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Research background: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected higher education globally and disrupted its usual activities, according to differing perspectives. The ability to adapt to online activities was an important factor for many researchers during the pandemic period. Purpose of the article: In this article, the authors are studying the ability of the students to adapt to online activities, and also the direct and indirect effect on their academic performances. Methods: The data was collected with a questionnaire and the respondents are students from Romanian Universities. The analysis was made with an econometric model by using the PLS-SEM methodology. The goal of the paper was to find and analyse the factors used to perform academic online activities during the pandemic period. Findings & value added: The results of the paper validate the research hypotheses formulated in the introductory part and confirm that the students? academic performances are a direct result of many factors, such as: system parameters, personal demand, personal commitment, and regulatory environment. The identification of the exogenous variables with significant impact on the students? performances through online activities could help the management of the universities to implement the positive aspects and to reward them for their efforts while preventing from resilience to change. The higher education system has to acknowledge that flexible online learning opportunities are needed by students to fit their coursework around their employment and family responsibilities.

The pandemic caused an increase in the use of, and demand for digital public services, accelerating the digital transformation, which necessitated rapid development and deployment of various ICT systems. The Authority for the Digitalization of Romania in partnership with Code for Romania developed a number of six digital platforms for better management of the COVID-19 pandemic. They firstly created stirioficiale.ro, a platform that was used by the Romanian government to give Romanian residents trustworthy, up-to-date information about pandemic measures, guidance, and other important information. Following that, another 5 platforms were developed with the help of over 420 volunteers in order for the government to better manage the COVID-19 pandemic, with a total of six platforms forming an ecosystem that would be used by over ten million citizens across the country to access reliable information. The main objective of the article is to observe and interpret the analytics of the official platform datelazi.ro. After a formal request to the Authority for the Digitalization of Romania, the official recorded data was received and analyzed by the authors. The main results of the study show us that the visibility of the platform is low compared to the country’s population. However, due to the consistency of users in the fifth wave of the pandemic, it is reasonable to assume that there is a core use of roughly 10,000 residents who find this platform beneficial for information at this time.

The goal of GDPR is to harmonize consumer rights in the European Union regardless of where they are or where they come from. This has an impact on the processing of personal data within organizations - especially in human resources departments. GDPR has major consequences in the HR field as the employer processes employee data (and potential employees) on a large scale. At the formal level, the Human Resources Director must ensure that the new concepts introduced by the Regulation are correctly reflected in the internal documents governing the duties and responsibilities of the employees. The biggest challenge in this regard is defining the role of the data protection officer at the organization level. The methodological section of this article includes a narrative analysis based on an interview with a data protection officer, head of compliance guide to GDPR. The purpose of this study reflects the impact of the Personal Data Regulations on the Human Resources activities. It is useful for organizations and subjects to know what particular attention should be paid regarding GDPR to the recruitment process, the access methods of the equipment available to the employee, the data protection solutions in the systems and the employee monitoring system.

In this article we review research from the past decade that explores how elements of communication from social media and press articles influence the decision making for choosing a travel destination. ‘Fake news’ has the potential to impact opinions, expectations and behaviour of tourism consumers. Perceived as an important threat to modern democratic societies, the course of intentional false data dissemination is able to disrupt perception and throughout the normal functioning of state institutions and private companies. Hence, manipulation of information shapes differently the image of tourism destinations, accommodation units, cruise ships and even tourist attractions mostly in order to produce higher economic benefits. Unfortunately, sometimes ‘fake news’ spreading could be detrimental to tourist destinations and operators. In order to pursue, cope, absorb and adjust threats related to ‘fake news’, we will use and approach in a later work the aspects regarding a ‘societal resilience’

We are living in an extremely globalized and digitalized world where social media represent the core of our existence whether for personal or professional reasons. Social media impact on business in general caught the attention of researchers (Grizane & Jurgelane, 2017) during the last years, especially to measure the impact of their use in business growth, increasing sales and/or customer loyalty. There are more and more studies that focus on the harmful effect of fake news on specific markets, news that may appear easily and are difficult to control. Fake news can affect both the customers and/ or the business depending on the context. The purpose of this study is to identify how are the fake news appearing in a world where access to information is so simple and everybody can check the truthfulness of information and what kind of barriers are used to protect the business from being affected and the customers from being misinformed. Data for this paper are gathered using in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs from real estate businesses. The results show that the level of increasing fake news is affecting the trust building process. Recommendations are put forward for organizations to analyze more user behavior and use it for the decision-making process in order to limit the negative effects of fake news. Also, customers need to learn to identify quality brand communication, pay attention to details and be very precautions while taking decisions based on news that may be fake.

Do you remember the times when the copyright or a patent had no economic value? Neither do I, because this happened more than 300 years ago when the printing activity took place completely free. It was the eighteenth century, when France, England, Germany and the United Kingdom realized that the author was pretty important for the state and the first regulations appeared. Exactly like the intellectual property, in the new era of technology, dynamic change and growing e-commerce, the data with personal character is the newest economic good. More and more studies and journals show that in the near future the personal information will also have an economic value since databases are so important for businesses, but also for other institutions like the police or even intelligence agencies. The current article is the first in a row of a complex research regarding the importance of the personal data in the current economy and its actual value in an organization. Further studies will be needed in order to conclude and create a model for measuring the value of personal data. This first step is a research and a detailed analysis of the current status-quo. The changes that appeared after the entry of the European directives regarding General Data Protection Regulation will be analyzed. Another significant section of the article is a close review of the personal data black market. In order to submit this aspect as clear and objective as possible, further research on the dark internet (Onion) was conducted and prices for clones of credit cards, Amazon or PayPal accounts and cloned personal documents were examined and charted.

Nowadays, the use of smartphones has become essential for daily activities that have either a personal or professional purpose. A large number of resources is necessary for both the production and the use of these devices, which means that solutions in terms of sustainability are needed. The purpose of this research is to highlight the concept of sustainability when talking about smartphones, as well to underline the possibilities that exist for the consumers. This study examines the habits of young consumers in Romania, the reasons behind a mobile phone replacement, and the factors that influence the purchase decision. The methodology section follows quantitative and qualitative market research. An analysis was performed in order to have a deep understanding of trends in terms of mobile phone ownership and preferred brands. This study also provides a general view on the neglectfulness of the young population of Romania regarding the dangers to which the environment is exposed because of the purchasing habits that go against sustainability. For accomplishing this purpose, important results have been discovered through the analysis of the data obtained from self-administered questionnaires and interviews. The results show that people are usually using only one mobile phone at a time and they change it once every two years for sustainability and financial reasons. The same applies when it comes to choosing a certain brand. The reasons behind the purchase of a new phone and the decisions regarding an old one are based on healthy principles of the circular economy and sustainability. The preferences in terms of technology and design, and the decision process are correlated with incomes.