ABSTRACT. According to the concept of research in the European Union national governments are responsible for its education and teaching systems, and universities personally organize its own research programs. However, the problems that all research universities in the EU countries facing are similar and it is related to objectification the process of evaluation of its activities. Research institutes should be modern and match the technological challenge of the future. In order to ensure such compliance an objective assessment of own capabilities and results that affect the ability to conduct research activities should be provided. According to the Program for education and training strategy 2020 (ET2020) for higher education the EU establishes five key priorities: to increase the number of university graduates; to improve the quality and relevance of teaching and learning; to promote mobility of students and teachers and border cooperation; to strengthen the «knowledge triangle» that links education, research and innovations; to create effective mechanisms for the management and financing of higher education. These society problems and needs should be resolved through infrastructure and intellectual potential of research universities. The article shows the ways to improve management evaluation of research university through the objectification of the criteria, applicable to the evaluation procedures. Question of strategic analysis is considered in the broader context in order to take into account the diversity of relevant factors and give these factors different attention, corresponding to the contribution of each factor and level of its impact on the further development of the research university.

ABSTRACT. The intangible resources management (IRM) is a key area within organizations, not only in terms of theory, but also in practice. However, reality shows that organizations face unexpected challenges in developing and implementing strategies and processes of intangible resources management. The most obvious challenges that organizations face on the implementation of an IRM system covers: the identification of the available intangible resources and of those needed to achieve the objectives; the resource development (as a permanent "flow" that determine the enrichment and the upper enhancement of the intangible resources stock) in order to maintain or increase their ability to generate sustainable competitive advantage; the difficulty of measuring and evaluating the intangible resources; the identification of their impact on organizational performance. This article seeks to contribute to the improvement of IRM at the organization level by building a model that describes the process followed by organizations seeking to implement an intangible resources management system. Our study emphasizes the need of three phases: the identification of critical intangible resources for creating value; the measurement of these resources through a set of indicators and, finally, the monitoring of the resources and intangible activities. However, the management, monitoring and reporting on intangible resources is very idiosyncratic and unique for each organization; there is not a universal recipe, each organization should develop its own process.

ABSTRACT. The following paper presents the applicability of the “second curve” concept in the organizational environment, emphasizing the importance of coordinating the individual and organizational changes in a pre-established direction. Moreover, the aim is to offer a theoretical and practical basis for all the practitioners that need to control change and to plan any further next steps, being it either an individual career development or an organizational growth planning.

In order to conclude this, the paper approaches organizational change as a constant necessity, willing to demonstrate that the individual controlled changes implemented at the correct moment will have a controlled organizational impact and will therefore lead to organizational change and development. Also, using the “second curve” as the representation of a change in the initial path (considered the “first curve”), the paper redefines change as a solution not only to problems and issues, but as well as a method of keeping the current momentum going, when the current path is already positive.

In terms of methodology, the paper approaches a qualitative method, starting by identifying the preconditions of any change, both at individual and organizational level, and the whole environment where the change further develops. In the end, the research is able to offer a process model that can be followed in order to make changes in controlled environments and to reach desired results.

ABSTRACT. The actuality and importance of the theme are reflected in the importance of the tourism in the global economy and the growing trend of permanent and progressive global turnover in the signaled sector. The importance of economic, social and political development of tourism, its contribution to the national economy as a whole, led the motivation to conduct a study on the possibility of assessing and valuing the resources of Romania’s wine tourism, both by attracting foreign tourists and by developing the domestic tourism. This paper will highlight the actuality and importance of the topic, the potential of Romanian wine-cultural traditions in different areas; capitalization of vineyards – by presenting the real stage of wine tourism in Romania, gaps and opportunities as well as innovative proposals for promoting and supporting the wine tourism. The methodology underpinning the work includes analyzing the current state of national wine tourism, as well as comparative analysis of different ways of valuing national wine tourism potential. In the above described context, unlocking the potential wine tourism should be based on thorough knowledge of the realities, both in infrastructure (where massive investment from the government is needed) and the amazing possibilities that Romania shows on a cultural, historical and gourmet level. Hereby, the paper proposes innovative models for promoting wine tourism. Therefore, projects to sum up specific elements of culture, traditions, Romanian crafts, are to be considered in order to help the formation of an identity of quality wine and wine tourism.

JEL Classification: L8, L6, O031

ABSTRACT. The main aim of our paper is to highlight the importance of creative and cultural economy for Romania on its road towards knowledge and innovation based society. We apply some of the most relevant new benchmarking methodologies such as: Beyond GDP, Global Creativity Index, European Innovation Scoreboard. The authors identify some of the key drivers of growth and development specific to these new benchmarking methodologies. We include also some comparative analyze between these methods and correspondingly of different ranking positions of top five countries. A special attention had been allocated to Romania both from a static point of view (its position today) and from a dynamic point of view considering mostly its expected evolution and trends. By describing different expected trend of evolution for Romania based on the focus on distinguishing dimensions of development (economic, social, cultural, environment) under the broader umbrella of a cultural and creative economy, the paper presents some preliminary results. It invites more people to participate to a constructive dialogue and exchange of expertise, ideas and best practices examples. We have a strong believe that by an active participation on IECS 2017 we can enlarge our perspective of sharing ideas on diverse topics dedicated to Economics science and to the mix of socio-economic-cultural and environmental policies that can contribute and make the difference for a long-run smart, sustainable and inclusive development considering all the levels of activities (micro, mezzo and macroeconomics) and the ways these are affected by the emergence of a cultural and creative economy.

ABSTRACT. A leader is the person who knows how to influence others in order to achieve certain goals. Leaders don`t force others to change, they help others to do that. As Charles S. Lauer said, “leaders don't force people to follow, they invite them on a journey”. The aim of the paper is to observe the role of communication used by good leaders in the process of influencing others. For this objective to be achieved, there is conducted a research from secondary resources. Organizational productivity at all levels is determined by the person who set the objectives, this is why communication is a very important factor. It is impossible to be a good leader without being a good communicator. If we look back in history, all the world`s greatest leaders were excellent communicators. Being a good communicator involves being a good listener, permanent adaptation to the others needs and the context the message is sent. At the end of the paper there are presented some recommendations to increase communication between leaders and his followers. Also there are presented some communication skills that make good leaders to be great. So, we can conclude that one of the most important keys to leadership success is communication.

ABSTRACT. The article attempts to outline possible future developments in the field of the Public Accounting (and Auditing Professions) resulting from the present e-government processes, which dates back to the early 2000. This change has an untapped potential that could have a profound effect in many areas, such as the rationalization of public spending, business ethics, university education to new professions required by the future labour market. It should be noted also that the future change of labour is a generalist issue proposed in many prestigious international researches (e.g., World Economic Forum, The Future of Jobs Employment, Skills and Workforce Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, January 2016). The present proposal seeks to make a contribution specifically oriented to the field of Accounting and Auditing Professions applied to the Public Sector. After a methodological premise of systematization of the related topics of reference - whose origins can be traced back to the theory of New Public Management (in acronym NPM) - the theoretical approach of the contribution will try to develop some Italian real implications regarding the change under study.

ABSTRACT. The world is constantly changing and a lot of professions that were in great demand in the past have disappeared. Technological advances, the growing spread of social networks and using of IT have already affected a number of fields of human work. Thousands of jobs disappeared. Not lost or simply missing, deemed unnecessary. It's another wrinkle on the face of current reality of labor market. This is one of the unfortunate results of technological development we are witnessing more than a century. Now is the time to think about this: you can not accurately predict future labor market, but what you can do is work on professional malleability. It's important to have hobbies, to read about what is happening in the world, to be aware of the needs of the world. Whatever we do in life, our goal, for all people, is to be helpful. To be passionate about, learn and be ingenious! There will always be jobs and jobs, but we need to know to make fireworks and why not to know how to “work with what we've got”. Although the world as we know it now will change drastically over time, we must know how to adapt!

ABSTRACT. Romanian enterprises nowadays strive to keep transforming their business processes in accordance with the fast changing customer demands so to survive the intense global competition implementation ERP now focus more on SMEs in the world-wide. Moreover, because of the globalization, partnerships, value networks, and the huge information flow across and within SMEs, we find more SMEs seek adopting ERP system. Thought survey-based research, moreover, this research will help SMEs taking adequate decisions about ERP implementation. A survey methodology is used in order to check the ERP systems benefits among SMEs. A structured questionnaire was developed to get the information. We surveyed 25 small and medium sized manufacturing enterprises. The research reveals that most of them have implanted ERP systems, and found its implementation mainly beneficial in saving costs, improving customer services, improving communications, reducing inventory and overcome the global competitiveness. It is necessary being committed to continuous innovation and reinvention of the firm’s business strategy (organizational entrepreneurship). The optimization (or efficient use) of such information system nowadays becoming a major factor for firms striving to reach their performance objective. Regarding the main barriers the study reveals lack of discipline poor prioritization of resources and poorly upgrade system.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between competencies management practices and training. These practices go well beyond the traditional concept of HRM as it is also interested in organizational skills. At the end of our study, it appears that the process who guaranteed the success of the training is divided into three (03) times. The first depends on a configuration approach to HRM and key skills to be served, the second depends on any engineering training (in it three levels) and the third depends on the conditions of transfer of skill

ABSTRACT. Social media has revolutionized the world and impacts the individuals and the businesses. People are positioned in the center of these various platforms and the process of recruitment has never been so easy. The current changes require a clear understanding of the power that social media has when it comes to hire valuable talents in the company. The literature reviews on this topic must be permanently updated due to the constant evolution of the recruiting websites. In this paper I aim to present how social media impacts recruitment by starting with a short summary of what social media is, the types of platforms provided and why all types of businesses can’t no more ignore the digitalized world. In the second part of this work, I will show a few benefits and challenges that companies have in social recruitment and the main websites for e-recruitment. Globalization and free access allowed a company to hire a person from another continent and work from home. The new generation in the workplace, Gen Y is already stepping forward as a completely different generation, with expectations that sometimes don’t meet the requirements of the companies. At the end of the paper is presented a general conclusion and a few observations based on the sections discussed above.

ABSTRACT. E-commerce is prominent part of the international market as a result of the globalization of trade and cultural openness. Companies export their products to various countries, which increases the range of competition and pours into the interest of the customers due to the wide range of products available. These companies are always seeking to outperform their competitors by gaining competitive advantages which makes them more appealing than others. The focus is usually on prices, quality, warranty, after sales services and countless other standards; this leads to the failure of many companies that cannot simulate the commercial development and integration in this competitive environment. Supply chain is the backbone of e-commerce, and can probably be considered as its most critical component. An efficient SC means having the right product at the right place at the right time; this can save the company money or reduce costs, and can influence cash utilization. This article aims to prove the role of the SCM chain within these companies by analyzing the Amazon Model.

ABSTRACT. The EU social policies of the last years aimed at improving the social conditions of youths across Europe. The goal of this paper is to comparatively analyse the characteristics of youths and their social conditions in the EU-27 in the period 2007-2016, using the following indicators associated to the young population: youth education and training, employment and unemployment rates, health, social inclusion, culture and creativity, volunteering and participation in digital world. The paper also reviews the impact and efficiency of EU social policy on the current economic background, trying to catch the improvements in young people’s social conditions. For this purpose, there were used Employment and Social Conditions Indicators and Europe 2020 Strategy Indicators. Our analysis reveals that over time the youths’ aspirations and needs have changed along with their social conditions. The EU is obviously making progress in improving the social policies addressed to young people, but there still visible differences between the member states and new, innovative approaches are required in order to respond the youths’ needs in the fast-changing economic and political context of Europe.

ABSTRACT. The debate around short-termism and it’s effects on the economic life, rather negative than positive, is far from ending, having academics, practitioners and pundits arguing on this topic. The purpose of this paper is to determine if short-termism is part of the process of creating long-term performance (value) in an organization or it is harmful for harnessing performance, by presenting the definitions of the concept, who are the main promoters of short-termism, opinions of both academics and practitioners, studies and examples that sustain on one side the fact that short-termism encourages the manipulation of numbers in order to meet quarterly earnings, by cutting investments from R&D and innovations, and on the other side the fact that short-term approach is the cornerstone of the future, and without short-term performance there is no long-term future for an organization.

ABSTRACT. Social media is one of the places where brands can communicate with their customers and potential customers easily and fast. Although there are lots of advantages of using social media including low cost, measuring consumers, fast and easy access to consumers, etc., it is very important for a firm not to make any mistakes on social media. Because the online brand is lonely against to the crowd. From this perspective, it is important to understand the brand unhappiness on social media.

The aim of the research is to discover the unhappiness factors of a brand on social media which affects the firm negatively. For this, 17 different firms’ customer negative comments are analyzed on Facebook. In conclusion, brand unhappiness factors on social media are extracted to draw a conceptual perspective.

ABSTRACT. Female unemployment rates are very high in Turkey. Women’s participation in the work force will not only increase national income but also increase the number of women entrepreneurs in business life to join men’s world. Although they are few (only nearly 8.5 percent of members) women in management, there are also women at top and decision making positions. To encourage Turkish women into entrepreneurship, there are 3rd party online organizations which share and publicize online success stories of Turkish women entrepreneurs.

This research aims to discover the women entrepreneurs’s success in business life. The study provides a general conceptual overview of the current situation in Turkey about the subject. What are the factors to be a successful women in men’s world? How do these women take courage to become entrepreneurs? What is the relation between successful entrepreneur women and happiness? To answer these questions, 24 successful entrepreneur women’s online videos which are collected from the 3rd party organizations are analyzed in order to extract success factors of successful women entrepreneurs in Turkey.

ABSTRACT. The paper deals with the gross output and GDP dynamics along with the trends in the development of the base (transformation) and transaction sectors of the economy including changes of their industry leaders in the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). Gross value added growth rates in both sectors of the economies of these countries are studied and analyzed. Transaction costs of the economy are measured as a share of the transaction sector gross output in the gross output of the economy using North-Wallis’s method and the approach proposed by the author. The impact of transaction costs on the GDP dynamics in Russia and some EAEU countries is also shown. Some conclusions about the trends in the transaction sector change and its effect on the GDP dynamics are made based on calculations. These trends indicate the heterogeneity of these countries’ economies and their gradual modernization under the influence of market reforms and integration processes

ABSTRACT. The overall objective of the energy sector is to ensure conditions for meeting energy needs in the medium and long term, affordable, appropriate to a modern market economy and a civilized standard of living, in terms of quality. For companies in energy field, in Romania, but not only keeping the costs under control is considered one of the key success factors in achieving t the targeted EBITDA (Earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization), but also the objective of quality. In order to do that the companies first of all must have designed strategies with general objective, <>, correlated with the strategic plan of the company. The methods and specific objectives approached in this field, must be S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely) and to use creative and innovative ideas.

ABSTRACT. During the last few decades, the complex interplay between (the process of) globalization and (the evolution of global) multinationals has radically changed both the architecture of the global economy and the characteristics of their main players – the global multinationals; new configurations have emerged, while new complexities have replaced them, in unprecedented (in terms of speed, breadth, and depth) manners, adding new valences to the challenges firms and their strategists are confronting nowadays. The aim of the paper is to identify (some of) the most significant shifts that have marked the dynamics of the global multinationals during the last two decades, in order to sketch the new realities and trends that define the global economy as it is today, on one hand, and to determine the challenges these new (diverse and dynamic) conditions raise in front of the firms and their strategic management, on the other hand. Against the background offered by the literature review – on the mutually reinforcing and ever emerging relationships between globalization and (the global) multinationals –, the paper will develop a (historical) comparative analysis of the world’s largest companies – based on Fortune Global 500 rankings (which represent a widely recognized benchmark); the combination of the two methods (the literature review and the analysis of real data) will ensure significant insights on the subject, while setting the premises for reliable findings and conclusions.

ABSTRACT. The Europe 2020 strategy bases future development of the EU on smart, sustainable growth fostering social inclusion. One of its dimensions concerns the creative economy concept. Creativity comes from the combination of ability and environment. It relates to the capacity of people to think with imagination and challenge the existing. Creativity and science become twins in the aspect of impacting the future economy development. Diffusion of new creative ideas and skills is possible through the IT and smart mobility. The cultural and creative industries are important drivers of economic and social innovation in other sectors” European Commission in “An Integrated Industrial Policy for the Globalisation Era - Putting Competitiveness and Sustainability at Centre Stage” (2011). This paper explores the various aspects of the relationship between competitiveness, excellence, and mobility in scientific research in the European Union and Ukraine under the concept of creative economy. The relationship between scientific migration, the level of education sector efficiency and the transfer of knowledge is statistically analysed within the European Union and Ukraine. Economic modelling and cluster analyses methods are used. The challenge of education must also be seen in a broader compass. The challenge is largely but not only a matter of reorienting higher education as a whole to better prepare the next generation of university graduates with skill sets that enable them to function effectively in and for the cultural and creative industries.

ABSTRACT. Ukraine is among those countries that in principle has all types of fuel reserves of minerals and energy resources, but the level of resource security stocks and their subsequent production do not meet the necessary criteria of sufficient energy security. Energy policy of Ukraine is going to be consistent with the EU and its objectives; G20 Leaders Communique Hangzhou Summit, and the national strategy. Energy risks (the dominance of energy-intensive industries, depreciation of fixed assets housing, low level of energy efficient technologies and alternative energy sources, primarily due to limited funds) pushes the country to review the energy strategy. The energy intensity of GDP in Ukraine in more than 3 times higher than in developed countries. Energy saving for Ukraine is not only crucial, but also the cheapest source to meet own energy needs. As specific capital costs for energy conservation are much lower than costs to increase production and energy production. One way of reducing the energy intensity of GDP is the adjusting of the structure of final energy consumption. SWOT analyses and scenario modelling were used to forecast the future of energy sector of Ukraine, as the part of the EU. Analysis and forecasting of energy safety of oil and gas industry are held to propose the most optimal structure of energy sector in Ukraine and draw possible horizons. Clustering regions of Ukraine in terms of gas supply had shown particularly divergent positions of Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

ABSTRACT. The present article presents the quality concept, a complex concept and in the same time dynamic, that requires a new approach, different from the previous approach. This approach should take into consideration the impact of the contemporary world’s evolution on the quality issue. Today, the quality is one of the most important aspects of the contemporary management, it becomes the arbiter that decides everything, it becomes another philosophy, with other practices, with another behaviour. The success in businesses is determined by great connections with the clients, that oblige the providers of products and services to establish the necessities and the requests of the customers in the middle of their concerns.In other words, the quality of the products and services became the main buying criteria in this context, receiving an enhanced importance. The total quality notion is relatively new, having a large coverage gaining more and more ground. So, the total quality does not endorse only the quality of the products and services, but it endorses several other aspects, such as the work environment quality or the quality of the human resources, starting from the undeniable reality that the quality of the products/services is conditioned by the competence of the employees.The article ends with some opinions regarding the necessity to build a culture in the field of quality which becomes a highly important problem and by looking over the main characteristics of the organizations already having a culture in the field of quality. JEL: L 15; L 23

ABSTRACT. Research on financial reporting as a means of financial communication emphasizes its irrefragable need for quality, accuracy, relevance and reliability. Moreover, the importance of quality financial statements is unanimously underlined not only by investors, but by accounting professionals and managers alike. Previous research has identified mechanisms that link reporting quality to the deadening of moral hazard and adverse selection, which are phenomena that hinder efficient investment endeavors. In this paper, we aim to elaborate a depth examination of Romanian managers’ perception regarding the quality financial reporting in order to identify their main points of interest in addition to determine definite inadequacies alongside with significant but yet largely neglected specific aspects of communication through financial statements. Concerning the employed methodology, we made use of a questionnaire to collect our required information and we deemed especially necessary to request recommendations from our respondents on the matter of improving financial reporting quality. Our results bear a great importance in understanding additional factors related to the quality of financial reporting and thus should be relevant to accounting regulators, investors, managers, audit committees and stakeholders in general. We conclude that considering the extensive diversity of reporting entities that activate in dynamic socio-economic contexts, financial reporting quality is admittedly influenced by the professional reasoning of the financial statements providers and emerges as an ineffable outcome of its users’ subjective perception.

ABSTRACT. Fraud adversely affecting the economy as a whole, causing huge financial losses, weakens social stability, threatens democratic structures, leading to the loss of confidence in the economic system corrupts and undermines economic and social institutions. Until recently, companies have not considered fraud prevention as a key objective of the internal control system of the organization. The prevention of fraud were seen as an implicit component of overall objectives, compliance, internal controls, and not as a structured program with clear objectives and explicit fraud prevention and detection. As a novelty is the fact that investors have become more sensitive to the issue of fraud risk as collateral damage caused by fraud came to significantly exceed the direct financial losses caused by fraud. This article aims at a complex case law such as fraud by management, collusion between employees, inadequate segregation of duties, unauthorized use of resources, conflicts of interest, improper maintenance of records / information confidential.

ABSTRACT. The public sector is one of the foundations affecting national economic and social development and therefore measuring performance and efficiency represents a significant task in spending public money. Performance points out whether the state has failed to achieve its objectives through public spending, namely to generate an improved state of public health, enjoy an educated and more competitive population and stimulate growth. Measuring state performance is a complex process given the number of variables that should be considered as well as the historical and cultural evolution of each country. Therefore the paper aims to measure public sector efficiency in selected EU member states, through an analysis based on composite indicators, considering representative indicators provided by World Bank, European Commission, and World Economic Outlook. First the article measures the public sector performance through a composite indicator consisting of several indicators for seven public sector areas. Secondly public sector efficiency is obtained comparing the the performance of each public area with the level of public spending. The results showed an improvement of public sector performance while the public sector efficiency has decreased.

ABSTRACT. The complexity of the current global economy requires a holistic approach regarding the subject of economic growth and sustainable development. This approach is necessary since it is found that countries have different degrees of economic development. Fulfilling the criteria of nominal and real convergence for any EU country is the first step towards achieving a common goal of sustainable development. Therefore, this paper is based on the idea that a country can achieve a sustainable development by meeting real and nominal convergence criteria for a extended period of time. The convergence criteria is explored through a series of indicators. The present study investigates these indicators for the case of Romania, such as: GDP per capita, labour productivity, investment and interest rates, public debt. The analysis shows that although there is a economic growing trend, given especially by EU membership, since 2007, the problems are much deeper and are related to social inequality, poverty and regional disparities in development. As a solution this paper identifies several monetary and fiscal measures to improve these indicators and eventually to achieve a sustainable development.

ABSTRACT. The investments on capital market are more attractive nowadays considering the short-term potential earnings that this particular market can offer but also the opportunities generated by the new entry companies. The aim of the paper is to present different valuation models of share in order to identify/calculate a target price, on one hand, and to emphasize the impact of both internal and external information on price per share, on the other hand. The target price is an important instrument that drives, alongside with industry, financial and risk analysis, the investment decision: to buy, to hold, and to sell. The key issues in determining target price are equity analysis, cash-flow forecasts, dividends forecast, peers valuation, and so one. But, even if it was established a fair/true target price of a given share according to valuation models, the external information (from the macroeconomic environment, or related to the government policies) could have a huge impact on price per share and on investor decision to buy, to hold, or to sell.

ABSTRACT. Summary

Defining corruption is difficult due to the fact that it appears in many forms and evolves continuously. In addition, those involved try to hide their actions, making it difficult to identify corruption. Corruption distorts competition and lowers quality, durability and safety projects contracted through public acquisitions, and also reduces the likelihood that the goods and services purchased to truly meet public needs. The cost of corruption in public acquisitions is measured not only through money lost. Direct costs of corruption arise from misallocations and nontransparent public funds for procurement by setting either of lower amounts of goods and services, either by overstatement of prices and tariffs that are found downstream budgetary commitments and public expenditure, with represent a breach of the principle of efficiency and accountability when using public funds, provisions and economic facts that are in contrast with actual market prices and competitive rates. The mechanisms used to support the private interests of economic operators which are legal entities in their presumptive capacity as contractors / successful bidders of public acquisitions, acts of corruption of makers servants, including the exercising of political influence on managers and authorizing officers of public authorities on national or subnational contracting, it is likely to increase indirect costs of corruption which means distortion of competition and limited access to public procurement market operators.

ABSTRACT. In this paper the authors apply an unique credit rating system in a sample of banks in Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic and Poland, based on the CAMEL, PERLAS and Stickney models. The aggregate model correlates the results of these rating systems in an unique rating system according with ratings agencies Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch scores. All these models are based on the financial ratios of performance, activity, capital adequacy, liquidity, equity and management. The results indicate that such evaluation is near by the agencies ratings because the final model aggregates the partial score of each model included.

ABSTRACT. This article proposes an improvement in the performance of Romanian companies reporting taking into account the influence of earnings and losses recorded directly in equity. One of the objectives of this research was to assess the impact on the revaluation amounted to reflect the true performance of the companies. With a view to understanding the importance of performance appraisal in the fixed assets revaluation, we carried out a study on the method of accounting for gains and losses resulting from revaluation of fixed assets and selling them at a higher value than their net book value. As a result of the study conducted, it is showed that there is a correlation between gains and losses to be booked directly to equity and appreciation of the company's performance. The assessment of the fair value of fixed assets amounted to allow appreciation of present and future global performance as opposed to historical cost valuation which has many shortcomings. Thus, it was noted that, in respect of a reassessment of the value of positive or negative accounting of fixed assets amounted to, has a significant impact on the level of performance of the company and, consequently, on the decision-making process. On the other hand, the research conducted revealed that accounting gains and losses directly in equity contribute to outlining a more attractive balance sheet in relation to the users of financial and accounting information.

ABSTRACT. In this study, through a synthesis of the relevant literature, we shall approach the macroprudential policy as a component of the policy on ensuring financial stability. Although a number of measures have been taken in the last decade to create an adequate institutional environment for the systemic risk analysis and to draft macroprudential policies in the literature, it is considered that the current stage is still an incipient one, and the institutional environment is undergoing a slow progress. Some authors consider that macroprudential policy focuses on the correlation of exposures at the level of the financial system, to the detriment of the individual risk profiles, which is substantiated below, and others claim that the term of macroprudentiality expresses the relation between maintaining the stability of the price level and operating without the financial system liquidity or solvency gaps. Another opinion states that the macroprudential approach has two dimensions: a temporal one that analyses the way in which the aggregated risk of the financial system evolves in time and a transversal one that analyses how risks are assigned within the financial system at a given moment. According to other empiric studies, two aspects are essential for increasing the efficiency of the macroprudential policy: a detailed analysis, which is able to issue warnings and recommendations about the systemic risk, as well as the translation of such warnings in policies and actions. The analysis performed within this study demonstrates that, in general, the purpose of macroprudential policy is financial stability.

ABSTRACT. Summary

The growing need for financial resources claims, alongside with increased absorption indicators, the need to implement new ways of ensuring budgetary discipline at EU and the Member States level. European Commission supervises the development of the budgetary predicament and the level of Government debt in Member States, being able thorugh the European Council to sanction states mainly in the issuance of bonds, or by requiring the involvement of the European Investment Bank to review lending policy, and ultimately by a deposit of up to 5% of GDP to the European Commission which can later be converted into a fine applied by the Member State by the European Council. The budgetary construction and the assigning of public acquisitions should ensure the reasonableness of both the estimate budget allocations for each project / acquisition prices and acquisition contracts assumed in goods, services and work aquired. From a simple assessment of stability for the European Union’s framework, I consider that it is influenced not only by globalization and concentration of capital, but especially of impending compression of the single market by the Brexit on the one hand, the new imminent pressures the European Union is facing due to the wave of mass migration, however merging the challenges of risks increase budget deficits at the level of Member States, affecting the achievement of the overall objectives of the 2020 strategies and stability in the whole European Union.

ABSTRACT. In this paper, we analyze the most significant aspects of performance banking on sample banks in Central and East European countries. We started with the aspects of the banking crisis began in 2007 and whose consequences are still felt today both in the EU and USA. Based on the ratios method we tried to capture the extent to which the financial crisis has had a negative impact on the sample banks from Central and East European countries. We also built two regression risks models between overall risk and ROE on the one hand, and between overdue and doubtful loans in total assets ratio and ROA on the other hand. In both cases, liquidity and solvency had an indirect influence over the risks.

ABSTRACT. The energy market is an important component of an economy without which development is impossible. Continuous growth performance of energy companies is an ongoing concern of energy markets. That is why we conducted a comparative analysis of results of two big companies, in the European market namely TRANSELECTRICA S.A. and ENEL SpA. For this reason, we use a performance correlate indicators system based on EBITA pyramid divided into two groups: return ratios on the one hand and margin ratios on the other hand.

ABSTRACT. This article show particularities of marketing in banking services. Focuses on the issues associated with characteristics of banking services like: intangibility, inseparability, variability and perishability. Banking services are different from other services because of some specific characteristics like: fiduciary responsibility, double-flow information flow, financial risks (credit risk, interest rate risk, liquidity risk, market risk, solvency risk, exchange rate risk and operational risks) and regulatory restrictions.

ABSTRACT. The IFRS has replaced the US GAAP as the single most widely used system of financial reporting in the 21st century, leading the current accounting world state of affairs to a struggle between international financial standard improvement and national efforts of convergence. This ongoing process unfolds presenting a number of comparability issues, which influences the investors’ decision making process. One such example is the manner in which the financial position and performance is interpreted under various regulations, through the use of financial ratio analysis. Starting from a specified set of balance sheet and income statement ratios, the current paper aims to highlight the regulations impacting the accounting data that distorts ratio outcome, in a cross cultural environment. In an attempt to narrow the field of research, the used terms of comparison are the IFRS as the international emerging system, the US GAAP as representative for the Anglo-Saxon family of accounting systems, and respectively, the Romanian legislation for the continental. Using a qualitative approach, it is determined that the differences examined in four distinct regulations have a major impact on ration results, leading to fundamentally different interpretations from one set of regulations to the next. Examining each ratio and the case variable impact of the above mentioned regulations raises the validity question of the resulting expectations in a general sense. The latter part of the paper sets the ground for further quantitative research, starting from the individual case study of a company that is active in the metal recycling industry.

ABSTRACT. Nowadays it is increasingly felt the acute need for performance in the public sector and it is also needed the revitalization of the Tax Administration, the reform of the public finance and of the public sector. To implement a method of management that targets the performance, the National Tax Administration chose to switch from the analysis of the activity based on reporting the achievements to an analysis that evaluates the performance, namely of the way of fulfilling the planned objectives. The performance is evaluated considering the improvement of the existing situation and the increasing of efficiency in this public institution. The study aims to highlight the main results of the modernization program and the reorganization of the National Tax Administration, undertaken by the Romanian authorities according to the demands of the international authorities and the measures taken into account to create a modern Tax Administration, one efficient, computerized, adapted to a continually changing world. The analysis, based on the performance reports of the National Administration for Finance Administration, is intended to measure the achievement of the main objectives and strategy directions set and expected by the Romanian government in development strategies. Indicators of achievements at National Administration for Finance Administration reveals a better collection of estimated taxes and a more efficient activity, but the problem cashing and collecting of the incomes remains a sensitive issue and a topical one in the context of the need of ensuring the budget incomes, necessary for the financing of the public expenses.

ABSTRACT. The methods of bankruptcy risk measure the past performance of the economic entity, informing the managers in a small proportion on its future. Financial results can rapidly degrade over time because of the economic environment. As a reaction to these practical requirements, the diagnosis of the default risk was developed with statistic methods based on the financial ratios. The aggregate rating model which we built is based on credit - scoring, methods, banking methods and an own model o based on financial ratios. Then we tested the aggregate model on the energy companies CNTEE TRANSELECTRICA SA and ENEL SpA.

ABSTRACT. Globalization was the mainstream paradigm in the last 70 years, long enough to create and explain prosperity and welfare in a connected world. Recently, there are many signs that we are reaching a turning point. From jobs, wages and unemployment, to immigrants and Brexit, all the key debates emphasize that the world is preparing for a new kind of globalization which will be less about countries and multinationals and more about people. There is no doubt that old globalization had winners and losers, but more than ever, the voice of the people who reject globalization was heard in 2016, specifically in UK and USA. The world will have to deal with new institutions, technologies and will have to find new indicators to measure these trends. European Integration itself, the most powerful success story of the post-War World II is under the question. The aim of this paper is to examine whether, in the last year, mainstream economists and organizations reacted and contributed to the idea that the old globalization will be replaced by a new kind of globalization, or if there are signs that a completely different paradigm will emerge. The methodology was to systematize the contributions as they were reflected in journals, scientific articles, conference papers, and different reliable online sources. As we emphasize in the title, the results of the review show that there are visible signs for the end of globalization as we know it and the seeds of a new form of globalization are already visible.

ABSTRACT. The present article aims to offer an insight into the current economic situation by examining the main issues we face today in terms of security and geopolitical crises and by analyzing key macroeconomic indicators trends and prospects.

A quantitative research was conducted using scientific methods for collection and analysis of empirical data via statistical and mathematical techniques. Macroeconomic indicators such as GDP, inflation rate and unemployment were analyzed in order to understand current economic environment conditions and to carry out a forecast at a high level of aggregation.

A qualitative research based on secondary data such as past events and economic reports gives an in-depth picture of current world and explores some of the challenges and most profound threats of the moment. Economic prospects are highly dependent on several geopolitical aspects like United Kingdom's planned withdrawal from the European Union, actual North Korea situation, national elections set for some European countries or the civil war in Syria.

As a conclusion, based on the data analysed, 2017 seems to be a challenging year for the world economy. GDP, wages and productivity were lower than expected in 2016 so a modest pick up is projected for future years. The rise of protectionism threatens to hamper economic growth in emerging economies, developing economies may face structural challenges, investors will remain caution as an increase in commodity prices is expected for 2017 and lack of investment leads to tighter financial conditions and decreased competitiveness.

ABSTRACT. Trust is essential for the good functioning of the banking system and of the economy, as a whole. The deviations from a prudent and healthy banking practice, the misconduct in the relationship with customers, the abuses and fraud have generated the most drastic decrease of the degree of trust in banks at a global level and in the Romanian banking system. Treating the misconduct risk with responsibility must be a priority for every bank, while the identification, evaluation and correction of deviations are a basic component of the banking strategy and of the future business models. The paper offers a perspective on the importance of managing the misconduct risk at the level of the Romanian banking system. The credit institutions in Romania but also the regulatory and supervisory entities are facing new challenges that have emerged in the activity of organisation integrity insurance in a continuously changing and more and more complex operating environment. The violation of the regulations has increased in the context of globalisation, digitalisation and regulation accentuation. The recent crisis, which has affected the global economy, has greatly diminished the investors’ trust and has lead to new laws, has increased supervision and the number of operational risk events. Besides the direct and indirect financial consequences (loss of reputation), the business models of banks are also affected by the misconduct risk. This aspect is of great importance from the macroprudential point of view.

ABSTRACT. Limiting cash transactions, tending to give up on cash in faver of electronic transactions represent actions that lead to limitations of personal freedom and of democratic rights and liberties. I consider them to be even a serious threat to the principles, values and liberties of the "Common market", or, in todays terms, EU. In Romania, the limitation of cash transactions should lead to a smaller tax evasion. This is, althou, not the way the state autorities should handle with tax evasion, by limiting personal rights and freedoms.

ABSTRACT. To show how to use finance theory to analyze strategic decisions, such as acquiring or merging with another firm, spinning off a business unit as a separate firm, and investing in real options.When one firm acquires a controlling interest in another it is called an acquisition; when two firms join to form a new firm, it is called a merger. Under the criterion for good management of maximizing current shareholders’ wealth, there are essentially three reasons for considering acquiring or merging with another company: synergy, taxes, or bargains. Let us consider each.

ABSTRACT. The concept of Sustainable Growth Rate was originally developed by Robert C. Higgins. In case of companies with given stable financial policies, it is considered to be the link between all growth-return rates combinations that gives a “Balanced growth” line. This indicates the possibilities for a company to grow without generate either deficits or cash surpluses. Increased sales require more assets, which can be financed by new debt, external equity, and internal equity through retained earnings The Sustainable Growth Rate is the maximum rate at which company sales can increase without decreasing its financial resources. The Sustainable Growth Equation is calculated multiplying the company’s return on equity by the proportion of its retained earnings. Furthermore, considering the relation between the return on equity and return on assets, the Sustainable Growth Rate can be calculated as the product of the profit margin (P), the retention rate (R), the asset turnover ratio (A) and, the assets-to-equity ratio (T), known as the PRAT model. The aim of this paper is to determinate if the most traded companies on the BSE in last year have registered growth and if it was a sustainable growth. Among the 10 most traded companies on the BSE, we selected for analysis 5 companies : Romgaz, OMV Petrom, Transgaz, Societatea Energetica Electrica and Transelectrica, considering the criteria of homogeneity on the work done. These companies have achieved together more than 66% of value and 63% of the volume of all transactions traded during 2015 - 2016.

ABSTRACT. The globalization process, although criticized, is constantly growing, contributing to the internationalization of activities performed by companies and to the internationalization of markets. This also resulted in the occurrence of important changes regarding the operation and functioning of organizations, as well as regarding the operating mode of governments that have to adopt their policies to a changing market. In addition, the corporate governance, besides the ethical principles it observes, and the social responsibility, also uses rules and procedures aimed to increase the value of the company. Moreover, the emergence of the economic crisis showed that accounting frauds are a result of the lack of control or of control deficiencies, and that is why the corporate governance is even more important. This paper intends to analyse the different systems of corporate governance and to highlight the difficulties the companies are facing as a result of their adapting to the globalization system.

ABSTRACT. The fiscal policy is an instrument that collects resources for the state budget. necessary to perform state functions; stabilize the economy; regulation of the economy and recovery growth. The most important instruments are taxes and taxpayers. The taxpayer is obliged by law to transfer to the state budget some of the value it creates ago performing an activity. Although there are usually many similar elements in understanding the concept of "taxpayer" globally each tax authority establish criteria according to which a citizen falls into the category of taxpayers. Analyzing the case of Romania and the evolution of VAT conformity we created some regressions that illustrate the VAT correlation in Romania between 1995 and 2015. Thus, we built three unifactorial regression models showing how VAT impacts economic indicators such as GDP, power purchase expressed through the net annual average salary, and household final consumption expenditure. Moreover, each model has been tested and verified using statistic tests to give reliable results. In a first stage, we analyzed the correlation between GDP as endogen variable and VAT, then we created another model that we kept VAT as an independent variable, but we changed the dependent variable using the consumption and in the last phase we tried to see how the purchasing power explains the variation of this indirect tax. Because according to the used tests we demonstrated that correlation coefficients are significant, we proceeded to explain them starting from fiscal and economic reality, own of these analyzed 20 years.

ABSTRACT. In a previous research has been followed the correlation between the main indicators of financial performance and the BET Index, for the companies participating in the BET Index, in the period 2011-2015. The aim of this paper is to continue this research, this time analyzing the correlation between the main indicators of financial performance for companies with core activity in the energy sector and related industries, traded on Bucharest Stock Exchange, and the BET-NG index. The BET-NG sartorial index reflects the overall evolution of all companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, which have the main activity in energy sector and the related utilities, currently being 11, tracking their performance. Five of these companies are found among the 10 most traded companies on Bucharest Stock Exchange, which means recording higher financial performance. However, BET-NG index registered a breakdown of 27.3% in the last five years. The evolution of the main rates of return is analyzed, in correlation with the evolution of the BET-NG index, during 2012-2016, trying to answer the questions: “How much of the BET-NG Index Value is determinate by the performance of component companies?”

ABSTRACT. Is Romania overbanked?

Nicolae Petria Associate professor, PhD, Faculty of Economic Science/Department Finance, “Lucian Blaga” University, Sibiu, Romania E-mail: nic_petria @yahoo.co.uk

Abstract. During some debates within the Romanian financial environment, it is often stated that in Romania are too many banks when compared with the level of economy development and the gross domestic product. Taking this into consideration, we intend in the present article to answer the question: Is Romania overbanked? In order to answer this question we performed a comparative analysis of the Romanian banking system. We analyzed de development of the Romanian banking sector and put it against the banking sectors from EU, USA and Japan. The analysis was done taking into consideration several relevant indicators: bank assets/GDP, loans/GDP, the level of bank concentration, the financial structure of the economy. We also benchmarked the liabilities share in GDP and the leverage. With the objective of determining if the Romanian banking system is oversized in relation with the real needs of the Romanian economy we analyzed the share of loans in total bank assets and in GDP. We compared the results with the values recorded in the EU banks and we drew the conclusions accordingly. Our comparative analysis led us to the conclusion that the Romanian banking system is still underdeveloped and is below the needs of the Romanian economy. Romania needs the development of its banking sector but it is also required the specialization of some of its universal banks.

Jel : G 20

ABSTRACT. The cohesion policy as a structural policy plays an important role in promoting growth and economic development across all EU regions, in line with the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy. It also plays a crucial role in strengthening European Union's innovation and research potential with an overall allocation of €53.2bn to 'core' innovation and research priorities in the period 2007-2013. The reform of cohesion policy for 2014-2020 is also ensuring maximum impact on boosting research and innovation at national and regional levels. The research shows that a considerable amount of resource has been dedicated to the physical development of research infrastructures and activities in business or science parks, incubators and centres of competence. In addition, soft measures have also been supported like technology transfer and improvement of cooperation networks, assistance to SMEs in research and technological development (RTD) and eco-innovation uptake and developing human potential in research and innovation (R&I). This research-paper will help to understand that investing in innovation and research will contribute to transforming knowledge into growth and better jobs with concrete targets to be achieved through supporting more than 80,000 RTD projects and creating above 30,000 research jobs.

ABSTRACT. European Union represents a unique integration structure that brings together countries with different economic structures and development level and exposes them to the same competition rules. On the one hand, EU member states are competing, on the other hand all EU member states are joining their efforts for achieving their common goals and objectives. The cohesion policy of the European Union represents an important driver force of economic growth in the member states, aiming to increase the economic and social competitiveness of the fragmented union. Since their accession, the EU new member states have been receiving support for their economic development through European structural and investment funds. Research shows that these funds are crucial for strengthening their economic performances and fostering their competitiveness. The present paper explores the amount of support received by the new member states and the effects of this support in addressing the challenges these economies face and on the regional competitiveness of these countries. The paper analyzes the relation between the absorption of structural funds and the evolution of regional competitiveness level in selected new EU member states. After creating the competitiveness profiles of the selected countries, a correlation analysis between the funds received and several competitiveness indicators is performed. The research of this relation helps us to underline the critical role of cohesion policy and structural funds on the economies of the selected new member states.

ABSTRACT. The risk of bankruptcy is the most important risk faced by the entity. All other risks are subject to the risk of bankruptcy, since any type of risk, when it manifests itself and its disastrous consequences, can lead to the insolvency of the company. The purpose of this report is to introduce and expand the fundamental problems concerning bankruptcy risk assessment on the Moldavian entities. The last time the bankruptcy risk assessment issues in different branches of national economy, are the subject of Republic of Moldova scientists research, a single model for estimating the level of bankruptcy risk for the Moldavian companies has not been developed yet. Under such conditions increases significantly the need for the quantitative measurement of this phenomenon. In the present article, we intended to present the methods of determining the rating of the entities that can be used to measure the bankruptcy risk, emphasizing at the same time the limits of each of these methods. This approach has helped us to demonstrate that there is no „best practice” for evaluation of the bankruptcy risk, but rather a complementarity of these techniques. Thus, the following study, developed as a fusion of existing knowledge and author´s own research, aims to provide a basis for reflection and discussion with theorists, practitioners and analysts within the financial domain.

ABSTRACT. The present paper determines the influence of the changes in working capital on the self-financing capacity, using simple linear regression model the panel type. Research sample consists of 22 companies from hotel and restaurant industry, listed on Bucharest Stock Exchange, the period 2007-2015. The decision between the random effects model and the fixed effects model was based on the Hausman test application and the criteria's associated information of the two models. The random effects model was considered suitable for the cross-sectional data and the fixed effects model for the time period. The hypothesis was confirmed so there is a direct relation between working capital and self-financing capacity, meaning that an one unit change in working capital leads to a change of 1,505 units in the self-financing capacity. It results that 55,72% of the self - financing capacity variance is determined by the working capital variation, the difference being determined by the variation of the residual variable.

ABSTRACT. The strength of this paper is, on the one hand the significance description of Business Intelligence (BI) in small and medium enterprises, and secondly the recovery and implementation of Business Intelligence with Microsoft platform. With living standards achieved real gains Business Intelligence model and this model highlights product features Microsoft SQL Server 2008. This paper shows how businesses make decisions better and faster in terms of customers, partners and operations by transforming data valuable business information. The paper describes how to bring together people with business intelligence and information technology to achieve business success strategies.

ABSTRACT. The aim of the paper is to present the direct taxation system and its trend in European Union and Romania, the influence of direct taxation on inflation – Romania case. In the first part, we present theoretical aspects referring to European fiscal policies and tables which include tax revenues from different countries of EU, from 2004 to 2013 and some charts based on these data which highlight trends in these tax indicators. We analyzed the evolution of the direct taxation shared in GDP as average and also we compared and analyze direct taxation level shared in GDP in different countries from EU with different approaches to taxation, countries that use flat level of taxation versus countries that use progressive taxation. In the first part, we used comparative methodology in order to highlight similarities and differences between Romania and European Union countries which are subject of direct taxes rates comparisons, the specific treatment of fiscal policies. In the second part, we focused on Romania’s case and we built an econometric model based on a simple linear regression, having the dependent variable budget deficit and the independent variable the direct taxation revenues expressed as share of GDP. As a result of the econometric model analysis, we can see that by increasing direct tax rates, increase the level of collected taxes and also decrease the budget deficit. In the last part, we emphasized the conclusions obtained with this paper.

ABSTRACT. The paper presents a specific approach to the problem of rising interdependence between countries among the world, which is an important feature of the contemporary stage of development in the world and European economy. It argues approach that these interdependencies adjustments are made in relation to the development of production factors in each country. Most vulnerable to these adjustments are small economies, the development model of which is "marked" by European leadership crisis, increasing the gap between rich and poor countries, slowing integration processes, etc. To solve these issues, the article proposes and argues, an appropriate development concept for Central and Eastern European countries with small economy, based on an comprehensive process of industrialization of these countries with export-oriented economy. The paper highlights that industrialization, since the beginning of the process, must be export oriented. The knowledge and information society establishment, as well as the transition from an economy based on inputs to one based on investment and innovation, requires an extensive process of industrialization based on low-cost manufacturing value added. The concept of economic growth for small European countries, proposed in this article, is attempting to combine the pressing need of industrialization based from inputs available in each country and social security of citizens so characteristic for European model.

ABSTRACT. Business information is a key aspect in any business. The evolution and transformations through which business information undergoes in time are impressive. These changes start from information sources, continue with inside information and end with customer information. Although we have specified distinct groups of information, these three groups are not independent, but rather tightly coupled. In an interconnected world, information is vital. The shift from product – to service, or product – with service, has made a significant change in the way business enterprises handle their relationships with customers and employees. The use of IT in a global economy gives the impression that business interactions are closer. In this context, people came up with the idea of internet of things, in which everything is interconnected. Thus, loads of information can instantly be sent to a server, a cloud nowadays, where this information can be analyzed in almost real-time and decisions are made on the fly, permitting businesses to adapt to the shifts of the market. In this paper, based on the developments in the field of business information, we present a general-purpose flexible business information model, which can be useful to many business plans.

ABSTRACT. Harmonization of national accounting legislation with Community rules is found among the major objectives of the country, undertaken by State institutions through the Association Agreement Moldova-European Union. However, the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Moldova has confirmed, through the action plan for the Moldova-EU Agreement implementation, the commitment to transpose into national legislation the provisions of the Community acquis in the field of corporate financial reporting. Thus, it has assumed the responsibility of drawing up the Accounting Law in accordance with Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 concerning annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of companies and the introduction of relevant international standards at the national level. This will contribute to a gradual close between Moldovan rules and those of the EU in the field of accounting. The purpose of this study is to analyze quantitative and qualitative evolution of the regulatory framework of accounting in the corporate sector in terms of commitments, highlighting progress and setbacks in this process. We will also present under study, some conclusions and recommendations. However, the harmonization with the Community acquis involves in-depth knowledge of it, adaptation to the realities of the Republic of Moldova and the consistency of the new harmonized legislation. Throughout this journey, there were and there still are hesitations, uncertainties, political influences that have had and will have a direct impact on the quality of the regulatory framework in the area of corporate accounting.

ABSTRACT. In a world governed by the rules of the market economy, the importance of information, and of their handling in the decision making process is continuously growing. This is a result of using the creative accounting as a method of "grooming" the accounting information. The need for information is growing and data have to be offered faster and to be more diversified. In this context, the accountant has to make available to the decision-makers the necessary information without waiting for standard-setting, thus the call for finding creative solutions that offer advantages to companies, under the conditions laid down by law. These solutions are varied, but all of them try to change the image of the results of a company. The creative accounting becomes a necessary management tool and it is used in order to promote the image of a company. Therefore, a selection of information is necessary in order to pursue its legitimate interests. This paper intends to analyse the creative accounting techniques and the ways in which it can impact the information included in the financial statements.

ABSTRACT. In the last years, the financial performance of Romanian commercial banks was considerably reduced due to the contraction in lending and the increase in operating expenses. The paper aims to estimate the impact of credit risk, liquidity risk and solvency risk on the efficiency of operational activity of commercial banks listed on Bucharest Stock Exchange. The results obtained using the econometric model of the Multilinear Regression, showed that the indicator "cost to income", during 2010-2015, was significantly influenced by the level of the capital base, the rate of lending and the rate of savings in case of Romanian Commercial Bank, Transylvania Bank and Romanian Development Bank – Groupe Societe Generale. Instead, it was showed that the weak profitability of Carpatica Bank is explained by other types of risks.

ABSTRACT. It is already known that investments on the capital market are more risky than, for instance, a deposit set up with a bank. At the same time, it is our opinion that, since interests for deposits are less than 1%, other forms of investment are worthy to be analysed. In order to ensure the relevance of our approach, we have calculated and interpreted total return for the seven companies in the energy sector corresponding to the BET index (TGN, TEL, COTE, SNG, SNP, SNN, EL). Thus, for three of them (TGN, TEL and SNP), which had been listed before 2008 as well, an analysis was performed for the 2008-2015 period; for the other companies, we covered the period from their first listing to 2015 inclusively. Thus, for each share, we determined both an increase in the added value and the net dividend. The total return was calculated accordingly. If we only refer to the latest two years analysed, it can be said that the concerned years were favourable for the energy sector. We cannot overlook the return of TGN in 2014 and, respectively, COTE in 2015 (more than 50%), or that of TEL in 2014 (more than 100%). It is equally true that we have three companies whose performances were lower, i.e. SNG in 2015 and SNN and SNP both in 2014 and 2015. In conclusion, the action of two vectors, i.e. low financial education and the fear of risk, is obvious in terms of both population and companies.

ABSTRACT. ABSTRACT:

The paper presents a method of estimating the loss of value that can be recorded by holding a portfolio of financial titles for a certain period of time, through the VaR model, using Monte Carlo simulation method of determining the maximum expected loss. Value at Risk model (VaR) represents one of the most modern method of risk estimation for banks, big companies and also for insurance companies, being used in the majority of the studies regarding the price of the financial titles. This model determines the maximum expected loss of a financial title, or of a portfolio of titles, for a certain period of time and with a certain probability – in this case we chosed a probability of 95%. The research was based on the closing prices of 33 companies from the manufacturing industry in Romania, listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, at the standard and premium categories, during the period 01.01.2016-31.12.2016 (260 statistical observations). The results of the paper showed that, for a portfolio of financial titles for the 33 studied companies, in which it will be invested an amount of 1.000.000 lei, at a confidence level of 95%, the maximum daily loss, estimated during the studied period 01.01.2016-31.12.2016, was 2.513,47 lei.

ABSTRACT. In simple terms, fixed tax means that every person is taxed with the same percentage. In such a system, in place of a complex set of taxing, the state declares a limit over which every person pays a fixed tax for personal incomes. This limit is generally very low, in order to stimulate the people to pay their taxes, instead of trying to avoid them. This kind of system bases on the single taxing of incomes. In what concerns the corporatist's taxes, the idea is similar: only one rule for everybody. The analysts are disposed to take into evidence that, if the unique tax was a rule in every industrialized state in the first half of XIXth century, the first demanding that were pronounced plainly for a “strong progressive or tax gradual” system, appeared in the communist manifestation of Karl Marx in 1848. But, at least, the capitalist states adopted this system

ABSTRACT. The article captures the three fundamental managerial decisions involving the capitalization of accounting information: financing, investment and dividend, the aim being to highlight the usefulness of accounting information by translating tit into calculation and analysis models even though this transposition does not offer a definite guarantee of a decision that eliminates future risks. It also presents the results and conclusions of a quantitative research based on a questionnaire, conducted on a sample of economic entities in Center Development Region 7, whose main objective is to know the options for use of accounting information in taking financing, investment and dividend decisions.

ABSTRACT. In our current study we examined a link between the average salary of teachers in countries considered by us and the position of these countries in terms of the place occupied by the universities from those countries in the most popular rankings of the universities known in the world. Our conclusion is that there are other factors that influence the place occupied that we will try to identify in the future.

ABSTRACT. The researchers and practitioners have distinguished in the recent years, the need to create public administration processes and activities that are governed by transparency, consistency and fluidity, being open organizational changes and challenges. The paper presents the results of research carried out with the managers of public organizations which aimed to investigate their perceptions about the determinants of change within public administration. The findings highlight a number of characteristics of public organizations and their managers, as well as determinants of organizational changes necessary in future periods to channel resources and efforts towards achieving higher performance.

ABSTRACT. Tuberculosis is one of the top ten diseases that cause death in the whole world. This is the main reason why World Health Organization fights to eradicate the spreading of this infection and to cure sick people. In 1994 World Health Organization and International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) developed DOTS (Direct Observed Treatment Standardized) strategy which in time was adopted in the whole world. In Romania, DOTS strategy was implemented in 1998 by Health Minister through National Tuberculosis Control Program. A large amount of money was directed from the public budget to this Program. In this paper we want to determine if the National Tuberculosis Control Program had a positive impact on eradicate Tuberculosis incidence. For this, based on Tuberculosis incidence between 1997-2014, in all 41th Romanian districts and Bucharest we will develop a cluster analysis. After this, we will make a panel analysis for each cluster determined taking into consideration economic and social elements like GDP, National Tuberculosis Control Program budget, population and others elements.

ABSTRACT. This paper aims to achieve a critical analysis on the condition of linearity in relation to the economic system, in terms of systems theory. In this context the benefits are captured and methodological limitations arising from systemic approach to the economy. Critical analysis is done from a perspective that captures cyber connections between economics and its concepts of theoretical physics and especially concept derived from quantum mechanics. Special emphasis is given to the nonlinear nature of economic systems and the consequences that flow from it in the process of shaping the economic phenomenon. The condition of linearity to the default assumed the current economic model is systematically demolished by the reality of the crisis phenomena, but without this phenomenon shaping economic conditions is impossible. This contradiction is also assumed strong point of the analysis of economic phenomena and the "Achilles heel". Although there is no logical solution to eliminate this contradiction, but clarification and assuming this level may help to optimize the modeling process. To achieve this, however, it is necessary to clarify the conceptual framework in which the modeling took place. Thus, methodological clarifications to the work provides a new perspective on the economic crisis in general and the study of the mechanisms of formation of bubbles in particular.

ABSTRACT. Travel & Tourism (T&T) is one of the most important economic activities worldwide due to its direct economic impact and it also induces a significant indirect effect on the economy. Travel and tourism are drivers of economic growth having a substantial contribution to GDP and employment.

This article aims to present an overview of the evolution of T&T competitiveness over the last decade in Romania. Analyzing how the different components and subcomponents of the competiveness index changed throughout time, may improve the understanding on how to better deal with emerging issues in an interconnected and globalized economy such as resource efficiency, environmental protection and climate change.

The paper follows the methodology developed by the World Economic Forum for measuring competitiveness across this industry taking into consideration for main pillars such as: the business environment, travel and tourism policy, sector related infrastructure and finally natural and cultural resources. The analysis will underline the strengths and weakness of Romanian T&T industry’s competitiveness index factors pointing out the pillars on which the economy could continue to build on and pillars that should be improved for a greater competitivity of the sector.

Stimulating competitiveness and leveraging the resources and the touristic potential of the country should be central to any Romanian economic policy agenda, such an analysis may contribute to understand in a larger extend which are the most suitable ways to act in order to improve the overall performance of the travel and tourism industry and indirectly impacting the entire Romanian economy.

ABSTRACT. Very often, over time - especially after antiquity but also in that time - it was obvious that, from those who decide to ignore a certain fascination with historical economical experiences. Such fascination shows itself in nearly time. Precisely for this reason, in ignorance of history they were detached and stands out numerous economic "explosive" paths. So did we learn? How did the economic future set, ignoring history, and how will the economic future be set ? This will be shown in the study below.

ABSTRACT. Considering the public spending a significant factor that may influence the economic well being of a country, the paper aims to analyse the cyclicality of different components of the government expenditure in a group of European Union countries. Approaching the main explanatory theories regarding the fiscal procyclicality and using statistical and econometric instruments on a time frame of 21 years, the research seeks to find the factors that are responsible for the cyclicality of the expenditure components in the selected countries. While the statistical instruments only emphasize on the heterogeneity of the selected countries and present the correlation trends for each component, the country-by-country regression indicates that expenditure cyclicality is mainly caused by political measures. The government expenditure and the investment evolve for most countries in the same way as the GDP growth, also supporting Alesina et. al theory of the electorate that pressures the government to increase the public expenses during the economic boom, while for the developing countries, the social inequality seems to be correlated more with the expenditure components than the political factor or the debt. The uneven results mark the differences existing between the developed and developing countries of the European Union, making an unified approach of the cyclicality a difficult one.

ABSTRACT. This paper aims to synthetize the main challenges that the European Union faces during these troubled times and also to suggest some of the possible scenarios that might actually unfold. Symbolically, this year should have highlighted the biggest achievements of the EU and its Member States, as it celebrates 60 years of joint commitment for a better Europe. Yet, the uncertainty regarding Europe’s future is at an all-time high, due to internal and external factors. On the one hand, internal challenges, such as the Brexit process and the refugees-issue led to the reevaluation of the EU’s current organization and structure, and which, in term, might lead to a Europe of concentric circles or a Europe with multiple speeds. On the other hand, there are external factors that will impose new approaches on important aspects such as the economic and political relations with the USA, negotiations with Turkey or the Republic of Moldavia in connection to their accession to the EU and other global problems, such as tackling climate change, reducing poverty, promoting peace and other. In order to project some of EU’s possible future steps a critical analysis of reports and statements of the EU’s most important institutions and representative will be carried out in order to provide the fundament for scenarios.

ABSTRACT. Intellectual capital is the currency of the new millennium. Its wise use is the key to success in the era of knowledge. That is why it can be seen as a hidden value of an organization, which was until recently unmeasurable. Starting from the current knowledge revolution in all fields, there is a need for a thorough study of this subject. By doing research in this field, it is desirable to try to identify the current features in the management of human resources, this being an argument in the necessity of the research that will follow and an aid to bring extra knowledge in this direction. In this paper we review the existing work in the literature and come up with a list of things that are we consider that can be improved and a list of good practice examples. Our proposed solution is the ambidextrous organization, in which progressive and radical developments can both be simultaneously achieved. Given the dynamics and different requirements of the two types of changes, pressure on the organizational culture is quite strong. So one can say that a long-term economic development cannot be designed without a thorough investment in human capital and thus its importance is particularly emphasized.

ABSTRACT. To achieve sustainable economic growth, Romania requires investments and exports. E.U. funding and foreign direct investments contribute to the formation of Romanian capital. During the last 15 years, i.e. the pre-adhesion and adhesion period, 17.8 billion Euro received from the E.U. were spent on the public sector, while 14.8 billion Euro were spent on the private sector. Between 2005 and 2015, Romania received 31.8 billion Euro in E.U. funding, 12.2 billion of which were spent as fixed capital, and 19.2 billion Euro were allocated towards current expenses. For the financial exercise of 2007 - 2013, only 20% of the sums which were absorbed were used in the real economy, to support competitiveness and to finance the agricultural sector. We observe that these sums were not sufficient and their utilisation was appalling.

ABSTRACT. The present paper aims to study the influence of the determinants: the category, the size, the residence environment of the public hospitals of pneumology in Romania on the quality management components through the opinion of their leadership / manager. The degree of satisfaction of human resources in the above-mentioned hospitals depends on the importance given to the quality management components by the manager / manager, influencing their commitment. The data were gathered using hospital-based questionnaire survey on quality management of hospital leadership(CHMQ) on its components and employee satisfaction in terms of working conditions, vocational training and safety policy (health and safety ) of the workplace. Each of the seven components of quality management: policy, objectives, planning, implementation, control, improvement, commitment of human resources are influenced by the size, category and environment of the hospital. The importance given to quality management on its components influences the degree of employee satisfaction resulting in two models achieved using linear regression.

ABSTRACT. For a long period of time, land represented the main factor of production in the Romanian economy. During the Middle Ages, the land distribution stimulated the practice of crop rotation, fact that provided superior crop yields and a certain welfare also for the peasants. This trend had dramatically changed once with the Adrianopole Treaty, a new land ownership regime favorising the large agrarian exploitations to the detriment of the small farming system. Starting with the XIX-th century, the "peasant issue" outbursted, in despite of all the agrarian reforms, the land distribution remaining a permanent source of discussions in the Romanian society and an essential cause of the lack of efficiency of the national rural economy. At a global level, we assist nowadays to a noticeable growth of interest in the family farming. Therefore, the main aim of our paper is to reveal in what measure the family rural exploitations from Romania are able to face the new global challenges and, overcoming the difficulties, to become a much more substantial contributor to the rural and general economic progress. Also, we are interested in identifying the role of the state and of other institutions in this process and to size the main sources of financing, stimulating and supporting the development of the family farming. All our objectives are having in view the consistent component represented by the Romanian rural in the national economy and the urge of reinforcement of this sector in an innovating European and global context.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this article is to provide an overall picture of what liveable cities are defining. Starting from the theoretical perspective presented in the first part of this research, and ending up with the practical ones, an attempt was made to provide an answer to the following question: why are some urban areas more attractive than others and what criteria should be fulfilled in order for the life of a city’s inhabitants to be considered qualitative, and that city to be deemed liveable. For a city to be liveable, it is bound to meet several conditions, the most important ones being related to economy, environment, innovation, academic, infrastructure and also to aesthetics & culture. The economic aspects are not always revealing for the liveability level, unless they are accompanied by positive effects on the overall quality of life.

ABSTRACT. Brexit, or United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union, will be regarded as one of the most important geopolitical events in Europe’s modern history. On 23 June 2016, 52% of the UK's voting population chose isolationism and protectionism over globalization, free trade and free movement of people. The outcome of the UK’s referendum on membership of the European Union will shape the future of the country’s relationship with its largest trade partner – the EU, and may also temper its dominance position in the financial services industry. The consequences of Brexit for United Kingdom will depend on the conditions of the departure from EU, more specifically if it will be a ‘hard’ or a ‘soft’ exit, or variations of these two opposing scenarios. The long-term economic impact of Brexit will rely on the new dynamics that will be included in the new EU–UK relationship, based on trade, regulation, and competition. This choice to leave also represents a warning signal for the EU to reform, and deal with the uncertainty that will impact the short term growth of the European Union. Another key risk for the EU is the ‘contagion effect’ that may have been triggered by UK’s departure.

ABSTRACT. A short glimpse into the 2017 global healthcare sector shows challenges in terms of health and demographic trends: an aging population, growing prevalence of chronic diseases, increasing patient knowledge and expectations and others (Deloitte, 2017). Thus, with the increase of the 65+ year old population, respectively the increased incidence of age-related disorders, demand for rehabilitation services is also likely to increase. But rehabilitation services are often underdeveloped, underresourced and undervalued (Krug, Cieza, 2017). The purpose of this paper is to examine the existing interest for rehabilitation services in Romania, as well as the existing infrastructure, in the context of global healthcare trends. Methodology: we used secondary data (review of publicly available documents). Preliminary results: Although there’s a lack of reliable data and official statistics resulting from the Ministry of Health or other relevant institutions, data obtained from Google Trends shows that there is interest in such services (especially in Bucharest, and the counties Dolj, Sibiu, Vaslui, Neamț, Brăila, Giurgiu, Mehedinți, Vâlcea, Bacău). This is relevant because in today’s digital world, online plays a significant role in the research process. Furthermore, according to a Google and Compete study (2012), for patients who booked appointments, digital content is key to decision-making. At the same time, the factors contributing to the unmet need for rehabilitation services include poor accessibility, transport barriers, high out-of-pocket expenses and long waiting times (Krug, Cieza, 2017). Thus, it is necessary to enhance rehabilitation data collection in order to gain a better understanding of the elements which need improvement.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this paper is to identiy the main differences between the European Sub-models in terms of their performances related to 2020 Strategy targets, with focus on labour market, education and social exclusion. The 2020 Strategy targets give an overview of where the EU should be on key parameters by 2020, but statistics reveal differences in economic performance between european sub-models.

This study highlights the first half of the Europe 2020 Strategy path followed by the five sub-models (northern, continental, southern, Anglo-Saxon and ECE sub-model) in terms of reforms and changes made after the Lisbon Strategy.

The paper is sectioned in three parts consisting of: the literature review on the main features of the European sub-models, the performances of each submodels in terms of the 2020 Stretegy targets and a comparative analysis among the measures taken in the mentioned sub-models after the crisis, with focus on social inclusion and labour market.

ABSTRACT. In the context of the online environment and the pressure created by the new information and communication technologies, when the Internet is used by more than 40% of the world population, when the penetration rate of the online has reached more than 75% in Europe (52% in Romania) and almost 90% in North America and when the smartphone has become a constant companion of the individuals, today’s companies must adapt or develop new marketing strategies that will help them win and retain the consumers, otherwise they will slowly perish. This paper aims to present several important marketing strategies based on the usage of the Internet tools like: search engine optimisation (SEO), content marketing, social media/online social networks, email marketing, lead generation, sales etc., that can be implemented by the Romanian companies. We are presenting several important advantages and disadvantages of these marketing strategies and will try to particularise them in case of using the online marketing tools and strategies by the small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) which represent the great majority of the players in a modern market economy. We will also bring forth several important statistics regarding the Internet usage and of the online marketing tools and we shall underline future trends related to these aspects, all this being designed to support future managerial decisions and to better understand the need for the companies to implement and use them successfully.

ABSTRACT. Competition officials give special attention to mergers. The importance results from the necessity to decrease obstacles that restrain the free economic activity. A particular appearance in this meaning may have the creation or consolidation of a dominant position The concept of concentration includes transactions that result in lasting change of control of the companies, which reflects in market structure. Market involves mutual influence between its actors. Market structure changes influence both the bidders, and the final consumer. Lasting changes to areas of economic control, such as mergers, may distort the functioning of markets, affecting effective competition. The merger effects measures through market shares held by companies. Distortion of competition resulted from concentration can be expressed by the establishment or strengthening of dominant position, coercion final consumer product choice, price coordination, creating barriers to entry, etc. Determination of the relevant market is the analytical basis of the merger. The most effective method to identify the relevant market is hypothetical monopolist test. This test defines the relevant market by checking the gain through the product selling price increases by a hypothetical monopolist over a period. It is studied the market that hypothetical monopolist does not decreases profit from rising prices. The market shares can be determined using statistical indicators and the application of the econometric methods. Usually, the statistical methods of analysis determine the market shares held by companies and the competition on market. This paper presents an analysis of economic concentrations particular for food retail markets in Republic of Moldova.

ABSTRACT. The present paper - Potential Impact of Regional Operational Programme upon technological transfer, in Romania - aimed to analysis the possible effects of the implementation of the measures referred to technological transfer, financed by European Funds of Regional Development, in 2014-2020 period. The expectations concerning the implementation of the Regional Operational Programme are determined by the fact that it will support a balanced increase of all areas of the country and, in particular, of the less developed ones, not as much by redistributing public resources but more by ensuring a minimum level of business, social and human capital infrastructure that would allow for economic growth in all areas. In the following, the possible impact of implementing ROP 2014-2020 in Romania shall be analysed considering the programme, financial and output indicators, during the current programming period.

ABSTRACT. The article aims to research impact of budget balance, whether surplus or deficit, on the main indicator characterizing the economic growth of a country, namely GDP and the inflation rate in the 27 European Union Member States and the United Kingdom. For this analysis was used panel data, taking into account the period from 2001 to 2015. The method used for the alalysis is the linear regression with fixed effects and with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors. The dependent variables are the growth rate of real GDP and the inflation rate, and the independent variable is the budget balance. The results obtained using econometric software Stata shows a positive impact on growth of budget balance in the European Union for the analyzed period.

ABSTRACT. Problem statement. In modern conditions, bankruptcy institute is intended to preserve the balance of interests of the state and business, to regulate contractions between economic agents. At the same time, parties interacting within bankruptcy institute (a principal of an enterprise in default, shareholders, creditors, employees) have opposite interests, which lead to conflicts among them. In return, conflicts of interest have a big influence on the choice of the priority mechanism for solving the current crises situation. Research methods and tools. The paper is based on the fundamental concepts and approaches to research the contracting of economic agents in the frame of bankruptcy institute introduced in materials of Jensen M. (1976), Meckling W. (1976), Guigou J.D. (1995), Baird D.J. (1986), Combier J. (1998), Blazy R. (1998). The authors use institutional approach for studying bankruptcy process. The following research tools were used throughout the writing process: methods of scientific abstraction, induction, deduction, synthesis, empirical and benchmarking. The purpose of the research: to study a conflict of interests of economic agents in the framework of bankruptcy institute and evaluation of their effect on crisis outcome. The research results. The article studies characteristics of contractions between economic agents in the framework of bankruptcy institute depending on self-interest orientation and available information. It defines the effect of identified conflict of interests based on distributive advantages on the choice of the priority mechanism for solving the current crises situation: preference of rehabilitation or liquidation proceedings.

ABSTRACT. This paper aims to unveil the reasoning behind the asset purchase programs ran by most central banks as a mean to control inflation and operational liquidity in the capital markets from the onset of the financial crisis in 2007 onward arguing that the concept carries yet another form of monetary expansion through quantitative easing, be as it “unconventional” of a monetary policy as it may be and would like to understand its underlying effects on the capital market and ultimately on real economy since knowing that monetary expansion triggers a distortion in the money supply, asset pricing and valuation while inducing a consequent misallocation of capital. In continuation with its argumentation, the paper touches also the relevance of having long-term bond yields changed as a result of having the central bank engaged in asset purchases and what this bears for the investors. Particular focus is shed on the case on the recent European Central Bank (ECB)`s asset purchase program “APP” implemented against the official concern that inflation would remain too low for a prolonged period, implying risks to medium-term price stability, which ultimately is the official raison d`être of ECB. The paper documents qualitative analyses and interprets data available on ECB`s official website on asset yields and balance sheet accumulations to consolidate its argumentation.

ABSTRACT. This paper aims to assess the convergence model of Albania within the Western Balkans and toward European Union (EU). The Western Balkan countries are stuck in transition as their rate of economic growth has slowed substantially compared to the pre global crisis period. Thus the economic convergence evidenced in the convergence of incomes and productivity is put into question. What is the gap and how much time will be needed to diminish the differences? The variables that are used in the study are the income per capita, growth rate, income per worker in the Western Balkan countries and EU. The data are measured for the period 1995 – 2015 in order to establish a substantial data series for trend analysis. In the paper is concluded that the Balkan countries have tended to converge among themselves and toward EU but the speed of convergence is moderated with the hit of global crises and the recovery seems still difficult to the rate of pre-crises. The main question remains on the productivity of their growth factors and identifying of sources of sustainable growth and be competitive in the European market. The region has a number of advantages and unexploited potentials to stimulate investments and further growth.

ABSTRACT. Post crisis period it’s described by several stylized facts with a significant impact on the business cycles. Examples of such stylized facts consist in the Phillips curve flattening, very low inflation levels or a “passive” stance of the monetary policy. Thus, it was contoured the so-called new-normal era, which raises a series of caveats for the macroeconomic modelling. In this regard, the present paper comes to address the issue on the incidence of self-fulfilling prophecy in a New-Keynesian model extended with financial sector. This extension consists in defining an additional equation which introduces the financial accelerator related to lending conditions. Basically, calibrating the model for Romanian and Euro Area economies, the underlying work aims to investigate the operational circumstances in which the benchmark New-Keynesian framework can to be resorted for policy analysis, given the new stylized facts. By considering the condition for multiple-rational expectations equilibria underlined by Bullard and Mitra (2002), we analyzed the emergence of a unique bounded stationary equilibrium in the specified context. Preliminary results underline that under a “passive” monetary policy, flattening of the Phillips curve facilities the occurrence of multiple rational expectation equilibria. Obtained results reveal also a non-linear relation between interest rate spread elasticity with respect to the output-gap and the incidence of self-fulfilling prophecy. This work it’s normative, so further investigation have to be made on the appropriateness of a sunspot based approach in order to study the business cycle mechanics within the present framework.

ABSTRACT. It is well known that the soundness and stability of a bank are strongly influenced by the risk of credit, while a solid and stable banking sector plays a crucial role in supporting the real economy and ensuring overall financial stability. The soundness and stability of banks are particularly important in CEE countries, where the financing of the economy mainly relies on banks. Against this background, the paper aims to empirically investigate the macroeconomic and bank-specific determinants of credit risk in the banking sector of CEE countries, during 2003-2013. Our research uses panel data estimation techniques and considers the ratio of non-performing loans to total bank loans as a proxy for credit risk, our dependent variable. As explanatory variables, we use two categories of factors, namely macroeconomic factors (e.g. annual real GDP growth rate, government debt, inflation rate, domestic credit) and bank-specific factors (e.g. capital adequacy, profitability, quality of management, income diversification of banks, ratio of loans to total assets, loans to deposits, bank size). Our empirical results are broadly in line with the results of other empirical studies, and emphasize that credit risk dynamics in the banking sector of CEE countries is significantly influenced by macroeconomic conditions as well as by some bank-specific factors. The results of our research could be of interest for decision makers in banks, concerned with the adoption of measures aimed at strengthening the soundness and stability of the banking sector.

ABSTRACT. The practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is much debated and criticized. There is a continuous debate regarding CSR and corporate financial performance (CFP) because the narrative reviews of the literature and the empirical evidence is too varied and mixed in different country context to allow for definitive conclusions. This paper aims at empirically analyzing the relationship between CSR and company’s market capitalization, the indicator which measure the investors’ evaluation of a firm value. Starting from the existing literature, our paper investigates this relationship for the Romanian companies listed on Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE). From a total of 85 listed companies, we selected only 70 of them which were listed on the BSE during the period 2010 – 2015, without being excluding from trading. Using panel least squares methodology, our results suggest a positive relationship between CSR activities and market capitalization of firms, which are also impacted by the dividend paid and return on equity. This is a clear clue, that besides the financial performance of a firm, the investors take into account also the attitude of a firm regarding its CSR activities. Moreover, this paper highlights the benefits for both managers and investors, since CSR exerts a significant positive impact on the firm value.

ABSTRACT. Globalization is nowadays one of the most used terms, becoming a modern concept, that all the economists use as it is the main dictum of the management specialists and the motto of the journalists and politicians of any kind. Globalization represents, in the new economy context, a process of intense changes, that affects all the regions of the world, in a variety of segments, including economy, technology, politics, mass media, culture, and the environment. However, it appears that the society has not formed a precise idea of it. the globalization process, with all its ups and downs, is inevitable for humanity. It is a future stage of the general process of political, economic, and cultural development. Therefore, it is important to learn about the history and components of globalization. Also, it is imperative to take a look at some institutions with major impact over the new global order, such as the World Trade Organization or the International Accounting Standards Committee, and at the collapse of the communist regime which meant not only the change of the political system but also the beginning of a profound transformation of the economic system. The east European and central states want to adopt the market economy system and, as such a change can’t be done overnight, they start a long and difficult process of transition to the market economy.

ABSTRACT. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a central topic more often to the attention of the companies, authorities and society in the last years. However, empirical studies on CSR in SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) are scarce. The motives and the initiatives of CSR activities in SMEs often take different forms than those of larger firms. SMEs make less use of CSR instruments than larger firms, have less formal CSR strategies, are less likely to report CSR activity, and have fewer resources to invest in CSR activity. SMEs are more likely to engage with CSR in their local community. Moreover, the main barriers of CSR activities, which have been mentioned in the literature, are the SME owners’ characteristics and the organizational features that are unique to SMEs. This paper aims at analyzing the CSR issue in the context of Romanian SMEs. The first part of the paper review the literature on CSR in SMEs, identify the drivers of CSR by SMEs, the particularities of the SMEs and also the barriers CSR in SMEs. As method we will use the case study – we will analyze enterprises listed on Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) Aero Market and we will highlight the lessons learned from SMEs in the process of integrating social responsibility (SR) into their business practice and the potential benefits that socially responsible practices can bring to the business environment and to the society. Our contribution will consist in filling the gap in SMEs CSR research and developing the literature.

ABSTRACT. This article discusses the mechanisms of sales management and offers some methodologies that allow us to solve the problems of special-purpose products management and marketing. Our study considers special-purpose products as functional nutrition products with a balanced composition that are enriched in specific components, the main role of which is body processes regulation to maintain its effective life. The article has undertaken the analysis of existing techniques for managing the production process, output and delivery of goods and managing sales directly in trade. There have been singled out positive and negative aspects of these techniques and on the basis of that we have proposed some methodologies that help to identify potential customers for a specific product with the use of integrated events to promote products. Methodologies allow us to evaluate the efficiency of special-purpose products production, through the example of bread products, depending on demand for them, taking into account a combination of integrated events to promote this category of goods. This technique makes it possible to obtain the ratio of anticipated sales with due account for growth output indices and to determine the necessary quantity of shipped product from manufacturers to trade outlets. Methodologies include targeting, mathematical methods of processing statistical data obtained in real-life conditions. Practical approval of mathematical apparatus was carried out on the example of citizens living in Kursk. For our study of special-purpose products there were taken some bread and flour products, namely four types of bread from sprouted wheat.

ABSTRACT. From the `sick man` of Europe, as it was called after the Second World War, Germany managed to become the greatest power on the continent. This was due to hard austerity policies that perfectly suited a hard working and rigorous population. In this article I want to analyze if ordoliberalism, the German form of social liberalism that led to the country`s economic miracle in the 1950s, can be the saving solution for a continent in crisis. For a more complete analysis, I studied the subject from an economical, historical, political and social perspective. Following an extensive review of existing literature I have highlighted the doctrinal confrontation between ordoliberalism and keynesianism, brought back in the spotlight by the European sovereign debt crisis. The German economic elite embrace ordoliberal values, characterized by responsibility and strict monetary rules. In response to the Eurozone crisis, they tried to spread the ordoliberal ideology across Europe. Focused on the supply side of the economy, the followers of ordoliberalism strongly opposed the expansionary fiscal and monetary policy. The power held in Europe allowed Germany to impose its own vision, centered on austerity and price stability. If ordoliberalism worked very well in Germany after the Second World War, not the same happened in the case of the Eurozone`s economy. The rigor and lack of flexibility of German ordoliberalism have only further deepened the crisis and the economic problems of vulnerable countries.

ABSTRACT. One of the most discussed issues related to foreign direct investments (FDI) refers to the impact they have on the economic and social welfare of a country. Moreover, if these effects are positive, the question is to what extent and by what instruments they can be enhanced by host country governments. In recent decades, the general political opinion on FDI changed, as they are rather understood as generating competitiveness and growth for host countries and less in terms of their negative effects on the economy. The visible result is the increasing international competition for FDI and the emergence of success stories, such as Ireland, Poland or China. Our paper investigates the relationship between FDI flows in countries from Central and Eastern Europe that are also EU members – Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania – using the panel methodology and implementing various panel specifications that shed light on the particularities of this relationship among the five countries. Panels include, besides GDP and GPD per capita (as the variables describing economic growth) and FDI flows, a number of other macroeconomic variables that control for the FDI-GDP relationship: exports, gross capital formation and the size of the labour market. We find that FDI do have a positive contribution to GDP and GDP per capital growth in these economies, but also that the countries in our sample exhibit specificities in terms of FDI-GDP relationship.

ABSTRACT. Our study presents time series and structural models of U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate on the basis of Meese&Rogoff’s out-of-sample forecasting accuracy study in 1983. My aim is to compare Frankel-Bilson, Hooper and Morton, and Overshooting models with random walk and some time series models based on root mean squared error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE). I intend to find some empirical results to compare random walk model and those structural models in explaining USD/TL exchange rate behavior. We examine the empirical validity of monetary and time series model of exchange rate determination for the Turkish economy. I replicate a random walk model and compare the predictability power of different models based on the out-of-sample forecasting accuracy criteria by estimating a random walk model for the period 2003-2009 to analysis the empirical validity of monetary and time series model of exchange rate determination for the Turkish economy. The results provide evidence in favor of the predictive superiority of the Frenkel-Bilson model against the other models for 1 and 3 months horizon; but for the 6 months horizon, the random walk model’s performance dominates the others. In other words, the gain from using an Frenkel-Bilson rather than a random walk, ARIMA, or the other structural models, is relatively high at the short horizon, albeit generally statistically significant; however, this gain decreases with the forecast horizon expands and becomes less.

ABSTRACT. ABSTRACT: To understand where South Asia stands vis a vis peer regions, this paper looks at the performance comparison of South Asian economy vs regions like BRICS, ASEAN, NEXT-11, MINT, East Europe, etc, including projections from 2015-2020. It then compares performance comparison of South Asia's Top-200 companies vs companies from peer developing countries that make up BRICS, ASEAN, NEXT-11, MINT, etc. Once the relative standing of this region vs peers is established, it looks at several financial integration ideas that can help leverage this economic opportunity into savings mobilization for capital. Apart from conventional integration product ideas, it also looks at several unconventional financial integration ideas like medical tourism health insurance scheme, solar energy on-grid scheme, master ETF & feeder fund structure, start-up exchange, frameworks, etc between South Asian markets. It also looks at a SAARC Asset Class portfolio idea (CDCF portfolio) and compares it to market indices, and shows how it can increase the upside from multiple return enablers, while minimizing the downside due to low-correlation constituents. Lastly, it addresses the main Geo-political challenge of the South Asian region by offering a solution of Anchor partner countries to be investors in such financial integration ideas.

ABSTRACT. The overall objective of the audit of the public debt is to evaluate the administration and management of public debt by the Ministry of Public Finance through the analysis of its sustainability, as set by the guidelines on public debt management, reviewed, complied by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in March 2014. In this present work, analyzing the public debt indicators (evolution of public debt to GDP ratio - the most widely used indicator) have allowed me to have a first approach in terms of its sustainability. Other additional/related indicators (public debt/exports, external public debt/exports ratio) provide certain signals about the worsening of improvement of government's position, solvency risk and repayment capacity of the country. The impact of approaching this modern form of audit, the public debt audit, through the analysis of the public debt sustainability indicators, consists finally in giving recommendations, both at governmental level and at the Ministry of Public Finance level.

ABSTRACT. I discuss the effects of certain trade policy measures, mostly import tariffs, presently contemplated by the US government, aimed at enhancing domestic employment in a number of targeted industries. I intend to show that insofar as such measures restrain free trade among NAFTA member-countries, they run counter to a basic rule suggested by conventional theory, stating that, following changes in the tariff structure, resources will shift toward activities that enjoy the highest rate of effective protection. I try to demonstrate that erecting barriers against inside-NAFTA trade, aside from hurting industries that use outsourcing extensively, has little chances to create incentives for labor shifts in the desired direction.

ABSTRACT. The business ecosystem perspective can be considered as a more advanced point of view for interpreting the development local economic systems, if compared to more traditional concepts, such as clusters, industrial districts, local or regional systems, and local networks, about which a wide literature has been developed (among many others: Boix and Trullen, 2010; Porter, 1998; Andersson et al., 2004; Tallman et. al., 2004; van der Borgh et. al., 2012). The business ecosystem perspective allows to better highlight the adaptive and evolutionary nature of local systems to the changing external environment. The aim of the research was to analyze the key characters of firms belonging to a local business ecosystem specialized on an innovation driven industry – the mechanical sector – in order to verify which kind of influence the local context exerts on firms’ management, competitiveness and relationships. A quantitative survey has been conducted on a sample of 104 firms located in Italy, focusing on organization, strategies and relationships with both the internal (at the local system level) and external networks, and to relationships with the local environment. Results highlight the ability of firms belonging to a business ecosystem to take advantage of innovation diffusion processes, and also to better develop the quality of products. An important issue that emerges is related to the cohesion of ties within the local context. When relationships are based on knowledge exchange, the evolution of smaller and weaker firms can be fostered, bringing to a general strengthening of the local system.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of the paper is to develop methodology of sustainability and reliability estimation of innovative project effectiveness’ parameters with application of fuzzy sets, as well as the procedure of computation of reliability and sustainability of its fuzzy parameters. The method of fuzzy sets allows to estimate the fluctuations range of innovative project parameters depending on "swinging" its main input (exogenous) parameters, such as market prices of the product, investments expenditures, raw materials costs etc. In the same time it becomes possible to assess sustainability of the project’s effectiveness parameters to variations of its main input parameters, as well as their reliability. The use of fuzzy sets extends the capabilities of real options method’s application to analysis of the effectiveness of investments in innovative projects and also allows to take into account the factor of uncertainty much better, which is especially important in the case of innovations implementation. Fuzzy sets assessment of sustainability of forecasted financial flows and financial parameters generated by innovative project is carried out in three directions: for assessment of an innovative project effectiveness in a whole using discounted cash flows method; for assessment of innovative project effectiveness using the NPV-method from venture fund’s position; for assessment of innovative project effectiveness using the NPV-method from position of a venture fund with application of real options. The developed methodology and computing procedures are tested on a real innovative project in the pharmaceutical industry.

ABSTRACT. The austerity policy applied by Eurozone peripheral governments under the IMF/ECB/ European Commission financial assistance programs contributed to a sharp reduction of aggregate demand, regardless of the conventional and unconventional measures undertaken by the ECB. Eurozone countries that were or are under adjustment programs are now in a liquidity trap with negative inflation, and with negative interbank rates, which shifts the focus again to fiscal policy. Central to access the impact of fiscal policy are: i) the value of impact fiscal multipliers; and ii) the extent and size of hysteretic effects. There is enough and widespread evidence that, fiscal multipliers can be significantly greater than one when the economy is depressed, and the interest rates are close to their zero lower bound. However, less is known about the importance of hysteresis effects. Using the play model of hysteresis, the paper analyses the size of the hysteretic effects in the Eurozone peripheral countries. We find that hysteretic effects are indeed important. Large fiscal impact multipliers combined with the presence of hysteresis implies that front-loaded austerity depresses the economy in the short run, and effects on output growth and on employment may persist in the long run. This can jeopardize at the same time the debt and deficit to GDP reduction goals.

ABSTRACT. The financial crisis, which started in 2007-2008 in the USA, quickly generated trust issues in the banking system of the Eurosystem and overcoming it proved to be a challenge for the European Central Bank (ECB). Traditional monetary policy measures which generally consist in facilitating the access of commercial banks to central bank financing by reducing, almost to the minimum, the reference interest rate, proved to be insufficient and ineffective. Thus, although the US has overcome the crisis, Eurosystem countries face growing debts and the growth rate of GDP in some countries is negative. This is why the ECB has had to find alternative supply liquidity to the market in order to stop the deflationary trend, one example being The ECB Extended Asset Purchase Program from the Euro area launched in 2015, which will be continued in 2017. In this article I wanted to analyze the context in which this program was introduced, the characteristics of the program and especially its impact on macroeconomic indicators from the Eurosystem. The analysis was performed using official data on indicators of macroeconomic development, focusing on those on which the asset acquisition program caused effects. Following the analysis results we have highlighted that, although the ECB’s measure of suppling additional liquidity is appropriate to the context of the eurozone crisis, foreign investors and partner countries reaction was not necessarily in favor of it.

ABSTRACT. Research has identified the following factors that negatively affect IT professionals: intensive work demands, complex relationships with others, career concerns, systems maintenance, role ambiguity, tedious administrative tasks as well as fear of obsolescence, team and client interactions, role overload, work culture issues, technical constraints, and competing work and family demands (Lim & Teo 1999; Rajeswari and Anantharaman 2003). This research aims to explore the relationship between Romanian IT professionals and two types of stress: job stress and work (or organizational) stress. A survey was conducted with over 1500 Romanian IT professionals and data analyzed in order to begin to explore these important relationships. Preliminary findings show that middle management experience the highest stress values as compared to upper management, first-level management and non-management staff. Utilizing correlation and linear regression methods, results indicate that stress values are most influenced by negative attitudes toward work/life balance satisfaction within the IT organization. Job stress is most negatively affected by full-time status and increasing tenure. As for organizational stress, increasing age and previous employment outside of IT (or first employed position) lead to increased scores. Our paper concludes with some preliminary recommendations for reducing stress in the workplace while also looking at benefits packages for any possible ways to reduce stress in this area of human resources.

ABSTRACT. The aim of the paper is to get solutions for the uncertainty that is being caused by today’s problems that entail anxiety among us. We have in view the speeding of life’s rhythm, the threatening of globalization and environmental problems. We’re looking for the safety of tomorrow- a materialistic and psychical one: freedom from danger, risk, loss. That’s why we are thinking more and more to the future and if this becomes uncertain , it is because we’re afraid that we can’t have it. The only pledge is change. But this means that in order to face it we must trust ourselves so that we can make the best choices. We have been living the custom of models and scenario and if the economist is looking for the perfect pattern, the politician is looking for the perfect scenario. Both face a cruel reality: namely that nothing is ideal or perfect. Therefore, we wish that global economy should not be caught in a spiral of uncertainty and financial instability. We must think of better ways to manage different levels of ambition and be more trustful in ourselves. We either fight, fret ourselves, advance, or we may choose the opposite way by trusting the natural course of life. We must ensure elements of stability for us, be flexible and work with ourselves to resist such difficult times.

ABSTRACT. The aim of the paper is to find different ways to reach success and value it accordingly having as result the self complacency and rounding our personality. Success is the output of life’s algorithm. From a perspective of calling, success is something individual with different significances for each of us. Success is something that we are learning continuously. We define it differently according to the aim we have in life. It has to be what we become in life and not only what we get. A healthy trust is the basis on which we can build the way to success. We view it a as journey that can last all our life. We reach it through hard work, trust, being balanced, involved, being different, not postponing things, having models, being flexible, learning to sell……We focus on great things and we are attentive to opportunities. Thus we become loyal, efficient, useful and able to turn into account our idea that we had it as unique. All the way to success must be dominated by balanced emotions that can help us manage the obstacles that we may encounter . The way to success starts with self trust, continues with focusing on objectives and is always followed by will, perseverance and work We plan success, then we prepare for it and the measure of our dreams becomes the aim we must have in mind. The key for success is different for each of us.

ABSTRACT. Privacy, security and trust are continuing to be top theme of discussion in the world, especially when it comes to social media or regulation of electronic commerce and the digital economy. For this dynamic world, an important characteristic is the specific regulations of the electronic market. There are lots of rules and guidelines on certain legal aspects of electronic environment that change frequently in a forceful environment, and in all this dynamism an important role belong to companies that are acting in this environment, more than anyone else, even thru a system of co-regulation and self-regulation, which often are more effective than regulations or directives initiated by the government. We also will present some of the most recent act of self-regulation in Europe that was conducted by social media companies including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube that have come together to sign some agreements. We try to emphasize in this article the importance of having attention in both direction security and privacy, and all this, to achieve a sustainable controlled environment in which e-commerce can thrive in this market.

ABSTRACT. The capabilities approach, therefore, attempts to put things right by focusing on the possibility of effective ends and on concrete freedom of attaining reasoned ends, rather than focusing on means. Thus, the present paper is divided into two parts. The first part will try to highlight the imperfection of traditional monetary indicators as well as the difficulties to measure the different dimensions of poverty, particularly in emerging countries, such as Morocco. We argue that poverty is not merely an idea of inadequacy of economic means of an individual, but rather a fundamental shortage that deprivation entails_ minimum adequate capability. The second part deals with a reorientation towards capabilities in order to explain the extent to which the latter (the capabilities approach) could serve as a basis for the assessment of the level of deprivation and not that of resources, which focuses on income and wealth.

ABSTRACT. Contrary to popular belief, globalization has not sped up but slowed down the advance toward freer international trade. Mobility of capital across national borders and the attendant increase in the power of multinational companies are acting rather as disincentives to nations’ willingness to further open their markets to international trade. Moreover, conventional trade in merchandise and services is increasingly being blamed for many evils of today’s world such as environment degradation, labor standards infringement, domestic firms’ exposure to unfair competition from abroad etc. As a consequence, regional and bilateral agreements have been proliferating lately, not as surrogates but as interim solutions to the halting progress multilateral negotiations aimed at fully liberalizing international trade. In this context, trans-Atlantic integration should be perceived as a natural and necessary step toward a truly globalized world. The mere fact that two huge trade blocks are involved therein makes it appear as one of the most prominent challenges the world has been facing in its entire history.

ABSTRACT. Our paper investigates the location attributes of a large sample of emerging economies classified as key emergent markets by BBVA Research from the perspective of foreign direct investments and multinational companies’ presence abroad. We use several macroeconomic variables that are hypothesized to illustrate the relevant location attributes for multinational companies’ decisions - and include them in a Principal Components Analysis to reveal the most relevant locational attributes or combination of such attributes that influence the decision of multinational companies to invest abroad. These variables refer to market size and potential, country risk, infrastructure and ease of obtaining information, labour markets and the level of country integration in the world economic environment. PCA is used with the purpose of reducing the number of variables that supposedly influence the location decision of multinational companies (MNEs), thus leading to the identification of a smaller number of country attributes that are relevant for MNEs’ location decision. We find that only four variables had the most important contributions to the principal components: GDP per capita, international reserves, mobile phones subscriptions and labor force. Labour force is the variable that contributes the most to the first factor and its contribution grows in importance as we depart from 1994. At the same time, GDP per capita has become less important in recent years as location factor for multinational enterprises.

ABSTRACT. The paper analyses transformation of Russian public procurement system in the past 25 years. The focus is given to building up the new institutional environment and the main tools and mechanisms of interaction on the emerging quasi-markets. The impact of the international procurement experience, the heritage of Soviet administrative control system as well as macroeconomic and regional factors and social-and-political interests upon procurement regulation are evaluated. The stages of concept evolution and modernization of the regulatory framework in this field are presented from the prospective of the economic policy. Some controversial aspects of regulating the public procurement system and the effect upon conduct of public and municipal customers and suppliers are highlighted. The ideological rationale of the market reforms is identified as aimed at preventing corruption and enhancing the public spending efficiency. It drives a regulatory transition from the industrial policy measures to the policy of competition protection and stimulation, and determines adopting new public procurement technologies to fit the evolving approaches. The authors conclude that the controversies in public procurement are rooted in the basic legal concepts and frameworks that hardly meet the needs of economic agents. Evolution of the institutional environment of the public procurement market proves low self-control by the state in the modern Russia.

ABSTRACT. The end of the last century raised the idea of creative clusters as a powerful development source of economy that went hand in hand with the new approach towards economy and the importance of creativity. This is a field that, if used accordingly, would help to achieve significant impact on national or regional economic competitiveness because clusters create favourable conditions to increase the productivity, innovativeness, improve work and product quality, technological content, launch new businesses, etc. It is important to note that clusters form and develop in those areas of economy in which a country/region specialises or has potential to specialise. One of the specific features of creative industries is not only the high economic value generated by them, but also the fact that they promote development of others areas of economy, and the importance of clusters to creative industries is especially high due to rapid change and high degree of risk that is particular to the creative sector.

ABSTRACT. The paper presents how the International Theater Festival in Sibiu (FITS) contributes to the development of the city of Sibiu and its surroundings. The aim of the paper is to analyze the extent to which large, established cultural events converge to the tourism development of an entire area. The object of the research is to provide an economic and social analysis of the Sibiu tourism industry during the festival, compared to the average of the tourist season, i.e. the period from May to September. The aim of the paper does not consist in a mere display of economic results, which is well above average; it explores the correlations and ways in which the development of festival culture inevitably leads to organic tourism development. Hence, the final part of the paper offers a good practice model, one which can be successfully "franchised" to other cities of Romania.

ABSTRACT. This research is qualitative aims to analyze master and PhD students' perception about the quality of higher education in the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest. The group was composed of 8 students, 4 for master and 4 for doctoral cycle. Only students in their final year of study are taken into account for this research. The information was collected through direct technical namely in depth interview, semidirijat. The instrument used was the interview guide, which took a total of eight questions. It was divided into three sections, namely: teaching, learning environment and identifying the most important dimensions of quality. The quality perception is influenced by the cycle of studies and experience they have had with the university. In the opinion of students credibility is the most important characteristic of technical higher education services. With the help of qualitative research results can formulate hypotheses for future quantitative

ABSTRACT. Currency savings accounts are accounts maintained by commercial banks, savings and loan associations, credit unions, and mutual savings banks that pay interest but can not be used directly as money. These accounts let customers set aside a portion of their liquid assets that could be used to make purchases while earning a monetary return. So, it can be said that: the saving in foreign coin is negatively related with real randament of actives in lei, this variably being seen as an estimation of option price for the renunciation at the realization of saving through the possession of actives in lei; the saving in foreign coin is positively related with the dynamic of nominal change course, this variable being considered an estimation randament associated to saving of actives in this coin

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this paper is to examine the scientific research in the Marketing domain done by Romanian Marketing professors in the last three academic years. For achieving this purpose, the paper is structured in two parts, the first part containing a brief evolution of Marketing as domain of study in the Romanian academic system, while the second part tries to determine trends within the Marketing specific scientific research based on longitudinal and cluster analysis

ABSTRACT. The hospitality industry has suffered major, quite important transformations in recent years. Even if integration trend has been quite visible in the recent decades, small hoteliers have kept a very important market share. Moreover, the reservation platforms that promote rental apartments in luxury claimed and won a significant share of the market in certain touristic destinations, particularly major cultural centers and urban destinations. In a market marked by a strong seasonality, rental apartments can be a solution for peak season, when they are able to take a part of the demand that exceeds supply. Unfortunately, they have a great inability to fight from equal to equal with hotels that have conference facilities or spas and uses all this as a tool to fight low-season demand. This paper aims to study the way in which consumers relate to this opportunity, to replace classic accommodation in hotels with rental apartments in a daily basis, but also the reasons behind their choice. We also aim to anticipate how it will develop this niche of accommodation in rental apartments, while the tourist wants increasingly more to organize their own holidays and means of online booking allow them to do so.

JEL: L83 Tourism

ABSTRACT. Title: Study of behavior dimensions of the European consumer of financial products and services

Author: Oana Duralia(assistant professor/PhD), Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, oanaalexa@yahoo.com

While marketing can be considered an activity mainly focused outside the organization, particularly on consumers, in order to meet their needs and gain profit, we cannot talk about a uniform implementation of marketing strategies, policies and tactics for all areas, since the field of services and specifically of financial services entail customizing the marketing approach based on a provider-consumer relationship. In this context, the present paper aims to highlight the characteristics of the purchasing behavior of the consumer of financial services, having as a starting point the emphasis placed on the characteristics of activities specific to financial services, which leads to a different perception of the consumers in what regards the quality of services that are inherently intangible and highly diversified in terms of the criteria of time, the degree of complexity of operations or the manifestation of market demand.

Keywords: consumer behavior, services marketing, financial products and services JEL: M31

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this article is to present a comparative analysis of performance between two commercial bank groups from Turkey and Romania. In conducting the study we have considered evaluating financial performance achieved by a group of commercial banks in Turkey and Romania in relation to the Eurozone during 1999-2016 and examine the level of liquidity of assets acquired during these 18 years of activity of these two banking groups, in comparison with the Eurozone. In this analysis there were tested three hypotheses based on the performance indicators used by the two banking trade groups and the indicators used in the literature. Measurement, description and disclosure of bank performance level obtained by the two banking groups compared to the Eurozone was carried out based on two methods: a descriptive analysis of the research variables and analysis of the variance (ANOVA). The originality of this study lies in the fact that so far in Romania there wasn’t any compared analysis conducted between the examining of the indicators of bank performance (ROA, ROE and NIM) over a period of time and research of the dependence relations of the three variables linked to the provenance site of the banking groups using ANOVA test. Results and interpretations from this study/testing were presented and interpreted, in the case of these two banking trade groups. The article ends with the authors' conclusions related to comparative analysis of bank performance between the two commercial bank groups in Turkey and Romania.

ABSTRACT. Knowledge workers have high degrees of expertise, and education, and the primary purpose of their jobs involves the creation, distribution or application of knowledge. One of the major challenges for today's managers is to find the right tools to manage knowledge workers and measure their performance individually. The increased demand for employees who know how to use their professional skills and their talent to perform complex tasks within the organization has led to the emergence of opportunities as well as challenges. The aim of this article is to identify and present what are the key skills of knowledge workers and what is that make them so difficult to manage by their superiors.

ABSTRACT. Accounting is one discipline of study that all people, regardless of job position, should have some knowledge of. Accounting deals with recording, classifying, summarizing and interpreting of financial events and transactions in an organization to provide interested parties needed financial information. Accounting communicates information that owners, managers, and investors need to evaluate a company’s financial performance. But students either they find it boring or they struggle in getting the concept. Using appropriate teaching – learning methods students understandingness of its Conceptual Framework will increase.

ABSTRACT. The very fast online transformations cause rapidly changes in consumers’ behavior and, implicitly, the need for businesses’ adaptation to market trends and wants. We are now at that moment when a business’s survival and development essentially depends on understanding the importance of marketing and on adjustment to online marketing trends like ultimate elements in bringing its success. Thus, online marketing is a business culture, an entrepreneurial mindset in all over the world, for each type of business. This paper aims to give an overview on Romanian online advertising market by presenting data, trends and main players. Many recent studies showed that the online is in a growing process and this will keep going at least till 2018. Therefore, Romanian audience is still enjoying smart advertising content. One of the most attractive this year is the mobile sector, because consumers will use, even more, smartphones in their buying process. Thus, advertising should go through creative campaigns, imagined for these kinds of devices. Romania is a great potential for online advertising but there is still some space for quality content. In order to gain a great image, a brand should use in its creative campaigns last innovations and data-bases offered by Facebook, Google, YouTube and so on. Thus, because, for Romanian audience, the way of displaying an ad is still very annoying.

ABSTRACT. Starting from the literature that identifies different factors which determine whether a currency plays a global role, we propose an analysis of international status of major currencies using the following criteria: the demographic, economic, commercial and financial size and importance of the currency issuer; the currency issuer’s financial market; and history of using currency. We consider that the international use of a currency is mainly defined by the issuer’ place in the global economy, including its share of world trade and the size of its economy. The paper aims to discuss if the recent economic, political, and military events caused or will cause changes in the power and importance of currencies at international level. The US dollar's reference position was less influenced by the introduction of the euro, but nowadays it may be affected by the growing importance of China and the decline of the United States political and economic power. Changing the US dollar’ stand may have consequences on seignorage revenues, and the United States financing costs and global influence. Global crisis, changes in the US dollar’s value, Eurozone crisis, and more recently US elections and Brexit are significant challenges to the current US dollar’s position in the global markets.

ABSTRACT. The Baltic countries are apparently similar, but actually very different not only concerning their language and culture, but also as a lifestyle. Regarding rural tourism but, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania have many common points, given the care for the remarkable natural environment and for preserving traditions and rural tourism practiced in each of the Baltic countries, filled with recreation active desire for knowledge traditional life and beauty of nature in protected areas. Rural tourism also contributes to the cultural heritage, youth are encouraged to know and keep the traditions. Rural tourist offer is completed by the variety of gastronomy in terms of the products natural environment of these countries offers to the full.

ABSTRACT. Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market is a barometer of the attractiveness of the national economy for the foreign capital, but also for the local capital to develop its businesses. In recent years, worldwide, foreign investment have resulted mainly in M&A transactions, than in green field investment. The objective of this article is to analyze the financial performance of companies in Romania which went through a M&A transaction, before and after this transaction. The purpose of this research is to determine if the financial performance of the these companies was improved after a M&A transaction. It will be analyzed the financial performance of M&A transactions in Romania, during the 2010-2013 period, taking a sample of 10 transactions from several industries. The objective of the study is to analyze the impact of M & A transaction on the financial performance of the companies involved. We consider that a M&A transaction is performant in financial terms if it generates a growth in profit and it generates an increase in value for Shareholders, compared to previous values before the transaction. Financial performance measurement method used in this study is accounting based measure, using financial indicators analysis. Through this method it will be establised: the impact of M&A transaction on the profitability of companies; the impact of M&A transaction on the value created for Shareholders.

ABSTRACT. Organization needs to evolve over time to meet its objectives along with a detailed assessment of what needs to be done. Developing an organizational strategy for a business involves first comparing its present state to its targeted state to define differences, and then standing what is required for the desired changes to take place. For a strategy to work, it must be converted into smaller, shorter-term goals and plans. Middle management adopts goals and creates plans to compete in the marketplace. These tactical objectives take less than a year to complete, becoming the building blocks of a successful organizational strategy. At the lower levels of an organization, functional managers concern themselves with the day-to-day operations of the company, their objectives and plans taking days, weeks or months to complete.

ABSTRACT. Abstract. To transform a company means taking a business model, operational processes, and management of financial resources and to redefine them to attain the new objectives of the organization. The transformation plan designed to establish is based on each step and each intermediate state, on several pillars: market business and customer satisfaction, operational processes, human capital, financial flows. In addition, the plan provides the rate at which the organization is able to assimilate the changes.

ABSTRACT. The paper presents some elements of a research on the analysis of how "peer to peer economy" platforms can support sustainable tourism development in Romania's rural areas. The aim of the paper is to analyze the way the features of sustainable development overlap (conservation of the natural environment, protection of biodiversity and human heritage, economic development and regeneration) within a "peer-to-peer economy" platform or C2C economy (consumer to consumer/ customer to customer/ citizen to citizen).

The object of the research was to analyze the features of C2C e-commerce platforms such as Airbnb, Loft, Booking.com in the context of sustainable development. The results obtained lead to the viable conclusion that the involvement of rural households in tourism activity by registering their services or goods on a sharing economy e-commerce platform represents an efficient way of associating the small entrepreneur with the big corporations. The most important result is the increase in the limits in which tourism, respectively its support capacity, can be developed.

ABSTRACT. Globally, tourism is a complex economic and social phenomenon defining for the contemporary society whose expansion has turned it into a real industry. In this sense, tourism is different from other sectors of the economy through the specificity of its content, the forms of concretization and not least through the market evolution tendencies. It should also be noted that political and socio-economic changes have caused in many countries of the world, to grow from year to year, the number of holidays and tourism trips inside and outside borders. Thus, the variety of tourism activities, the links between these and other branches of the national economy, have made tourism become a billion business with many national economies that depend on it. In developed countries tourism annual increase faster than average growth of the economy. In this context, an essential requirement lies in a multidisciplinary approach and a good knowledge of tourism market developments. Therefore, the reality of today's world show that tourism has been imposed in the overall development of the economy, which makes necessary and appropriate the knowledge of issues such as: inbound tourism expenditure — top five countries; domestic tourism expenditure; internal tourism consumption; number of nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments; travel receipts and expenditure in balance of payment.

ABSTRACT. The knowledge economy is changing all your education. Formal education systems, trying to adapt to this new situation in which "the whole world is class school". The introduction of school was the first step. Flexibility and elective courses other. Introduction of study visits and internships outside the school, institutions productive, service or administration into the third. Annual review of textbooks was undertaken. Manual is a basic guide, and knowledge are acquired from sources recommended bibliography. For the lesson, the emphasis was shifted to individual or team work. Teachers become "tutors", "guides" or "facilitators" of personal work of the students. School library shelf becomes media and CD's researched than bookshelf. On the sly, amused students with computer games. But a multimedia history lesson with seasoned text images, songs, extracts from films, visits to monuments, may be more absorbent than any game and beat on classic combination with manual exposure. Today, more than ever, in a society characterized by a dynamic accelerated structural changes, and the depth of these changes, placing man in the context of these "bursts technology" raises constantly new tasks of education, which it must face. Worldwide, due to many achievements, there is a growing sense of unease uncertainty and observing how our eyes in "file human nature" there is more change than we can digest. Their trend will be to: globalization or atomization? Using technology involves a degree of civilization, and the benefits of civilization does not need demonstrations once technological revolution products are part of our environment.

ABSTRACT. Increasing the complexity of the economic system through the emergence of new economic situations and instruments, the consequences on the property right over assets in general - and especially on intellectual property assets - in the insolvency procedure, the precarious knowledge of special laws and the risks of their misapplication in the field of intellectual property, have led to the emergence of complex situations in commercial relationships, or in the valuation of those assets, or, more seriously, in the occurrence of ethical deeds with the aim of obtaining an unfair profit. The trademark is the intellectual property asset that accumulates the most peculiar situations of unfair competition, counterfeiting, mismanagement. The lack of a legal transfer of rights (assignment, license) between the trademark owner and its user invariably leads to situations where at least one of the parties is economically disadvantaged. Effective use of Group 20 accounts ”Intangible assets” would avoid the unpleasant situations outlined above. The paper presents several cases from the dossiers where it was necessary to carry out specialized expert reports, as well as some special evaluations of the market value of some trademarks in which the author was directly involved.

ABSTRACT. In a world were governs complex financial and economic systems knowing the process of financial intermediation become a must. We face times when the process of financial intermediation seems to change nearly as natural phenomenon. Financial intermediation stakeholders find constantly new ways to interact on behalf of obtaining funds they need, returns they expect and manage risks they try to avoid. The article’s aim is to take a snapshot of financial intermediation process that manifest in Europe Modern Era, specifically in one EU member like Romania. Research methodology is based on statistical evidence and critical thinking approach for qualitative assessments. Intuitive findings reveal a development from standard financial intermediation to different ways to channelling funds from those who have money to invest to those who need money to spend or invest in other riskier investment opportunities.

ABSTRACT. The complexity of the taxation area, phenomena and processes affecting taxation, the local, national and international dimension of taxation, as well as its place and role for progress and development are factors that determine each country to be concerned about finding pertinent solutions, both to strengthen the partnership between the state and taxpayers, and to ensure the sustainability of public finances. The purpose of this article is to identify, on the one hand, which tax organizations have the mission to analyze sensitive issues of international taxation, and on the other hand, the implementation of the solutions offered at international level, based on research and studies carried out by these organizations. Without claiming an exhaustive approach, using methods such as comparison, induction and deduction, general and particular analyzes, we will try to surprise the impact of the exchange of tax information on improving performance indicators in tax administration, in the sense of increasing voluntary compliance for declaring and paying tax liabilities and reducing the level of tax evasion. Although in recent years, Romania has made progress in tax administration, by identifying best international tax practices can be established several possible directions of action that can contribute to improve the fiscal system and the fiscal mechanism.

ABSTRACT. Organizations need a holistic approach to knowledge transfer that takes into account factors such as technology, generation gap, cultural diversity, learning styles, etc. The purpose of knowledge transfer is to share useful and valuable information that can be used by organizations to make relevant decisions. In recent years, the good practices used in knowledge transfer have increasingly gained the attention of researchers and managers. This is because business success, as well as the competitive advantage of companies seem to depend increasingly on the importance of creating, developing and transferring knowledge, to optimize organizational goals. So the main purpose of this article is to identify and briefly review a wide range of knowledge sharing barriers that are essential to the efficiency of an SME's activity.

ABSTRACT. The public healthcare system is heavily influenced by the 3C trilemma – cost – coverage – choice. The paper’s argument tackles the fact that should the public decision on improving capacity be leaning towards universal coverage in would result in efficiency losses and, in an attempt to control the costs it would limit patients’ choice. Should priority be given to performance or value? The present paper deals with the compromise between the equity and efficiency, a leaky bucket that becomes more visible in the struggle to build capacity and intervene in the market by setting standards. Setting healthcare standards is a global concern, the 3rd Sustainable Development Goal (Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages) is a clear proof of that the aim to emphasise and better analyse two of the most influential variables: efficiency (which will influence costs, as Goal 3 actually refers to a need for Substantially increase health financing) and equity. All in all, what we argue is that the current leaky bucket is a trade-off between choice, coverage, and cost. For a complex public service like healthcare, targeting a full coverage and multiple choice would incur huge costs and, cutting costs considerably restricts both the choice and coverage. The cost is influenced by the production capacity use when the activity has large fixed costs. Moreover, this sensitive sector also has social costs raised by the negative externalities (Dinu, Dumitrica, 2014).