In recent years, Generation Z has had a pivotal influence across global industries, with tourism being significantly impacted. As the first generation fully immersed in digital technology, Generation Z members have travel preferences, behaviours, and values which differ markedly from previous generations, presenting both challenges and opportunities for the tourism sector. This study explores studies on Generation Z in the context of the tourism industry through key research questions, including the primary trends and thematic clusters in the existing literature, the most influential journals and authors, and the temporal evolution of research in this area. To address these questions, this article presents a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 217 publications on Generation Z and tourism, spanning from 2018 to 2024, sourced from the Web of Science. Using VOSviewer, the analysis maps the main trends, the most influential publications, and the emerging themes, providing insights into how Generation Z is reshaping the tourism landscape. The bibliometric analysis and VOSviewer mapping add a rigorous methodological approach, offering a structured overview of existing research while identifying gaps for further exploration, especially in this emerging field. The study highlights the most published and cited journals, providing a broad contextual view, followed by an in-depth exploration of thematic clusters within Generation Z tourism research. The results indicate that although research on this topic gained attention in 2018, it is still in its early stages, with significant room for expansion. Current studies primarily focus on social media marketing communications for Generation Z, as well as Generation Z tourism experiences and their attitudes and preferences towards tourism, suggesting areas for future exploration.

A startup can be categorized as a company with a business model that supports innovation and is also scalable. The growing importance of free enterprise and entrepreneurship as a driver of economic regeneration and progress has imprinted new characteristics on the obstacles that Romanian entrepreneurs face in terms of long-term development and competitiveness. This research aimed to investigate the importance of startup hubs for the business sectors, identifying the value it projects for startup owners. By conducting empirical research, the authors used mixed data collection to capture the complexity of the topic and to provide an objective context for the research. The analyzes carried out showed that from 151 questionnaires collected, 69.54% of the startup owners are interested in enrolling in a startup hub for guidance and counseling. The main constraint startup owner face concerns the financial aspect where 60% prefer to take loans from banks and 6.6% would consider accessing European funds. Even though 2 out of 3 startups are young, 64% believe their business is innovative, whereas 78.1% believe that business turnaround is a major benefit of using innovation in their business. The qualitative data revealed that in Romania startup hubs are considered a less-known concept, different from the ones overseas. Unanimously, all respondents stated that a startup hub must support newly formed startups and consider innovation as a driving force for economic growth. In conclusion, startup hubs should work closely with startup owners to ensure the success of both businesses. This paper manages to provide an in-depth analysis that should allow all parties involved to create a business environment that can support the Romanian economic sector, thus contributing to the existing research on the role of startup hubs and the way they can bridge the gap between a business idea and reality.

The European Funds market is a key mechanism for fostering regional development and economic growth within the European Union, yet its efficiency can be undermined by information asymmetry, which complicates fund absorption processes. This paper investigates the European Funds market and explores how adverse selection and moral hazard impact the dynamics of the fund allocation. Through qualitative research, the authors assess the European Funds market, identify its key stakeholders, and explore factors influencing funds absorption. Findings reveal complex interactions among European Union institutions, managing authorities, beneficiaries, and consultants. The research highlights economic, administrative, institutional, and social factors that affect fund absorption rates and pinpoint adverse selection and moral hazard as primary consequences of information asymmetry in the European Funds market. By emphasizing the importance of effective communication processes and describing the experiences of various actors in European-funded projects, the study provides actionable insights for policymakers and stakeholders. This paper offers a new perspective on the European Funds market and links information asymmetry to inefficiencies in fund allocation. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the European Funds market, fostering transparency, enhancing institutional capacities, and promoting sustainability in the governance of public funds.

European funds contribute to the well-being of communities that succeed in attracting this type of funding. This paper aims at revealing the innovative capacity of communication in the financing process through European Funds, given the multitude of theoretical communication models. Beyond the limits imposed by the law, public authorities involved in the European funding process, although operating within a relatively rigid regulated framework, may increase the number of communication methods and practices, in order to better fulfil their mission of satisfying public needs. An exploratory research on the financing process of European Structural and Investment Funds was conducted, considering the theoretical approaches in the field of communication, as well as the relatively low absorption rate of European Funds, for outlining the real dimensions of the communication problem. The communication was analyzed via eight elements: transmitter, receiver, channel or means of propagation, message, common codes (including coding and decoding), feedback, feedforward and noise. The main results show that the communication process in the field of European funding can be approached from a multitude of perspectives: type, purposes and means of communication, content of communication and its effects, the protagonists involved etc. The paper proposes an approach to communication from a marketing perspective. By applying specific marketing techniques, favorable attitudes, opinions and behaviors can be generated in terms of accessibility of financing through European funds. This can lead to an increase in the absorption rate of European funds, which can result in more innovation, more business growth, higher revenues (through taxes) for the public sector and finally, given the snowball effect, the ultimate purpose: welfare for society as a whole.

Communication in European funding foresees detailed obligations for implementing bodies and beneficiaries. However, beneficiaries claim a significant difference in communication between the projects managed by authorities in Romania, as compared to those managed by European authorities. This paper aims to highlight some of the challenges that beneficiaries face when implementing projects, in terms of communication with the authorities, emphasizing its effects on the absorption rate of European funds. By conducting qualitative research, the author unveiled a link between communication and the absorption rate, along with some aspects of the communication with the authorities.

Across the literature, family involvement is recognized as a key factor for academic progress, inclusive education and personal development. However, family size is rarely examined in bibliometric analyses, despite growing attention to socioeconomic and family-related factors influencing educational participation and inequality. Although empirical evidence does not establish a direct relationship between family size and inclusive education, existing research suggests that inclusive practices are more effective when family-related challenges are acknowledged. This study maps the representation of large families within the literature addressing educational inequality, participation, and inclusion-related processes. A bibliometric and co-occurrence analysis of 395 Web of Science publications (retrieved March 2026) was conducted using VOSviewer and Microsoft Excel. Findings revealed that research emerged in the 1990s and expanded after 2016, with the United States, Ethiopia, and China as leading contributors. Six thematic clusters were identified: socioeconomic participation, child vulnerability, educational outcomes, fertility and gender dynamics, and household-level constraints. Results indicate that large families are unevenly addressed, appearing more frequently in research on educational inequality than in inclusive education. Based on these findings, the study proposes a conceptual framework describing the “lights and shadows” of large family contexts in inclusive education, capturing both constraining and enabling dimensions associated with family structure.