Digital transformation has become a key driver of change in public administration, reshaping institutional processes, service delivery, and interactions with citizens. This paper explores how public servants involved in the implementation of digital transformation perceive it within Romanian local public administration. Adopting a qualitative research design, the study addresses seven research questions aimed at identifying perceptions related to implementation challenges, technological adoption, organizational change, and anticipated outcomes. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using NVivo (version 14) qualitative data analysis software. The findings indicate that a set of interrelated factors shapes digital transformation in local public administration. While the adoption of digital technologies contributes to improved efficiency, enhanced transparency, reduced bureaucracy, faster document processing, and better citizen engagement, it also presents significant challenges. These challenges include budgetary constraints, resistance to change, and difficulties related to the adaptation and training of public servants. Overall, the results underscore the need for coherent digital strategies that integrate technological innovation with human resource development and institutional capacity-building in the public sector.

In the context of rapid transformation of the business environment and the widespread of the remote work, virtual teams have become a defining element of modern organizations. This research investigates the impact of leadership communication on the performance of virtual teams. The study was conducted on a sample of 115 respondents working in virtual teams, using an online questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software through linear regression tests. The findings show that leaders who communicate clearly, empathetically and use effectively the digital tools contribute to creating high performing teams. The paper offers practical recommendations for virtual team leaders regarding the development of communication skills and the implementation of strategies adapted to the digital environment, highlighting the critical role of leadership communication in current organizational success.

Reputation management is a key strategic priority for higher education institutions (HEIs) in a highly competitive global academic landscape. This study explores the dimensions of HEI reputation, focusing on brand identity, stakeholder perceptions, research impact, internationalization, rankings, and communication strategy. Using a qualitative research design, the study examines data from leading HEIs. Thematic and sentiment analyses offer insights into the complex relationships between HEI performance and stakeholder expectations. The results reveal that HEI reputation is influenced not only by ranking metrics but also by stakeholder engagement, academic excellence, and strategic communication. The study contributes to knowledge by linking theoretical reputation management models with practical institutional strategies, offering valuable recommendations for education leaders and policymakers.

Digital transformation has turned into a pivotal force in modernizing public administration, enhancing efficiency, transparency, and service delivery. The aim of our research study is to explore the role of change management and institutional agility in the context of digital transformation within public institutions, and their effect on cost management, public data management, service delivery and beneficiaries' engagement. Based on the institutional theory, we designed a conceptual model, and we used PLS-SEM as a research method for testing the nine hypotheses. The findings revealed that change management induced by digital transformation had a significant impact on institutional agility and on beneficiaries' engagement, and also institutional agility induced by digital transformation was correlated with effective cost management of institution, efficient management of public data, increased delivery of public services and beneficiaries' engagement. Besides its contribution to literature on public management, our research brings valuable suggestions for decision makers from public sector.

Implementing digital marketing strategies to promote national tourist destinations is essential to attract large numbers of visitors. Additionally, the use of social media and content marketing helps to strengthen a virtual community with a common interest in tourism. Digital strategies can be used to promote tourism areas, contribute to sustainable development, and strengthen online presence in the modern landscape. National tourism is an important factor for economic development and strengthening the cultural identity of the country. Although tourism is a very important economic sector in a country, we noticed that there are not many studies in the field of implementation of strategies or management plans for the promotion of national tourism. Thus, this research started precisely from the desire to identify the most appropriate solutions for the promotion of national tourism. The objective of the study was to contribute to strengthening the image of national tourism by implementing a sustainable and innovative strategy, adapted to the current market requirements and the specific needs of each region of tourism. In this research, we used the fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) software to identify the optimal solutions for the promotion of the tourism sector in Romania to make this activity a national priority. This research is necessary to optimise the overall promotion strategy of the national tourism sector. Furthermore, the online environment offers great opportunities to showcase cultural resources and heritage, and every country needs to understand the persuasive power of the Internet. Promoting tourism through the right online strategies must not remain just an option, but must become the norm.

The access to digital technologies is fundamentally changing the way that public administration works, transforming the citizen from a passive beneficiary into an active participant, and helping to identify solutions to governance challenges. An important objective of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan is the development of a coherent and integrated digital infrastructure at the level of the public administration in Romania that will provide highquality digital services to both citizens and companies. The purpose of our research is to identify the factors that influence the process of the public service digitalisation acceleration in Romania and to establish the existing correlations between them. The conceptual model illustrates 6 research hypotheses, highlighting the association/correlation relationships between the proposed independent and dependent variables. The study is based on questionnaire analysis, carried out between September 2022 and December 2022, with 177 responses being validated, which formed the basis of further processing for statistical analysis with the help of the SPSS software, version 23. All 6 hypotheses formulated with the help of the concept model, were statistically validated. The correlational study highlights the factors that influence the digitalisation process of public services in Romania and illustrates a significant correlation between the predictor and the dependent variables.

This paper presents the experience and lessons learned in a pilot project aimed at integrating artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in sturgeon aquaculture. The project used convolutional neural networks and visual intelligence for the evaluation of fish biomass and the optimisation of sturgeon rearing technologies in integrated multitrophic production systems. Similar solutions have been used before to determine the biomass of other fish species, but this is the first documentation of the application of such a solution for sturgeons. The application challenges were significant, which was determined by the special morphological peculiarities of the sturgeons (shape, way of swimming, their dimensions). Both YOLACT technology and a computer vision context were tested using LAB and HSV colour spaces to estimate fish biomass based on imaging data. It was found that the LAB colour space provided superior results in terms of precision and efficiency, but maximum accuracy was achieved using convolutional neural networks (YOLACT). The analysis of the project results confirms the significant advantages of using the AI system for biomass monitoring, advantages consisting of the reduction of unit costs with labour and feed, improvement of water quality, active optimisation of sturgeon growing conditions. In this way, conditions are created for the sustainable growth of sturgeon production, both for consumption and for the restocking of various aquatic ecosystems with brood. It also proves that the large-scale implementation of AI-based technologies in the fisheries industry can make an important contribution to the achievement of Romania’s National Multiannual Aquaculture Strategic Plan 2022-2030, as well as to the implementation of the European Union’s strategies on food security and biodiversity

The EU energy sector became a very important one as a result of the war in Ukraine. On the other hand, the EU started in defining and implementing new strategies regarding green economy and sustainability. Even though these strategies cover short and medium periods, they have as a main goal the decrease in the EU’s dependence of energy imports. This research is focused on present challenges, risks, and uncertainties related to energy production and consumption in all EU member states. In order to achieve the research objectives, a huge statistical database, which covered 2012–2021, was used. The analysis is based on specific indicators regarding primary energy production; imports and exports; gross available energy; final energy consumption; non-energy consumption; energy dependency; and energy intensity. There are at least three research procedures used in this paper: a meta-analysis, a statistical analysis, and an econometric analysis, as well. Finally, the analysis points out the disparities between member states regarding energetic resources and energy dependency using a new model for quantifying risk factors in the European energy system. Moreover, new public policies are proposed by the authors under a cluster approach of the EU’s regions.

Today, the increase in competition with globalization has caused logistics to gain importance, with international trade as one of its basic elements. Developments in the transportation and logistics sector affect economic growth through their effects on production, consumption, and trade. Similarly, international trade and economic growth also support the development of the transportation and logistics sector. From this perspective, logistics is an indicator of development. Nowadays, logistics is a constantly developing and growing sector. The aim of this study is to conduct performance rankings and cluster analyses of G20 countries in 2023 and to compare the results with the logistics performance index (LPI) scores published by the World Bank. Our assumption is that the results of the analysis and the LPI index would be the same or similar. The findings obtained as a result of both analyses are largely similar to the LPI ranking presented by the World Bank.

Consumers tend to exhibit e-WOM behavior or retention behavior or communicate with official channels rather than the brand, which can damage the brand in cases where the channels through which customers are expected to reach the brand for their complaints are dysfunctional. This study aims to examine the relationship between cognitive dissonance and brand loyalty factors as well as their impact on consumer complaint behavior in terms of differences between Turkish and Romanian consumers. For this purpose, a simultaneous quantitative research study was conducted in these two countries, with a total of 790 participants surveyed. The findings showed that the consumers’ level of brand loyalty had a significant positive effect on the level of cognitive dissonance, which significantly impacted complaint behavior. On the other hand, it was concluded that brand loyalty did not significantly affect complaint behavior. The comparative analysis revealed that Romanian customers’ brand loyalty was higher than Turkish customers’, and the dimensions concerning cognitive dissonance and complaint behavior were higher among Turkish customers.

The future is uncertain and brings with it changes and challenges. Public employees' tasks are changing with the rise of digital transformation. It is crucial to improve the skills of public administration employees and anticipate what new skills they will need to prepare them for the future of work. This study explores the effects of digital, communication, intrapreneurial, and fundraising competencies on public employees' readiness for the future of work. A conceptual model was designed based on the theory of future-ready skills and the theory of skill-biased technological change. PLS-SEM was then used to test nine research hypotheses. Digital competencies and intrapreneurial competencies were found to have a significant impact on employee readiness for the future of work. Communication competencies and digital competencies were observed to be correlated with intrapreneurial competencies. Besides its contribution to the literature on skills for the future of work, this paper offers valuable suggestions for public administration decision makers and public employees, as well as higher education institutions and other places of learning.

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected the education system in Romania. The major objective of this study was to identify the challenges in higher education institutions beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Our study is based on a questionnaire-type analysis with 388 respondents (students from different universities). Using the SEM-PLS method, we designed a conceptual model, which is based on seven latent variables: a resilient education system in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic (SER); teacher–student, student–teacher, and student–institution communication (PS); logistical assistance from the educational institution (AL); adaptation according to knowledge-economy requirements (EC); online teaching–learning in higher education (API); a hybrid education model (EH); and digital skills and the integration of digital technology in institutions (ITE). We formulated seven hypotheses in order to test the strength of the correlation between the latent variables. Our research highlights a significant correlation between logistical assistance from the educational institution (LA) and teacher–student, student–teacher, and student–institution (PS) communication. Moreover, logistical assistance from the educational institution (LA) has a significant effect on the teaching–learning activity.

As a pilon of European Digitalization Strategy, the digitalizing process of public administration, wants a better access for citizens, to goods and services in all Europe.By developing the potential of ICT technologies, this process will support sustainability, innovation, and economic growth.Achieving a model for open government and implementing digital technologies offers multiple possibilities for both a better organization of administrations and for the relations of citizens -administrations.The objective of our research is to analyze the digitalization degree of public administrations at the European Union level.

The aim of this study was to determine whether emotional labor behavior has an effect on job satisfaction, and if there is an effect, to reveal whether communicative rational action has a moderator effect. This research was carried out in the banking sector. The sample group consisted of administrators of foreign capital bank managers (427) at all levels in Turkey. The collected data were analyzed with the IBM SPSS 21 program. Multiple regression analysis and SPSS PROCESS v3.5 (model1) methods were used in the analysis. According to the analysis, the three sub-dimensions of communicative rational action (practical-rational action, rational communication, and rational action) have a moderator role in the effect of emotional labor and job satisfaction. The other two sub dimensions (value–rational–action and firm family) do not have a moderator role in this effect. In the analysis made according to the total score of communicative rational action, the moderator role of communicative rational action in the effect of emotional labor and job satisfaction was determined. As a result of the research and analysis, it was determined that emotional labor has a positive effect on the phenomenon of job satisfaction.

The society in which we live is increasingly globalized and many of nowadays companies are automatically born global. Thus, employees working in such companies need different skills. These skills that help individuals adapt to a global work environment are related to cultural intelligence, a concept that has been developed to describe why some individuals can successfully adapt to a different cultural environment and others cannot. Unlike other intelligence types, cultural intelligence can be improved throughout life, but so far not many ways are known to improve it. Country Navigator is a software that identifies the cultural profile, compares the individual profile with the cultural profile of 100 countries and offers valuable clues for decreasing cultural differences. The present study shows the cultural profile of a Romanian football coach and a Brazilian football player. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the cultural profiles of the two, identify ways to improve cultural intelligence, and encourage the development of cultural intelligence skills.

The circular economy is one of the major global concerns, and the transition from the linear economy to the circular economy requires not only the creation of new business models, but also a change in consumer behavior. Our research theme aims to analyze the perception of selective waste collection at the level of Galati County. As a research method we used questionnaire-based analysis with 544 respondents. The analysis was based on three working hypotheses, and in the future, we will extend the analysis to other components of the circular economy.

George-Eduard NECULAE, Sofia DAVID

n the last several decades, many researchers in the field of human resource management alongside other sociological and psychological studies were interested in finding the most effective leadership approach in one or any given organization. The most common challenge is to take into account all potential variables among a considerably large spectrum of specific organizational situations: from the social and cultural background of the participants its leader and followers, with their own traits and styles to circumstantial factors dependent on professional or the given social context as well as on cultural and political environmental influences in each particular context. The purpose of the present paper is to identify a means for HR personnel working in public or private organizations or for their respective leaders to identify and choose a set of three approaches that are believed to be the most applicable in their specific situation. By observing essential particular features existing in each specific environment, the researchers would be able to draw up a tool that would help achieve the desired improvement of leadership skills based on the particular circumstances of their organizational environment. This paper takes into account several existing theoretical studies and builds up a compared analysis of some proposed leadership approaches, the result being a leadership matrix conceived as a tool for increasing leadership effectiveness. Although for practical reasons only three approaches have been taken into account to prove the theory, this can be extended to any applicable combination based on the features observed by the researchers in the respective organization environment.

Despite the prevalence of Internet in our everyday life, little is known about consumer buying behavior in on-line purchases. Moreover, consumer buying disorder (CBD), one of the new addictions of the era, is poorly researched in the Romanian literature. This study aimed at identifying whether this disorder is present among Romanian students that purchase on-line through a questionnaire applied to 100 students attending the University „Dunarea de Jos” of Galati. An analysis of the responses yields that a 13% of the studied sample indeed presents characteristics of this disorder and confirms previous global studies that the compulsive buyers are majoritarian women. This work increases our understanding of on-line consumer buying behavior and will contribute to future research on similar topics.