The circular economy has become one of the main strategic issues on a global scale in the striving towards achieving sustainable economic systems. The traditional model of production, consumption and disposal is being transformed into a recycling and waste integration process from the beginning of the production cycle of a product until its full use by the consumers. While measuring the progress towards a circular economy can be a challenging factor, several indicators can be used to evaluate developments in this direction. That is why recycling in general, as well as recycling of municipal waste, have become a main strategic issue in the process towards implementation of circular economy principles. The main objective of the paper is to elaborate a panel regression model for determining the dependency between main indicators, that are indicating progress of the circular economy in Europe, such as the recycling rate of municipal waste, circular material use rate, R&D expenditure by all sectors, trade in recyclable raw materials and environmental tax revenues, resource productivity and domestic material consumption. Furthermore, the fixed and random effects regression models estimations are included and tested through the Durbin–Hausman–Wu statistic. The research in this study is based on the analysis of regressions in the circular economy fields in the European Union and intends to contribute to the research in the field, being an emerging scientific topic due to changing technological, economic and environmental factors.

The digitalization process of the business activities has increased tremendously in the last fifty years, revolutionizing several fields of activity, such as communication, medicine, production, transport, as well as all aspects of the daily social, economic and political processes. Furthermore, the IT field has developed new ways of innovating, including new management models in the production field, that allow management of IT companies to become more customer-oriented in a dynamic competitive field. As technological progress is becoming present in every aspect of everyday life, the pressure for innovation and customer involvement represent the two main challenges of producing successful prototypes and final products for the IT market. The purpose of the present paper is to analyze two of the main product development business model trends in the IT field, namely Waterfall model and Agile model, the latest being an adapting strategy to increased customer requirements and the changing business environment. In order to ensure a practical approach the case study was based on the analysis of their implementation within the company Avira Soft S.R.L. The results of the study emphasized the benefits of using the Agile model at Avira Soft S.R.L starting with 2011 in comparison to the previous model of Waterfall product development. The relevance of the paper consists in the fact that the two models indicate how the IT product development business models are evolving depending on environmental factors and the need for continuous adaptation and innovation due to increased competition. The Agile model brought improvements of the Waterfall model, but also new challenges regarding the organizational culture, communication between members of the company and more pressure for continuous improvement. However these two models are an example of how the IT product development business models are evolving and they form a basis for future product development strategies.

Wind energy experienced an exponential development in the past two decades, forming a main source of energy today, but also a frequently encountered issue of debate due to the increased proximity of wind turbines to citizens’ residence, especially in the case of the Western part of the European Union. Although the benefits of renewable sources of energy represent a compulsory effort towards ensuring sustainable energy strategies for the future, due to the increased pressure of balancing climate change, limitation of traditional energy resources and economic competition, the expansion of wind parks has caused strong reactions of local communities in many regions leading to the reorganization of public exposure strategies of many companies in the field. This research intends to offer a sample of public perceptions of wind turbines depending on several influence factors, based on the answers of 64 Dutch citizens and 40 Romanian respondents. Through the implementation of the Delphi method based on questionnaires and interviews, an overview of perceptions towards placement of wind turbines in the two analyzed countries has been offered, providing significant answers to the influence factors of public reactions for or against wind turbines. The main results of the research revealed the importance of financial benefits in increasing public acceptance of wind farms, as well as several subjective factors, such as the visual impact of wind turbines and onshore or offshore placement, that contribute to a positive or negative behavior of citizens towards it.

The global economic system is facing multiple challenges in terms of social development, technology and innovation, as well as sustainability needs. As a result, the value of existing assets is changing globally depending on the scarcity, necessity and effects on the business field leading to increased prices of traditional sources of energy and increased competition in the economic field. Thus, the EU energy market has progressed in reducing its dependence on external energy sourcing, by increasing production of renewable energy, such as wind or solar, as well as by further integration of the electric grid. Based on the Pearson coefficient this article intends to research the correlations between the economic, energy and house prices in recent years and the future possible impacts depending on their evolution. For example, gas prices in the past decade increasing household costs in most countries due to the dependence on third parties for energy, lead to the need of increasing the share of renewable energy in total energy consumption, which have consequently decreased electricity prices since 2008. However, this development has still not solved the additional costs issue of households due to the new technologies implemented although wind and solar energy receive in general low margins. Such energy issues, as well as the increased housing prices after the financial crisis in 2008 have caused on their own an additional burden on the economy and households spending income in the next years following.