While rural communities have always struggled with factors like marginalisation, low entrepreneurial development, high unemployment, low education and poor health services, the COVID-19 crisis brings extra pressure by reducing close-contact interactions and by introducing travel and hygiene restrictions. Cultural heritage has represented for many rural communities a competitive advantage in their economic development, either already exploited or seen as an opportunity. The problem of this process in the new COVID-19 context is represented by a demand and supply shock, caused by the stop of direct labour, high decrease of acquisitions and cease of travel. In these new economic and social circumstances, it is important to explore the way the COVID19 crisis impacts rural heritage rich communities and which are possible further actions in order to ensure a return to dynamic social and economic interactions. The present paper will bring into focus the concepts of Low Touch Economy and Social Economy as a support in dealing with these new economic and social conditions and will prospect possible intertwining between the two. Presented as a literature review and an exploration, the paper brings into focus the brand new concept of Low Touch Economy presented by Board of Innovation, a business design and innovation strategy firm located in Netherlands.

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This paper aims to illustrate in the context of the challenges of the Europeanization process what kind of cooperation models there exist between nature-based tourism companies and the critical stakeholder groups effecting the business activities and social sustainability of the companies. The following topics are part of our current research: which are the cooperation strategy; which are the management models applied in countries with competitive market and strong innovation policy; which are the costs of implementing innovation policies for cooperation strategies enhancing the innovation in nature based tourism services; which barriers avoid the entrepreneurship development and how innovative can be the firm management. We intend to analyze the importance of stakeholders and policy influence enhancing the innovation in nature based tourism service, in Greece, Austria, Finland and Romania case studies. The research will continue with a comparison between these cases, including the perspective of supporting entrepreneurship and regional competitiveness in Romania.

The research aim was to identify the training needs of entrepreneurs and employees within small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from the Suceava, Chernivtsi, and Bălți regions, to analyze the specific training practices in the cross-border area, and to identify the common features or the disparities. The research contains an exploratory survey, based on a semi-structured questionnaire that investigates the training needs in the SMEs and specific training practices with a comparative approach. The results relate to the challenges faced by transformation economies and by the specificities of SMEs from these remote areas. Additionally, the research connects the factors involved in planning and delivering training programs for employees in SMEs in this EU peripheral area with the weaknesses of the companies in facing the market competitive economy. The results of the survey disclosed some common features and specificities related to training needs, training responsibilities, and interests in the SMEs from this cross-border area. The discussions are relevant for different categories of stakeholders, at the micro-level, for the management of the companies, but also on a larger scale, in planning the new development programs for the labor market in the targeted areas.