The research conducted in this paper is directed towards a bibliometric review and a visualization analysis of the relationship between innovation and sustainability. The main objective is to empirically document the intellectual structure, the volume and the knowledge-development directions. For this objective, we used the VOS Viewer software and the scientific databases ISI Web of Science (WoS). We identify that there is a big increase in volume of articles on innovation and sustainability published in the last 10 years, from 2010 up to 2019, compared to the entire period before 2010. Given the large amount of the literature, we form an ample database of 436 peer-reviewed articles published in the last 10 years. The bibliometric analysis reveals the most influential journals, authors and papers in the studied field. This research reveals that by combining the main aspects of innovation and sustainability in a single concept like “sustainable innovation”, an emerging topic can appear, and it can offer new research directions in the very big field of innovation and in the new and actual field of sustainability.

The purpose of the research is to discover which employability skills may be developed by students from technical universities in order to meet market demands. Since graduates from technical universities face unemployment or over qualification for vacant jobs, we presumed that there is a misalignment between employers’ expectations concerning graduates’ skills and what they really get from school. Therefore, we conceived a questionnaire to see the demands of the business environment regarding graduates’ technical and professional skills. After analyzing the data, we proposed an interdisciplinary module system, where the mentors coming from the companies involved in the study teach voluntary or optional courses and applications in the domains where they have expertise. We used the employability skills model to find that mix of competencies that may help graduates find jobs in their field of knowledge. This innovative method serves universities, students and companies as well: the prestige of a university is quantified by the experts delivered into the labor market; companies will have well prepared employees in their specific area, with less costs; students will find jobs which will match their expectations, giving them motivation to perform. The limitation of the present research is that the study refers only to the Civil Engineering specialization of the Technical University Cluj-Napoca Romania.

Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) has emerged as a notable approach in recent years for improving time management in construction projects. This methodology focuses on optimizing project schedules, and its impact on construction projects has been explored through a review of literature from the past five years. However, a theoretical understanding alone may not be sufficient for promoting the adoption of CCPM in the sector. Therefore, an experimental study was conducted to assess the practical impact of CCPM on shortening the timeline of a construction project. The study involved the use of CPM for the planning phase and CCPM for the execution phase of finishing works (drywalls, carpentry, painting) in three identical blocks of flats. At the completion of the project, an important economy of 36 days (around 20%) was achieved, and the project was completed in 151 days using CCPM compared to the planned 187 days using CPM. The research was limited to finishing works, and further studies are planned to explore the applicability of CCPM to other construction works. It is imperative to establish a continuous collaboration between researchers and practitioners in the construction industry, as research findings should be effectively applied in real-world scenarios.

This article argues for adapting Porter’s Five Forces Model to strategic human resources management. The world business environment is facing real challenges: Shortage of talents, ageing of the world population, and disappearance of repetitive jobs. For a sustainable approach, the quality and stability of human capital should be analyzed strategically, based on the influence of five forces which act in the market: Competition in the industrial sector between specialists with core competencies (rivalry), demands of the hiring companies in terms of the number of employees and updated skills (organizations as buyers), recruitment companies and schools (suppliers), effects of globalization on people’s migration (new entrants), and modern technologies and innovation (substitutes). The stronger the forces are, the harder it will be for the organization to select or retain valuable employees who will add value to products/services. Actual and future employees should analyze the intensity of these forces when they plan to prepare for jobs or change their career. This analysis was focused mainly on the manufacturing sector, where jobs based on repetitive or dangerous tasks may disappear in time.

Harnessing renewable energy sources (RES) using hybrid systems for buildings is almost a deontological obligation for engineers and researchers in the energy field, and increasing the percentage of renewables within the energy mix represents an important target. In crowded urban areas, on-site energy production and storage from renewables can be a real challenge from a technical point of view. The main objectives of this paper are quantification of the impact of the consumer’s profile on overall energy efficiency for on-site storage and final use of solar thermal energy, as well as developing a multicriteria assessment in order to provide a methodology for selection in prioritizing investments. Buildings with various consumption profiles lead to achieving different values of performance indicators in similar configurations of storage and energy supply. In this regard, an analysis of the consumption profile’s impact on overall energy efficiency, achieved in the case of on-site generation and storage of solar thermal energy, was performed. The obtained results validate the following conclusion: On-site integration of solar systems allowed the consumers to use RES at the desired coverage rates, while restricted by on-site available mounting areas for solar fields and thermal storage, under conditions of high energy efficiencies. In order to segregate the results and support optimal selection, a multicriteria analysis was carried out, having as the main criteria the energy efficiency indicators achieved by hybrid heating systems.