In the last decades, our society and the economy have undergone great changes that led to the emergence of new economic models. These models emerged in the developed countries. Subsequently, the informational revolution has expanded across the globe, and contributed to the development of these new models. The sharing economy is one of them. Through technology and the internet, tools that provide instant access to information from anywhere in the world, the collaborative economy expands and grows continuously. This allows for easier interaction between people of all categories. The aim of this paper is to highlight the challenges, opportunities and benefits brought by the sharing economy regarding the national and international tourism, as well as to find out to what extent is the availability, accessibility, consumer and stakeholders' degree of acceptance towards the current technological infrastructure. The paper contains the analysis of a study case regarding the Airbnb business model, company that has been involved in the economic transition of the last years and contributed to the emergence of the sharing economy. As well, the article contains a study of collected data with regards to the distributed spaces on the company's site from 5 Romanian cities, and 5 European cities, in a certain period, statistical data regarding the online bookings made in member countries of the European Union, and data about the accommodation units in Romania, the number of overnight stays and arrivals. This research is useful for all individuals or legal entities involved in the tourism field in order to acknowledge in what way and to what extent the accommodation units in Romania are evaluated and rated. Moreover, the possible options for touristic improvement and development through the sharing economy, in terms of quality, technological infrastructure and approach are evaluated. We consider that it is important how the sharing economy impacts and influences Romania to a lesser extent, and what repercussions or changes will occur in the future. between consumers and providers, increased quality, knowledge of other cultures, traditions, habits, innovative technologies and so on.Airbnb offers the opportunity to travel at low prices, even by last minute booking, personalized services, and many other benefits, such as discounts, gift cards etc. It has a negative impact on local hotel revenue, due to the viable, familiar types of accommodation, as opposed to the traditional types of standardized accommodation, as well as, the infrastructure and instant accessibility. As well, Airbnb has been accused of tax evasion and unfair competition towards hotels, hostels, motels. However, it continues to expand.Regarding the Romanian tourism, it is directly affected by the sharing economy. More and more Romanians are starting to open to the online environment and services. This happens due to the interaction with foreign tourists, innovative technologies and easy access to internet and information.

Nowadays, the use of smartphones has become essential for daily activities that have either a personal or professional purpose. A large number of resources is necessary for both the production and the use of these devices, which means that solutions in terms of sustainability are needed. The purpose of this research is to highlight the concept of sustainability when talking about smartphones, as well to underline the possibilities that exist for the consumers. This study examines the habits of young consumers in Romania, the reasons behind a mobile phone replacement, and the factors that influence the purchase decision. The methodology section follows quantitative and qualitative market research. An analysis was performed in order to have a deep understanding of trends in terms of mobile phone ownership and preferred brands. This study also provides a general view on the neglectfulness of the young population of Romania regarding the dangers to which the environment is exposed because of the purchasing habits that go against sustainability. For accomplishing this purpose, important results have been discovered through the analysis of the data obtained from self-administered questionnaires and interviews. The results show that people are usually using only one mobile phone at a time and they change it once every two years for sustainability and financial reasons. The same applies when it comes to choosing a certain brand. The reasons behind the purchase of a new phone and the decisions regarding an old one are based on healthy principles of the circular economy and sustainability. The preferences in terms of technology and design, and the decision process are correlated with incomes.

Our paper tackles the development of media reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the January - November 2020 time span, in France, Germany, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. We aim to make media reporting transparent on two dimensions: the coverage of COVID-19-related topics and the negativity of the COVID-19 media reporting. To achieve this goal, we analysed a large news dataset with 841,415 pieces of news—including 202,608 COVID-19 media reports—on an LSTM neural network. The news sentiment data and the corresponding coverage are set in relation to the WHO data on COVID-19 and to Google Trends. This compares the reality, that is WHO data, the perceived and reported reality, that is news data, and the actions based on the perceived and the actual reality, that is Google Trends. The results show that media reporting on COVID-19 is unprecedented in terms of coverage and negativity. Furthermore, the study quantifies how far media reporting detached from the facts after the first wave of COVID-19 and how an Infodemic spread across Europe.<br>

The transition to a circular economy in which the value of products, materials and resources is maintained as long as possible and the waste is minimized, has led to the creation of new business opportunities and new, innovative and efficient production and consumption models. Over the last few years, the principles of the circular economy have been gradually integrated into several sectors, the consumer electronics industry being such an example. The applicability of the circular economy principles in this sector has been presented in the literature, but these approaches have taken into account, in particular, the physical, tangible components of electronic products, focusing on the existing interrelationships between the circular economy and the production and use of electronic devices and equipment. Given that electronic products often incorporate intangible components, namely the software necessary for their operation, we have chosen to address in this paper the problems of the circular economy from this perspective, the purpose of this paper being to emphasize the relation between the use of software products and the principles of circular economy.Thus, the paper presents the main opportunities and challenges that circular economy involves for all stakeholders, namely manufacturers of electronic goods and developers of the related software and their users. In order to determine the way consumers capitalize the possibilities to reuse the software components of IT products they use (computers, tablets, mobile phones), we have undertaken an exploratory research that took place between October and November 2017 on the basis of a structured questionnaire posted online and applied to Romanian young people, the number of respondents being 257. Research has shown the respondents easily adapt to new versions of software when they change their phone or laptop and there is a frequent transfer of equipment without considering the possibilities of reuse the software because when the respondents alienate these devices also delete the installed software.

No abstract