Automation and digitalization, as long-term evolutionary processes, cause significant effects, such as the transformation of occupations and job profiles, changes to employment forms, and a more significant role for the platform economy, generating challenges for social policy. This systematic literature review aims to provide an overview of the research to date related to influences of the Industry 4.0 Revolution on human capital development and consumer behavior. A search on the Web of Science identified 160 papers that met the inclusion criteria. The major objectives aimed to identify: the main types of influences of the Industry 4.0 Revolution on human capital development and consumer behavior; the main opportunities and challenges for new directions in education associated with shifting the work environment; and the drivers for human capital development and consumer behavior through the lenses of the Industry 4.0 Revolution. The results revealed some key aspects for the development of human capital: information, new jobs, the Internet, technology, training, education, new skills, automation, communication, innovativeness, professionals, productivity, artificial intelligence, digitalization, e-recruitment, and the Internet of Things, as well as the main drivers of consumer behavior: information, e-commerce, digitalization, the Internet of Things, e-distribution, technology, digitalization, automation, personalized, performance, artificial intelligence, behavior intention, e-shopping, and data mining.

Abstract:The recent transformation of the national economies has raised numerous theoretical and practical aspects in measuring economic growth, welfare, environmental performance, and competitiveness, representing a challenging research topic within the context of economic paradigm transformation. Despite its importance, a fully operational model to be used in any context has not yet been designed. The main aim of this paper is to evaluate and analyze the macroeconomic dimension of the three determinants of sustainable competitiveness: the economic environment, the social environment, and the natural environment, at both the European and Romanian levels. This paper used the Hierarchical Clustering methodology, aiming at evaluating the global competitiveness in terms of a sustainable development model, using four indices: Human Development Index, Environmental Performance Index, Global Competitiveness Index, and GDP per capita. The clusters were designed on the basis of the role of the indices in assessment of the sustainable performances of the countries and also of the possible convergences between them. The results could sustain the conclusion that these indices are not able to offer an exhaustive image of the sustainable performances assessment. A new complex indicator could be considered in order to design a convergence model for the EU member states.

This article proposes a synthetic analysis of the development level of regions in Romania with the concentration/diversification model, using Gini coefficients and Lorenz curve, based on the current statistical indicators. Knowing the degree of concentration and also the influence factors is useful in making decisions and setting regional policy measures. The analysis of regional disparities based on a series of data and indicators provided by The Romanian National Institute of Statistics for 2007–2016. The main findings highlight a deepening of the regional disparities in Romania in 2016 compared with 2007 explained mainly by the fact that the Bucharest–Ilfov region registered an economic development much above the other regions.

This chapter has considered the recent changes occurring in consumer habits, aiming to highlight the link between them and the transition to a green economy. In the first part, after a brief introduction, the authors perform a review of the literature in the field, starting from the presentation of the concept of sustainable consumption. They start with the major changes in the social current economic environment and their impact on changes of the consumption patterns; they continue with the presentation of the changes of the consumption pattern in the European Union and the specific aspects of the current changes of the consumption patterns in Romania. Thus, the authors aim to identify the key features of the New European Consumer.

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This article describes how organic farming is a dynamic sector in Romania, which has showed an upward trend in recent years. Although the Romanian market of organic food is still far from the developed markets, an increasing trend in the demand for organic products has appeared among consumers. This pattern can be explained, on the one hand, by increasing the Romanian consumers' access to information and on the other hand, by the increasing living standard. Accordingly, this evolution has required adjustments to the offer. In this regard, there is an increase in the number of operators in the organic farming system. Development opportunities remain very high if we consider the potential of the bio-agricultural area of Romania and annual rhythm of the number of certifications of organic operators in developed EU countries. In this context, we can state that organic farming plays an important role, contributing significantly to sustainable development.

Although the European business environment induces important premises and assures conditions in determining economic growth and social well-being, the determinant and existent connections between the evolution of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), business demography characteristics and the European socio-economic model have been scarcely studied in recent years. The dimensions of the European socio-economic model design a very specific framework in developing business demography and assuring a favorable environment for future SME development. The main aim of the manuscript is to investigate the evolution of the European SMEs sector and the perspective of business demography evolution to converge with exigencies of the European socio-economic model. In order to argue the research objective, eight specific and representative business demography variables were employed, from 12 European Union member states (EU-MS), during 2009–2017. Further, the SMEs’ performances, determined by changing the economic functional paradigm, were assessed. For proving this, an econometric model was designed considering labor productivity as an endogenous variable. Our preliminary analysis shows considerable differences in business demography indicators and SMEs development among all five socio-economic sub-models of the main European socio-economic model, proving a tight connection between European socio-economic models and SMEs’ performance and arguing the necessity of a paradigm convergence. Within some sub-models, there is clear evidence of clustering and convergence in terms of business demography and SMEs future development.

This chapter aimed to identify those factors that determine the green consumer satisfaction, having as the emerging point the consumer behavior definition and the sustainable development concept. The authors propose a new approach of the dimensions of the evaluation model for customer satisfaction including a new one, called The Green Dimension. An important goal was identifying the drivers of the consumer purchasing. The authors identified three main areas of the green dimension of customer satisfaction. They are related to Company, Product/service, and Price. Then some considerations regarding an integrated approach of strategic mix from a ‘green' perspective have been presented. According to research from Boston Consulting Group, in order to obtain a Green Advantage, companies should enhance their strategic mix taking into considerations green planning, green processes, green product, and green promotion. The authors added two more elements, namely people and eco-efficiency, resulting “The Green Strategy Mix”.