In recent decades, the COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest social and economic crisis that has influenced all aspects of human life. The main purpose of this research paper is to yield a bibliometric analysis in terms of research papers regarding the influence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus on the international economy. Accordingly, the findings will reveal the papers written in the domains of economics, business and business finance, management, hospitality, leisure, sport and tourism. Thus, current areas of research were examined and future study may be proposed. The analysis shows key information concerning the authors, journals, countries and keywords. It may be acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic was of utmost importance for the worldwide researchers. Our judgments and recommendations are supposed to act as a framework to possible research opportunities and conspicuous implications for the economic area.

In the last decade, the banking system has seen increase and decrease, progress and stagnation, resilience and acceptance, in terms of digital. It is desired to automate a growing number of banking processes and adapt customers to the new digital phenomenon. But what actually happened before and during the COVID-19 pandemic? What was the behaviour of the customers? What about the banks? Looking both from the perspective of customers and banks, this research paper presents a comprehensive scrutiny of the impact that the pandemic had. Firstly, the article refers to the general background of Romania, by comparing the financial reports of the five most profitable banks in the national system and by analyzing the situation of cashless or closing local branches. Likewise, it is pursued the strategy embraced by the banks to deal with the global health crisis. Concerning the credit risk highly encountered in 2020, the paper analyzes how it has become more substantial due to the general circumstances, but also provides an overview of the situation in Romania. Furthermore, digitalization has spread to all areas, as lockdown has limited people’s movement, so their quotidian activities needed to be carried out from home. Consequently, banks have been forced to quickly come up with a solution. In this way, e-banking has entered into a new stage. 2020 marked an unforeseen progress, something that banks dreamed of before. Finally, the paper aims to a blunt attempt into what the pandemic has brought to the Romanian banking system, making certain assumptions for the years leading up.

All organizations encounter problems. All organizations are, at some point, in extreme situations, without knowing how to react. All organizations are looking for innovation and want to come up with something ingenious. But, actually, how can these problems be identified, defined and properly solved? Certainly, through design thinking. As a highly effective problem-solving approach, design thinking follows five significant steps, each one being presented in detail in the paper. This method can generate boundless success, yet it can also have no impact, if not exploited accordingly. Thus, in the current research paper, design thinking was linked to three different fields in Romania – education, IT and banking. The choice of education, IT and banking was made precisely due to the discrepancies between these sine-qua-non areas that cannot be excluded from the quotidian and that actively contribute to improving the quality of life. Altogether, the aim was to scrutinize how contrasting organizations consciously or unconsciously apply this innovative technique. Through a quantitative method of research, the degree of acceptability of the design thinking method was observed, but also the organizations’ effective ways for innovation. In this paper, it is identified to which extent solutions lead to or involve aspects of digitalization. Coronavirus pandemic led organizations to shift their processes into the online environment. In fact, during this period of time, organizations faced unprecedented problems that might be solved with the help of digitalization. In this regard, interconnecting digitalization with design thinking might be of real help, under the idea of innovation. The research outcomes reveal an accurate overview of the method use.

In today s economy, the banking industry is crucial in determining the standard of living. The Romanian economy has recently shown a reliance on bank finance, with the banking industry s key goals being to strengthen customer focus, foster digital transformation, and meet consumers needs as they relate to current trends. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the Romanian economy, forcing it to overcome new obstacles in the banking sector. Thus, in order to manage their competitiveness, banks must create a resilience strategy. According to the financial reports, the most profitable Romanian banks in 2021 are: Banca Transilvania (BT), Banca Comercială Română (BCR) and Banca Română pentru Dezvoltare (BRD). These banks have the highest profit margins, with a cumulative 3.5 billion RON, which equates to 55% of the banking profit gain. This paper s primary goals are to: (1) provide a cumulative analysis of banking competitiveness and its key driving factors; and (2) examine the three major commercial banks of Romania - BT, BCR and BRD. Regarding to the five key indicators of banking competitiveness—total assets, net profit, market share, number of branches, and employees—we aimed to conduct a quick analysis of those three largest commercial banks in Romania. These institutions have a direct impact on the whole Romanian banking industry.