Insights on the impact of telecommunication companies on the environment

To perform their business operations, telecommunication companies need to consume energy. This paper aims to analyze and compare the energy consumption and their greenhouse gas emissions for there of the biggest telecommunication companies: Vodafone, Orange and Telekom. Although the scientific literature proposed some analysis on the environmental measures that the telecommunication companies have to take, there is a shortage of researchers focused on GRI reporting data and the pairwise comparison method. The authors compared these telecommunication companies’ emissions under the following criteria: energy consumption (GRI 302-1), scope 1 (GRI 305-1), scope 2 (GRI 305-2) and scope 3 (GRI 305-3) greenhouse gas emissions, reduction of emissions (GRI 305-5), using the pairwise comparison method. To reduce their emissions, companies developed a sustainability strategy. This paper will further emphasize what are the plans to reduce emissions for the company which, following the analysis, pollutes the most. To provide an overview of the future of the company which, by the analysis, pollutes the most, the authors have identified and analyzed what are the main actions that the company should take to reduce their impact on the environment. To do so, the authors firstly analyze the causes of the pollution produced by the telecommunication company using Ishikawa diagram. Then, it identifies what are the main organizational processes that can be improved using APQC standardization, to show that the improvement can be made if the organization adjusts their organizational processes. This paper is an enhancement to the studies form the field because it provides a comparative analysis on three of the most competitive telecommunication companies in the world, uses GRI criteria and pairwise comparison method and gives an overview on the next steps for the telecommunication company to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Smart grids, prosumers and energy management within a smart city integrated system

Due to a significant increase in electricity consumption globally, governments have to look and to identify better, more efficient and effective alternatives and sustainable energy sources to meet this high demand. This becomes more and more important in the context of implementing modern approaches such as those that might be applied in cases of smart cities and cultural and creative communities. Electricity can be produced based on conventional sources, but also on an emergent use of renewable sources. The electricity grid is usually designed as unidirectional. We consider that in case of smart cities and creative-innovative communities there is a need to implement mostly new smart grids that are bidirectional. This may allow and support the emergency of a new type of electricity user, called “prosumers”, who produces electricity from renewable sources, next uses & shares them smartly within the smart grid and finally stores them. Globally, photovoltaic energy prosumers are considered one of the most important actors in the energy transition and seem to be ready to introduce significant amounts of electricity within the grid. We anticipate that people living in households in smart cities and communities among most regions of the world will tend in the future to improve their self-consumption from the production of smart energy. This paper supports the idea that using mostly electricity from renewable alternative sources, especially solar, can be also developed with the help of households acting within smart cities and communities. The paper will also present briefly an overview of the scientific literature dedicated to this topic. We will also provide further interesting insights through a number of case studies representing good practices regarding prosumers in Italy and Romania.

Indefinite vs. fixed-term work contracts: the impact over the teachers’ work-engagement

A teacher’s work during the school year should be seen as a marathon or as a sprint? This paper intends to contribute to the expanding body of literature on the work-engagement issues of education employees from a perspective of strategic human resources management. It investigates how the length of their working contracts influences the level of engagement shown for their work. It was assumed that the existence of an indefinite or a fixed-term work contract brings up aspects such as stability, predictability and coherence for a teacher’s work, all thought to be parts of a positive engagement state of mind. Nevertheless, the acknowledgement and the acceptance of a short time collaboration could bring just as good results if the focus remains on the present moment. In order to gain a better understanding it was performed a quantitative research materialized in a questionnaire, answered by school teachers employed under both forms of contracts. The findings of this study are of value for any of the educational field stakeholders as the system’s human resources are the most valuable asset for a qualitative result. In the end, implications of a predominant engaged or disengaged stuff will be discussed and human resources management suggestions will be made.

The impact of international economic sanctions on national economies. The Islamic Republic of Iran - a case in point

This paper explores the impact of economic sanctions on national economies, with specific focus on Iran. It starts by conceptualizing sanctions in the set of economic policies and include them in the framework of economic statecraft, according to literature available. Several hypotheses that attempt to anticipate the form of sanctions are advanced, according to the intensity of geopolitical competition among the states. The analysis uses the case study of the regime of United States’ sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Tehran and P5+1 powers (the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany) agreed on a deal regulating the nuclear program of Iran - Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, meaning that Iran would reduce its nuclear activities drastically in exchange of lifting economic sanctions. In spite of the initial enthusiasm, United States announced in May 2018 the unilateral withdrawal from the deal and reinstating the sanctions regime, spiking new tensions in the relation with Iran. As a result, the paper discusses the context in which Iran tries to pursue economic goals in order to ensure resilience, while the US imposes more pressure. In addition, the study also approaches the dilemma whether sanctions can ultimately generate political answers and at what costs. In this context, it is identifying several alternatives in the Iranian case, together with noting the limits of conceptual refinements in terms of sanctions’ theory.

Perspectives and reviews in the use of narrative strategies for communicating fake news in the tourism industry

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’

Improvement of the real estate transparency through digitalisation

Taking into account that the transparency is a quality of communication of sustainability information, as well as the role of digitalisation in ensuring the transparency, we proposed to study the perception of real estate entities related to promoting transparency in the relationship with stakeholders and the integration of information and communication technology in their business models. Applying a qualitative approach, we critically analysed the sustainability reports published by real estate companies from the EU, which represent important non-financial information sources for stakeholders. Transparency is mainly reflected in corporate governance, as real estate entities are increasingly concerned with maintaining open relationships with stakeholders and knowing their expectations to integrate them into the business strategy. We have noticed a broader approach of transparency in REIT entities and in reports that include an assurance statement. New digital technologies serve the purpose of improving transparency, which, although still poorly explored in real estate, offer new solutions to increase the efficiency and productivity of real estate activities. Property technology can improve real estate market transparency and liquidity, bringing lower transaction costs, which should positively impact the value of investment assets.

Innovation indicators in the context of Romanian SMEs: A research agenda

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the theoretical connection between key terms such as innovation indicators and entrepreneurship, highlighting the main trends of innovative activities and practices in the context of Romanian small and medium enterprises. Innovation management has gained an increased interest nowadays since it provides tools for creating competitive advantage and economic growth for enterprises. In this sense, at global and European Union level, innovation indicators have been identified in order to measure the efficiency of innovation. In addition, innovation and entrepreneurship have been connected by scholars, since their application provides business opportunities. Starting from the Europe 2020 Strategy that has innovation as a pillar for reaching economic growth, the present study provides a descriptive analysis of the Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2019 report, followed by a comparative analysis of the European Innovation Scoreboard reports published in the last 5 years. The present paper contributes to the existing knowledge regarding the actual application of innovation indicators in Romanian SMEs. The paper provides an answer to the research questions, which focus on depicting what are the exact innovation indicators that characterize the activities of Romanian SME and what are the trends and weaknesses in the actual business environment in terms of innovative endeavors. This paper provides some recommendations in terms of improvement of innovative efforts for the enterprises that operate in the Romanian market.

The changing landscape of economy: social and technological progress in explaining the informational efficiency of capital markets

In today’s ever-changing landscape of economy, one of the fundamental problems remains whether market mechanisms are functioning in an efficient way, and which are the variables impacting those levels of efficiency. The main objectives of the present paper are to contribute to a better understanding of market mechanisms, by testing the Efficient market hypothesis on its weak form at a macroeconomic level, and to assess the impact of technological and social progress, measured through different variables, on markets informational efficiency. We use an adapted version of L. Kristoufek si M. Vosvrda (L. Kristoufek, M. Vosvrda, 2013, 184) methodology for Efficiency Index, based on long term memory (using 2 estimators), fractal dimension (using 11 estimators), and entropy (estimated through the approximate entropy), in order to assess the levels of efficiency for 20 market indices from both developed and emerging or frontier economies, from the Eurasia region. Further on, by using the Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA), we study the impact of technological and social progress on markets informational efficiency. Main results of the study reveal the existence of a market dynamics characterized by areas with distinctive levels of “informational efficiency”, within both developed and emerging economies, encompassing a non-negligible link between past and present, persistence or anti-persistence, and a high data complexity. Moreover, while studying the relationship between market efficiency and social and technological progress, we observe that variables such as Government Effectiveness, or Control of Corruption, have a positive impact on the levels of efficiency of capital markets, while most of the technological progress estimators (amongst which Computer, communications and other services (% of commercial service exports), or Individuals using the Internet (% of population)), have a negative impact, translated into a decrease of informational market efficiency on the short run (the rise of high frequency trading).

Bioeconomy related perspectives for boosting agriculture development in Romania

Situated at the crossroads between several sectors, from biology, biochemistry, agronomy, management and economy to technology, the bioeconomy represents all uses of bio-resources, whether they come from agricultural land, sea, forest or waste materials. The current bioeconomy strategy of European Union identifies agriculture as one of the sectors mainly supplying biomass. In the last decades, agriculture was constantly transforming towards a knowledge intensive sector. Being almost entirely the physical support for agriculture, the rural regions are expected to become a key player in the development of the bioeconomy activities of the near future. In the modern biobased economies, the rural regions represent more than just a source of raw materials to bioeconomy industries. Future opportunities for the development of the agricultural sector in Romania, thus boosting rural development were identified by conducting a SWOT analysis of the domain through agriculture development.

Placing self-assessed health within the systems framework: a preliminary insight into social synergy and syntony

The issue of self-assessed health (SAH) has been discussed within the scope of multiple interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary studies, gathering the attention and interest of scholars from various fields of study. Emerged at the confluence of subjective and objective measurements, the construct has triggered controversies and debates on its relevance and reliability, yet it is employed in many analyses as a pertinent reference point for individuals’ perceptions regarding their health status or wellbeing. Starting from these considerations, the current study aims to move the discussion further, by placing SAH in a broader argumentative perspective, as a multivalent process dependent on a myriad of individual, social, environmental, digital, etc. factors apposite to complex social systems. Therefore, the specific contribution intended via this approach is the advancement of a preliminary outlook on SAH within the social systems framework with a special emphasis on synergy and syntony. Against the backdrop of a conceptual undertaking, several factors are brought forward – i.e., environmental factors such as housing, neighborhood, residence and social (interactional) factors such as digital exposure, face-to-face communication, and social trust – hewing the path for future in-depth investigations on the topic.