Building engagement for sustainable development challenges of sustainable economy in times of accelerated change

Table of Contents Connections between Spirituality and Sustainability Cristian Bogan Onete, Sonia Budz and Ioana Teodorescu ……… 1 Synergies of Longevity / Silver Economy and Senior En

Building Engagement for Sustainable

Development

Laurențiu Tăchiciu · Gregor Weber

Markus Bodemann Editors

Challenges of Sustainable Economy

in Times of Accelerated Change

Sustainable Management,

Wertschöpfung und Effizienz

Reihe herausgegeben von

Gregor Weber, Breunigweiler, Deutschland

Markus Bodemann, Warburg, Deutschland

René Schmidpeter, Köln, Deutschland

Sustainable Management, Wertschöpfung und Effizienz

In dieser Schriftenreihe stehen insbesondere empirische und praxisnahe Studien

zu nachhaltigem Wirtschaften und Effizienz im Mittelpunkt Energie-, Umwelt-, Nachhaltigkeits-, CSR-, Innovations-, Risiko- und integrierte Managementsys-teme sind nur einige Beispiele, die Sie hier wiederfinden Ein besonderer Fokus liegt dabei auf dem Nutzen, den solche Systeme für die Anwendung in der Praxis bieten, um zu helfen die globalen Nachhaltigkeitsziele (SDGs) umzusetzen Pu-bliziert werden nationale und internationale wissenschaftliche Arbeiten

sustain-on the value such systems can offer for the applicatisustain-on in practice supporting the implementation of the global sustainable development goals, the SDGs National and international scientific publications are published (English and German)

Laurențiu Tăchiciu · Gregor Weber ·

Markus Bodemann

Editors

Building Engagement for Sustainable

Development

Challenges of Sustainable Economy

in Times of Accelerated Change

Sustainable Management, Wertschöpfung und Effizienz

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-26172-6

Springer Gabler

© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2019

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Foreword

The 21st century started with a prevailing concern regarding sustainability Influent personalities have announced the down of a new era of responsibility, and sustaina-bility has become the most frequented concept by politicians, scholars, corporate leaders and civic movements representatives, all over the world While at discursive level appears to be a quasi-consensus in favor of a sustainable economic pattern, in practice the transition to sustainability faces the resilience of established interests which have contributed to the formation of modern societies and today represent the very foundation of our way of life The big picture shows incontestable progress in some fields - forged mainly through legislation and costly policy initiatives - accompa-nied by emblematic cases of success However, all these are delayed in acquiring an endemic character and the critical mass to demonstrate an actual shift to a sustainable economic model Additionally, nowadays technological race relies on a set of incen-tives nurtured by individuals’ inclination toward profit maximization, enrichment, pos-session of goods, envy, excessive expense, luxury and extravagance, generating, in turn, excessive resources’ consumption and wastage, with a speed of change that far exceeds the capacity of our communities to make informed and responsible choices This landscape invites to reflection about people behavior in everyday life, in different situations where a person can be found: at home or at work, as a consumer or pro-ducer, as a politician, a businessman or simply a citizen The behaviors are socially conditioned and rooted into traditions and ideologies However, behaviors are strongly influenced by knowledge and education, methods and institutions Looking into the future, one can imagine alternative scenarios: a society characterized by mod-esty, freedom and social responsibility versus a society characterized by extreme indi-vidualism, social risk and increased social divide The first scenario is the sustainable way It may well offer moral satisfaction, but it requires the sacrifice, to some extent,

of individual material interests If that first scenario is the preferred option, then it is time to use knowledge, education, methods and institutions as tools for building strong engagement to a sustainable economy and society

The contributors to the present volume have as common denominator the pation for the human side of the transition to sustainability, while their approaches are diverse

preoccu-Onete, Budz and Teodorescu investigate the connections between spirituality and tainability According to them, spirituality is connected to sustainability because both

sus-Foreword VI concepts eliminate time limits, referring to a future supposed to continue indefinitely They argue that spirituality is the foundation of the sense of community, aligning val-ues and believes providing moral support and enhancing people engagement toward desired goals Spirituality can strengthen business organizations and their links with the society and should therefore be given greater attention in research as well as in education and training

New challenges to sustainability come from the growing ageing population non The increasing longevity puts pressure on resources’ consumption and aggra-vates financial imbalances in society, calling for new approaches and solutions Drăgușin, Sîrbu, Grosu and Iosif address the issue, advocating for some forms of pro-longing active life for the elderly to create conditions for valorizing the seniors' exper-tise and wisdom on the one hand and for increasing the well-being of this category of population on the other

phenome-In recent years, convincing evidence has been published, showing that gender equality

in management positions contributes to achieving a better balance of short-term itability and long-term sustainability Still, women continue to be discriminated against, even though this phenomenon sometimes has a tacit or occult character This issue is approached in this book by Săseanu, Felea and Zgură They explain the distinc-tive characteristics of women leadership style as compared with men leadership, as-sess the gender participation in leadership gap and conclude that there is no justifica-tion for discrimination

prof-Consumption patterns have the highest importance in driving the economy toward a sustainable model We witness significant changes in consumers’ orientation, which determinants, forms of manifestation and consequences in relation to sustainability require early assessment and deeper understanding In this area of concern, the re-search of Bobe, Toma and Procopie focuses on the factors that influence choices be-tween organic and conventional food, and the work of Voinea, Popescu and Negrea discusses youth preferences regarding the consumption of cultural goods Apart from more specific results, both studies note a lack of information and education among consumers, which makes room for a docile, conformist and complacent behavior There is growing anxiety about how the education system responds to the current and future challenges Within this volume, this preoccupation is illustrated by several dif-ferent approaches: a statistical analysis of the higher education evolution in Romania

which include considerations regarding the need for more flexibility and better tation to business and social needs in general (Stanciu, Sârbu and Bucur), an empirical evaluation of a Business Administration bachelor program based on a survey among graduates (Vasiliu, Albăstroiu, Dina and Bucur), and an interesting proposition by Ma-iorescu, Giușcă and Sabou to improve problem solving in learning processes by using colors adapted to the nature of the problem

adap-Sometimes, even when a structured knowledge base is available, people fail to exploit

it adequately because a superficial behavior in processing information, which might

be a side effect of the nowadays information overload It means that people possess the information without understanding its meaning and without translating it into knowledge applied in performing everyday tasks This point is emphasized by Pamfilie, Bumbac and Vasilcovchi in a study about how innovation is handled by business or-ganizations

Existing practices may be questioned or may be improved, in order to further reduce resource consumption, reduce or avoid losses and waste Ceaușu, Olaru, Weber and Bodemann support placing greater emphasis on the impact of business start-ups on targeted socio-economic ecosystems in assessing the performance of start-up assis-tance organizations Another research team (Mateescu, Dinu and Maftei) discuss the opportunity to extend risk assessment methods by introducing detectability as an ad-ditional parameter to the traditional two: probability and severity Moreover, Geld-macher, Just, Grab and Kompalla propose improving technology acceptance models

by introducing time as a factor in the analysis

The present volume may provide readers the inspiration needed to design solutions

to the problems they face in the current work More importantly, however, the ume urges reflection on the way in which each of us thinks and acts on a regular basis Sustainability is not only a matter that can be a profession for some, a flag in the strug-gle for power for others or a simple intellectual challenge Sustainability is not about smartness but wisdom Sustainability is about how we do things and how we live our everyday lives

vol-The editors

Table of Contents

Connections between Spirituality and Sustainability

Cristian Bogan Onete, Sonia Budz and Ioana Teodorescu ……… 1

Synergies of Longevity / Silver Economy and Senior Entrepreneurship for a Sustainable Society The Case of Romania

Mariana Drăgușin, Mirela Octavia Sîrbu, Raluca Mariana Grosu and Alina-Elena Iosif … 23

Exploring Gender Differences in Leadership: Cultural and Social Issues in Romania

Andreea Simona Săseanu, Mihai Adrian Felea and Daniel Ion Zgură ……… 39

Organic vs Conventional Food in Romania: An Overview of the Buying Decision

Magdalena Bobe, Maria - Alexandra Toma and Roxana Procopie ……… 57

The Supremacy of Superficial Forms of Culture in the Preferences of the Young

Con-sumer – a Dominant Characteristic of the Nowadays ConCon-sumer Society

Lelia Voinea, Dorin Vicențiu Popescu and Teodor Mihai Negrea ……… 75

Higher Education in Romania.Trends, Analysis and Statistics

Silvius Stanciu, Roxana Sârbu, Doru Alexandru Pleșea and Raluca Crina Bucur …… 97

An Empirical Evaluation of a Business Administration Bachelor Program

Cristinel Vasiliu, Irina Albăstroiu, Răzvan Dina and Mihaela Bucur ……… 115

Using Colors for Efficient Problem Solving in Learning

Irina Maiorescu, Smaranda Giușcă and Gabriel Cristian Sabou ……… 131

Innovation for Companies - Increased Application by Better Understanding its ities

Particular-Rodica Pamfilie, Robert Bumbac and Andra Vasilcovschi ……… 147

Startup Assistance Organizations: Performance Influence Factors and Metrics

Ioana Ceaușu, Marieta Olaru, Gregor Weber and Markus Bodemann ………… 165

Risk Management Methods: FMEA and its Influence on Risk Handling Costs

Ruxandra Maria Mateescu (Bejinariu), Vasile Dinu and Mihaela Maftei ……… 183

Derivation of a Modified Technology Acceptance Model for the Application on ing Cars in a Car-sharing- model Based on Qualitative Research

Self-driv-Wiebke Geldmacher, Vanessa Just, Benjamin Grab and Andreas Kompalla ……… 197

Cristian Bogan Onete

Sonia Budz

Ioana Teodorescu

Connections between Spirituality and

Sustainability

© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2019

L Tachiciu et al (Hrsg.), Building Engagement for Sustainable Development,

Sustainable Management, Wertschöpfung und Effizienz,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-26172-6_1

˘

2 Connections between Spirituality and Sustainability

Abstract

In our society, people focus more on sustainability, spirituality and quality They reached a level of awareness where the durability of things is compulsory in the daily society This awareness is due to the emphathy towards nature, future generations and for the evolution of a healthy society by all means This applies to business as well More and more companies adopt and develop strategies that take into account this level of awareness, promoting the spiritual side and the sustainable outcome These organisations form communities which assimilate new information better due to the openess towards a muticultural environment, and thanks to technology, the perfor-mance and sustainability is increasing The new trends are spirituality and sustenabil-ity Because they are completing, one does not exist without the other The purpose

of this paper is to deepen our understanding about the importance of spirituality in our communities and organisations, and to understand its connections to sustainabil-ity This paper is useful for entrepreneurs, employees and all individuals involved in different businesses

Keywords: Spirituality, sustainability, awareness, business, trust, values, quality,

Introduction 3

1 Introduction

The instant access of information changed the society’s perception with regards to the surrounding environment and the quality of life Multicultural environments interact through the medium of technology, allowing people and organizations to be more open and receptive to new approaches, and decreasing the consumption of raw phys-ical materials as well These new approaches, that bring many benefits, are linked to spirituality and sustainability They are starting to take amplitude due to the necessity

of continuously change, the latter being the nature of evolution

Individuals began to acknowledge their spiritual nature and started to implement it in their daily rutines, including work Trying to maintain this balance, they are more con-cerned and interested in every aspect of their lives Therefore, organizations have to comply to the communities demands, as well taking into consideration the effects of their actions on the environment Inclusively, on their own initiative or not, they started to promote these kinds of approaches, forming well rooted cultures in their offices

The world gave the start to awareness, knowledge, innovation and solutions, in order

to replace the old with the new, similar to a domino game, which will bring ing changes in the future to come

outstand-The essential points of this chapter are the following:

1 To understand that spirituality is connected and can be adapted to everything

2 To be aware of the impact of sustainability upon quality, businesses, technology and individuals

3 To acknowledge that these concepts are interconnected and could lead to performance in organisations and society

4 To clarify that organisational multicultural environments have a positive impact

on individuals

4 Connections between Spirituality and Sustainability

2 Spirituality and sustainability

Spirituality is a concept that is related to religion In general, it defines the relationship with the divinity From another point of view, it has been theorized in related fields like psychology, philosophy, sociology and business Starting from the basic sense of the relation with God and the church, its sense has been extended of what means the human spirit, being associated with human intelligence

In the Brundtland Report, sustainability is defined as the ability to continue a definite behavior over an unlimited period of time Environmental sustainability is the ability

to maintain rates of renewable resource harvest, pollution creation, and ble resource depletion that can be continued indefinitely Economic sustainability is the ability to support a defined level of economic production indefinitely Social sus-tainability is the ability of a social system, such as a country, to function at a defined level of social wellbeing indefinitely Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future genera-tions to meet their owns

non-renewa-2.1 Theoretical frames of spirituality and sustainability

The origin of spirit comes from the latinesque “spiritus”, equivalent with ideal, terial, soul, and intellectual Moreover, spirituality appears to be connected in modern society with the cultural background of a nation Apart from defining the personal be-liefs and values of an individual, it is obvious that spirituality is an important indicator

imma-to emphasize traditions and specific culture for local communities and people Recent studies demonstrate that people who seek spiritual information or are more religious are characterized by a lower percent of risk to become addicted to vices like drugs or alcohol, to suffer from depression or to think of suicide In this way, spirituality works

as a guide for physical and mental health against the development of certain diseases

by having always a positive state of mind

Nowadays, spirituality related to religion is not seen only by parishioners as respecting only certain practices and rules imposed by one’s cult From personal consideration, a person who is especially one who is a regular churchgoer, it does not mean that is spiritual It is not enough to respect a set of practices or beliefs related to super human beings At the core of all religions, being spiritual is reflected in the way of living It is

a state of mind and act in life Moreover, the most important thing is to have faith and believe, to have the sense of doing good deeds and are afraid of the judgement of

God As literature reviewers have developed confusing definitions between cance of religion, spirituality and faith, contemporary society concentrates more on spiritual knowledge More specific, the inhabitants of a particular church parish seek the sacred in activities like praying and meditation But the most evident guideline related to being religious and spiritual, it is to have the measure of things This can be explained by having a balanced lifestyle and not being people of extremes

In terms of sociology, spirituality explains the social needs of a community It ies the notion of acting together and understand values like reciprocity and care for people next to us This is the foundation from being part of a group and sharing com-mon interests, needs and beliefs with others Being spiritual in the common life means

embod-to create an attachment not for things and objects around, but for people in the munity and dear ones

com-Newman (2004) describes religion, spirituality and faith as being three concepts with different roles and functions in society In his vision, faith is the foundation for spirit-uality and religion, more in detail these two concepts are indicators of the depth of faith Spirituality is an important part of our daily life, concentrating on our inner be-liefs and thoughts It can be interpeted as the reflection of ourselves in society, by bringing to light our interior perspective based on our personal values of how we per-ceive people and the outer world around us, and how we put into practice what we feel and think Our spiritual side is an input of our proper vision based on our guideline

of beliefs, thoughts and ideas, and the output of it, a result of its value and mission, with a theoretical but also practical applicability in our daily life

Stead and Stead (2004) think that corporations play a huge role in environmental tainability solutions Firstly, organisations are the principal engines of economic growth Secondly, they have technological knowledge, financial resources, and insti-tutional capacity to implement solutions Thirdly, the environmental sustainability ex-amination at the organisational level of analysis is suitable for the scale of the existing problems and needs further examination as well But organisations are only one as-pect of sustainability Consumers and governments must be ready and willing to par-ticipate

sus-Empathizing and identifying with the inter-relationships and inter-dependencies tween all beings on Earth, is the key of success, and the natural way of being, identi-fying with life itself as the central scope In adopting this way of being, it is beneficial that the future impact of the corporations on the environment, needs to be positive

be-6 Connections between Spirituality and Sustainability and if not positive, neutral This principle is available at local, national, international, global levels and it is mandatory to be adopted by all corporations within a given net-work – manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, distributors and all stakeholders in order for it to work at optimal parametres Individuals’ current way of life and “quality of life” are clearly under threat but, despite these reminders, there are numerous busi-ness opportunities waiting to be taken up by organisations that are willing to be true leaders in identifying and managing new products, services, ideas, and new values, consumer cultures and behaviours Lovins (2007) thinks that the winners in the inno-vative business world will displace and replace presents players who have rejected the necessary changes in order to adapt to the new business or natural way of being; a way that actually holds the potential to increase people’s current standards of life ra-ther than diminish them More and more businesses subsumed business ethics and social responsability literature regarding sustainability and environmental issues Bor-land (2009) said that, tangentially, more authors have begun to discover and recognise the principal significance of the environment in maintaining all human activities and particularly business activity as a separate and important area of consideration Doubtessly, private sector corporate agendas currently abound with durability and cli-mate change priorities, projects and practices, as organisations begin to acknowledge more openly their dependence on Earth’s surface and atmosphere exploitation Sustainability comes along with quality as well The latter, being an aspect of sustain-ability The Oxford Dictionary defines quality as “the standard of something as meas-ured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something” Better quality feedback encourages entrepreneurs to improve their products and ser-vices, which leads towards long-lasting and better working products, resulting sustain-ability

2.2 The connection between spirituality and sustainability

Spirituality is all about being counscious When individuals increase their level of sciousness, they start to be aware of the inner and outside worlds They begin to ac-cept and emphatize with the surrounding environments From spirituality results in-telligence, progress, innovation, self protection, quality, preservation and conserva-tion of things Spirituality is the key of a healthy society by all means, it is the engine

coun-of sustainability

The German author, sociologist and founder of the Denken der Zukunft (Future ing), Bernard Mutius, said that “people need a second enlightenment”, and must learn

Think-to think and feel in new ways

Due to the changes in the environment caused by pollution, waste and so on, an awareness has emerged upon individuals, resulting a more attentive and careful be-haviour towards the environment and all beings who complete it They feel the neces-sity to protect and preserve it, being counscious that everything is interconnected, affecting the whole system, including them

The spiritual fruit of arranged progress should make way for sustainable living ards, cultural and intellectual capital, adequate food production, means of livelihood, health care and wiser energy consumption Cultures should be respected with regards

stand-to their hisstand-tory, sense of identity, heritage of individuals from different cultures linked

in global organizational interdependence; local customs, religious practices, languages are increasingly honored These fruits of the Spirit disclose in definite modalities within the impacted corporations and those related in change Results such as greater inclu-siveness, decision making, sharing of power, strengthening of local families and com-munities, lessening of frivolous consumption, profit-sharing, lessening of hierarchies, environmental sustainability, fair and accessible grievance procedures, and so on The list can go on

2.3 The linkage of spiritual intelligence and spiritual capital with business tices

prac-In terms of business, spirituality has been interpreted to be related with management

or leadership Moreover, at an organisational level is the spiritual intelligence of ers and employees The notion of spiritual intelligence has gained popularity in the recent years, being part of the trilogy of multiple intelligences along with the intellec-tual and emotional one Emmons (2000) describes five functions attributed to spiritual intelligence:

lead-a the ability of a person to overcome his/her own limits and to pass over a state

of mediocrity in real life;

b the capacity to experience profound spiritual states of mind;

c the power to seek in daily life the sacred;

d the ability to use spiritual resources to solve problems during life;

e the capacity to be aware of moral values

8 Connections between Spirituality and Sustainability

In one brief definition related to the spiritual capital at individual and organization level, Liu (2008) focuses on how spiritual beliefs, knowledge and practices affect and influence individuals and businesses In other terms, spiritual capital is seen in relation

to spirituality as a latent variable that can be measured through three categories of indicators: spiritual belief, spiritual knowledge and spiritual practice The spiritual cap-ital is a concept that has been strongly debated in the last decades from several points

of views, as it appears to interfere in certain fields of research like religion, psychology, economy and philosophy Primarily, the spiritual capital derives from the religious cap-ital For an individual, it is the result of morality, hapiness and life satisfaction In addi-tion to moral values, it expresses positive indicators like honesty, love, trust, loyalty, fairness etc., in one sintagme, it defines all good moral values that a human being should use as guidance in life The spiritual capital also reveals negative indicators like corruption, cheating, wickedness, jealousy etc., that are to be avoided

Palmer & Wong (2013) refer to spiritual capital as of “the effects of spiritual and gious practices, beliefs, networks and institutions that have a measurable impact on individuals, communities and societies” Practically they have created a definition that covers all complementary fields that are origins for spirituality The role of spirituality evolves from a micro to a macro level It leaves from a personal and individual point, and, as human beings create new societies and communities, spirituality is trans-formed to a macro level, based on sharing and having the feeling of belonging There-fore, at this level, it impacts governments, institutions and nations by becoming a guide on how people should behave and integrate in society by their insight spirit and inner life

As basic concept, the spiritual capital is associated with the vision, mission and values

of a company In fact, the spiritual capital is a theoretical improvement for other forms

of material, intellectual, cultural but also social capital It is rather understandable from Donah Zohar's theory, that an individual relates to a motivational value system, which stimulates creativity and positions it towards morality

In terms of business, passing over the fact of entrepreneurs being spiritual leaders, and businesses being based at organisational level, on a set of moral values that gen-erates a proper behavior of human resource, furthermore spirituality implies the con-nection, as it is a recent trend, between businesses, communities and civic spirit Now-adays corporations focus on social responsibility and business environmental market-ing Kotler (2012) defines social responsability as satisfying present needs of consum-ers and businesses, while preserving and developing the ability of future generations

to fulfill their own needs This attitude is a part of spirituality, by caring about others, mainly linked with one of the ten commandments of the Bible: “Do not testify or fear false witness against your neighbour” More and more companies have included dis-tinct departments of corporate social responsibility by engaging employees in pro-grams and projects related to volunteering and humanitarian causes for disadvan-taged communities

2.4 Culture and sustainability

Yeo (2005) said that corporate learning propels performance and upholds competitive advantage in fast changing, dynamic environments In Nonaka’s opinion (2008), a cul-ture that encourage corporate learning brings many benefits, inclusively creating knowledge that conclude to innovation Gallagher (2007) said that learning implies the interplay of physical, mental and spiritual energies, and learning results are not con-fined to new innovative knowledge, but comprise new mental, emotional, spiritual and behavioural structures at individual levels Learning transmutes individuals in many ways, from intellectual perspectives of themselves and others to relationships and behaviours At the organizational level, learning forms social and organizational structures Kontoghiorghes’ (2005) research suggests that a learning culture conducts

to increased financial results and employee stances towards work, but learning tives take time to generate positive outcomes, and existing performance measures, often delay their indicators Wang’s (2007) existing research examines the role of or-ganizational learning cultures in shifting employee attitudes in terms of organizational commitment and job satisfaction, but less is known about how the culture impacts employee knowledge sharing and harbors individual’s spirits

initia-In order to form a strong culture, companies have to implement rituals among ployees, like in spirituality Strong organisations, with power of influence know that culture is more important than anything else Cultural factors have a vital role to play Some of the future megatrends in these companies are sustainability, wellness, tech-nology, mobility, globalisation, learning, knowledge, cult offices

em-10 Connections between Spirituality and Sustainability

As businesses face new challenges in a global economic turnaround where young erations migrate from one workplace to another very fast Their needs and require-ments to the workplace are higher, as the digital era evolves more and more through the internet and online channels Customers, as well are becoming more selective and exigent in the decison-making process, resulting difficulty in establishing long-term re-lationships Therefore, it is imposed to find new ways and methods to bring back the importance of the human factor role in a business

gen-3.1 Integrating spirituality at the workplace

Thinking of what spirituality means in all related areas, businesses have found it esting to enlighten more and more in their processes and activities As people seek online spiritual information, and globally spiritual websites have raised a strong indus-try, companies thought more to burst out on the aspect of non-material benefits for their employees Apart from an attractive salary package, corporations offer a set of non-material advantages that can assure a healthy state of mind of their employees The possibility to subscribe free of charge to yoga and meditation classes, to have a medical insurance to the private medical system, or to participate to trainings or courses related to personal and spiritual development There are all seen as benefits that may increase motivation towards the workplace

inter-More or less, this can be considered a good strategy to help employees think about the spiritual side of life But regarding the macro level, economy statistics of develop-ing and underdeveloping countries, show a negative ratio in terms of income/ex-penses Therefore, passing this aspect to a micro level, people tend to be stressed out when there is little money In this context, even though employers promote a balanced professional-personal life through non-material benefits, employees tend to care more of financial aspects, as they have families and current expenditures and con-sumption Little of them learn to appreciate the spiritual part of the benefits at their workplace

Businesses are not just about profit, because profit is made and increased if humanism

is respected Spirituality emphasizes the human values that everyone should have in mind for a quality life, that is “a great deal on the state of one’s mind”

As being said above, people tend not to appreciate the non-material benefits, like

“spiritual techniques, such as yoga, meditation, and simple breathing exercises that can eliminate stress, increase energy levels, and improve mental clarity and creativ-ity”

Moreover, is perfeclty known that every organization has specific goals and KPIs (key performance indicator) to measure employees’ engagement and commitement to work People in these organizations react and show performance in their daily tasks,

if they are treated individual, and not as a team Apparently, teamwork does not affect

or improve their work performance In terms of spirituality related to work mance, employees affirm that expressing their inner values, being encouraged to seek

perfor-a liperfor-ant between their own vperfor-alues perfor-and the employer, hperfor-aving perfor-an emotionperfor-al commitment with their activity, and a sense of community with others, improve their performance Social experts developed the subject of spirituality at the workplace around the stress caused to employees by corporation downsizing and reorganization charts, employees searching for constancy in an unstable workplace, frequent changes due to new techonologies etc

In terms of seeking spirituality among businesses, in the vision of Palmer and Wong (2013), there are five components to be considered:

1 subjective experience;

2 social support;

3 cosmology;

4 organizational culture;

5 values and principles

Regarding the corporate style, more and more of them are confronting virtual distance and multicultural workplaces In the model delivered by Lojeski and Reilly (2008), vir-tual distance is separted in three areas: physical, affinity and operational distance

In what concerns affinity distance, this element is linked to spirituality at the place Affinity is seen by respecting and learning about cultural background of col-leagues, participating to social activities related to work, creating relationship with customers and stakeholders and interdepence with others

As it is presented in Figure 1, the average of commitment and engagement to place in the European Union is about 24,5% The most engaged and commited em-ployees in Europe are the Austrians, who gained after the survey, 35,40% In what

work-12 Connections between Spirituality and Sustainability concerns the Romanian employees, these ones are over the average, and their impli-cation and dedication to professional development being around 30% The laziest em-ployees tend to be those from Ireland, having the lowest percentage in the chart, 14,5% The commitment and engagement come from what companies offer in terms

of trust to their employees The board must offer confidence, managers should be motivational and inspiring, as they play the key role to commit and engage employees

Fig 1 The commitment and engagement level of employees in the European Union Measurıng

the human side of business (2015)

In the multicultural environments, the spiritual side must be taken closely into eration as we are talking about people collaborating and having specific behaviours, due to certain cultural backgrounds This aspect leads to inspire leadership, reduce bureaucracy, less micro-managament applied, and value specialists

consid-Another important aspect that is close to spirituality when working in a multicultural organization, it is to be an active listener and respect and learn about the traditions imposed by other cultures The body language, the gestures, the forms of greeting, the way of using writing in the virtual distance, can mean different things in one’s cul-ture This is why it is so important to create value-exchange by interpreting, assuming and judging in the right way

3.2 Corporate responsability stages

Mirvis and Googins (2006) have created a model of corporate responsability ‘‘stages’’ (including both envionmental and social facets of sustainability) The idea, found in the research of ripen children, groups, and systems of all types, including business organ-izations, is that there are different patterns of activity at various points of develop-ment These activities become more intricate and sophisticated as growth progresses and therefore capacities to reply to environmental challenges raise in kind Piaget’s (1969) developmental theory, for example, has children progress through levels that imply more complex way of thinking and finer discernment about how to bergain the outside social world Wheelan (2004) said that groups mature along a developmental path as they confront challenges of task and emotional nature that demand more so-cially sensitive interaction and complex problem solving Greiner (1972), in his ground-breaking research, found that firms develop more complicated ways of doing things at different levels of growth as well They must, over time, find course after their creative launching stage, develop infrastructures and systems to take on responsibilities, and then confront the challenges of over-control and red-tape within management and later collaboration across work units and levels Companies develop gradually more sophisticated ways of operating with regards to sustainability and coporate social re-sponsability (CSR) The levels of development premised from an elementary to an in-creasingly more engaged, integrated, innovative, and creative edge A gamechanging approach regarding sustainability and CSR, rises from continuous interaction between

a company and its environment, that urges organizational learning At each level, a firm’s engagement with societal problems is gradually more open and its affairs with stakeholders are more mutual and interactive

In Schwab’s opinion (2008), the way companies perceive sustainability and CSR, comes more complex The organizational structures, systems and processes used to administer corporate responsibilities are more complex and lined up with the every-day businesses The development of sustainability and CSR in firms, is a stage-by-stage process, whereby a apposition of internal capabilities affixed to environmental and social challenges pushes development forward in a more or less regulative path These challenges centre on a company’s credibility as a responsible firm, then on its compe-tences to align to the stakeholders’ expectations, pursued by endeavours to build co-herence among its many activities, and finally, on the extent of its implication to op-erate as a global corporate citizen

be-14 Connections between Spirituality and Sustainability

3.3 Organisations and sustainability

There has been an extensive growth of interest, and preoccupation for, corporate ernance, in terms of sustainability Organisation’s activities have impact upon the ex-ternal environment and should, thus, be accountable to an extensive audience than just its shareholders These concerns were stated by Ackerman (1975) who argued that big businesses recognized the need to adapt to a new social climate of community accountability, but that the trends of businesses to financial outcomes were inhibiting social responsiveness McDonald and Puxty (1979) on the other hand, maintain that firms are not just instruments of shareholders, but exist within society and implicitly they have responsibilities towards society, and that there is a shift towards greater accountability of firms to all participants Included within this concern regarding the effects on external environments of the doings of an organisation, is the acknowledge-ment that there are not just the owners of the organisation who have concerns with the actions of that organisation There are a variety of other stakeholders who justifi-ably have a preoccupation with those activities and are affected by those actions Other stakeholders are not just interested in the activities of the company but in a degree of influence over the framing of those activities as well This impact is so con-siderable that it can be argued that the influence and power of these stakeholders’ weighs to quasi-ownership of the organization Rubenstein (1992) argues that there is

gov-a necessity for gov-a socigov-al contrgov-act between gov-a business gov-and its stgov-akeholders Momentous

to this contract is a concern for the future that has become evident through the term sustainability The term sustainability has become omipresent both within the discus-sion of globalisation and within the discussion of corporate performance Crowther (2002) said that sustainability is a controvertible topic and there are lots of definitions

of what is meant by the term In general, sustainability is concerned with the effect which action taken in the present has upon the options available in the future If re-sources are used in the present, then they are no longer available afterwards in the future, and this is a concern with regards to finite resources in quantity Extractive nature raw materials, such as oil, coal, and iron, are finite in terms of quantity and once used are no longer available for the future Alternatives will be needed at some point in the future in order to fulfil the current functions of these resources This will take place in the relatively distant future but of more urgent concern is the fact that

as resources are consumed, then the cost of acquiring the remaining ones incline to increase, and therefore the operational costs of organisations incline to increase In Hawken’s opinion (1993), sustainability implies that society must utilize just renewa-ble resources This can be defined in terms of the carrying capacity of the ecosystem and described with input-output models of resource consumption For example, the

paper industry has a policy of replanting trees in order to replace those harvested sulting the effect of maintain costs in the present rather than temporally externalising them Volkswagen and other motor vehicle manufacturers have a policy of making their cars recyclable Greenpeace forced Apple towards innovation in the production

re-of computers Apple was demanded to take sustainability into consideration in its computer production A campaign was made in which thousands of Apple fans world wide participated This pointed the fact that materials should be replaced with green ones Steve Jobs presented the green Mac nine months later

Hart (1997) said that viewing an organisation as part of a wider social and economic system, implies that these effects must be taken into consideration, not just for the amount of costs and value already created, but also for the future of the business it-self Such concerns are apposite at a macro level of the whole society, or at the level

of the nation state but are evenly important at the corporation micro level At this level, sustainability measures would consider the rate at which resources are spent by the organisation in relation to the rate at which resources can be regenerated Unsus-tainable operations can be accommodated for either by developing sustainable oper-ations or by planning for a future lacking in resources currently required In practice, organisations mostly incline to choose sustainability by increasing efficiency in the way resources are utilised An example would be an energy efficiency programme As far

as corporate sustainability is concerned then the confusion is exacerbated by the fact that the term sustainable has been used in the management literature over the last

30 years (for example Reed and DeFillippi, 1990) to merely imply continuity Thus Zwetsloot (2003) is able to conflate corporate social responsibility with the techniques

of continuous improvement and innovation to imply that sustainability is thereby sured Hart and Milstein (2003) said that sustainability is a controversial subject due

en-to its different meanings from individual en-to individual There is a further confusion surrounding the concept of sustainability: for the purist sustainability implies nothing more than stasis, the ability to continue in an unchanged manner, but often it is taken

to imply development in a sustainable manner and the terms sustainability and tainable development are for many viewed as synonymous

sus-Elkington (1994) thought that in business, corporations which implemented and ticed sustainable development were those that incorporated environmental and social concerns in some of the ways they conducted business In majority of cases, these organisations were able to create win–win situations by ‘‘greening’’ the environment and enhancing their competitive advantage in the process In Gladwin’s opinion (1995), sustainability has become a multidimensional concept that extends beyond

prac-16 Connections between Spirituality and Sustainability environmental protection to economic development and social equity Therefore, suc-cessful sustainable entrepreneurs, do not only create profitable enterprises but also achieve certain environmental and/or social objectives The field of environmental sustainability has received increased attention from academics and practioners in the last years Initially, much of the writing on this topic came from the field of philosophy, spirituality, and environmental sciences Berry (1988) and Van der Ryn and Calthorpe (1985) present their visions for a sustainable earth and communities Bernstein (1976) and Chivian (1993) write about sustainability from the perspective of political theory and health sciences, respectively In recent years, the management field has begun to appreciate the research on sustainability Hawken (1994) has received wide support for his vision for a restorative economy in his widely influential book “Ecology of Com-merce: A Declaration of Sustainability” Some other noteworthy publications have in-cluded Walley and Whitehead (1994) and Biddle (1993) who have been able to link business objectives with being ‘‘green’’ Wei-Skillern (2003) said that equally promis-ing are published case studies of large industrial corporations such as BP and Shell who have made sustainability a key consideration in their corporate strategies

Over the years, as sustainability has become a broader concept, it has become more closely related to corporate social responsibility (CSR) Nevertheless, sustainability and CSR are not synonymous terms Bowen (1953) for example, demonstrating that CSR is the older term of the two, dating from the early 1950s Although it has an abundance

of definitions, Carroll (1999) said that most of them converge around the idea that companies have obligations to society that go beyond making a profit and obeying the law Sustainability, as a term, has gained favor in the recent years because it better expresses the need to address the vital problems facing the world today Gladwin (1995) said that it spotlights the importance of environmental sustainability and fur-ther implies that protecting our physical environment for future generations pragmat-ically cannot be achieved without also providing for people’s social and economic needs, particularly impoverished third-world populations Corporations, because of their control of resources and technology, obviously are critical to any hope of achiev-ing a sustainable world At the individual company level, sustainability is often charac-terized and operationalized as meeting the triple bottom line, simultaneously achiev-ing economic, environmental, and social goals

Pedersen and Neergaard (2006) said that as the debate concerning humankind’s ence on the natural environment has developed, so have approaches to trying to min-imize the harm being done From a business perspective, during the last few decades,

influ-several regulations have been enforced with the aim of minimizing waste, such as cycling, and removing dangerous substances and materials from products Sammer and Wüstenhagen (2006) said that in addition, several non-government regulated ini-tiatives have developed that for example label products as fairly traded, socially sus-tainable, and environmentally friendly However, firms differ in how and when they adopt these types of sustainability practice and also how these practices are related

re-to management values and sustainability commitment It might be the case that a firm feels institutional pressure and thus perceives that it is more or less “forced” to recycle

or take part in a third-party labeling scheme, and thus there might be little correlation between management values and sustainability practices On the other hand, these decisions can also be based on management long term commitment to sustainability Aras and Crowther (2007) show that there are four aspects of sustainability needed to

be recognised: (1) societal influence, defined as the measure of the impact society makes upon the corporations in terms of the social contract and stakeholder influence; (2) environmental impact, defined as the effect of the actions of the corporation upon its geophysical environment; (3) organisational culture, defined as the relationship be-tween the corporation and its internal stakeholders, particularly employees, and all aspects of that relationship; and (4) finance, defined in terms of an adequate return for the level of risk undertaken These four must be considered as the key dimensions

of sustainability, all of which are equally important It is essential to recognize the alities of the global environment to the extent that the company is firmly incorporated into a global environment which takes into account the past, present and future Therefore, sustainability necessitates a distribution of positive and negative effects, in

re-a wre-ay which removes conflict between re-all of these re-and pre-ays interest to the present and future

3.4 Local sustainability leaders and strategies

The leaders in sustainability are shown in Fig 2 We can observe that Unilever is the top leader on sustainability in Europe, as well in all the other regions, except North America Coca-Cola, Nestle and Interface follow the example, being good competitors Europe and North America are on top in terms of sustainability concerns

18 Connections between Spirituality and Sustainability

Fig 2 The 2016 Sustainability Leaders (2016)

The top strategies these organisations adopted are ranked in Fig 3., where it can be seen that companies around the world are paying more and more attention to sus-tainability, culture, leadership, performance, brands Which will lead to a healthier so-ciety in the future

Fig 3 The top reasons that corportions are leaders regarding sustainability (2016)

Conclusions

To summarize, spirituality and sustainability’s connections, are facilitating the road wards knowledge and a healthy society by all means More and more corporations have implemented spirituality and sustainability in their cultures in order to preserve the environment and be more competitive simultaneously Due to technology, people can access multicultural environments easier and learn to be more aware and open to these new trends and information Which are necessary to be implemented in order

to-to reduce and eliminate the environmental damage

Spirituality plays an important role at both micro and macro levels It changes uals’ behaviour and encourages openness to peers Spirituality makes people more attentive and observant in general regarding their inner and outside worlds It has a great contribution in changing what is needed and no longer functions in communities and organizations

individ-Spiritual individuals are more sensitive and willing to make great and positive formations in order to perceive the environment as their inner reflection It is im-portant and compulsory to accept spirituality’s existence in life at every level It must

trans-be teached in schools, organizations, and so on, in order to result sustainable comes, since the latter is the action resulted from spiritual thinking and acting Regarding the new defition to spirituality, it is obvious that researchers have given it a new dimension, further than the association with religion Nowadays, spirituality is very linked with the human side In terms of business, the question is about how much can influence spirituality the soft skills of employees and if their productivity can grow

out-at the workplace based on this integrout-ation Future discussion about this topic can de developped around corporations which have now a very powerful influence in com-munities, by including social responsability as a resource to contribuite to a stable en-vironment The propaganda is if it is a veridic fact that they want to become responsi-ble actors, or they leak some turnover between this strategy

20 Connections between Spirituality and Sustainability

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An investigation into the relationship between corporate governance and corporate sustainability, Management Decision, Vol 46 Issue: 3, pp 433-448 https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740810863870 Accessed on 9 January 2018 Bene Editions (2009) New Work Spaces Ed Bene AG Vienna page 98

Bene Editions (2014) New Work Spaces II Ed Bene AG Vienna pp 6-7

Borges, M., S., Santos, M., B., C., Pinheiro, T., G (2015) Social representations about religion and spirituality, Rev Bras Enferm, 68(4):52431, http://www.scielo.br-/pdf/reben/v68n4/en_0034-7167-reben-68-04-0609.pdf Accessed on 20 January

2018

Borland, H (2009) International Marketing Review, Conceptualising global strategic sustainability and corporate transformational change International Marketing Review, Vol 26 Issue: 4/5, pp.554-572, https://doi.org/10.1108/0265133-

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on workplace spirituality Journal of Management Development, Vol 30(9), pp 816-835

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pp 3-26 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/S15327582IJPR1001_2 Accessed o 13 January 2018

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on 16 January 2018

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22 Connections between Spirituality and Sustainability Zohar, D., Marshall, I (2005) Spiritual Capital: The wealth we can live by Ed Berret-Koehler Publishers Inc San Francisco pag 30

Mariana Drăgușin

Mirela Octavia Sîrbu

Raluca Mariana Grosu

Alina-Elena Iosif

Synergies of Longevity / Silver Economy and

Senior Entrepreneurship for a Sustainable Society The Case of Romania

© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2019

L Tachiciu et al (Hrsg.), Building Engagement for Sustainable Development,

Sustainable Management, Wertschöpfung und Effizienz,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-26172-6_2

˘

24 Synergies of Longevity / Silver Economy and Senior Entrepreneurship

Abstract

The growing ageing population phenomenon is both a challenge and an opportunity

at both social and economic levels Related to this major demographic shift, ity/silver economy and senior entrepreneurship are emerging fields providing a rich topic for scientific studies, largely unexploited and requiring new approaches The pur-pose of our paper is to contribute to a more in-depth understanding of those two low documented fields, by emphasizing their increasing dynamic, main features and syn-ergies through an extensive and thorough analysis The new generated knowledge, using an exploratory qualitative research, based on a semi-structured interview guide, revealed relevant aspects regarding Romanian elderly as entrepreneurs: their profile, driving motivations, some of the main obstacles they have to overcome and measures that may support their endeavour As the first to address such subjects, our paper can contribute to the complex process of raising awareness about Romanian silver econ-omy and seniors' untapped potential

longev-Keywords: Longevity/ silver economy, active ageing, senior entrepreneurship, third

age entrepreneur

1 Introduction

The aging population, a worldwide recognized phenomenon is one of the greatest achievements of the humankind posing, in the same time, some of the greatest chal-lenges Over 1.6 billion persons in the world were 50 years old and over, by 2015, and their number is projected to reach nearly 3.2 billion by 2050 In the US alone, seniors' number amounted to 1/3rd (111 mill.) of the total population in 2015 (Oxford Eco-nomics, 2016)

Europe is facing a similar "graying" trend of its population The 2015 Ageing Report is emphasizing the "dramatic projected changes" of the EU's demographic structure, and their potential economic and social consequences (EC, 2015a) "The share of older persons in the total population will increase significantly in the coming decades" the

EU documents conclude (Eurostat, 2016, p.1) According to the forecasts the old-age dependency ratio (people over 65, relative to those aged 15-64) will reach 50.1% by

2060 (EC, 2015a, p.1) These major structural modifications are generating a formative impact at all levels of the society

trans-The economic dimension, known as the "longevity economy" in the US or "silver

econ-omy" in the EU encompasses the contributions of the 50+ age segment

The scope of this paper is to explore the issue of senior entrepreneurship, in general and in Romania in particular as a new, emerging field of study and a dynamic compo-

nent of longevity/ silver economy

The paper is structured into three parts, all outlining the aspects of the complex ing paradigm of the elderly in a passive role, into an active one According to this new approach, active ageing can transform seniors from simple customers, respectively beneficiaries of social and economic progress, into active participants in the society,

chang-as workers, entrepreneurs, investors, volunteers, and philanthropists

The first part of the paper summarizes the multiple dimensions of emerging concepts like longevity/ silver economy and its main components It also outlines up-to-date statistics, reflecting the increasing dynamic of this type of economy, considered world's third largest one, after that of US and China (Oxford Economics, 2016) Con-crete aspects regarding seniors' multiple roles and their social and economic impact are also detailed

The second part discusses various approaches to the concept of senior ship Start-up intentions, typologies, motivations of elderly entrepreneurs and some

entrepreneur-of the obstacles they have to overcome are emphasized Appropriate measures to port them are also underlined

sup-26 Synergies of Longevity / Silver Economy and Senior Entrepreneurship The final part of the paper emphasizes general aspects on senior entrepreneurship emerging phenomenon in Romania, through an exploratory qualitative research’s findings and provides a conceptual framework for enhancing seniors' involvement in entrepreneurial activities

In the context of scarce literature, but very recent and focused mainly on the US and

EU, this research paper, the first one to address the issue of senior entrepreneurship

in Romania is contributing to the process of creating awareness about older people's untapped potential and new knowledge about this current topic It also suggests fu-ture research opportunities in the field

concepts

The ageing demographic trend led to the relatively new concept of "Active Ageing", deployed by World Health Organization in the late '90s Adopted by the European Commission too, the active ageing framework is not limited to concerns regarding so-cial protection, but it refers mainly to the inclusive idea of longer involvement of el-derly in socio-economic, cultural, spiritual, and civic activities (UNECE/European Com-mission, 2015) By capitalizing seniors' valuable expertise and wisdom, positive eco-nomic and social returns can be generated In this context, efforts to capture their contribution led to new approaches and concepts like longevity/ silver economy

The American Association for Retired Persons (AARP) has coined the sintagm

"longev-ity economy" for US as representing "the sum of all the economic activ"longev-ity serving the

needs of Americans aged 50 and over and including both the products and services they purchase directly and the further economic activity this spending generates" (Ox-ford Economics, 2013, p.4)

Categorized as a challenge of the EU's economy, the ageing population is strongly

re-lated to the "silver economy" This emerging concept is defined by the EU Commission

"as the economic opportunities arising from the public and consumer expenditure lated to population ageing and the specific needs of the population over 50" (EC, 2015b, p.1) Silver economy is part of the general consumer economy, but with specific features in terms of needs and spending patterns, for each of the three identified groups: active, fragile, and dependant

re-Longevity/ silver economy is not a new phenomenon but one that will expand erably in the future, according to forecasts The results of a standard economic impact assessment for 2015, using three main key metrics, revealed major direct, indirect, and induced effects of the US' longevity economy: 7.6 trill.$ total contribution to GDP

million jobs supported by the 50+ cohort's spending; 4.7 trill.$ labor income, earned

by longevity economy's workers Almost 1 trillion $ in federal taxes, and over $750 billion in state and local taxes are also generated yearly by the longevity economy (Ox-ford Economic, 2016) Merryl Lynch's estimations show that by 2020, the global pri-vate spending power of seniors is expected to reach 15 trillion $ As for the public

spending, in the EU for example, it will represent over 25% of its GDP (EC, 2015b)

People aged 50 or over are "playing" one or multiple co-existing roles in the longevity/

silver economy, as: consumers, employees, entrepreneurs, investors, volunteers, and

philanthropists If the first role is considered passive, the next ones are reflecting

sen-iors' proactive side (Isele and Rogoff, 2014) Sensen-iors' roles as entrepreneurs are

de-tailed in the second part of this paper

Even if passive, the consumer role of people aged 50 and over is based on an

unprec-edented accumulated wealth In the US alone, seniors' group is in control of almost 80% of the country's net worth (Oxford Economics, 2016) Elderly associated spending

is supporting an increasing number of jobs and is having a broad impact on many dustries, including health care, pharmaceutical industry, housing, car industry, hospi-tality, etc Seniors' higher purchase power, especially in developed countries, is also fueling demand for new products and services, driving growth and direction, stimulat-ing innovation in emerging domains like: biotechnology, telemedicine, remote de-vices, anti-ageing, cosmetic surgery, hormone therapies, etc Elderly distinctive life-style and consumption patterns translate into new business opportunities Many start-ups are aiming this growing demographic segment in order to meet its expectations and needs and to improve their ageing experiences Also, several large companies have developed strategies adapted to longevity/ silver economy's specificity

in-In the context of higher life expectancy and quality of life, seniors tend to extend their work lives, contributing longer to the economic growth and supporting the fiscal sys-

tem, as employees (Oxford Economics, 2016) Elderly can fill full time jobs, or

part-time/ seasonal ones complementing, rather than competing younger people's jobs Persons in the 50+ segment are also taking increased advantage of "gig" and/ or shar-ing economies, providing alternative and flexible work opportunities The 50+ cohort's motivations range from not being financially prepared for retirement, to maintaining

an active, independent and healthy life However, in this role, they have to overcome

sometimes not only personal barriers, like undervaluation of own education and perience, lower adaptability to complex and diverse requirements, decreasing self-ef-ficacy, etc., but also barriers in the work place: biased perception of younger genera-tions, age discriminatory practices, financial disincentives for employers, etc There are contradictory research findings about productivity being inversely related to age (Aiyar et al., 2016; Oxford Economics, 2016)

ex-28 Synergies of Longevity / Silver Economy and Senior Entrepreneurship

As investors, seniors tend to act often as business angels and to invest more money

than their younger counterparts, favoring family members and friends (Schøtt et al., 2017)

Increasing evidence is generated about seniors' involvement as philanthropists In the

most documented example, that of the US, the "baby boomers'" propensity for charity

is significantly higher than that of younger generations (Isele and Rogoff, 2014) The

same segment has proved to spend more time doing volunteering Also, many senior

Americans have reported different forms of assistance provided to their parents and financial and/or non-financial support to their adult children

In the EU, the recently developed Active Ageing Index (AAI) is a viable analytical tool, with scores ranging from 0 to 100, facilitating periodic assessment of older people's potential at the national level and progress tracking AAI's 22 individual indicators are grouped into 4 domains, each reflecting different dimensions of active ageing

(UNECE/European Commission, 2015): Employment - capturing seniors' contributions through paid activities, Social Participation - through unpaid productive activities, In-

dependent Healthy and Secure Living and Capacity for Active Ageing The first three

domains are a fair indicator of the diverse activities that seniors are involved in Just like other EU members, Romania is experiencing a similar aging trend, which com-bined with heavy migration of its active population, increasing life expectancy, and falling fertility rates, is having major socio-economic implications According to statis-tics (table 1), by the end of 2016, there were 7.568 million Romanians aged 50 and over, with the 55-64 age segment being the largest (INS, 2016)

Table 1 Demographic structure of Romanian seniors by age group (2016) (Source: Adapted upon data from Institutul National de Statistica (INS), 2016)

fore-These figures are giving an overall image of silver economy's size, an unexplored topic

in Romania Up to date, there are no formal estimates of neither direct, indirect, nor induced impacts of Romanian silver economy, or scientific studies regarding busi-

nesses that are senior oriented, or associated number of jobs In general, elderly manians have significantly lower accumulated wealth compared to those in developed countries, due to centralized economy's constraints, before 1989, a difficult transition after, and very low pension levels However, their number and spending power cannot

Ro-be neglected Our rough estimation, according to the average net salary (of 2.354 lei/ approx 523 €) and the average net pension (958 lei/ approx 213 €), correlated with the number of working seniors and that of retirees led to approximately 30 billion € in private spending in 2016 Recent measures to increase pensions and wages will induce higher seniors' spending as consumers Future studies aiming seniors' growing seg-ment, their specific work-life choices, their consuming behavior patterns and efforts

to raise awareness about the increasing "silver" market potential can translate into new opportunities, for many new start-ups and/ or existing businesses

Even if, the 2014 AAI Report ranked Romania (29.6) in the lower index values group of countries - though before Slovakia (28.5), Hungary (28.3), Poland (28.1), and Greece (27.6) - above average scores were registered in the Employment domain (UNECE/European Commission, 2015) Almost one third (29.32%) of all seniors (INS, 2016) are active as employees, owner/entrepreneurs, self-employed, or as informal workers (unpaid), collectively, spending more money, adding to tax revenues and pro-ducing economic value for a longer period of time In compliance with the EU recom-mendations, the Romanian government has launched in 2015 the National Strategy to Promote Active Ageing and Elderly Protection, 2015-2020 (HG 566/2015), underlying, among others, the necessity to encourage longer work lives, but with no references to silver economy or senior entrepreneurship

and a Sustainable Society

Seniors' roles as entrepreneurs, freelancers, investors and mentors (EC, 2016) and the related topic of senior entrepreneurship are gaining visibility in the economic litera-ture The term of senior entrepreneurship is commonly referring to people aged 50 or over, who are planning to start a business, are currently in the process of starting one,

or have recently started one (Kautonen, 2013) The recently issued Special Topic GEM Report 2016-2017 is providing a more holistic approach by highlighting the that "sen-iors may be involved in a variety of entrepreneurial pursuits, including as entrepre-neurs starting and running their own businesses; as entrepreneurial employees; as so-cial entrepreneurs; and as informal investors" (Schøtt et al., 2017, p.7) The document

is grouping elderly into two categories - seniors (50-64 years old) and older people

(65-80 years old) and comparing them with the young adults (18-29 years old) and mid aged adults (30-49 years old)

30 Synergies of Longevity / Silver Economy and Senior Entrepreneurship Through their business start-ups or existing ones, seniors are contributing to value creation for the community and themselves, to job creation, to the fiscal system, and

to a higher social inclusion Also, active seniors tend to stay healthy longer, thus ducing pressure on social services and associated public costs

The most recent GEM survey, over the period 2009 - 2016, encompassing 104 tries revealed as main features associated, on average, with 50+ persons (Schøtt et al., 2017): in general, lower entrepreneurial intentions, with women scoring even less; higher probability to be pulled into entrepreneurship by opportunity, than pushed by necessity; increased willingness to take risks; using primary sources (own/ family/ friends money and banks/ other financial institutions) of start-up financing, including crowd-funding; slightly more likely to employ 5+ persons; rather conservative in their growth aspirations; higher propensity towards social entrepreneurship

coun-The US scores (Pilková et al., 2016, p.8) the highest for both the "early stage neurial activity (TEA)" Index for seniors - 0.72, having the lowest difference compared with the younger generations and for the "established businesses" Index for seniors - 1.56 By comparison, the same indexes for Europe are 0.51 and 1.21, and for Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries - 0.41 and 1.1.2

The 2016 Longevity Economy Report too is underlining a growing presence, in the US,

of senior entrepreneurs who started one third of all new ventures, during the last 10 years The 55-65 demographic segment displayed the highest entrepreneurial activity during the same time span Older entrepreneurs can demonstrate skills to properly asses the environment and can contribute, along with the younger ones to the diver-sity of offerings on the market (Kelley et al., 2014) Famous examples of worldwide known senior founders, like Raymond Kroc who started McDonald's at 52, or John Pemberton who initiated his Coca Cola business at 55, or Colonel Harland David Sand-ers, who laid the basis of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) at 65 are strong role models that can create positive awareness for the 50+ persons

The profile of the US senior entrepreneurs, for example, includes as dominant traits (Schmalbruch, 2014): mainly of masculine gender, running their businesses, usually with less than 5 employees (if any); well educated, in general and self-confident; driven mainly by positive motivations; willing to take risks, just like younger entrepre-neurs; with strong professional networks; using primarily personal savings rather than loans to finance their businesses Their favorite industries are: retail, agriculture, ser-vices, etc Green businesses seem to be also favored by elderly entrepreneurs (Isele and Rogoff, 2014) Contrary to common perception, grey entrepreneurs tend to re-main highly ambitious and open to technological developments (Harms et al., 2014) They also tend to have greater experience and a wider network of contacts compared to their younger peers (EC, 2016) and paradoxically, may be less concerned

about start-up challenges, probably because they feel more financially secure gler, 2014) It is also reported for elderly businesses to have higher survival rates (Kau-tonen, 2013) and a stronger desire to "give back" to the community/ society (EC, 2016) The more educated the person, the more likely that person is to start and de-velop sustainable business (Singer et al., 2015)

(Stan-However, several perceived barriers holding back seniors from opening their nesses have been identified: age related barriers (discrimination, lower adaptation ca-pacity, etc.); lack of relevant information and supportive regulations; semi-inexistent guidance; difficult access to resources; negative age stereotypes; etc (Kibler et al., 2012)

busi-Several studies and reports were issued recently, emphasizing senior ship's great potential and pointing at appropriate legal measures and effective pro-grams to foster it Policies relevant to senior entrepreneurship should be connected

entrepreneur-to its three influencing facentrepreneur-tors (Kauentrepreneur-tonen et al., 2014): motivation, skills, and

oppor-tunity Measures focusing on raising seniors motivation might include: raising

aware-ness about entrepreneurship as a possible work alternative; aiming third age women

in order to increase their levels of entrepreneurial activities; reducing age biases by promoting their economic potential Skills oriented measures should be tailored to each senior group's features Opportunity targeted measures should be reviewed and adjusted in order to avoid disincentives to senior entrepreneurship

Recently launched, by the European Commission, the Good Practices Manual provides

a valuable overview of 24 existing initiatives in the area of senior entrepreneurship, grouped into four main types of support and sources of information (EC, 2016): edu-cation/training on entrepreneurial skills; individual mentoring of seniors; develop-ment of networks of seniors/ projects/ institutions; research The mapping of those inititives by country include: Belgium France, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slo-venia, Spain, and UK

Emerging terms like collaborative or cross-generational entrepreneurship reflect a atively new trend in the field, encouraging intergenerational connections among en-trepreneurs of different ages, having complementary skills, connections that can lead

rel-to unexpected positive synergies (Stangler, 2014)