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The ecological transition process is of vital importance to modern economies. In the literature, little attention has been paid to the role that social factors can play in the diffusion of renewable energy. The paper aims to contribute to this debate by focusing on the connections between R&D activities, gender inequality and renewable energy. Specifically, many authors have underlined the positive influence that R&D activities can have on the ecological transition process, by favouring the diffusion of green innovations within the various economic sectors. On the other hand, some studies have shown that gender inequality can represent an obstacle towards the adoption of more sustainable consumption and production choices in the energy context. In our study we wanted to combine the two aspects: is it possible that a greater participation of women in R&D activities could have a positive impact on the diffusion of energy from renewable sources? To answer the question, we employ a panel vector autoregressive model in first differences to test complex dynamic relationships among renewable electricity production (as a proxy of the ecological transition), R&D expenditures (as a proxy for a country’s innovative capacity), and share of female researchers (as a proxy for gender equality in the sector), controlling for per capita income. The study concerns 9 Eastern European countries for the period 2000-2019. The results show that the R&D expenditure is positively related to the production of electricity from renewable sources. Moreover, increased employment of women in R&D activities seems to support the ecological transition process. Finally, an increase in R&D spending seems to ensure easier access for women in the research sector. Supporting R&D activities, however, may not be enough, since women participation in those activities does not show a path dependence. Furthermore, from the impulse response analysis, a shock exerted on the share of female researchers produces positive effects on the diffusion of renewable energy, but only for a short period. Policymakers should make constant efforts to favour the participation of women in R&D activities: the global energy transformation needs to be inclusive and women have to be part of it.

Recent years have witnessed a wide and strong development of the sharing economy in various industries. As a result of the wide spread of intelligent mobile devices and customers’ increasing digital skills, the use of collaborative platforms in tourism, in particular for accommodation services, has become an important alternative for many tourists. In this paper we try to investigate relevant aspects of the profile, motivations and habits of the Romanian tourists who are using Airbnb for renting accommodation services. Survey-based research was conducted during the summer of 2021, a period when very few COVID-19-related restrictions were being enforced in Romania regarding people’s mobility and travel. The questionnaire was designed to capture not only the demographic, economic and social profile of the consumers, but also and more importantly the main aspects related to the type of travel (leisure versus business), the motivations of getting involved in the collaborative use of platforms etc., from a demand-side perspective. We have grouped the motivations for using Airbnb taking into account the following main classes of factors: price; comfort; ease of use and functionality; authenticity and local connection. Other investigated issues pertained to analyze the place of Airbnb compared to classical accommodation units, considering factors such as trust and efficacy. We found that there is a certain amount of conformity among the population in making the decision to book accommodation, but there is also an innovative trend, expressing people's desire to try other forms of accommodation that offer authenticity and new experiences, characteristics that are less common in traditional accommodation forms. Indirectly, we can identify several trends in respondents' preferences for tourist accommodation and consumption habits. Trends may include greater availability of accommodation alternatives, including through collaborative platforms and, gradually, the transformation of these alternative experiences into tourism consumption habits.

The positive impact of the tourism industry on economic growth, revenues, infrastructure, employment, social inclusion and poverty reduction, although widely recognised, has been lately weighted against the appearance and exacerbation of several problems, such as: environmental footprint, increase of income inequality, cost increases related to solid waste collection, energy consumption, increased global CO2 emissions. On the other hand, the tourism sector is not just an active economic, societal, or environmental change agent; in turn, the tourism sector supports or is highly influenced by various factors, such as climate change, economic, political, or social factors. More recently, this industry has been highly impacted by the pandemic, technological developments and cultural trends. In this article we examined both the short and long-run relationship between tourism development and economic growth, CO2 emissions and energy consumption in European Union member states (EU27), by using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model for panel data. The findings suggest that economic growth and energy consumption have a statistically significant impact on the tourism index both in the short and long-run, whereas CO2 emissions only have a significant impact upon the tourism index on the long run.

The literature on the relationship between entrepreneurship, firm formation and economic development often describes entrepreneurship as a complex phenomenon, led by individuals, embedded in a broad economic and societal context, which, in regional terms, influences the quality and results of the entrepreneurial process. From a micro-economic perspective, the region is shaped by the myriad of laborious and innovative actions of entrepreneurs, looking for opportunities, taking risks, starting businesses and generating economic and social associations. Competition, trust, networks, mentalities, the education system, public policies, all are ingredients that can provide opportunities for many actors at the local level (institutions, businesses, population, etc.) and thus, for the region as a whole to thrive. Often these elements can offer the opportunities of economic convergence between regions and countries. On the other hand, we found that the potential of entrepreneurship to generate benefits and an impetus for the economic growth of regions were not fully researched and understood, despite suggestive empirical evidence and a rich literature in regional studies. In this article we analysed, at the level of the 8 development regions of Romania, the relation between the firm’s formation and the evolution of the Gross Domestic Product, respectively the relation between employment/active population and the evolution of the Gross Domestic Product. We did not find clear evidence that the pace of setting up new businesses has a certain effect on economic growth or employment, but we found that in some regions, better equipped in terms of infrastructure, qualification and diversity of human capital, entrepreneurial dynamics could moderately influence the positive evolution of these macroeconomic indicators.

Financial indicators are the most used variables in measuring the business performance of companies, signaling about the financial position, comprehensive income, and other significant reporting aspects. In a competitive environment, the performance measurement model allows performing comparative analysis in the same industry and between industries. This paper aims to design a composite financial index to determine the financial performance of listed companies, further used in predicting business performance through neural networks. Principal components analysis was used to build a composite financial index, employing four traditional accounting indicators and four value-based indicators for the period 2011–2018. Five experiments were conducted to predict business performance through the composite financial index. The results showed that observations from two years, of the first three experiments, indicate a better predictive behavior than the same experiments using observations from one year. Therefore, we concluded that observations from more than one year are necessary to predict the value of the financial performance index. Findings led us to the conclusion that recurrent neural networks model predicted better financial performance composite index when taken into consideration more real data for the financial performance index (2012–2018) instead of just for one year (2018).

Teacher job satisfaction and well-being have a significant impact on educational outcomes, considering that teaching is the main objective of the educational process. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between teacher job satisfaction and four main categories of determinants: self-efficacy, relational aspects (colleague collaboration, student behavior, school management), work-related aspects (administrative workload, teaching tasks), and working conditions, in order to identify various implications for teachers’ well-being. The study employs a survey delivered to 658 K-12 (pre-university) teachers, from the North-West region of Romania. We used factorial analysis and a structural equation model to test eight proposed hypotheses. The results showed that self-efficacy, promotion, positive student behavior, and working conditions have significant effects on job satisfaction. These factors influence job satisfaction and well-being in the teaching profession because they ensure a positive work environment in which teachers and students thrive, thus leading to higher levels of involvement from teachers, students, and parents alike. An efficient work environment decreases attrition, burnout, emotional exhaustion, and teacher turnover, while increasing job satisfaction, well-being, and teacher retention.

Designing and implementing relevant and effective environmental policies and fostering green and environmental-friendly approaches and behaviors are constant aims for policy makers all over the world. Concurrently, implementing environmental policies involves significant economic and financial efforts, in order to repair environmental damage and to prevent future negative environmental consequences. How effective are the environmental expenditures and how are they related to the economic growth, i.e. the GDP level, are issues of major concern at a governmental level. In this article we are examining the relation between GDP and environmental expenditure, by using statistical data available for EU economies, for the time period 1995-2013. We found that the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis is supported in most of the EU economies, both for government environmental protection and specialized providers, public and private environmental protection. Further and deeper analyses performed showed different situations for specific countries and even a negative relation between GDP and government environmental protection for specific cases. First published online 18 November 2019

The recent pandemic crisis led to a drop in tourism, and it highlighted the connection between tourism, healthcare, environmental concerns and well-being. In this context, the purpose of the research is to clarify the relationship between tourism, happiness, healthcare and environmental expenditure. Statistical data provided by the World Bank, Eurostat and the World Happiness Database from the EU27 countries, from 2000 to 2019, were used. In order to investigate the relationship between these indicators, the panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) method was used. In the long run, happiness and environmental and healthcare expenditure have a statistically significant and positive impact on tourism arrivals and receipts. It follows that a 1% increase in happiness supports between 4% and 9% of international tourism, while a 1% increase in environmental expenditure supports an increase of 2% in international tourism. Additionally, there is a significant interaction between happiness and either environmental or healthcare expenditure in the long run. This means that increasing happiness diminishes the effect of the later on tourism arrivals and receipts. No short-term relationship was identified between arrivals and any of the above-mentioned variables. In the same context, healthcare expenditure has a negative short-term effect on tourism receipts. The research contributes to the literature by suggesting that increasing national happiness, healthcare and environmental expenditure has a beneficial spillover effect on tourism arrivals and receipts in the long run.

Robots have been used in joint attention (JA) tasks with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, very few studies compared JA performance of children with ASD with typically developing children (TD) when interacting with a robotic partner and a traditional human partner. This study aims to: (a) to explore whether there are differences in response to and initiation of JA between ASD and TD children with two interactive partners: an adult and a social robot (NAO); and (b) to explore which characteristics of ASD children predicting their performance in robot-assisted JA tasks. Twenty-seven ASD and forty TD children were involved in this study in which they were exposed to diffident JA tasks. Mixed results were found per type of JA behavior over groups and conditions. Our results show that both ASD and TD children performed better with the human partner than with the robot in response to JA tasks. Among the characteristics of ASD children, ADOS total score is associated with response to JA performance. No significant result related to initiation of JA was found.

In this paper we aimed to build a composite financial index for measuring the financial health of the companies listed in the AERO (Alternative exchange in Romania) market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange. We used a principal component analysis in order to build this composite financial index using the rates of return, liquidity and the management of 25 companies listed in the AERO market for the period 2011&ndash, 2018. We conceived this composite indicator as a score function that established according to the numerical values that result from its application when a company was financially healthy, when it had a poor financial health and when it was financially stable. In order to test the financial health of the selected SMEs (small and medium enterprises), we used the one sample t-test under the model of the study and the three classifications of Z (Z &lt, 0&mdash, companies with poor financial health, 0 &le, Z &le, 0.5&mdash, companies with good financial health and Z &gt, companies with very good financial health). In this study we also aimed to identify the possible correlations between the solvency rate and the financial health index and between solvency rate and the evolution of some economic and financial measures of the companies&rsquo, activities. The results of the regression analysis using panel data showed a positive and statistically significant relation between solvency and the three rates (rates of return, of liquidity and of management, respectively) determined using the analysis of the principal components. The former model of the solvency rate identified correctly 94.9% of the SMEs with poor financial health, 40% of the SMEs with stable financial health and 72.2% of the SMEs with good financial health.

This paper offers an analysis of Edward Schillebeeckx’s insights on different perceptions of revelation as related to concepts like salvation, God, church, human experience and creation in the work...

Local administration is a major actor, both stakeholder and beneficiary, in the cross-border cooperation actions. However, there are very few references in the literature investigating the opinion of public managers and employees involved in implementing cross-border cooperation programs regarding the effectiveness of CBC projects. In this paper we address this issue, by reviewing the relevant literature and mostly by presenting the results of own survey-based researches conducted on field. This article captures the opinion of managers and staff regarding the transformations generated by involvement in cross-border actions in Bihor – Hajdú-Bihar Euroregion.

Robots have been gradually leaving laboratory and factory environments and moving into human populated environments. Various social robots have been developed with the ability to exhibit social behaviors and collaborate with non-expert users in different situations. In order to increase the degree of collaboration between humans and the robots in human–robot joint action systems, these robots need to achieve higher levels of interaction with humans. However, many social robots are operated under teleoperation modes or pre-programmed scenarios. Based on homeostatic drive theory, this paper presents the development of a novel collaborative behavior controller for social robots to jointly perform tasks with users in human–robot interaction (HRI) experiments. Manual work during the experiments is reduced, and the experimenters can focus more on the interaction. We propose a hybrid concept for the behavior decision-making process, which combines the hierarchical approach and parallel-rooted, ordered, slip-stack hierarchical architecture. Emotions are associated with behaviors by using the two-dimensional space model of valence and arousal. We validate the usage of the behavior controller by a joint attention HRI scenario in which the NAO robot and a therapist jointly interact with children.

Migration is a complex phenomenon with economic, social, political, cultural and human implications, and therefore, it is the locus of interest for many researchers from various fields. After 1989, migration in Romania became a social issue due to the large number of migrants searching for labour all around Europe. This paper focuses on investigating and forecasting labour migration from Romania and its geographical orientation. We analysed the gravity model, which simple and accurate, focused on the distance as a determinant of the length of the mobility and, thus, of the host country chosen by the migrant. Based on the proposed macroeconomic model, we discuss results for main destinations countries, i.e. Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany, as well as for EU as a whole.

Social robots have been proven beneficial in different types of healthcare interventions. An ongoing trend is to develop (semi-)autonomous socially assistive robotic systems in healthcare context to improve the level of autonomy and reduce human workload. This paper presents a behavior control system for social robots in therapies with a focus on personalization and platform-independence. This system architecture provides the robot an ability to behave as a personable character, which behaviors are adapted to user profiles and responses during the human–robot interaction. Robot behaviors are designed at abstract levels and can be transferred to different social robot platforms. We adopt the component-based software engineering approach to implement our proposed architecture to allow for the replaceability and reusability of the developed components. We introduce three different experimental scenarios to validate the usability of our system. Results show that the system is potentially applicable to different therapies and social robots. With the component-based approach, the system can serve as a basic framework for researchers to customize and expand the system for their targeted healthcare applications.

he hereby work plans on analysing to what extent the life expectancy is subject to the influence by different markers, like: GDP, the percentage of GDP allocated for the health system, as well as the income level in Romania and Ukraine. We consider that a comparative analysis between the two countries is representative since, as it results from the data and the diagrams presented within the work, both the GDP evolution and the percentage allocated from GDP for the health system reveal a different evolution, ranging in both countries, unlike the life expectancy going through an ascending trend, slow for both cases. Partially considering the specialized literature in use, our attention was drawn towards the evolution of the income obtained by the people. More precisely, commencing from Keynes’ Basic Psychological Law stipulating that along with the income growth the expenditure on health, education and training the human resource will increase, we have chosen to econometrically test these theories for Romania and Ukraine. Therefore, we would like to research, using a simple linear regression model, whether the income growth, which represents the independent variable, obtained by the people, has a significant contribution in life expectancy (the dependent variable) increase in Romania, as well as in Ukraine.

Tourism can act as an important sector which captures both the attention of public authorities and the interest of people. It is also a main “target” for cross-border cooperation programs, aiming at fostering the role played by local and regional communities in addressing sustainable local development. This paper presents, both theoretically and by using a survey-based research conducted among public administration’s representatives and experts involved in tourism sector, across the Hungarian-Romanian border, some relevant issues concerning the interest and level of involvement of public authorities in cross-border cooperation actions conducted in tourism.

Local communities in border areas, which have been until recently separated by political borders intended to legitimate and defend the essence of the nation-state, discovered in cross-border cooperation (CBC) a facilitator of good neighborly relations, economic opportunities, or a possibility to promote innovative and high-quality public services. At a European level, cross-border cooperation, supported by the integration policies of the EU, highlighted the growing role of local authorities and communities, as stakeholders and beneficiaries alike. This paper presents the results of a survey-based research conducted among managers, experts, and staff from local public administration, across the Hungarian-Romanian border, analyzing their opinion regarding the changes to their institutions brought forth by their involvement in cross-border actions in the Bihor–Hajdu-Bihar Euroregion. It focuses on revealing aspects such as the issue of human resources in local administration, the relationship between CBC projects developed by local administration and the employees’ expectations, involvement in decision-making, and prospects and career satisfaction in (local) public administration. Research results show that the local governments’ involvement in CBC projects should not only consider the opportunities of additional financing sources or improving cross-border relations in various fields (economic, cultural, communication, health, public order, tourism), as the results also reveal specific vulnerabilities and a particular indifference of local administration staff to generous, but often less tangible, objectives of CBC projects. The research also highlights the key role of human resource quality, echoing the role of managers in the selection, retention, and efficient use of human resources, linking the projects’ objectives to individual performance and expectations of a career in public administration.

In the last three decades, robots are placed in the picture by media and are becoming more accessible in daily use. They are proposed not only as part of entertainment and education, but also of care, social assistance and therapy. As such, several institutions from industry are buying social assistive robots and start to use them in classrooms or during therapy sessions without having empirical support and thus, no evidence-based protocols to follow. For example, there has been an increasing interest in Robot Assisted Therapy (RAT) for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder ASD (ASD). While there is much declared as being hopeful and exciting about using robots for treating children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), a great variability in responding towards a robot is observed in children with ASD (Feil-Seifer & Matarić, 2011). Also, researchers declare that it will take much research effort before robots become mainstream in intervention. Moreover, experts are advocating caution and express the need to explore the development path of the child-robot relation. Nevertheless, there is a need to focus on which are the roles and how the robots should embrace them in a therapy setting for children with ASD. Therefore, more longitudinal studies are necessary in order to better approach these questions and provide accurate answers. This study will focus on using a social robot with the role of a model, a cool smart peer that will demonstrate joint attention skills for three children with ASD during a long-term intervention program. Each participant was exposed to three phases: baseline measurements, Robot Modeling Intervention (RMI), and baseline measurements. In each phase JA behaviors were assessed three times per week in a naturalistic environment, such as their classroom during the free-play moment. The RMI intervention proved to be effective for some of the targeted behaviors, such as eye contact and pointing, for two of the three participants. However, the results were highly fluctuating across the participants and thus they remain inconclusive. However, this study offers a valuable insight in the field of both ASD intervention and human robot interaction research fields.

Homeostatic drive theory is a popular approach for decision-making of robot behavior in social robotic research. It is potentially to be used in social therapies. To increase the involvement of end-users in the robot’s control, we present an end-user interface allowing the therapists to generate homeostatic behavior for NAO robot in social skills training for children. We demonstrate the system by two interactions in which the robot homeostatic behavior is adapted to children’s behavior. The result shows that the system provides a practical solution for therapists to implement interaction scenarios to robot behavior.