Title: Strategic Cooperative Networks: Exploring the Cluj information technology networks
Acronym: RoTech
Code: PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2016-1691
Founding: Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding  (UEFISCDI)
Contract number: 76/02.05.2018
Period: 2018-2020
Host institution: Babeș-Bolyai University
Research field: science and technology studies; social structure, social mobility; ICT social networks
Keywords: economical sociology, urban studies, cooperative networks, global value chains
Research team:

• Norbert Petrovici – project director
• Neda Deneva – scientific researcher
• Anca Chiș – MA student
• Ionuț Foldes – PhD student

The information technology (IT) industry is one of the most important economic sectors in Romania, being the second highest contributor to GDP growth. In Bucharest and Cluj, the two largest IT markets, the number of companies and consequently the number of employees is rapidly growing. Almost 75% of the activity in the Romanian IT market consists in outsourcing work, resulting in a lack of innovation. Despite its economic and social relevance, there are few empirical studies explaining its development in national, and more importantly, in international context. RoTECH aims to explain Romania’s geo-economic position on the international IT marketplace by integrating the three analytical approaches in one comprehensive study that takes seriously localization and internalization processes, interfirm networks, and the institutional frameworks. The specific objectives of the project are to: (1) map the local and international structures and networks in which different types of companies are embedded; (2) understand the role and effects of the regulatory framework in which the IT industry is developing in Cluj-Napoca by conducting a comprehensive policy analysis and interviews with governmental and non-governmental stakeholders; (3) investigate the various types of companies’ resources instrumental for building capabilities to negotiate complex IT projects and to advance in the global value chain; and (4) formulate concrete policy proposals and recommendations based on data and evidence from the project to address the issues of the Romanian IT market. The innovative aspects of RoTECH reside in the multi-dimensional approach to explore the IT industry in the process of internationalization and integration on the global market place and in the value chain.

• Map the local and international structures and networks in which different types of companies are embedded and the strategies to overcome the global market asymmetries.
• Understand the role and effects of the regulatory framework in which the IT industry is developing in Cluj-Napoca by conducting a comprehensive policy analysis and interviews with governmental and non-governmental stakeholders.
• Investigate the various types of companies’ resources (economic, entrepreneurial, knowledge) instrumental for building capabilities to negotiate complex IT projects and to advance in the global value chain.
• Formulate concrete policy proposals and recommendations based on data and evidence from the project to address the issues of the Romanian IT market.

Year 2020

-> Scientific report [open here | .pdf]

-> Publications

Foldes, I. (2019.) „Demographic Change and Labour Migration in Cluj County, Romania”. Romanian Journal of Population Studies XIII(2): 67-100. [https://doi.org/10.24193/RJPS.2019.2.05]

Petrovici, N., Faje, F. (2019). „Revanşă fără revanşism: Cafenelele clasei de mijloc din Cluj”. În State, C., Guţu, D. (eds.). Hipsteri, bobos şi clase creative. Bucureşti: Cartier: 273-301.

-> Articles submitted for publication

Petrovici, N. „Revenge without revanchism: Middle-class coffee shops in Cluj, Romania”.

Petrovici, N., Deneva-Faje, N. „Depoliticizing the Firm: Revisiting employability as a strategy and a narrative for high-skilled and skilled workers in an Eastern European City”.

Petrovici, N. „Competitive City under State Socialism: the Case of Cluj”.

Petrovici, N. „The Economic Autonomy and Dependency of the Socialist Countries: Romania’s Leninist Response to National Dependency 1949-1989”.

Year 2019

-> Scientific report [open here | .pdf]

-> International conference participation

Neda Deneva, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, University of Amsterdam, Sep 30 –Oct 1, 2019, Key issues in the anthropology of labour in the context of flexible capitalism. Presentation: “Employee-Leasing and the Value of Labour in the IT sectors in Romania and Bulgaria”

Neda Deneva, Barcelona, Spain, University of Barcelona, Mobility and the future of work, 6-8 November 2019, Presentation: “Mobility without Migration: Labor Exchange and On-Demand-Mobility in the IT sector in Romania and Bulgaria”

-> Prezentări la alte conferințe și workshop-uri

Norbert Petrovici, Urban Dialogs: Startup the Resilient City, Startup European Meeting, 22 Martie, 2019, Cluj-Napoca.

Norbert Petrovici, Mobilitate urbană în municipiul Cluj-Napoca, Centrul de Geografie Regională, Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca, 8 Decembrie 2019, Cluj-Napoca

Norbert Petrovici, Expert talk panel: Autonomous driving, Today Software Magazine, 23 August 2019, Cluj-Napoca.

Norbert Petrovici, Open Data Center for Connected Vehicles, Workshop Hosted by Accenture at Sigma Center, 26 Iunie 2019, Cluj-Napoca.

Norbert Petrovici, Impactul automatizării și digitalizării asupra muncii în Zona Metropolitană Cluj, Centrul de Cultură Clujean, 30 septembrie, Cluj-Napoca.

Norbert Petrovici, Discuție despre arta contemporană vizuală și performativă. Misiune și realitate în contextul Fabricii de Pensule și al orașului Cluj, 6 Octombrie, 2019, Cluj-Napoca.

Year 2018

Scientific report [open here | .pdf]

Faculty of Sociology and Social Work,

21 Dec. 1989 No. 128, Cluj-Napoca 400604

Project director:

Norbert Petrovici

norbertpetrovici[@]socasis.ubbcluj.ro