No abstract

The healthcare systems of European countries currently face challenges regarding the sustainability of healthcare provision. The growing sophistication of new technologies is transforming the accessibility and management of health services and information, while also challenging society’s ability to offer fair access to health services for all people. The aim of this paper is to identify and analyze some of the determinants of the self-perceived health status across the EU28 area and to determine how the digitalization of health is impacting the self-rated health of the European populations, given the fact that a healthier population is one of the 17 goals of sustainable development on the 2030 Agenda. The research method used is panel-data regression using secondary data from international databases. The results indicate that there is a direct relationship between the way people are assessing personal health, the ability to use the Internet for seeking health-related information, and the use of various apps to purchase health-related items online. Our findings are useful for academics, industry specialists, and public authorities in designing sustainable health products and policies by focusing on the development of suitable mHealth programs for generating more patient-centered services where the idea of self-care is encouraged.

This paper studies specific aspects related to the adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and the impact they have on the sustainable growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Romanian IT industry. It was considered that digital marketing in general, and IoT in particular, have enormous potential for the aforementioned entities, and the acceptance and adoption of IoTs by companies in different sectors can significantly influence the way they operate, leading to sustainable growth. Primary data obtained from quantitative marketing research based on a questionnaire were analyzed. The results showed that although a large proportion of the Romanian IT industry SMEs use advanced marketing technologies, relatively few of those have integrated IoT solutions to date, mainly due to specific cost challenges. Nevertheless, the outcomes highlight that these companies are aware of the IoT’s benefits and place the adoption of such solutions among their priorities in order to achieve sustainable growth of their businesses. Based on the research results, the main proposal for the business environment is to design viable marketing programs for these companies, as well as to allocate resources for business development aimed at educating human resources to effectively address specific internal and external activities through IoT for sustainable development.

Over the recent years, online communication and collaboration applications have been extensively used in teaching, learning, and research. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the attitudes and perceptions of higher education students concerning these applications and their use in learning activities. The research was conducted on 748 Romanian students. The findings have revealed that social networks represent the main category of communication and collaboration applications used for learning purposes. Additionally, gender-induced differences have been found, as well as variances among undergraduates and graduates by several dimensions of the unified technology acceptance model, while students' learning engagement proved to mediate the relationship between personality traits, technology self-efficacy, and the use of collaboration tools. The paper also offers a comparative analysis between the students' and the academics' responses to the use of online communication and collaboration applications in the same cultural and organizational context. Practical implications are also presented.

In the context of aligning South Eastern European countries to the EU requirements, the aim of this paper is to provide solutions for improving the relationship between the market of higher education services and labour market in Romania. For achieving this aim, a quantitative marketing research was developed regarding the economist students' opinions on the training level provided by higher education institutions for labour market integration. The research sample includes 1683 students from 9 representative Romanian universities. Research objectives were to quantify the economist students' interest in being employed during the study period, the type of knowledge provided by higher education institutions, the essential skills and competences to be acquired during college study.