Approaching the Bioeconomy in Terms of Increasing the Energy Efficiency of Households in Romania

This paper approaches the transition process to the bioeconomy from consumers’ perspective and their attitudes to decision-making process regarding the use of renewable energy systems in households. The article contributes to the literature by introducing a new challenge: identifying and analyzing the Romanians’ opinion on increasing the energy efficiency in their households and their intention in using energy obtained from renewable resources. For the purpose, a quantitative marketing research was conducted by interviewing 1123 persons from Romania’s eight development regions. Data were collected using an electronic questionnaire. The research results underline that Romanians have invested in increasing the energy efficiency of their household, the main improvements being energy saving by purchasing low-power home appliances or thermal insulation of the dwelling. These investments were made based on economic considerations, being considered as a long-term benefit for the entire household. The authors propose to the Romanian economic environment to carry out information and promotional campaigns in order to raise awareness of Romanians on the importance of using energy obtained from renewable resources for sustainable development. To the academic environment, the authors recommend including bioeconomics in the curriculum of study programs offered to the education services marke

Shaping the Inclusivity in the New Society by Enhancing the Digitainability of Sustainable Development Goals with Education

The literature introduced the concepts of sustainability and digitalisation as one, mixed-combined and named as digitainability. By linking digital divide, sustainability, and digitalisation, the authors aimed to: (i) identify variables that might influence the digital divide index; (ii) determine variables to model sustainable development goals; and (iii) create a model to explain digitainability through education. Analysing the sample of 13 EU developed countries, the authors created three econometric models and analysed the manner of how education might shape the inclusivity in a new and ever-growing Society. The results generated an inter-connected model that shows that new Society depends on the users’ medium or high skills because of their strong and positive influence on the digital divide index. The scientific contribution reveals solutions for an inclusive future, not far from the demanding requirements of the present. The theoretical implications shape the necessity to collaborate with policy makers to optimise the educational public system requirements in order to form prepared specialists for high-demanding markets in which they will work. The orientation of managerial implications of top leaders from companies must address an adapted mindset to collaborate with the academic environment to discover and understand the truth about the challenges of the new Era

Study on the awareness of the concept of volunteer tourism

This paper presents the results of a qualitative research conducted among the master students at the study programme Business Administration in Tourism, within the Faculty of Economic Sciences and Business Administration, Transilvania University of Brașov, which targeted the awareness of the concept of volunteer tourism.The research has shown that the subjects have little information about this type of tourism, which should be better promoted in the future, among young people, especially among those who study tourism

Innovative Forms of Economy and Sustainable Urban Development—Sharing Tourism

Sharing economy represents a new business model with an increasing impact on economic life by generating consequences for the traditional business sector. Considering its development during the last years, it is important to know how the governance system should react to the new challenges determined by this kind of doing business. The aim of the article is to identify and analyze some general issues regarding the impact on the sharing economy in tourism, based on a study regarding the needs determined by this business model in Brașov. Considering that tourism is a relevant sector for the “sharing„ business type, the authors considered it important to get opinions about the way that the local authorities and stakeholders should contribute to the creation of a regulatory framework for sharing tourism, so, two focus-groups were organized. The respondents were chosen so that all kinds of stakeholders involved in tourism were represented. The results of the research revealed that even though there are some provisions regarding this sector, and despite the fact that local and regional authorities are preoccupied about regulations in sharing tourism, the most representative part of this sector is unregistered and it works according to its own rules

Digital Transformation—Top Priority in Difficult Times: The Case Study of Romanian Micro-Enterprises and SMEs

Ever since the pandemic context accelerated technology adoption, the digital transformation of enterprises has become part of consumers’ daily lexicon. The highly demanded necessity of companies to integrate digital solutions and provide services and goods in virtual spaces provokes both managers and academia to identify new perspectives. In this context, can digital transformation through marketing represent an option in difficult times? The authors aimed to reveal an answer to this question by researching the attitudes of 837 entrepreneurs involved in digital marketing activity before and during the pandemic, following their behaviour in the post-pandemic context. With quantitative and qualitative methods, unexpected results were unveiled. Financial losses or low performance in terms of profit or turnover do not negatively influence the attitude of the subjects towards digital marketing adoption. Moreover, the most unexpected result was the evolution of turnover from 2020 compared to 2019 as a determining factor for entrepreneurs’ perceptions of their level of digital knowledge. However, the results are discussed in the context of digital transformation through the method of providing services and goods in the virtual space with digital techniques, enriching the literature with the Romanian micro, small and medium-sized enterprises evidence

The Impact of New Technologies on Individuals’ Health Perceptions in the European Union

The healthcare systems of European countries currently face challenges regarding the sustainability of healthcare provision. The growing sophistication of new technologies is transforming the accessibility and management of health services and information, while also challenging society’s ability to offer fair access to health services for all people. The aim of this paper is to identify and analyze some of the determinants of the self-perceived health status across the EU28 area and to determine how the digitalization of health is impacting the self-rated health of the European populations, given the fact that a healthier population is one of the 17 goals of sustainable development on the 2030 Agenda. The research method used is panel-data regression using secondary data from international databases. The results indicate that there is a direct relationship between the way people are assessing personal health, the ability to use the Internet for seeking health-related information, and the use of various apps to purchase health-related items online. Our findings are useful for academics, industry specialists, and public authorities in designing sustainable health products and policies by focusing on the development of suitable mHealth programs for generating more patient-centered services where the idea of self-care is encouraged

Avoiding digital divide in European Union through European green deal

The digital society is threatened by the existing divide that seems to be deepening between the population that has access to information technology and the population that for some reason does not. The phenomenon of digital divide has become a very important issue in the process of transformation of society and the authors relate it to European Green Deal, in order to identify the determinants and ways to reduce the negative effects that will be eliminated according to the proposed schedule. For this purpose, a narrative review of the literature was used as a research method, corroborated with a multidimensional analysis of the data regarding the Internet access in the households from the member countries of the European Union. As a result, eight determinants of the digital divide were identified, along with four examples of how they can be addressed. According to the authors, the Deal, which has committed all 27 member states to create new opportunities for innovation, investment, and jobs, can support the positive transformation of European society, even against a backdrop of enormous challenges and huge impacts that we can now imagine