The traditional goal of a company is to earn profit to pay its shareholders, but, nowadays, for the business to be sustainable in the long term, a strategy of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities is needed to meet stakeholder demands, respect ethical principles and give an appropriate answer to organizational stakeholders. The objective of the paper is to identify how strong the correlation between CSR and profit is, and how companies behave in the periods they have losses, whether they continue to do CSR activities, they reduce the activities, or they give them up. Thus, CSR is attributed to the concept of "doing good" and profit to the expression of "doing well", from which a "positive business" can be built. Our empirical research consists of a panel data econometric model using logistics regressions to highlight the correlation between profit and the decision to do CSR activities and feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) regressions to identify the correlations between the level of CSR activities and the dimension of profit, an expression of financial performance. The main results emphasize that the companies which implement CSR activities in a greater extent are more profitable in economic terms.

Family businesses represent a large segment of private companies and contribute greatly to economic growth. In this context, the objectives of this paper are to identify the characteristics of Romanian family businesses, starting from their involvement and governance mechanisms, and also to investigate if these specific items allow them to act towards creating sustainable businesses. In order to achieve these objectives, we have used qualitative and quantitative research, consisting of two phases: (a) we have analyzed the reports regarding the Romanian family businesses, in order to identify their characteristics; and (b) we have empirically tested if the characteristics are correlated with company financial performance and social responsibility. The results show that Romanian family businesses are aware of the changes that may appear and that they have started to implement internal processes oriented towards sustainability. Also, the main family involvements in business were ownership, governance, management and succession, which have a correlation with the performance of their company.

The study investigates the current trends that manifest themselves in two areas that have common origins in antiquity, found in the Hellenistic concept of Sophia: present in philosophy, where it expresses the love of wisdom, but also in theology where it represents divine love. Looking at this approach, the Sophia has manifested various orientations, either toward the field of ecology and the environment through the emergence of new concepts, such as ecophilosophy and ecotheology, but also toward the practice applied to the person, through the philosophical counseling or spiritual or pastoral counseling. This paper analyzes the characteristics of the applied trends, ecophilosophy and ecotheology, through their comparative analysis, along with a bibliometric study on papers published on these topics in indexed databases in the last 45 years. The paper presents the openness to innovation, through the emergence of the two concepts analyzed which created methods and tools specific to philosophical or spiritual counseling, and adaptations of these practices to the needs of contemporary society. Therefore, the innovation is sustained by creating a new specialization in community counseling practice, called eco-counseling for community (EC4com), with the new ecological trend, which can be included in the philosophical and spiritual practices applied in communities through individual counseling, for groups or community.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced companies to respond to the threat of this risk and innovate in corporate governance. In order to reduce the risk of illness, one of the most applied measures by all companies was social distancing, but to avoid human interaction, companies had to adapt their communication strategies. The objective of the paper is to assess the risk management of Romanian-listed companies associated with COVID-19 focusing on their business communication with shareholders and stakeholders. To emphasis the communication we have chosen to analyze all public reports during the state of emergency of the companies listed on the main market at the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The empirical analysis consists of a panel data econometric model using maximum likelihood random-effects regression and a logistical regression to highlight the correlations between the dependent variables Public Reports and Business Continuity Plan and the analyzed independent variables. The study showed that in most cases, the companies had at least one public report, especially the one related to the annual shareholders meeting, a percentage of 21% of companies had two public reports, and only 17% of companies have published three or more reports. The companies that communicated the most were the ones belonging to the premium trading category, and the number of published reports was influenced by the communication evaluation indicator, profitability and by the announcement of the donations made.

The premises of the emergence of concepts about nature and the environment led to the emergence of new directions of philosophy, represented by eco-philosophy and ethics applied to the environment. These ideas result from the interference of philosophy with fields dedicated to studying nature and the environment, all of which have led to new currents of thinking that have shown tendencies toward the development of pro-ecological movements, such as the deep ecology movement or ecological humanism. The paper identifies how philosophy can support humanity, and especially communities, to protect the environment and planet in general through a new specialization—the practice of eco-philosophy applied to communities, supporting the need to promote ecological concepts, based on principles and tools taken from philosophy. In order to achieve the objective of the paper, three research questions were stated, and the methodology used consisted of a comparative study of the concepts and a bibliometric analysis of the literature identified for the analyzed fields. The results showed that in previous research, a network was created between the concepts of ecology, philosophy, and ethics. This fact confirms that, to put them into practice, a training program is needed for philosophical consulting practitioners who will apply the knowledge learned in dialogue with individuals or groups, as well as with organizations and the community. The conclusion of the paper supports the development of a dialogue between various areas as a necessary component for developing a sustainable community by implementing new counseling practices for communities, called Eco-Philosophy for Community (EP4com).

Consumer behavior differs from country to country, which may implicitly influence the financial performance of e-commerce companies. The paper’s objective is to study the characteristics of the companies from the Romanian e-commerce market for sustainable competitiveness. The empirical analysis was a quantitative and qualitative one. For the qualitative analysis of the studied sample, variables that represent the specific characteristics of companies were taken into account, the most relevant of which will be included as control variables in econometric models. Research results highlight that the recognized companies registered lower values of financial performance, they influence each other and for the company to improve the customer relationship, they have to invest in brand consolidation. The practical implications can be for managers to focus on companies’ branding, improving customer relations, disclosing more information about the company, the products they sell online, and sustainability actions to have sustainable competitiveness.

The contemporary leadership concept manifests trends of continuous improvement, which is why this paper is an approach to the field from the perspective of philosophical counseling practices, different from current training and development programs for managers. Thus, the new opportunities are identified, which can join business education and personal development programs for leaders. The paper analyzes the characteristics of coaching studies compared to those of philosophical counseling applied in organizations, using the concept of philosophical leadership in order to identify the existence of interdisciplinary links between the two fields. The intensity of these links was studied through the bibliometric analysis performed on the concepts of leadership and philosophy, which were the subject of papers published in relevant journals indexed in the international database Clarivate Analytics–Web of Science Core Collection. The results of the analysis showed a close connection between concepts, which confirms their association. Through the practical applications of philosophy in the leadership, an innovation of the programs takes place of current specialization dedicated to leaders, which contain tools and methods that can be taken from philosophical practices, to achieve high-performance leadership programs. The concept of philosophical leadership can have a sustainable approach which can be included in personal development programs addressed to leaders, and will be delivered in the form of leader service packages, in which other specialists can participate, such as philosophical counseling, who can be successfully involved in the development of the leadership training program (LTP).

The paper presents characteristics of practices in the humanities that can be manifested through specific forms of counseling, namely spiritual or pastoral counseling and philosophical counseling. Through the comparative analysis of the two practices, interdisciplinary links are identified, reflected at the conceptual and applied level, with both their similarities and differences being highlighted, in order to emphasize the originality and the capacity to adapt to the requirements of the field from which they come. The paper supports the new trend of involvement in communities of specific counseling practices by expanding their application potential from person to group and community, with the help of an adaptation process necessary to achieve the goal in order to bring the practice of counseling to as many persons and to community or society in general.