IMPACT OF DIGITALIZATION IN MANAGEMENT OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS IN ORGANIC AGRICULTURE. WAYS TO RESPOND TO CHALLENGES. USH PRO BUSINESS, INTER -BIO, WALLACHIA HUB STUDY CASE

AbstractDigital technologies are used in an increasingly in everyday life, in any aspects of human activities. Pandemics like Corona Virus imposed stricter rules for health and people, most probably, will prefer to be safer with organic products. Even before the crises, organic agriculture especially was on the path to digitalization. Now we realize better that Digitally Conducted Organic Agri-food (DCOA) solutions will emerge even faster. This paper is investigating the trends of evolution of digital transformation in organic agri-food industry and their impact on trade flows with food products. We look at the new emerging business models triggered by the DCOA solutions and the managerial challenges this will require especially for innovative start ups, farmers and SMEs in agri-food sector. Finally, we argue that university led innovation ecosystem, like the study case presented, may offer knowledge hubs for farmers, processors and sector branch organizations in the organic sector

Knowledge transfer between universities and smes and regional development. The role of the clusters as communities of practice

The Exchange of knowledge between universities and SMEs became a source of sustainable competitive advantages. The innovation capacity of SMEs is under pressure for various reasons since knowledge management is more costly and innovation readiness more difficult to be achieved. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) became in this context critical players in the knowledge-based economy to interact with small companies. The traditional functions of universities are the generation of knowledge (research) and its transmission (teaching) are reconsidered in order to better serve the managers

Cohesion Forces Determinants in Cluster Development: A Study Case for Romania

This paper investigates to what extent bilateral relationships between business partners can positively impact multiple business alliances, such as clusters based on community of practice (CoP). Given empirical facts developed in the clustering process of Romanian companies, this paper investigates the way clusters may contribute to the alleviation of the dark side phenomenon and what ingredients, such as trust building, cluster management dedication, social interaction, pre-existing bilateral business relations, and others, may contribute to this role. Based on questionnaires and interviews, we found the significant importance of these ingredients as cohesion determinants in cluster development. The most influent factors of CF were an immediate and short-term business interest (0.62), pre-existing personal relationships (without business interest) with one or more members of the cluster (0.57), pre-existing business relationships with one or more members of the cluster (0.58), and participation in joint funding (0.48). We collected the information using the questionnaire administered online as a measuring instrument whose role was to collect and systematize data. The collected data were processed, and we obtained tables of frequency and correlation, graphs associated with them, and a regression model designed in SmartPLS software (SmartPLS GmbH, Oststeinbek, Germany). The variables that form the main constructs were introduced in SmartPls Software, where we designed a model and evaluated the Composite Reliability, Cronbach’s alpha, AVE, R-square, and Bootstrapping of the model