THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF EUROPEAN COMPANIES: A COMPARATIVE APPROACH

The present study empirically examines the financial performance of European companies and tries to identify the profitability differences that exist between: enterprises with same profile, economic sectors and between several countries from the European Union. Based on data of the year 2009, the newest available on the BACH-ESD database, three financial performance main indicators are being calculated, namely: Return on Assets, Return on Equity and Net Margin. Results are discussed and compared with the ones obtained in former similar studies and some conclusions are drawn. The most performing sectors are found to be mining, quarrying, professional, scientific and technical activities, utilities and IT&C. The sectors that perform the worst are transport and storage, agriculture, accommodation and food service. As shown in other studies the most profitable and competitive companies in the sample belong to the Nederland, Belgium and Austria and the least profitable ones are situated in Italy and Portugal. As a complementary useful result of the study, the average values obtained for the three variables, in the various sectors considered, can be utilized for future comparisons, for assessing the financial performance of companies that belong to same sectors as those surveyed. This paper is a dissemination of the results obtained by the author in the doctoral program "The financial performance of EU member states' companies", coordinator: Professor Carmen Corduneanu, PhD, carried out within West University of Timişoara, Romania, in the period October 2010- July 2012.financial performance, return on assets, return on equity, net margin, BACH-ESD database

THE INFLUENCE OF INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL ON ROMANIAN COMPANIES‘ FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

This article aims to theoretically and empirically argue the influence of intellectualcapital on financial performance at microeconomic level. Based on data collected from thefinancial statements of companies listed at Bucharest Stock Exchange, present study analyses thecorrelation between intellectual capital and its components, calculated by using the VAIC method,and financial performance, calculated by using Return on Equity. Several regression models arebeing used. The results support the proposed hypothesis, proving that there is a significant positivecorrelation between intellectual capital and financial performance. By extrapolating it can be saidthat the role of intellectual capital is important in achieving competitive advantages by companiesfrom emerging economies where performance is usually strongly determined by the physical capitalemployedintellectual capital, financial performance, value added intellectual coefficient, Bucharest StockExchange

A NEW CHALLENGE FOR THE ROMANIAN COAL INDUSTRY: ELIMINATION OF THE STATE AID

According to the European Commission decision N 239/2007 the Romanian coal industry will receive state aid by the end of 2010. After this period public companies in this sector will finance the costs of current production and investment entirely by their revenue. This article presents a short literature review regarding the subsidization of coal industry, shows the evolution of the mining industry in Romania so far, and identifies opportunities for continuing coal production after December 31, 2010 without state aid. The paper concludes that the abolition of subsides in is a positive measure but it must be taken gradually and responsibly, in order to ameliorate the negative effects on social end natural environment.coal industry, state aid, National Hard Coal Company

Development Perspectives of the Intercultural Curriculum in Romania

AbstractThe article Development perspectives of the intercultural curriculum in Romania is based on the multi-disciplinary theoretical framework and also on the inter-disciplinary methodology of the cultural diversity issue. The research presented as part of the article represents the first stage of a multiple directions investigation regarding the subject, and having as a result the development of a methodological framework of the intercultural curriculum. The main tool of investigation consists in a questionnaire applied to a sample of 120 subjects. The results of the research reveal development directions of the intercultural curriculum and confirm the methodological value of the investigation tool

Developing programs of intercultural education with regard to the Inclusive education's values

Both the intercultural education and inclusive education represent dimensions of the "new education", which approach the values of European conscience and contemporary society's complex issue, as part of the intercultural communication and social inclusion. These dimensions have specific issues, but also convergence points, as far as the finalities, as well as the means of achieving are regarded. The programs of intercultural education represent this kind of means, which facilitate accomplishing "education for all" purposes. The research's premises analyze intercultural competences' development, in order to comprehensively approach the inclusive education and argues legitimacy and the opportunity of investigation. The second part of the article presents the research, regarding the topic's impact and the modalities in order to develop and implement the intercultural education programs, which approach the values of social inclusion. The main investigation tool is represented by the questionnaire, which has been applied to a sample of 100 subjects (didactic staff, students). After systematizing the results of the research, there have been revealed subjects' perceptions, efficient modalities and types of programs that promote inclusive education's values

Koszul modules and Green's conjecture

We prove a strong vanishing result for finite length Koszul modules, and use it to derive Green's conjecture for every g-cuspidal rational curve over an algebraically closed field k with char(k) = 0 or char(k) >= (g+2)/2. As a consequence, we deduce that the general canonical curve of genus g satisfies Green's conjecture in this range. Our results are new in positive characteristic, whereas in characteristic zero they provide a different proof for theorems first obtained in two landmark papers by Voisin. Our strategy involves establishing two key results of independent interest: (1) we describe an explicit, characteristic-independent version of Hermite reciprocity for sl_2-representations; (2) we completely characterize, in arbitrary characteristics, the (non-)vanishing behavior of the syzygies of the tangential variety to a rational normal curve.Comment: minor edits, 42 pages, to appear in Invent. Mat

Decision communication in education management

In the decision making process in education management, the communicational component has an important role. Communication is the sine qua non factor of the decision. Since it takes place in the decision situation, the type of communication that permeates the processes of making and implementation of managerial decisions was named decision communication

LegitimID: A federative digital identity system for strong authentication

The growing use of online services advocated the emergence of digital identity as a mechanism of data security and personal information protection that can increase the trust among online users and applications. This paper introduces a new security system developed around the digital identity concept, implemented using a federative multifactor strong authentication framework and tested in an authentic online educational setting to accomplish the complete life cycle of business privacy. System performance evaluated on a sample of 108 students revealed an excellent acceptance and confidence among the users

Election campaign and media exposure: explaining objective vs subjective political knowledge among first-time voters

Existing research reveals the existence of objective (factual) and subjective (perceived) political knowledge among voters. However, we know little about their determinants, especially among people who have not voted before. This article aims to explain the factors influencing the objective and subjective political knowledge of first-time voters. Our analysis uses individual level data from an original survey conducted in the aftermath of the 2019 presidential elections in Romania on 664 first-time voters. The study distinguishes between three components of knowledge – motivation, ability and opportunity – and argues that they may have divergent effects. The empirical evidence based on ordinal logistic regression only partially supports these theoretical expectations, but it does reveal a rich picture

Win big, buy more: political parties, competition and electoral clientelism

Political parties use electoral clientelism to mobilise their core voters and to persuade swing voters to support them. Earlier research shows that clientelism occurs more often in highly competitive elections. Against these conclusions, this article argues that a large margin of victory can drive the use of electoral clientelism irrespective of the type of constituency. The analysis uses county-level data from the 2020 election campaign in Romania and shows that electoral clientelism is used more in those constituencies with a clear winner. These effects are robust when controlling for socio-economic vulnerability and the percentage of the urban population