The planning of activities of e-commerce enterprises and their behavior has been influenced by the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The behavior of e-commerce enterprises has been highlighted at the level of EU countries through an analysis elaborated on four variables: the value of e-commerce sales, cloud computing services, enterprises that have provided training to develop/upgrade the ICT skills of their personnel, e-commerce, customer relationship management (CRM) and secure transactions. Using the hierarchical clustering method, analysis was carried out on these variables to identify certain economic and behavioral patterns of e-commerce activity from 2018 and 2020. The study of the relationships involved in the e-commerce activity of these enterprises is reflected in models of the economic behavior of 31 European states in relation to the targeted variables. The results show that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are strongly manifested in the direction of the evolution of each indicator but differ from one country to another. The trends depend on the level of development and the particularities of each country’s economy in adapting to the repercussions reported in relation to the level of impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is highlighted by the significant regrouping of countries in 2020 compared with 2018 in relation to the average values of the indicators. The results show that, in 2020, the most significant percentages of the value of e-commerce sales were recorded in Belgium, Ireland and Czechia, as in 2018. In e-commerce, customer relationship management and secure transactions, Denmark and Sweden were superior in 2020 to the countries mentioned above, which were dominant in 2018. For the other two indicators, Finland and Norway were the top countries included in the analysis in both years. The conclusion supports the continuous model of e-commerce enterprise behavior in order to meet the requirements of online customers.

The research aim was to identify the training needs of entrepreneurs and employees within small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from the Suceava, Chernivtsi, and Bălți regions, to analyze the specific training practices in the cross-border area, and to identify the common features or the disparities. The research contains an exploratory survey, based on a semi-structured questionnaire that investigates the training needs in the SMEs and specific training practices with a comparative approach. The results relate to the challenges faced by transformation economies and by the specificities of SMEs from these remote areas. Additionally, the research connects the factors involved in planning and delivering training programs for employees in SMEs in this EU peripheral area with the weaknesses of the companies in facing the market competitive economy. The results of the survey disclosed some common features and specificities related to training needs, training responsibilities, and interests in the SMEs from this cross-border area. The discussions are relevant for different categories of stakeholders, at the micro-level, for the management of the companies, but also on a larger scale, in planning the new development programs for the labor market in the targeted areas.

The European waste policy is focused on reducing the negative impact of waste, eliminating the unhealthy use of resources, and on better waste management. The aim of this paper is to analyse Romania’s waste management practices in the EU context. The research methodology is based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis. The descriptive data analysis reveals significant differences among EU countries in terms of the municipal waste generated and the recycling rate. The municipal waste generated registers decrease, whereas there are significant increases in terms of the recycling rates in the EU countries. The qualitative research is based on the analysis of structured interviews among stakeholders, relevant for the waste management in Romania. The information obtained based on interviews was processed using NVivo and the main findings are focused on recommendations for improving the waste management system. We have identified a lack of adequate public support in the waste field due to insufficient awareness programs, lack of operator’s obligation for separate waste sanitation, people's discouragement to separate their household waste, and lack of bins to separate collection. The correction of identified weaknesses could lead to an improved waste management system, feasible only through an active involvement of stakeholders

In this paper we propose to highlight the tourism evolution and its intensity in the North-East region of Romania, compared to two regions with similar touristic potential from the Eastern European Union: Subcarpathia from Poland and Central Slovakia. We analysed if the EU attachment of Romania, Poland, and Slovakia had some effects on tourism development in the three regions mentioned. Issues arising from the analysis of the current situation of tourism will allow us to draw some sustainable development directions of tourism in the North-East region based on conserving and capitalizing the uniqueness of the area. We will consider the experience of the other two regions, trying to adapt them to the situation of the North-East region. Based on the analysis we have made, we consider that other countries can inspire us by authorities’ initiatives in supporting tourism, good human resources training, entrepreneurship stimulation, and assistance in accessing financial resources, including EU ones.

The Covid-19 pandemic has generated major changes in society, most of them having a negative impact on the quality of life and income obtained by the population and businesses. The negative consequences have been highlighted in the decrease of the GPD level for regions, countries and even continents. Returning to pre-pandemic levels is a considerable effort for both economic and political decision-makers. This article deals with the construction of a mathematical model for economic aspects in the context of variable productivity in time. Through this mathematical model, we propose to maximize revenues in pandemic conditions, in order to limit the economic consequences of the lockdown. One advantage of the proposed model consists in the fact that it is based on units that can be regions, economic branches, economic units or fields of investment. Another strength of the model is determined by the fact that it offers the possibility to choose between two different investment strategies, based on the specific options of the decision makers: the consistent increase of the state revenues or the amelioration of the disparity phenomenon. Furthermore, our model extends previous approaches from the literature by adding some generalization options and the proposed model can be applied in lockdown cases and seasonal situations.

This paper aims to illustrate in the context of the challenges of the Europeanization process what kind of cooperation models there exist between nature-based tourism companies and the critical stakeholder groups effecting the business activities and social sustainability of the companies. The following topics are part of our current research: which are the cooperation strategy; which are the management models applied in countries with competitive market and strong innovation policy; which are the costs of implementing innovation policies for cooperation strategies enhancing the innovation in nature based tourism services; which barriers avoid the entrepreneurship development and how innovative can be the firm management. We intend to analyze the importance of stakeholders and policy influence enhancing the innovation in nature based tourism service, in Greece, Austria, Finland and Romania case studies. The research will continue with a comparison between these cases, including the perspective of supporting entrepreneurship and regional competitiveness in Romania.