Zoekresultaten

Using tourism statistics : a case study of Sibiu, Romania

Entrepreneurial learning and communities of practice: the case of the cross-border cultural tourism development Bulgaria–Romania

Entering the twenty-first century is not just a step in time, it is coming into a new era where people are craving for valuable change and are willing to become more active in being part of it through both learning as well as community development [Prahalad and Ramaswamy (The future of competition: Co-creating unique value with customers. Harvard Business School Press, 2004a)]. Communities of connected, informed, empowered, and active consumers are challenging the world. According to Nijs (Imagineering the butterfly effect, transformation by inspiration. 11 International Publishing, 2014), “growing connectivity, interdependency, diversity and interactivity has major influences on the way we can create value in society.” Instead of passive users, today’s consumers want to be involved in designing processes. As Hargadon and Bechky argue (Organization Science 17:484–500, 2006), “collective consumer creativity is qualitatively distinct from individual consumer creativity—it occurs when social interactions trigger new interpretations and new discoveries that consumers thinking alone, could not have generated. If we realize that creativity is a systemic—as opposed to individual process, then we are led to broaden our perspective”. Already in 1958 Jacobs approached cities as living beings and ecosystems, unfolding the transformation of the urban environment and the regional development potential, especially for tourism and culture. She suggested that over time, buildings, streets and neighbourhoods function as dynamic organisms, changing in response to how people interact with them. This sentiment is now, more than ever, echoing into the tourism sector evolvement as such and its meaningful interpretation with and for all. How can we encourage innovation and how can we engage customers and participants in creating the future in order to satisfy the needs of the participants? Why is Co-Creating the future for all of us? How can we design (for) the future in order to ignite interaction? According to Tonder (Journal of Industrial Psychology 30(3):53–64, 2004) the new society is characterized predominantly by consumption where people create a sense of who they are through what they consume. Simply stated, consumers from a century ago were concerned about the utility value (does it solve my problem?) whereas today’s consumers focuses on the intangibles—cultural or symbolic—values (does it promote my identity?). This becomes valid for the tourism sector and especially the cultural one, whereas the entrepreneurial learning has become the collective learning and the exchange and co-creation of value, which leads to the introduction and increase of relevance of communities of practice. The current chapter aims to study the cross-border cultural tourism development of Bulgaria and Romania as a thriving possibility for entrepreneurial learning and communities of practice. It will unfold the existing potential of these countries and look into the specifics of how the complex nature of contemporary society is affecting the transformational essence of exchange versus value co-creation. The further objectives of this chapter are to analyze the value and elaborate on a model of entrepreneurial learning and community of practice establishment in the cross-border region of two economies in transition—the Bulgarian and the Romanian. These countries will be analyzed through the lens of cultural tourism by looking at the complexity and the value creation interaction possibilities that are enhanced by the entrepreneurial and community development.

Cultural tourism development in the cross border region of Bulgaria and Romania

In-depth assessment of the situation of the textile and clothing sector in the EU and prospects

The in-depth assessment of the situation of the European textile and clothing sector is composed by six independent reports with a close focus on key aspects useful to understand the dynamics and the development of the textile and clothing industry, drivers of change – most notably the impact of the financial crisis – and identification of policy responses and best practices. This has been done in six specific tasks leading to the six reports: Task 1 Survey on the situation of the EU textile and clothing sector Task 2 Report on research and development Task 3 Report on SME situation Task 4 Report on restructuring Task 5 Report on training and Education Task 6 Report on innovation practices Task 6 focused on understanding how European textile & clothing companies are engaged into innovation practices. Hence key questions regard what is critical to transform knowledge and Research and Development (R&D) into good selling marketable products and which are the driving forces and relationships towards a better competitive performance through innovation. The analysis was carried out and the trends were then verified in selected regional cases: Lombardia Piemonte, Baden Württemberg, North Portugal and Galicia, Slovenia and Romania.

Development of breathable hydrophobic/hydrophilic functional textiles

The proposed bi-functional protective structure intended to have hydrophilic interior towards the skin surface and hydrophobic exterior for protection, ensuring fast transfer of moisture between body and external environment. The sandwich structure is prepared using 100% wool jersey and varieties of 100% polyester fabrics. Hydrophilic treatments were given using cutinase (fusarium solani pisi) enzyme and commercial hydrophilic softener Ruco Pur Sly®. The polyester fabrics were given a hydrophobic treatment with Ruco Dry Eco® - a commercial cationic water repellent preparation. Variables include enzyme treatment time, and change in pressure to achieve suitable wet pick up at foulard. Several wool-polyester sandwich structures with optimum hydrophilic/hydrophobic properties were made by thermal adhesion using thin polyamide layer. Drop test and vapour permeability test were conducted to evaluate wetting properties and breathability of the samples. Sandwich structure comprising hydrophilic wool-jersey and hydrophobic PES spacer fabric showed the highest value for water vapour permeability. Paper written by the Saxion chair Smart Functional Materials and the Technical University of Iasi, Romania, for and accepted by the Autex Conference 2013.  

Perspectives of older people on environmental sustainability:

The global agenda to move societies towards a more sustainable course of development also affects the lives of older people in our ageing populations. Therefore, it is important to understand the drivers, intentions and behaviours concerning sustainability among older adults. The aim of this study is to translate and cross-culturally validate an existing instrument (SustainABLE-16 Questionnaire), developed in the Netherlands, which measures how older people view the theme of environmental sustainability in their daily lives, for use in Romania, Poland, North Macedonia and Israel. The SustainABLE-16 covers three domains: 1) Pro-environmental behaviours; 2) Financial position; and 3) Beliefs. The scale was translated in Romanian, Polish, Macedonian, Albanian and Hebrew. Its 16 items were appraised for relevance by older people and experts in the field. A total of 2299 older people, including the original Dutch respondents, were included for the assessment of the level of measurement invariance across six languages, spoken in five countries. As the initial validation of the SustainABLE-16 did not meet internationally-recognised fit requirements, the shorter SustainABLE-8 was validated instead. This instrument proved valid for use in all participating countries (configural validity). Subsequently, increasingly constrained structural equation models were applied to test their fit with the data, ensuring that the fit did not deteriorate. The test results of measurement invariance across the countries indicated that items were stable, achieving partial scalar invariance, with five items demonstrating full scalar invariance. The shorter SustainABLE-8 functions uniformly across all language groups and can, therefore, be used to evaluate sustainable practices among older people. A better understanding of the drivers and practices among older citizens across Europe could, in turn, feed into more fitting public policies on sustainability in the built environment.