sharing processes from an internal social network and to forecast the future knowledge flows that may cross it. Exploratory research is employed, and a four-phase methodology is developed which combines a social network analysis with structural modeling. This is applied to the internal enterprise social network used by a British insurance company. The main results emphasize the most influential groups, their relationships, future knowledge flows, and the connection between the network's heterogeneity and structure, and employees' future knowledge sharing intention. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications. The theory is extended by proving that a social network analysis can be used as a tool for evaluating and predicting future knowledge flows. At the same time, a solution is offered to decision-makers so they will be able to: (i) identify the potential knowledge loss; (ii) determine leaders; (iii) establish who is going to act as a knowledge diffuser, by sharing what they know with their coworkers, and who is going to act as a knowledge repository, by focusing on acquiring increasingly more knowledge; (iv) identify the elements that influence employees' future knowledge sharing intention. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved., "The research reported in this paper is supported by the European Commission for the project "Engaging in Knowledge Networking via an interactive 3D social Supplier Network (KNOWNET)" (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IAPP 324408)".

The research aims to determine how the economic and business administration faculties within the European Union member states are contributing to the development of students’ entrepreneurial skills. Therefore, a case study strategy is employed which concentrates on the most important business schools from the European Union member states; thus, 267 syllabuses from 21 higher education institutions are identified and analyzed. The results prove that European business schools manage to develop most of the required entrepreneurial skills among their students. Their graduates are both task and people oriented. On the one hand, they value performance, are capable of solving problems and taking calculated risks. On the other hand, they know how to communicate and collaborate within a team. Besides, it may be stated that the analyzed educational programs are combining the “about entrepreneurship” approach with “for entrepreneurship” perspective; they focus on developing cognitive, functional, and behavioral competences by combining lectures with active learning techniques. These actions are influenced by cultural specificity and have an impact on a country’s capacity to be a top performer, in terms of entrepreneurship development. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications. On a theoretical level, they extend the literature regarding the development of entrepreneurial skills by providing concrete information about the skills on which the academic curricula focus. On a practical level, they provide valuable insights regarding the skills that the future entrepreneurs will have; these will influence their behavior in a business environment no matter whether they will choose to be the owner of a business or an enterprising employee.

This research aims to analyze the relationships established among rewards, job satisfaction and job performance in the Romanian banking system. In order to achieve this goal, a single-case study is used as a research strategy and a survey-based on a questionnaire is developed among the 60 employees the BCR-BpL branch from Bucharest, Sector 3. The relationships established among rewards, job satisfaction, and job performance are tested using Partial Least Square – Structural Equation Modelling. The results prove that: (i) rewards have a positive influence on job satisfaction; (ii) the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance is not statistically significant; and (iii) the relationship between rewards and job performance is not statistically significant. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications. On the one hand, they extend the theory from the human resources management field by analyzing the relationships established among rewards, job satisfaction, and job performance, within the Romanian banking system. On the other hand, they help managers understand the importance of using rewards as a strategic organizational tool, capable to increase employees’ satisfaction.

[EN] This paper deals with social network analysis and how it could be integrated within supply chain management from a decision-making point of view. Even though the benefits of using social analysis have are widely accepted at both academic and industry/services context, there is still a lack of solid frameworks that allow decision-makers to connect the usage and obtained results of social network analysis – mainly both information and knowledge flows and derived results- with supply chain management objectives and goals. This paper gives an overview of social network analysis, the main social network analysis metrics, supply chain performance and, finally, it identifies how future frameworks could close the gap and link the results of social network analysis with the supply chain management decision-making processes., The research reported in this paper is supported by the European Commission for the project “Engaging in Knowledge Networking via an interactive 3D social Supplier Network (KNOWNET)” (FP7- PEOPLE-2013-IAPP 324408)

Although there are some remarkable attempts of measuring a company's IC, these are either reflecting the current stage of development or they are highlighting an average performance. Besides, they overlook the fact that a firm's competitiveness depends on competitors' actions. Therefore, we aim to develop a benchmarking tool capable of capturing a company's competitive position and future evolution, based on its IC efficiency. We create a composite index, entitled Competitiveness Intellectual Capital Index (CICI), for 20 Romanian firms listed on BSE. The results of our longitudinal study highlight that a firm is competitive only when it manages its knowledge assets more efficiently than its competitors. By using CICI, managers can obtain a complete image on what's happening in the environment; they can notice where do they stand (compared with their direct and indirect competitors); they can monitor change and develop future strategies. Therefore, it may serve as a managerial early warning system.

Increasingly more literature mention that in the current competitive environment, knowledge have become the main source of the competitive advantages, while recent researches regarding economic growth and development have defined knowledge as being the most critical resource of the emerging countries. Therefore, the organizations interest for knowledge has increased, the latter being defined as knowledge management process in order to meet existing needs, to identify and exploit existing and/or acquired knowledge and developing new opportunities. In other words, knowledge management facilitates productive information usage, intelligence growth, storing intellectual capital, strategic planning, flexible acquisition, collection of best practices, increasing the likelihood of being successful as well as a more productive collaboration within the company. In order to benefit from all these advantages, it is required the usage of specific tools including methods and techniques to stimulate the creation, dissemination and use of knowledge held by each employee and the organization as a whole.

As a solution for the prompt adaptation to an instable environment, organizational studies suggest promoting organizational learning and creating some organizations that are capable of learning (“learning organization”). But what does learning mean and how can it become an attribute of an economic entity? In order to obtain an answer to this question a research had been developed. This aimed to identify the similarities and differences between organizational learning and learning organization. The goal had been achieved through a content analysis of the relevant literature. In the end, we find out that the learning organization may be categorized as a useful illusion which emphasis the importance of promoting the organizational learning within the company.

This paper aims to develop a benchmarking tool in order to measure the progress towards developing the conditions that facilitate the creation of a knowledge society. The research was based on an exploratory study as a case study and the analysis was focused on Romania, as a European Union member state. The methodology used was quantitative analysis with research techniques such as systematization, tabling and graphic representation. The results show Romania does not have a favorable social-economical environment, a stable political framework and a developed informational society which can sustain the creation of a knowledge society. The only European countries that are capable of reaching the level of development are: Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

The article is based on a literature review and aims to identify the elements that facilitate the consolidation of a knowledge society and, at the same time, influence the performance of any organization. It had been applied a content analysis to the most relevant books and articles that had appeared in the knowledge management domain until July 2011. This conceptual paper presents the four pillars of the knowledge society – education, research, development and innovation – and reflects the fact that the SECI model may be applied on the national level. In other words, socialization is substituted by education, externalization by research, combination by development and internalization by innovation.

The article aims to determine if the economic and business higher education institutions contributes to the creation of the future knowledge worker that organizations need in the new economy. In order to achieve this goal a case study was developed. After analyzing the number of graduates, reputation and experience of all the 15 faculties of economics registered in Romania, we selected the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration from “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iaşi to be the unit of analysis. This is one of the oldest economic higher education institutions, has almost 2000 graduates per year and is the third provider of economists for labor market. We applied a content analysis to 108 courses taught to undergraduates in Faculty of Economics and Business Administration from “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iaşi. The matters of investigation were the education goals, practical assignments topics, and teaching and evaluating methods. Conclusions showed that the courses taught to the undergraduates’ level are not oriented towards teamwork, communication, and use of information technologies. As a consequence, the graduates will not be able to respond efficiently to knowledge economy challenges and will represent a vulnerability for the organization because they will be “one step behind” what’s happening on the market.

The current researches from the management field highlight the radical changes that appeared in the economic environment since knowledge became the key to gaining competitive advantages. Starting from this point, we asked ourselves what is the position that human resources are occupying in a sustainable knowledge-based organisation. In order to find an answer to this question, we developed an ethical and empirical research in which we combined a documentary study with an exploratory research. First, we made a critical analysis of 70 articles that had been published, from 2000 until 2012, in international databases. Then, we developed a survey based on questionnaire which focuses on identifying the characteristics and influence factors of the sustainable knowledge-based organisation. Using a snowball sampling, we collected 268 questionnaires from the Romanian and Spanish knowledge management specialists. The results have showed that a sustainable knowledge-based organisation is an economic and ethical entity in which the activity is planned for short, medium and long-term in order to facilitate the creation, dissemination and use of knowledge and the achievement of economic, social and environmental objectives.

In order to make the quality systems functional and efficient, managers have to deal with orienting the organizational culture towards quality. In this context, promoting the quality values through the most efficient sources of information is an instrumental challenge. This challenge becomes even more powerful for the higher education institutions which are not functioning by the same rules as the economic agents. Therefore, our research purpose was to determine if the sources of information used by the members of the academic community may influence the quality values that are promoted and desired in the Romanian public universities. In order to achieve our goal, we developed a survey based on questionnaire among the members of the academic community from five Romanian public universities (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, University of Bucharest, Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, West University of Timisoara) and we applied a logistic regression analysis. The analysis was conducted on two levels – current and desired situation – and the research sample was represented by 1165 persons. The results have showed that using direct observation, university's brochures and other advertising materials have a powerful impact on the quality values currently promoted while these together with other sources of information influence the desired quality values.