In recent years, researchers and organizations have increasingly focused on understanding how various aspects of the work environment affect employees’ well-being, acknowledging its critical influence on organizational performance and employee satisfaction. This study aims to evaluate the effects of the work environment on employees’ well-being, paying attention to the physical and social dimensions, organizational job characteristics, intrinsic job factors, and employees’ perspectives on their roles. The research used a survey to collect data from Romanian employees across diverse sectors. Structural equation modeling enabled analysis of the relationships between these variables and their direct or indirect influence on well-being. The results demonstrate that the work environment’s physical and social aspects, intrinsic job characteristics, and future perspectives significantly contribute to employees’ well-being. Key organizational factors, such as job autonomy and managerial support, enhance work experience. The findings indicate that enhancing workplace conditions and relationships can positively affect employees’ well-being, with broader implications for organizational productivity and employee retention. This study emphasizes the need for a comprehensive approach to workplace design, integrating physical and social elements to promote higher levels of employee engagement.

The concept of work-life balance derives from the vision that professional life and personal life are two elements that balance each other synergistically in the development of an individual. Work-life balance can positively and negatively influence employees’ performance through employee satisfaction. Using the structural equation modeling (SEM) method (partial least squares), we empirically analyzed the work-life balance of a sample of 452 employees in Romania. The study highlights that work-life equilibrium or disequilibrium significantly affects professional and personal satisfaction, influencing employee motivation and turnover intention. Following the empirical study, we found that a state of balance between professional and personal life generates satisfaction, a higher degree of motivation, increased performance, and reduced employee turnover.

The ever-changing external environment and the challenges and signals transmitted by the European Single Market have greatly contributed to the dynamism of SMEs in Europe. From the privileged place held by the entrepreneur in SMEs, the present study aims to investigate the role of managerial skills in the sustainable development of small and medium enterprises, focused on self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and interpersonal skills of entrepreneurs. The investigation method consisted of the distribution of anonymous questionnaires to a representative sample of entrepreneurs, in the Mehedinți County, Romania. The collected data were centralized, processed, and assessed. The results of this analysis revealed, besides the emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills which have reached a suitable level, a low level of self-awareness. Therefore, this has been considered as a potential barrier towards sustainable development of SMEs in the analyzed region. However, the high level of emotional intelligence, accompanied by an increasing trend of interpersonal skills as the manager’s experience in working with people increases, is a strong argument for the sustainable development of SMEs. The study comes to support the public policies concerning small and medium-sized entities by using a model of managerial skills testing for applicants. In this way, an increase of the transparency of financing decision and the effectiveness of financial support are ensured.

This study aims to analyze how SMEs handle the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 crisis. We used a questionnaire-based survey and analysed the results based on descriptive and inferential quantitative methods. Following the processing and interpretation of the data collected, we note, the importance of the government measures in order to support SMEs to ensure the economy’s functioning as close as possible to the normal state. Limited access to liquidity, lack of strong state support, poorly prepared and motivated human resources, low digitalization are the weaknesses of SMEs are the main obstacles to resilience in this crisis.

The current study aims to make known the factors influencing the decision to conduct business with social impact, given that the concept of social entrepreneurship is quite a new one in Romania. The investigative method used was quantitative research, by applying questionnaires to 300 students at both bachelor and master level at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Craiova. The results indicate two categories of factors that influence the intention of social entrepreneurship in the investigated area, namely: those with negative influence (lack of necessary funds, fear of failure, lack of experience and involvement in social projects and activities) and those with positive influence (knowledge of the concept of social entrepreneurship and social problems in the studied region that can be solved through entrepreneurial initiatives).

The core of sustainable public procurement lies in its ability to stem uneconomical public expenditures that waste taxpayer money and stifle social trust and development. The external audit of public procurement proves problematic since current research fails to provide sufficient empirical studies aimed at identifying procurement fraud. The development of online portals with embedded e-procurement solutions, along with the big data revolution, open new horizons and allow us to reveal trends otherwise impossible to spot, such as transactions achieved in an exclusive commercial relationship, in which a vendor engages only with a single public entity. By using innovative data acquisition techniques, our research encompasses 2.25 million online direct public procurement procedures conducted in 2023 using the Romanian portal for public procurement, totaling EUR 3.22 billion. By aggregating databases obtained from various public sources, our analysis achieved remarkable granularity, using over 112 million data elements—50 pertaining to each transaction. Research results indicate a unique sub-population of public procurement procedures—those conducted with “in-house” vendors totaling 14.28% of all direct public acquisitions and which is significantly differentiated along the entire list of analyzed criteria—financial, geographical, statistical, or risk-wise—illustrating a troubling phenomenon: possible gerrymandering of the online public procurement landscape, which, at least in theory, resembles a perfect market, by cultivating preferential commercial relations, thus affecting the legality, regularity, and economical aspects of public procurement.