Author: Cornelia Nistor

Pages: 60-68 Introduction. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the business environment, respectively the national income decreased significantly, many companies closed activity, many employees were laid off, orders fell, companies registered a deficit in cash flow, lack of supply with materials, decreased demand and cancellation of contracts. Companies have reacted differently to the COVID-19 pandemic by shutting down, making bank loans, dismissing employees, reducing employees’ salaries, temporarily or completely closing the activity. Aim of the study. The paper aims to make a radiography of the main problems encountered by companies during the COVID-19 pandemic and the short-term reactions…

 Pages: 16-36Introduction. Sustainable management in the field of sustainable cities is extremely important because cities continue to grow at an extremely high global rate. Cities are very important to the world economy, because more than most people live in urban areas.Aim of the study. The research conducted in this paper aims to show the impact of sustainable cities and the importance of their development in the world economy, given their many benefits – environmental, social and cultural. Authorities also need to take appropriate economic policy measures to improve all urban sectors, depending on local specificities and development needs. The methods…

Introduction. More and more leaders realize that the wider use of renewable energy brings many benefits on long-term, both for the enterprises and for the whole society in the process of developing the smart grids. One of the continuing concerns of any leader at any level must be the energy efficiency growth for all the users, individuals or legal entities. A good corporate leader supports a wider use of the renewable energy because thereby he promotes the care for the environment through the clean energy, the green economy idea in general, which will create him a positive image in the community and he will be considered a good representative of “corporate social responsibility”, by reducing the social ethical implications of strategies adopted.

Aim of the study. The more there will be more leaders who will promote the idea of production and use of alternative and renewable energy will be required also a greater involvement of the state in the use of the economic policy instruments in order to increase the investments in the infrastructure, to encourage the innovations in this field and to establish the regulations guiding of the specific markets mechanisms and the responsibilities and roles of each economic subject.
Keywords: renewable energy, energy efficiency, wind energy, solar energy, hydropower, energy potential, energy consumption
JEL Classification: D21, D24, L26, L94, M11, M14, Q42, Q47

Introduction. Increasing energy efficiency should be a concern for both the firm managers and any leader at any level, given that energy efficiency significantly reduce production costs. An important aspect of this is the use of renewable energy sources, in different types of activities, depending on the possibilities to produce it on favorable terms, to supply at relatively low costs and to efficiently consume it both in the producing units and the households. A skilful and powerful leader will seek and support, through its influence, all the means that determine the reduction of the production costs and obtain a profit as high as possible.

Aim of the study. This paper aims to highlight that a wider use of renewable energy promotes concern for the environment through clean energy, for reducing pollution and for facilitate, in some cases, even the increase of the production with the same costs or lower costs. In agriculture, industry, transports and household consumption, a high importance presents the geothermal energy and the biomass as source of energy.
Keywords: energy efficiency, geothermal energy, biomass, bio-fuel, energy production, energy, biological agriculture
JEL Classification: D21, D24, L26, L94, M11, M14, Q42, Q47

Introduction. Improving education has been and continues to be a necessary condition in any society. Education contributes to increase the level of civilization, to develop the individual personality, but also to increase the level of the economic development. Organization and subsequent reorganization of the Romanian education system has been pursuing desiring to adapt better it better to the labor market needs and to adapt it to the international education system.

Aim of the study. The management strategies which are applied in this area should be considered adapting it to the domestic and international labor market conditions to the new education methods and techniques, used at the international level. The new trends desiring to transform the economy into a green economy require increased investments in education, in order to train the specialists in new green areas.
Keywords: education, management of education, economic development, labor market, green economy.
JEL Classification: A20, B25, F69, G23, I21, I22, I23, I25, J21, J24, O34, O43.

Introduction. Agriculture is one of the most important economic activities in each country or area, as it is in close correlation with all other the other economic activities, in a whole which must be structured so as to achieve a more efficient planning and organization of the territory. The practice of a traditional agriculture, based on industrialization, affects the natural environment through emissions of pollutants, waste and deforestation which together affects biodiversity. Green Agriculture suppose to empower managers to widespread the use of fertilizers, to improve the crop rotation, to realize a more efficient water consumption, to improve the storage methods and the supply chain of products.

Aim of the study. Agricultural policies are closely interrelated with environmental policies as agricultural activities have a considerable influence on the environment. The efficiency of agricultural policies is reflected in monetary transfers between agriculture and other economic sectors, in the costs due to the reallocation of the resources between different agricultural and non-agricultural activities and in the realized gains. Currently there is a constant concern of the governments for the transition to a green agriculture, and most countries recognize the importance of achieving sustainable economic development.
Keywords: green agriculture, traditional agriculture, innovations, food and agricultural policy, subsidies, taxes.
JEL Classification: H23, K22, O21, Q11, Q12, Q13, Q17, Q18, R14

Introduction. In the specialized literature the concept of self-directed learning is linked with personality traits, learning environment or learning process. In the literature we find that there is a correlation between self-directed learning and some personal traits from the “Big Five” model of personality, including extraversion, agreeableness, openness and conscientiousness. Self-directed learning is also influenced by the learning environment, which consists of teaching environment, learning environment, technology and administrative support. In a “traditional” learning environment, the teacher defines the learning goals, delivers the knowledge and evaluates the student’s ability to memorize the specific delivered knowledge. The student’s learning needs are rather seen homogeneous than heterogeneous. In a self-directed learning environment, the student takes the initiative, defines his own strategies of learning specific goals and evaluates his evolution in pursuing a certain learning goal. Seen as a process, the self-directed learning can be structured in certain steps like: defining the steps of learning from easy to difficult; establishing an own calendar of learning; evaluating his own learning progress etc.

Aim of the study. The aim of this article is to understand the concept of self-directed learning and to explore how to use self-directed learning in an educational environment, in order to find the appropriate qualitative and/or quantitative methodology to study the self-directed learning concept.
Keywords: self-directed learning, personality traits, communication skills, economic education, motivation.
JEL Classification: D83, I21, P36

Introduction. Currently, the industry is a very important economic branch because the industrial products have a high share in the total final and intermediate consumption. Apart from the positive effects on the global consumption, the industrial activities have some negative economic and social effects and also on the environment. The sustainable management in industry should increase efficiency and reduce waste, should find new production methods so that the economic growth can be made with fewer natural resources, fewer materials – especially the rare ones, with less energy consumption from traditional resources and with more efficient technologies, with less negative effects on the human health and on the environment.

Aim of the study. The transition to a greener industry is an important issue for all the national economies and it is very important to adapt the legislation to the new trends and standards, to adopt new payment schemes, grants and green funds schemes, so as to encourage the industrial enterprises to increase the efficiency of the total resources consumption, to make the transition to greener activities, to use more green capital inputs, to produce more green products, to increase the collaboration with the public and the private sector.
Keywords: sustainable management, metallurgy, steel industry, industrial policies, energy consumption, greenhouse gases.
JEL Classification: A12, D24, D62, F18, L52, L61, L72, M21, O10, Q25, Q42, Q52, Q57

Introduction. The public resources that are invested in R&D have the purpose to stimulate the public-private partnerships, to foster innovations and to create a pool of knowledge and spill-overs to the targeted regions. The regions from the states from European Union need to apply RIS3 strategies for investments in R&D and innovation due to pre-existing conditions to access funds from European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The European Commission launched an on-line Smart Specialization Platform (S3platform) to assist the members to develop, implement and compare smart specialization strategies and to offer data for national and regional authorities to identify the specific activities with high-added value to improve the regional competitiveness. Some indicators are presented to show the Romanian efforts for R&D and private innovation capabilities, the pre-identified potential for smart specialisation within the regions and some current evidence available on the S3platform.

Aim of the study. The aim of this article is to study the concept of Smart Specialization and to explore some evidences of how it is implemented in the regions from Romania. The concept refers to investments in knowledge activities and not in sectors. There are defined specific policy objectives that will have a specific impact in scientific and economic domains.
Keywords: smart specialization, research&development, innovation, regional development
JEL Classification: L52, O38, R11

Introduction. The multiplication and diversification of the waste resulting from economic activities can be explained by the development of the society, which implies the waste as secondary effect. Apart from the positive effects on the global consumption, the economic activities have also negative effects on the humans and environment due to the waste generation. The sustainable management in the waste sector should increase the efficiency in the resources use and prevent waste generation, should find new production methods and new eco-designed products, so that the economic growth can be made with fewer natural resources and materials, with less energy consumption.

Aim of the study. The transition to a greener waste sector is an important issue for all the national economies and it suppose reducing and preventing waste generation, improving waste recycling and qualitative valorization, reducing the environmental impact of the waste, improving the existing national and international databases, encouraging green investments and a closer and a better collaboration between the local public administration authorities, the companies and the population and also between economic subjects from different countries.
Keywords: sustainable management, e-waste, municipal solid waste, recycle, reuse, remanufacturing.
JEL Classification: A13, D12, D18, D62, E61, F42, I15, O21, O25, O33