bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Dominant drivers of business students
Authors: Radu Cătălina , Deaconu Alecxandrina , Dobrea Răzvan-Cătălin
Published: August 2017

Taibi Kahler wrote in 1974 a theory about five main drivers that could explain people’s motivation and a series of positive and negative behavior patterns: Be Strong, Be Perfect, Hurry Up, Try Hard and Please People. Of course, we consider there is no absolute positive or negative behavior, since (1) everything needs to be analyzed by taking into account the context and (2) any behavior pattern can mean a series of advantages as long as people understand their own values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. It would be interesting to link Kahler’s drivers to the educational process, in order to be able to adapt our courses and our teaching styles to students’ requirements and also to the requirements in the labor market. Our paper is built on literature review and a questionnaire applied to a sample of 607 students in Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania. Information was processed with Microsoft Excel 2013, in order to look at the main working styles our students have, at the main explanations for the differences between them and in order to test a series of hypotheses. We were interested to look at the main traits of the current generation of students in our university: dominant drivers, roles of managers and specialists, the attractiveness of the entrepreneurial career path, etc. and at a series of patterns (i.e. gender-related differences). We consider results of this study are useful both for teaching and research purposes. In terms of teaching, we plan to adapt our educational methods in order to improve the educational process.
Professional career management and personal development for the employees of the Romanian medical system
Authors: Mirica Dumitrescu Catalina-Oana
Published: August 2017

The purpose of this article is to inform as many persons as possible on the present situation of doctors in Romania, to present more theoretical and practical elements that lead to the development of a sustainable career in the Romanian medical system. So I tried to get as much information about the current situation of the medical system, to obtain a certain confirmation of what was said by those working in the system. Gradually, I found out about the hospital problems, the insufficient budget allocated annually by the mismanagement, media campaigns of doctor denigration, the increasingly precarious health conditions of Romanians, the colossal businesses of the pharmaceutical industry, the heavily discussed and postponed Health Law, that managed to pull a lot of people in the street, and many other items that are not only intended to sound an alarm regarding the condition of medical workers in Romania. Besides the researches and the relationships on the medical education status, the situation of available positions, the distribution of doctors, their salaries, the legal and ethical operating framework, I undertook also a study among physicians (especially those being at their early career) to find out the elements that led them to choose this career and what is the current situation of medical career in Romania. For this, I chose questions that reflect the doctors’ satisfaction at workplace and how performance is influenced by the satisfaction level obtained from the medical services provided in the Romanian healthcare facilities. The study had both expected results, already knowing the current situation, but also unexpected, given the expectations of doctors. In more detail, there is a large number of young doctors that before thinking about work at a prestigious hospital abroad, think to what extent the current workplace in Romania offers support for family, pension, holidays etc. Thus, we considered appropriate to bring up within the paper the current possibilities for personal development, the personal brand in various mediums of communication. This paper could be a viable support to provide the necessary elements in creating an upward career path for young doctors. This paper aims primarily to present a current situation of the medical system, more statistical data (unfortunately, statistics regarding the Romanian medical system are not very up to date, most information relates to the year 2007-2009 - 2010), but also the Romanian situation seen from outside or media. The situation is far from being optimistic, the presented data are clear signals of alarm on the present status, but we hope that in the end, this paper has managed to arouse the interest of Romanian doctors with potential on the possibilities and opportunities for a career development in the homeland.
The workplace satisfaction of Romania’s medical personnel in state and public institutions
Authors: Ghenu Cristina
Published: August 2017

Nowadays the Romanian medical system is facing changes in terms of qualified personnel. Each year a great number of doctors decide to leave Romania in order to conduct practice in other countries with better working conditions. In this situation where doctors are no longer pleased to work in Romanian institutions, can we question the quality of their working environment? This study aims to determine the workplace satisfaction of Romania’s medical personnel currently working in private as well as state healthcare institutions. In this process, the study also discloses the inside image of Romanian medical units concerning the quality of the working environment, the quality of communications between subordinates belonging to the same section as well as their relations with their „direct superior”, „hierarchic superior” and „senior management”. To construct the current research, Romanian medical personnel completed a survey in order to determine their knowledge and judgment regarding their working environment. The research implied two phases: the first phase lasted one month and a half during which 100 medical personnel from a public hospital were selected to answer a survey; the second phase followed and it targeted the application of the same questions on 100 medical personnel working in a private institution. The survey comprised situations of everyday life in which any employee can be found. The results reveal the present situation of Romanian medical personnel, how often, despite of their unpleasant working conditions, they are forced to give their best in order to provide the quality medical treatment that any patient is entitled to. Therefore, the findings (1) reveal the inside image of Romanian hospital’s system and (2) offer an empirical foundation for subsequent research and improvement of working environments in Romanian hospitals.
The complete human being, energy and soul
Authors: Mândrea Lucian T. , Chirilă Aurel I.
Published: August 2017

The scope of the research is to investigate and to present the human being as a whole. The article presents a series of experiments regarding the human being. It reveals, based on proven facts, such as video footages and scientific measurements, that the human being is not only just a simple physical body. It is a complex structure with an energy shell and a soul with an essential role and these details have to be studied more thoroughly in the future. As the human body uses energy, specific measurement practices are applied. The authors used an Electro Photonic Imaging Device and a Thermal Vision Camera Device because the measured energy frequencies are not within the optical visual frequency range. The general and the detailed human body health state can be evaluated using the EPI Device. Despite the classical medicine approach that considers only the physical component of the body, the article proves the existence and reveals a wider behavior of the human being from the supplementary point of view which is often called spirit, soul, ethereal body or just entity. It is also shown that the human being is capable of evaluating and healing by own means. Thus, a study case is presented regarding the health state evolution during a period of one year, while the human body is continuously taking care of itself. The complete control of the entire human being leads to a continuous good health and also to a good physical and psychic state, with increased performances in all activities. All these achievements can be useful to also obtain a very good job. The objective of the authors are to proof that the soul exists and also that every person can act to improve the own health, the general state and so to rich easier the happiness.
Human talent forecasting
Authors: Nedelcu Bogdan
Published: August 2017

The demand for talent has increased while the offer has declined and these worrying trends don’t seem to show any sign of change in the near future. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, USA, Canada, UK, and Japan (among many others) will face varying degrees of talent shortages in almost every industry in the coming years. The performed study focuses on identifying patterns which relates to human skills. Recently, with the new demand and increasing visibility, human resources are seeking a more strategic role by harnessing data mining methods. This can be achieved by discovering generated patterns from existing useful data in HR databases. The main objective of the paper is to determine which data mining algorithm suits best for extracting knowledge from human resource data, when in it comes to determining how suited is a candidate for a specific job. First of all, it must be determined a way to evaluate a candidate as objective as possible and rate the candidate with a mark from 0 to 10. To do so, some data sets had to be generated with different numbers of values or different values and wore processed using Weka. The results had been plotted so that it would be easier to interpret. Also, the study shows the importance of using large volumes of data in order to take informed decisions has recently become extremely discussed in most organizations. While finances, marketing and other departments within a company receive data systems and customized analysis, human resources are still not supported by expert systems to process large data volumes. The software prototype designed for the experiment rates individuals (working for the company, or in trials) on a scale from 0 to 10, offering the decision makers an objective analysis. This way, a company looking for talent will know whether the person applying for the job is suited or not, and how much the hiring will influence the overall rating of the department.
The usefulness of 360 degree feedback in developing a personal work style
Authors: Chicu Nicoleta , Nedelcu Alexandra Catalina
Published: August 2017

The present study focuses on a new approach in the process of developing personal work styles, based on the usefulness of 360 degree feedback, taking into consideration the following dimensions: work-life balance, gender-age, self-development and the behavior a person has, following the process of self-development and defining work style. Using different approaches, the study attempts to identify if there are some differences between the evaluations received from the family and the ones from the work environment. All these factors aim at improving personal, but also organizational performances. Based on the current body of the literature, a discussion is made and conclusions are presented.
Marketers’ expanded role to increase internal customer satisfaction in organizational change
Authors: Rotileanu Adina
Published: August 2017

During times of change, when companies are going through major transformations like mergers, acquisitions, organizational re-structuring or culture change, marketing faces the challenge to implement the new strategy as scheduled, with no delays or changes. Internal customer change acceptance plays a significant role in this endeavor and marketers need to expand their role and complement Human Resources strategy to building trust between decision makers and employees, to learn and understand past issues and to find solutions. In this circumstance, marketers’ have to identify the variables that generally influence internal customer satisfaction and develop them in marketing tools aimed to increase it to the level that strategy is accepted and implemented faster than using only Human Resources mechanisms. This paper is a result of marketing practice in medium and large companies that went through organizational change. The goal of this case study is to create, based on time, discipline and cross-functional skills variables, a model of efficient processes and evaluation of marketing actions that will increase employees’ trust in change management decisions and will lead to their support and engagement. The three independent variables allowed researcher to study the complex relationship between internal client satisfaction phenomena, organizational change context and thirty-six cross-functional employees including management, ultimately to answer how these variables can be used by marketers to get the internal customer change buy-in. The research showed that the new developed marketing tools, that is to say a process flow associated with sustainable procedures and Service Level Agreements, increased internal customer satisfaction and contributed to smooth and consistent marketing strategy implementation, as scheduled. This result means the theory that marketers role in times of organizational change, besides regular Key Performance Indicators regarding the external client, expanded to complement Human Resources towards increasing internal customer satisfaction, determines a faster change acceptance, was validated.
Education, educational services and students’ satisfaction - comparative study between Romanian and Iraqi universities
Authors: Al-Dulaimi Zaid Yaseen Saud
Published: August 2017

Studying students’ satisfaction within the modern context aims to develop the higher education institutions; students’ satisfaction has become one of the most important factors in the process of developing the educational process. Thus, the purpose was to analyze data collected from a sample of 800 students divided equally between Romania and Iraq to measure their satisfaction with educational services delivered by the two countries’ universities. The study concluded that the level of the students’ satisfaction in Romanian universities is higher than that of their Iraqi counterparts. The researcher recommend that the Romanian universities should continue with the development of the educational plans, and with the enhancement of the programs adopted by the universities to increase the level of quality in their educational processes. For the Iraqi universities, the study recommends that Iraqi universities should give a much more important role to students’ satisfaction as one of the most important factors for measuring the quality of their educational services, the administrative staffs in the Iraqi universities should work harder to meet the expectations and needs of their students.
Creative economy and knowledge-based society. Perspectives for Romania
Authors: Istudor Laura Gabriela
Published: August 2017

Creative economy is a rather new concept that started developing during the last decade, being currently applied to a variety of activities and professions. It has become an important sector of the global economy, being sustained and promoted by the European Union, especially in the context of an innovative and knowledge-based society. Within this new type of economy, creativity, innovation and knowledge management are essential factors that lead to a smart, sustainable and inclusive development in regard to the creation of new jobs and to the social inclusion requirements. According to John Howkins (2001), the creative industries / sectors include art, research, advertising, movies, theatre, software, with the possibility of the concept of creative economy to be extended to other non-artistic and IT related fields, where improvements are expected to arise through innovation and creativity. The Global Creativity Index (GCI) and the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), are two benchmarking tools that measure the creativity and innovation degree of the countries in the European Union, placing Romania within the last positions, especially with respect to intellectual property rights and entrepreneurship. The research methodology consists of both qualitative and quantitative methods, while the research questions to be answered are What is the degree of innovation in Romania compared to other states? What can be done in order to increase the level of innovation in Romania? In this viewpoint, the paper analyzes the development of the creative industries / sectors in Romania, in the context of creative economy and innovation. The objective of the paper is to analyze the extent to which the concept of creative economy can be promoted and implemented in Romania, given its increasing importance at the international level, with countries such as the United Kingdom that already adopted strategies to sustain this kind of economy in the past years. In order to reach the above mentioned objective, the paper has been structured by starting with a brief literature review on the topic, followed by some best practice examples in order to have an overview of the international trends in the field. It includes as well the main challenges for the implementation of the concept of creative economy in Romania, accompanied by a set of conclusions and recommendations.
Nation branding in the Middle East - United Arab Emirates (UAE) vs. Qatar
Authors: Zeineddine Cornelia
Published: August 2017

Nation branding is crucial in order to attract investment, boost exports and attract tourists and talented workforce. Nation branding stands between public diplomacy and economic benefits. An adequate policy of Nation Branding-based on a positive, credible and economically reliable image-can be able to extend the range of potential customers and of potential investors. With the aim of better understanding the new challenges, opportunities and threats existent in a globalized economy, the paper compares nation branding in the context of UAE and Qatar. The paper examines nation-branding as a driver for boosting the economy, taking into account that clichés and stereotypes (especially in the context of the Middle East) can influence our perception towards one country or another. The analysis explores the strategy adopted in order that Dubai becomes the flagship-brand of the UAE. Abu Dhabi complements this strategy, driving UAE to the position of the most valuable brand in the Middle East. The paper further enquires the case of Qatar and compares it with the branding process of the UAE. Qatar has established various branding resources such as the Al Jazeera news network, international sport events and several cultural and educational exchange programs with international profile. The UAE strives to become an influencer in the global economy, overriding its dependence on hydrocarbon reserves. Qatar is richer in hydrocarbon reserves than the UAE; nevertheless, it shares the interest of detaching itself from the rentier economy. The study explores the fact that from 2014-onwards the global oil economy was hit hard, as the price of the oil barrel is at an historic low, thus it has become stringent for the Persian Gulf countries to diversify the revenue sources. As a result, their branding strategy has become even more salient. The processes undertaken for establishing nation-brands in the Gulf are noteworthy and constitute the focal point of the paper.
Japanese women in the contemporary society
Authors: Dinca Violeta Mihaela , Floricel Teodora , Zottu Monica
Published: August 2017

The purpose of this paper is to examine Japanese society and present contemporary issues with emphasis on the changes in the role, status and preferences of Japanese women within the Japanese society, through the years. The first part of the paper makes an overview on the evolution of the role of women in Japanese society during Shogunate until now, focusing mainly on increasing Japanese women's status within the enterprise. In the second part of the paper, the author exposes the results of several studies on the effects on the marketing of luxury for Japanese women, highlighting the correlation between increased interest to be as competitive in the workplace and enhancing concern for luxury brands.
Financial management of insurance companies in the context of the new regime Solvency II
Authors: Istrate Costin , Badea Dumitru
Published: August 2017

The new solvency regime Solvency II represents a solid and harmonized prudential framework applicable by insurance companies in the European area. Solvency II was implemented in the European Union by adopting Directives 2009/138/EC respectively 2014/51/EU, replacing existing directives regulating solvency former regime, known as Solvency I. Thus, the new European legislation in insurance, applicable from 1 January 2016, was aimed at unifying the main European insurance market and ensuring consumer protection. The responsible authority at EU level with the implementation of the new solvency regime is EIOPA - European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, which dealt in previous periods of testing the European market insurance through organizing quantitative impact studies (last exercise - QIS5, organized in 2011). The main standards derived from Solvency II and also the new IFRS accounting provisions, intended to increase the transparency of risk management and investment, in order to pricing insurance products and profitability of the different classes of insurance rates. Solvency II brings both challenges and opportunities for companies, changing the concept of building protection programs for insured and generating additional concerns about capital requirements in the determination of own funds (basic, auxiliary and surplus) that can be used to meet this requirement. Also estimate realistic and prudent risk assumed by insurance contracts concluded transposed to the insurance companies by recording every technical reserves represent a very important element in order to establish an optimal balance of financial resources. Given the significant overlap between IFRS and Solvency II, insurers will have to improve disclosure requirements of additional information and adjust planning and forecasting. All these measures will increase the efficiency of financial management, a series of operational measures and by providing documented and tested processes. Also, increasing volatility related to financial results will cause insurance companies to deliver predictable results, a process that will produce changes in the financial management optics.
Does brand posting behaviour influence follower engagement on Instagram?
Authors: Balan Carmen
Published: August 2017

The Instagram application captured the attention of hundreds of millions of users. The goal of this paper was to study whether there is a statistically significant relationship between the posting behaviour of corporate retail brands on Instagram and follower engagement. The proxy variables used to describe the posting behaviour were: number of days with posts, number of posts and existence of calls to action within posts. The proxy variables for engagement were the number of likes, as well as the sum of likes and comments for each post. The study referred to the Instagram activity of the top fifty global specialty retailers. Lately, the researchers’ interest in social media grew substantially. In contrast, the studies relative to the posting behaviour of companies on Instagram are rather scarce. At present, scientific research on this topic is in an preliminary state. In addition, there are no published findings of scientific research on the use of Instagram by top global specialty retailers. The paper aimed to answer the following research questions: (a) “Is posting on Instagram a common behaviour of the top fifty global specialty retailers?”; (b) “How active are these companies in posting own photo and video content?”; (c) “Are there statistically significant relationships between the variables describing the posting behaviour and those reflecting the follower engagement?”. The data were collected by monitoring verified badge Instagram accounts of the top fifty global specialty retailers. The t test was applied on data from the online study of 612 posts. Findings reveal statistical significant relationships between the analysed variables. There is a strong correlation between the number of posts and engagement. To the best of our knowledge, this article is the first to approach this topic. As a direct implication for retailers, an intense posting activity may lead to an increased engagement of followers.
Cloud computing and public administration: approaches in several European countries
Authors: Zaharia-Rădulescu Adrian-Mihai , Radu Ioan
Published: August 2017

The Digital Agenda for Europe 2020 has more objectives from increasing the participation of its citizens and consumers in the digital society to creating a fully interconnected society. These objectives can be supported through a high degree of digitization achieved at public administration level and an increased performance in delivering public services. Cloud computing is one of the ICT areas with a fast growth in the last years that presents a big promise for achieving the objectives of the Digital Agenda for Europe 2020. This paper aims to present what cloud computing is and how it can help the public administration to increase its performance. From Infrastructure as a Service continuing with Platform as a Service and moving up to Software as a Service each level of cloud computing is presented in here with its strong and weak points and how it is suitable for a given use case in public administration. The challenges and the risks of moving to cloud and the differences between public, private and hybrid cloud are also presented in the paper. The research done by the author is both theoretical and literature review and combines knowledge from different areas. An analysis and examples of cloud computing approach and implementation in several European Union countries are presented in this paper to facilitate the understanding of the subject. Cloud computing can help public administration to decrease costs, standardize services in different locations, integrate public resources and provide a higher transparency in the government act.
Digitalization influence on shopping centers strategic management
Authors: Ioniţă Irene Mihaela
Published: August 2017

Shopping centers are an important aspect of the extremely dynamic life of the 21stcentury consumer. Nowadays, worldwide, shopping centers represent significant multimillion euro investments, remarking themselves with bold architectures and structures and an individual brand image. Retail markets are currently under transformation by a confluence of new retailing technologies, dramatic shifts in the demographic profile and preferences of more affluent and educated shoppers. Part of the market share in modern retail moved to new forms of selling, which weakened the offer of some traditional retailers, while also creating opportunities for retailers to move and integrate their offerings with new digital tools (via electronic commerce, social commerce and mobile commerce). Meeting customer needs and increasing sales are the primary drivers behind retailers use of information systems and technology (IS/IT). New developments in IS/IT offer new opportunities and challenges for organizations and society. The current paper proposes to analyze the way digital media and information technology (computers and mobile devices) influences the virtual and physical shopping experiences, and shopping centers management consequently. The need for communication & sales channels integration, the impact of new information technologies (IT’s), the growing role of social / digital media, the balance between personalization and privacy – all represent challenges retail industry needs to currently adapt to face digitalization. E-commerce is transforming both consumer behavior and retailing business models, by greatly expanding shopping convenience, selection and affordability.
The „7Ps”&”1G” that rule in the digital world the marketing mix
Authors: Pistol Luminita , Ţoniş Bucea-Manea Rocsana
Published: August 2017

Recently, digital marketing mix is developing very interesting new features, because of the market dynamics, IT fast development, and globalization phenomena. The old paradigm still base on 4Ps model (product, price, promotion, and place). This research develops a theoretical framework specifically for marketing mix. Starting from a literature review regarding the 4 Ps in marketing and studying the new generation (Z) features, it can be drawn new directions on digital marketing mix, such us people, process, perseverance (other 3P). In the same time the environmental changes urge us to develop and implement new strategies in marketing as to get sustainable eco-innovation. Thus the green marketing (1G) is an important factor in the marketing mix, in raising the awareness on new politics and good practices for protecting the environment. The article brings a new paradigm for marketing mix: 7P+1G, and validate the model by unit root test. A forecast, regarding green marketing, is made with the What-If analysis.
Smart services – characteristics, challenges, opportunities and business models
Authors: Marquardt Katrin
Published: August 2017

“Industry 4.0”, “Digitalization”, “Internet of Things” and “Smart Services” are the today’s buzzwords when tracking economic news. It is to ask about the meaning of those phrases. The world has changed over the last decade from a mainly physical to software controlled economy and the information technology has become an integral part of our industry and society in its entirety. Nowadays it is no longer the product that matters it is the data that are generated by using the product or service. Those usage data collected and analyzed commence new business models and services. The economic future of a company will much more rely on the ability to collect and use the data to generate Smart Services for their customers and to transform from a simple product supplier to an entertainment provider. However there are not only opportunities there are also challenges on the way to that new services which needs to be known and considered. For instance the development cycles need to be faster, the business models need to be adjusted and the positive financial results will not come into the picture on the first day. Based on those thoughts and while there only a handful of researches about that new services exists, the main purpose of the present study is at first, to gain a common understanding about the meaning and the characteristics of Smart Services and their adjacencies. Secondly, the study summarizes the identified challenges and opportunities in relation to them. Thirdly, the author introduce and explain the main business models usable for those Smart Services and the requirements for starting the transformation towards those services. The aim of this paper is to set a basis for this exciting and relatively unsought topic and to produce an interest in further empirical and practical researches in this area. The methodologies used for this research are a systematic literature review and an evaluation of existing studies with the subjects “Industrie 4.0”, “Digitization”, “Internet of Things” and “Smart Services”. Additional national initiated programs and best-practice of transformations where analyzed and interpreted. The outcome of the study is always focused on service providers.
Mechanisms underlying major investment projects in the Romanian public administration: strong and long term collaboration among stakeholders
Authors: Tănăsescu Laurian Gabriel
Published: August 2017

Starting from the existing situation, in order to understand the mechanisms underlying investment projects financed from public funds in Romania, we analysed the following public sources of information: For projects implemented before 2007, we analysed data available on the Internet, including databases of international donors such as www.dgmarket.com, http://www.ted.europa.eu/, etc. We analysed data made available by the Public Procurement Electronic System through the portal http://data.gov.ro. The data set analysed includes over 8 million awarding contract notices. For the EU funded projects, we requested the Ministry of European Funds to offer us access to the relevant database (SMIS), which includes all the projects financed under the European funding programme 2007 – 2013 (projects implemented before 31.12.2015). Comparing data from all these sources leads to the conclusion that the information is coherent and represents a credible basis for our analysis. We found that 48% of all investment projects implemented in Romania in 2007 – 2016 and co-funded under European funds (in terms of the share of eligible expenses) requested outsourcing services for the preparation of the project documentation needed to apply for funds; such expenses represent almost 3 % of the total eligible project expenses approved. Almost 36% (in terms of the share of eligible expenses) of all investment projects implemented in Romania in 2007 – 2016 and co-funded under European funds, revealed a strong and long term relationship between the company that participates in the elaboration of the grant application and the beneficiary of funds. This collaboration continued throughout the implementation of the project. These companies delivered services / supplied goods / carried out construction works whose value exceeds 15 billion lei, which represents over 54% of the total eligible costs of the respective projects.
A new set of performance indicators for improving the capitalization process of Intellectual Property
Authors: Hadăr Alexandra , Purcărea Anca Alexandra
Published: August 2017

Performance indicators of technology transfer/knowledge activity, of intellectual property capitalization in a technical university as well as those referring to the monitoring of academic entrepreneurship are closely correlated, in terms of objectives and strategies adopted at European level, in the context of the third mission undertaken by universities of the XXI century. So far, a systematic research on the development about the capitalization process of intellectual propertytechnical universities in Romania was not conducted. In this context, the analysis and adoption of a new set of indicators for monitoring and evaluating institutional performance, appropriate to an optimization model applicable in academic environment, is required to support the growth of its competitiveness. The present analysis involved the achievement of a research in two stages, one quantitative and the other qualitative, defining, in a rational manner, the set of indicators for monitoring and evaluating the institutional performance. Analysis began with a quantitative research, where the number of indicators, originally envisaged, was limited. Following this research there were retained only the indicators having a weight of over 50%. For a better formulation of the problem investigated and for some conceptual clarification it was achieved a qualitative research, conducted through a focus group, two authors scrolling two such research. Following qualitative research, carried out in order to classify indicators for monitoring and evaluation the performance analysis of technology transfer / knowledge within a public research organizations, i.e. a technical university, we decided the importance ranking of the first three indicators: a) the number of direct contracts with the socio - economic environment; b) the number of contracts and research projects financed through competitive mechanisms, in collaboration with partners from outside the academic environment and c) the revenue generated from the commercialization of knowledge from higher education institutions (revenue from licenses, income from royalties etc.).
Testing the quality of underground transport in Bucharest
Authors: Statescu Alexandru
Published: August 2017

In a city with overcrowded traffic, a component of the common transport is Bucharest transportation of metro (subway passenger transport on the railway network underground and surface) and is the core activity of METROREX S.A. The company aims each year a greater number of passengers according to the charts of the movement of subway trains to ensure adequate transport capacity as required and optimal conditions of comfort and safety. Each year, the company aims to find out the opinion of passengers on the transport conditions and, in this respect, organize a survey with the aim of testing the quality of underground transport in Bucharest in 16 subway stations considered to be representative. In this paper I intend to do an analysis using statistical research methods, of the quality of underground transport in Bucharest, using data from the survey conducted in the year 2014. Data collection in the stations was realized through 32 operators, by 2 in each station (one in each direction of travel) by completing questionnaires (using interview technique or face to face technique), using a sample considered representative of 2,400 travelers with a margin of error of ± 2% on a 95% probability level. Data collection was made during the period when passenger traffic is large enough to provide a good representation of data and cover the entire program running underground. The questionnaire contains eight questions that have allowed those who responded to the survey to fit in the time between trains in circulation. In 2016, the structure of the questionnaire was modified, questions were modified for a more effective assessment of characteristics of observation. The answers to the questions contained in the questionnaire were collected by operators in the 16 subway stations: Piața Unirii 1 and 2, Piața Victoriei 1 and 2, Dristor 2, Nicolae Grigorescu, Universitate, Piața Sudului, Pipera, Eroilor, Gara de Nord 1, Obor, Crângași, Pantelimon, Parc Bazilescu and 1 December 1918, analyzed and processed based on 2400 questionnaires. A new category of polls states in the present and is determined by evolutions in computer networks and communication, are called online surveys conducted on the Web. Also in this paper, I propose the implementation of a solution based on an online survey website that includes the online version of the questionnaire used to collect data from the virtual environment.
Business tourism - a sustainable form to relaunch Romanian tourism
Authors: Mureşan Manuela Liliana , Chiripuci Bogdan Cristian , Nistoreanu Puiu
Published: August 2017

Sustainable tourism should be achieved in a balanced environment with standards that guarantee the preservation of ecological balance and prevent overuse of resources, pollution and other negative environmental impacts. In Romania, the tourism as social and economic phenomenon integrates in the unitary economy of the country having the necessary conditions for enhanced development and optimization of the tourism fund’s explotation. This paper aims to highlight different perspectives to relaunch tourism services and will be the identification of factors which contributing to the sustainability of the tourism business. In addition, there will be comparisons of competitiveness in travel and tourism sector in countries such as Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.
Business tourism a means of dynamising the life of local communities
Authors: Nistoreanu Bogdan Gabriel , Stoian Raluca Georgiana
Published: August 2017

The touristic expansion happens easier in a balanced climate, with standards that guarantee a constant ecologic balance and avoid the overuse of resources, pollution and any other negative impacts on the environment. MICE – Meeting, Incentive, Convention and Exhibition Industry – represents one of the industries with the highest rate of growth in the world, but unfortunately it is poorly developed in Romania. In Romania, the tourism, as a socio–economic phenomenon, integrates in the country’s economy, having the necessary conditions for accentuated growth and the optimisation of the degree of usage of the touristic stock. According to the recommendations of the World Tourism Organisation, Romania should focus on the cultural, ecologic, events and spa tourism. The prognosis of the World Tourism and Travel Council from the United States of America show that by the year 2020, the rhythm of growth of the business and events tourism in Romania will be of about 8% yearly. In this context, our country may occupy an important position in the MICE touristic activities market, if it would use the existing touristic potential and future investments in order to create favourable conditions for this type of tourism. We bring into the debate the existence of equipment which could help the business tourism, the presence of beautiful landscape areas (the Danube Delta, the Black Sea seaside, medieval cities and monasteries, touristic resorts from the Carpathians also.), presentation of the local folk traditions and crafts, the chromatic spectrum of the seasons in Romania and not lastly the folklore and gastronomy. These could be joined by the existence of a rich cultural life – especially in the large cities and touristic resorts-, the presence of museums and memorial houses, and we could not exclude the areas which have preserved their natural potential and rare fauna species. This work aims to emphasize business tourism as a sustainable form of tourism, which can lead to a relaunch in services and economic development of the local communities in a competitive international economy.
Entrepreneurship in the rural areas of Romania. The impact of the 2007-2013 EU funding programmes
Authors: Dan Mihaela-Cornelia , Popescu Claudia
Published: August 2017

This paper contributes to the research on entrepreneurship in rural areas by focusing on the absorption and investment plans developed with European Funds and implemented in Romania in 2007-2013 for rural development. Entrepreneurship in the European Union is seen as the solution for creating and increasing jobs number, developing new business models, and is related very often with creativity and innovation. Moreover, entrepreneurship is directly linked to the economic performance of regions (Audretsch, D.B., Keilbach, M., 2005), poverty reduction and contributes to the economic advancement of rural communities. The focus on rural areas is given by the fact that almost half of the Romanian population lives in villages or communes (around 45%), and the main income source comes from agriculture. In the same time, there is an important potential for entrepreneurial projects because rural areas are high underdeveloped, there is a lack of services in major fields as education, social services, entertainment etc. Also, we find a high potential in tourism, especially in ecological, adventure or agro-tourism. We develop a theoretical framework to discuss the potential impact of EU Funds on rural development, the access to public funds for rural population, their readiness for business ownership, the most accessible fields for starting a business and regional variables. Our study is based on public data and official reports on the European Funds received by Romania in the budgetary period of 2007-2013 and other market data that round the entrepreneurship frame in rural areas. We analyze the number of start-ups financed by European funds, type and size of enterprises, number of jobs and reasons for contract cancellation. We find that regions with a reach cultural heritage and closer to the Western border have registered more applications and are more interested in self-employment, but also that given the administrative barriers many entrepreneurs decided to cancel the contracts.
Stochastic analysis of the main macro-economic indicators characterizing higher education in Romania during 2001-2016
Authors: Matei Ani , Cristache Silvia Elena , Marin Erika , Rotaru Florica Georgeta
Published: August 2017

The education system in Romania will have to take into account the need to give people the skills and abilities needed to adapt quickly to changing labor markets. In the current context the study is based on comparative statistical analyses and correlations in the field of human resources in the higher educational system, analyses based on secondary data or information provided by the Romanian Statistical Yearbook published by the National Statistics Institute and other publications by public institutions in Romania such as: The National Bank, The Ministry of National Education, etc. The paper presents the major trends and shift in macroeconomic indicators specific to higher education and proposes a model to better understand the relationship between these indicators. In conclusion without continuous training and mobile resource salary comparable to those of EU countries, along with an infusion of capital proper, cannot achieve highly educated people well integrated, civilized, cultivated so as to reach sustainable growth on the long term. In this regard the Ministry of National Education and RQAAHE launched nationwide research projects involving both teaching staff in higher education, and the alumni and students. In order to decrease unemployment among young people (24-30 years) were involved in these projects and employers so that there is a better relationship between skills acquired in the continuous education and labor market; projects that are underway or to be implemented.
Self-Plasticization of PVC via click reaction of a monooctyl phthalate derivative
Authors: Jia Puyou , Wang Rui , Hu Lihong , Zhang Meng , Zhou Yonghong
Published: August 2017

Modified PVC (M-PVC) material with suppressed migration and low glass transition temperature was prepared via click reaction of a monooctyl phthalate derivative. Chemical structure and composition of M-PVC were characterized by FT-IR, 1H NMR and element analysis. Thermal stability, glass transition temperature and migration stability of M-PVC were studied with TGA, DSC and migration tests, respectively. The study showed that M-PVC exhibited poor thermal stability, and low glass transition temperature of 66.0°C. No migration was found in distilled water, 10% (v/v) ethanol, 30% (w/v)acetic acid and petroleum ether. The PVC material is expected to preparing PVC products in the areas with high migration resistance requirement.
Platinum dissolution and ethanol oxidation reaction on Pt-activated nickel foam in sodium hydroxide solution
Authors: Pierozynski Boguslaw , Mikolajczyk Tomasz
Published: August 2017

Electrochemical oxidation of ethanol becomes an important process of modern electrochemistry, due to its potential application into direct ethanol fuel cell technology. As rates of ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) are significantly enhanced in alkaline media, employment of highly corrosion resistant under alkaline conditions, but non-noble metals becomes of superior practical importance. This communication article reports on the process of anodic dissolution of platinum, which is investigated on Pt activated, electrooxidized nickel foam electrodes, employed for ethanol oxidation reaction in 0.1 M sodium hydroxide solution. The above was revealed through the application of cyclic voltammetry and combined SEM/EDX (scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive x-ray) spectroscopy examinations.