The development of well-designed food safety management systems that take into consideration the potential risks and threats to an organization and their associated impacts to business operations should be a key goal for each organization operating in the food supply chain. This study provides quantitative empirical evidence about the motivations for implementing a food safety management system based on ISO 22000. By employing factor analysis and multiple linear regression, it analyses the benefits that the ISO 22000 certified companies gained through certification, as well as the main constraints that may prevent the adoption of the standard in the food industry. The survey is based on a sample of Romanian companies distributed at all levels of the food chain, but mainly at the production level. While there exist external pressures that lead companies to adopt a food safety management system based on ISO 22000, the motivations that are most relevant in this decision are generally internal in nature. The results of our study identify three major benefits of ISO 22000 certification: food safety improvement and provision of safer products, reduction of illness and other risks arising from food and improvement of consumers' confidence. Also, it points out three constraints limiting the dissemination and use of ISO 22000: employees' qualification, costs associated with food safety management system implementation and legal requirements.

The paper explores how business continuity management (BCM) is defined within the professional and academic communities that work in the field or research it. It sets out the framework for the composing elements of a BCM that emerge and considers how these various elements can interact with each other to build a sound business continuity management. Also, the paper aims to examine the organization’s critical functions that ensure an effective BCM. The research relies on a questionnaire-based survey, with data collected by personally interviewing top and middle-level managers from Romanian small and medium-sized companies. The results, which count on the responses of 119 participant companies, show that risk assessment takes a critical role in building the organization’s BCM strategy, while business continuity response planning has the strongest impact on the overall effectiveness of the organization’s BCM. The novelty of this research lies in a first time establishment of the critical functions that are vital for companies to maintain their essential business operations in case of disruptive incidents, to build organizational resilience. Future research should be grounded on testing if the BCM arrangements and business impact analysis influence the BCM strategy as the existing data did not prove that it did.

Innovation is among the pursuits of any modern organization nowadays, constituting the core of collective progress and of competitive advantage. The global rising tendency in competitiveness urges companies, public institutions and other community actors to adhere to this naturally evolutionary pattern that occurs in any kind of system. To achieve welfare in a context of continuous changes, an organization has to make sure that its processes are perfectly aligned to its mission. Additionally, having a clear picture on its innovation capability, meaning the ability of producing a valuable output by transforming internal collective knowledge, enables it to follow the road to success. In the case of traditional enterprises, which pursue profit accumulation, evaluating the innovation capability is done on the basis of clearly defined instruments, but when referring to social enterprises, a variety of factors come in place and make the evaluation more difficult. The scarce current research done concerning the assessment of innovation capability for social enterprises makes this topic meaningful to be explored, so their societal purpose can be better delivered. Thus, the aim of the paper is to formulate a framework for determining the innovation capability of Romanian social enterprises by building on the good practices reflected by innovation projects in the social field, funded through the Horizon 2020 programme at EU scale. The research methodology resides on two pillars. In the first place, it contains literature review on the concepts of innovation, social innovation, innovation capability and the instruments used to assess it. Secondly, it brings together the exemplary undertakings of multiple social innovation projects delivered through the Horizon 2020 programme and concentrated into online reports, accessible through its website.

In the present context, defined by a variety of social changes, social advancement is a key point that needs to be sheltered and ensured both in Romania as well as at the level of the European Union, in order to have a coherent European space, to reach and maintain a high level of social and economic welfare. The improvement of the social domain can be triggered by using the principles of the European Social Model, which incorporates values and institutions specially established to protect the integrity of people who are socially disadvantaged. Thus, the paper aims, on one hand, to analyze literature review aspects of the European Social Model as being a social development one and to identify the criteria according to which progress is established in relationship with this model. On the other hand, another goal of the paper is to make a comparative analysis between Romania's performance in the context of Central and Eastern European countries' situation. The purpose of the analysis is to diagnose the progress recorded and the social area in which it took place, as well as the differences between countries. The focus of the analysis will be placed on poverty and social exclusion, as dimensions of the European Social Model. The methodology that will help in undertaking the research comprises two elements: literature review and document analysis. The literature review component involves pinpointing information obtained from scientific articles about the European Social Model and aspects associated with it, available in online databases. The second part of the methodology refers to document analysis, which supposes the assessment of reports issued by organizations that provide such statistical data (Eurostat, World Bank, Social Progress Imperative).

Competitiveness is a prerequisite for development and a critical ingredient for enabling national welfare in the nowadays challenging world, being more and more debated and approached by researchers and policymakers at the same time. Following these considerations, the article aims to illustrate Romania’s competitiveness ranking in fighting poverty and ensuring a decent level of living to people relative to the European Union’s positioning, through indicators comprised within the European Social Progress Index and the Global Competitiveness Index. The concern for this topic is backed up by prior research performed with respect to Romania’s social and economic competitiveness, claiming that the country has managed to improve its standing among European Union member states but it still has to struggle to get even better by following the best practices of these nations. Thus, there is a relentless need for the consolidation of both its economic cohesion by altering the quality of its infrastructure and institutions, as well as its social status through investments in education, knowledge and innovation. As for the methodology, the analysis of Romania’s competitiveness degree will firstly incorporate a literature review section, comprising poverty, competitiveness and competitiveness obtainment tools. The evaluation will also rely on document analysis of secondary data concerning competitiveness indicators retrieved from the websites of the institutions issuing them, namely Social Progress Imperative and World Economic Forum. The research intends to clarify how Romania can become more competitive in social terms, what fields require substantial progress and what the European Union countries can teach us in this sense.

Developmental gaps between urban and rural areas are a trademark of nowadays times, accelerated by economic models that ensure advancement chances mostly to urban hubs, rather than being focused on rural life. The Sustainable Development Goals issued by the United Nations and their desired implementation by 2030 is a first guarantee for an equitable and inclusive societal and economic framework. Currently, Romania lacks rural investments and a forward-looking attitude is much needed to reach the sustainability objectives. In addition, smart rural development, which fosters knowledge, innovation and R&D at village level is a viable tool in laying the groundwork for rural welfare, in response to issues such as migration from rural to urban, demographic ageing and poverty. Despite the multitude of programs tackling rural development at EU scale, Romania appears to perform poorly, even if its population is highly ruralized. In light of these matters, the paper conducts literature review analysis on smart rural development and sustainable development in Romania, to highlight the current performance of Romanian villages in this concern. Using literature and document analysis of Horizon 2020 programs on rural development conducted in the European Union, the aim is to identify the specific points to be addressed by decision makers in order for sustainable advancement of Romanian villages to be further enhanced.

Holding employees who are highly motivated and who illustrate fulfilment in respect to their work is a catalyst of positive change for nowadays organizations, who perform operations in quickly changing circumstances. Such individuals are known to engage more in organizational citizenship behaviour and steer away from deviant workplace behaviour. As employees display different personality traits and work-related motivation, only organizations which know how to properly engage their personnel, foster organizational citizenship actions and nurture ethical conduct within all organizational levels can attain a leading position on the market. The paper aims to examine the extent to which the socio-economic wellbeing influences ‘good’ or ‘bad’ behaviours at work and/or at school. The paper’s objectives are twofolded: (1) to understand if there is a causal relationship between the socio-economic wellbeing of individuals and their behaviour at work or/and at school; (2) to determine the extent to which the socioeconomic wellbeing contributes to shaping a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ behaviour at work or/and at school. Correlations and simple linear regression model were employed to understand the predictive power of the socio-economic wellbeing on behaviour once a causal relationship has been confirmed. Results show that the perceived ambition to obtain a high social status, accumulate wealth and become rich and powerful predicts positively a ‘bad’ behaviour and negatively a ‘good’ behaviour.

The usual and rather linear functioning of a country’s economic and social structures is mandatory for setting stable grounds towards wellbeing. However, disruptions may appear in the ordinary flow of a community and produce a new order of action, prompting social ecosystems to focus on core operations. The COVID-19 pandemic, that has profoundly affected humanity in 2020 on multiple channels, has imposed a novel strategic thinking both for individuals and businesses, demanding an enhanced societal approach more than ever. Faced with such a major crisis, known in literature as a “black swan” event, social enterprises must show developed capabilities, flexibility and proactivity. Given the inaccurate evidence of social enterprises activating in Romania and of the limited studies focusing on their risk-response behavior, the paper explores the impact triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic over social entrepreneurship and in particular on Romanian social enterprises. To investigate the ability of these entities to successfully cope with this groundbreaking challenge, the paper firstly performs a literature review analysis on the reorganization of the social and economic sphere, in light of the pandemic. Furthermore, it approaches the challenges posed by the pandemic on traditional and social entrepreneurship, together with their reshaping of organizational resilience. Building on literature review and on document analysis of reports regarding essential actions to be embraced to maintain stability during the COVID-19 crisis, issued by renowned consultancy companies and organizations supporting social enterprises, the paper formulates an instrument for mapping the ability of Romanian social enterprises to overcome the pandemic threats.