Nowadays, more and more business organizations are encouraged to find ways to produce high-quality products that are offered to users for their temporary enjoyment and then redistributed or sent to the next user pending. This is done without being conditioned to believe that we need to own something, use it for certain functions for a limited amount of time, and then throw it away. Toys are a perfect candidate for this approach. Given the lack of case studies explaining how companies can design and implement a circular economy in practice, especially in the toy industry, this study aimed to develop a case study based on Evertoys, a start-up operating in Romania, which is a country where the circular economy is only in an infancy phase. This study’s objective was to analyze this business model from the circular economy perspective. Regarding the methodology, the work followed the research strategy of the case study, which was developed by analyzing the opportunities and challenges of this toy-as-a-service model and taking into consideration the components of the Business Model Canvas. Our findings indicated the presence of driving factors, as well as barriers, in the implementation of circular economy practices.

The present study investigated the factors that influence the feasibility and competitive advantage of a digital freight forwarder through a binary logistic regression model. The research is a concrete application of sustainable entrepreneurship in the transport and supply chain sector. The novelty of this topic presents a research gap that needs to be covered with dedicated studies. After the literature review and concept clarification, the article presents quantitative research involving an online questionnaire administered among a sample of transporters in Romania. Through analysis of the data collected from 405 respondents, it was found that the most important factors when selecting a digital freight forwarder are the existence of both sales and dispatch departments. Furthermore, apart from greening the industry, a digital freight forwarder has several other advantages for all stakeholders and society. The study concludes that the concept has the potential to disrupt the entire industry through a unique combination of efficiency, transparency, and sustainability.

Recent technological developments have led to economic changes that have an impact on the macroeconomic and microeconomic levels in developing countries, as well as in developed ones. The introduction of cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency, made public in 2009) into the economy through blockchain technology, generated a series of benefits, but also significant risks for citizens, companies and states. The main purpose of this article is to present the operating mechanism of the blockchain system and cryptocurrencies, their advantages and disadvantages and the attempts of the international authorities to regulate the crypto market. The authors will present also few case studies of tech start-ups that leveraged the versatility of blockchain principles into viable business propositions. Romania makes no exception in this field, so the authors will analyze and present the current status of this industry.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the innovation efforts employed by Romanian logistics service providers. Innovation in the service sectors, namely in logistics and supply chain, has gained increased interest from scholars in the last years. The implications in the business environment are to be noticed, since logistics and supply chain are the backbone of any business in the world. In this sense, the performance of the supply chain can make the difference between failure or success for many companies. A tendency that has become prominent in the last years is the outsourcing of a part or the entire supply chain to professional logistics providers. Romania makes no exception to this trend, although is relatively new and has been consolidated in the last few years with the emergence of major international players. However, in order to be performant, the logistics providers need to be innovative on a constant and consistent basis. This characteristic is emphasized by the relevant literature as a prerequisite for delivering a superior service to the customers. The aim of this paper is to complement the current research on this matter and determine the relationship between innovative efforts of the global/regional logistics services providers present on the Romanian market. In order to understand this preoccupation, there have been reviewed the innovation and/or sustainability reports of 12 logistics services providers. The results identified common trends on innovation, but also few major differences. The present study is a first step in a larger research on innovation in Romania and it will be continued through several sectorial reviews.

While the interest in Social Responsibility has increased in the last decades, partially also due to the easy access that people now have to information regarding the companies they choose to work with, in Romania this sort of initiatives are still lacking, performed to answer law requirements or as a PR tool. The current study aims to put under the magnifying glass the external trends in Social Responsibility that go from the Corporate arena to entrepreneurship, while taking into account the changes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic at a global level. The study will be then contextualized to Romania in order to place the position of the East-European country on the Global chart and further investigate the possible trend in the Social Responsibility field.