Consumer innovativeness: a marketing approach

By innovativeness we mean the predisposition of a consumer to adopt a product earlier than most others. Various studies have shown that across product categories, innovators tend to be: opinion leaders, risk takers, more likely to obtain information from mass media than through word of mouth, open to new ideas and change, relatively young etc. Marketers want to identify the segment of the market that is most likely to adopt a new product when it is the first introduced. This article describes we ask some key questions about the nature of innovativeness and try to make a correlation between characteristics of the innovators and innovativeness.innovativeness, new product, opinion leaders, risk takers.

EU Structural Funds Absorption in Romania: Obstacles and Issues

Romania’s absorption capacity of EU structural and cohesion funds is based on the degree of implementation of Sectoral Operational Programmes (SOP) 2007-2013 within SOP Environment and plays a central role in view of its complex relationships (horizontal and vertical) with other SOPs.The present paper analyses the absorption capacity of SOPs in Romania, paying a special attention to SOP Environment, which can be considered an important tool for improving eco-efficiency standards and greening the economic growth. The research is focusing on cases and factors of weak absorption of Structural Funds in Romania under the current economic crisis circumstances as well as on some ways of improving the situation in the future

CONTRACTUAL FREEDOM AND FORMALISM IN THE CREDIT AGREEMENT

The credit agreement meaning is trust. It involves a psychological relationship between two or more persons, characterized by predictability the third one involving present or future action on the status of a particular person.This relationship is psychological, in a certain context, social relationship and may take legal meanings. If at the beginning, people borrowed food and tools, later borrowed money to buy everything you wanted. Financial lending institution has become very popular, creating a group of people who have dealt with this service. Over time, this community has turned into banks. Being originally a loan of money covered by the Civil Code, the credit is used daily by both individuals and by professionals, becoming an engine of capitalist society. Unprecedented expansion of this contract led to a strict control of public authorities and subsequent legislative interventions, the articles of the Civil Code is supplemented by regulations governing the progressive banking, legal interest, namely consumer credit. Under the credit agreement, the economic situation of the parties is not equal, one party is disadvantaged in comparison to the other, protecting the disadvantaged part of the legislature making it a target in credit operations. In French doctrine, consumer credit has been praised as “a contract of all pleasures”; but at the same time “an agreement of all risks”

Oustanding Aspects of Sustainable Development and Competitiveness Challenges for Entrepreneurship in Romania

AbstractTaking into consideration the increasing role of entrepreneurship for the sustainability and competitiveness of an economy, the paper highlights the main characteristics of entrepreneurs in Romania from the demographic, economic and social viewpoints, age, labour skills, education, urban and rural areas gender, income levels etc. Based on a set of specific indicators, our research try to identify the main obstacles and difficulties the entrepreneurship in Romania is confronted with as well as to find out the solutions for solving them by adequate policies, instruments, economic and financial mechanisms. In this context, it is revealed the importance of promoting the mentality in favor of entrepreneurship behaviour of Romanians as well as of a better financial support for SMEs

Qualitative Marketing Research Through Usability Testing

Usability is an attribute of any good product, just as its functionality. It refers mainly to the utility of a product for its indented users, as well as to its ease of use. And whilst a correct functionality is critical for the commercial success of any product, its value comes through the human needs that it fulfills, which is determined through various marketing research techniques. In parallel, the IT&C community has developed in the last two decades its own type of research, called usability testing, used mainly to evaluate interface ease of use and all usability problems associated with.software products. This article aims at finding the right place for usability testing and usability professionals in the marketing community, as well as drawing a wider picture, from a marketing research perspective, on one of the most popular topics in IT&C community for the benefit of marketing scholars and professionals

The Perceived Value of Higher Education and University Competitiveness - The Rubik Cube Metaphor

Purpose. Over the past two decades, concerned with how stakeholders perceive the value of their services, universities have adopted entrepreneurial orientations and relationship marketing approaches into their activities. The fierce competition on the global higher education market, forced university managers to innovate, to look for new ways to build their offer. Relationship marketing and the knowledge regarding the stakeholders, primarily the students’ perception of their offerings, can provide universities with a competitive advantage. As such, university managers need to carry out satisfaction surveys, inquiries regarding the universities image or the perceived value of the academic programs and services offered, need to plan and organize offline and online integrated marketing communication campaigns. Methodology /Design/Approach. Based on the resemblance of perceived value with a Rubik\u27s cube, university marketers can constantly innovate through the way they match the various dimensions of perceived value or facets of the cube to meet the stakeholders’ expectations. Result /Findings. This research highlights the dimensions of the perceived value of the educational offer and determines the extent to which factors such as the university image, the source of financing the studies and the duration of the student - university relationship have an influence on the perception of value. For this purpose we conducted a quantitative research on a sample of 320 students from the largest faculty from the West University of Timișoara, Romania. To perform the statistical data analysis, the following steps were carried out: (1) the reliability of the measurement scales analysis; (2) the opportunity to perform the factorial analysis verification; (3) the exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and (4) the research hypotheses testing. Research results showed that the perceived relational value affects the student’s perceptions on the quality of learning, the usefulness and quality of the acquired knowledge, the employment opportunities. The institutional image has a positive influence on the perceived value of the educational offer. For university or faculty managers, it is important to know how to combine the various facets of the perceived value-technical value, relational value, social value, temporal value- in order to provide the value expected by their stakeholders, primarily by students