In light of future work challenges, actual human resource management (HRM) needs to be redesigned, including long-term development, regeneration, and renewal of human resources, passing from consuming to developing human resources by incorporating the concept of sustainability. Thus, sustainable HRM is seen as an extension of strategic human resources, presenting a new approach to human resource management. The labor market is constantly changing, atypical work acquiring a significant relevance, especially in these current times of coronavirus crisis restrictions. In Romania, promoting the law of teleworking transformed labor flexibility into a topic of interest, and became an increasingly vital requirement for employment and a motivating factor for Romanian employees. In such a context, this paper aims to investigate the link between employee development and worktime and workspace flexibility as relevant characteristics of sustainable HRM, job satisfaction and job performance among Romanian employees in order to identify how to redesign HRM in the face of “future work” challenges. Additionally, the paper aims to examine the impact of different types of flexibility—contractual, functional, working time, and workspace flexibility—in order to highlight the relevance of employee development and employee flexibility as important aspects of sustainable HRM in increasing the overall level of employee job satisfaction. In order to make this possible, an “employee flexibility composite indicator,” which takes into account different types of flexibility, has been developed using feedback from Romanian employees, which was gathered by a national representative survey using multiple correspondence analysis. Furthermore, the impact of both individual and employee flexibility on overall level of job satisfaction has been quantified using binary logistic regression models. Within the research, there is a particular focus on the impact of new types of workspaces (flex office, co-working, total home office, partial home office—FO, CW, HOT, HOP) on job performance, job satisfaction, organizational performance, professional growth and development, social and professional relationships, and personal professional performance as well as on the overall level of work motivation. The empirical results revealed that these new types of workspaces are highly appreciated by employees, generating a growing interest among them. Partial home working, the mix between working from home and working in a company’s office, has been considered an optimal solution in increasing organizational performance, social and professional relationships, learning and personal development, and the overall level of work motivation. The results of the multiple correspondence analysis highlighted a medium level of flexibility among those Romanian employees interviewed, with only one third of them exhibiting high levels of flexibility. The empirical analysis of logistic regression analysis pointed out the role of functional flexibility, working time, and workspace flexibility along with the flexibility composite indicator in increasing the level of job satisfaction in employees. Therefore, if the challenge is to redesign the actual human resource management in order to include the concept of sustainability, attention needs to be on a combination of employee development-flexible time and flexible places, leading to an increase in both employee job satisfaction and organizational performance as important outcomes of sustainable HRM.

Economic growth is a major goal pursued by public authorities but can be achieved with the involvement of several categories of stakeholders given the complexity of the phenomenon and the many influencing factors. In this research paper, the authors analyze specific current issues that are representative as influencers of economic growth. This study brings into focus the importance of education, particularly tertiary education, entrepreneurship skills, and innovation capacities of businesses. The objectives are (1) to find out if tertiary education leads to economic growth; (2) to examine if innovation is one of the promotors of economic growth; and (3) to discuss the impact of the dynamic of businesses (enterprise birth) on economic growth. The methodology used in this research is panel regression (static model) for a sample consisting of 30 European countries for the period 2003–2020. The main findings are associated with a positive influence of tertiary education on economic growth, whereas the two other variables, that of entrepreneurship and innovation, are found to be insignificant for this time period.

Financial inclusion is strongly differentiated by age groups and countries and the pandemic has highlighted the increased gaps and inequalities but also the weaknesses of the system, in terms of flexibility, access and facilities of the customer-bank relationship and also from the perspective of the financial education of young generations and vulnerable people, active in the labor market. Based on the available data provided by the Global Findex database, and some findings after more than one year of COVID-19 crisis we outlined the main aspects of financial digitization, by categories of people and countries. At the same time, we identified the challenges and problems during the pandemic that significantly adjusted the consumption pattern of citizens and increased the need for on-line access for financial transactions. Starting from the analysis of the inequality of access to financial instruments in the last years, from the informational asymmetry in financial education and the challenges of the pandemic period, we underlined the main coordinates of changing the model of sustainable financial inclusion—based on five pillars—access, education, support tools, CSR and resilience. The research results highlight the need for convergence in providing opportunities to consider financial inclusion as a public good and an active tool to increase consumers’ satisfaction and the quality of life of individuals.

Sustainable economic growth can be achieved through tourism by protecting the environment, maintaining natural resources, creating employment, improving cultural diversity, and recognizing cultural heritage values. The concept of tourism sustainability is gradually growing globally and becoming a dominant aspect in modern business, as companies need to meet stakeholders’ demands regarding environmental management. Sustainable tourism incorporates environmental, social, economic, and cultural issues into operations. The demand for green tourism, ethical consumption, protection of natural resources, and living close to nature is expected to increase. In particular, the latter gains more and more popularity due to the stress caused by the global pandemic and also because values have been re-evaluated at every level of society. In this paper, we explore sustainability in the tourism industry within the international context during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a specific focus on tourism in 35 European countries for the period between January 2020 and September 2021. We aimed to study the impact of tourism on sustainability based on the Eurostat database, using cluster analysis and descriptive statistics. The results indicate that tourism will recover slightly, even though the pandemic will continue, recording different effects in European countries. Furthermore, we highlight the relationship between income and tourism, the clusters on tourism being significantly different according to income. The results also identify potential recovery options to align this business area with global sustainable development goals, generate effective transformational change, and suggest how to create a viable growth process pushed by a glocal perspective.

The challenges imposed by climate change and the limited nature of resources generate paradigm shifts at the level of economic, social, and environmental policies and strategies. Promoting the principles of sustainable development and the circular economy is a priority worldwide. Thus, the motivation of this research is to explore the European countries’ path toward sustainable development by analysing the relationship between green environment, economic growth, and circular economy issues. In order to explore this relationship in the case of European countries, the analysis takes into consideration specific variables: final energy consumption, GDP, capital gross fixed capital formation, greenhouse gas emissions, SOx emissions, NOx emissions, and generation of municipal waste per capita. This study is focused on the period 2009–2020 for 31 European countries, with data being provided by Eurostat and World Bank databases. The panel data analysis was used in order to examine the relationship between a green environment, economic growth and a circular economy. The results of the study suggest that gross fixed capital formation and total greenhouse gas emissions lead to decreasing generation of municipal waste; instead, final energy consumption, GDP, SOx emissions and NOx emissions generate an increase in the generation of municipal waste. The novelty of our paper consists of associating green environment, economic growth, and circular economy in the case of European countries, the results allowing the proposal of economic policy measures to favor the green transition process considering the potential of the circular economy.