Business incubators in cee countries – new coordinates for development

Business incubators are institutions that support the entrepreneurial process, helping to increase survival rates for innovative startup companies and for small companies. Entrepreneurs with feasible projects are selected and admitted into the incubators, where they are offered business support resources and services. Across Europe, in general, and in Central and Eastern European countries, in particular, there are a variety of business incubator models and precise modalities which reflect the local, regional and national circumstances and priorities. Although they share basic features in common, there are also significant differences relating to stakeholder objectives, target markets, and the precise configuration of incubator facilities and services. These differences are partly a reflection of location-specific factors of an economic, social, cultural, institutional, policy nature and it is important that these local factors are taken into account in defining best practice.business incubators, start up firms, development, financing.

Microrofinance – a possible anticrisis measure?

Microfinance activity is recognized – at the level of European institutions and member states - as an area with a significant impact on entrepreneurship, economic growth and social inclusion. But the market of this important financing source for disadvantaged entities still have imperfections, mainly due to costs involved, the lack of collateral and lack of national regulations. Also the effects of international financial crisis were felt in the microcredit field. In this context, the European Commission launched new programs (JEREMIE, JASMINE program; the SME Guarantee facility, micro instrument Progress) that can provide opportunities to improve the micro-credit activity in Europe.microfinance, microcredit activity, small and medium enterprises

Corporate governance in developing and emerging countries. The case of Romania

The experiences of the developed countries reveals that a good corporate governance could reduces risk, stimulates performance, improves access to capital markets, enhances the marketability of goods and services, improves leadership, increases the value of the corporations, enables the corporation to acquire external finances more easily and at a lower cost. In the case of developing and emerging economies the need for corporate governance extends beyond resolving problems resulting from the separation of ownership and control. Developing and emerging economies are constantly confronted with issues such as the lack of property rights, the abuse of minority shareholders or contract violations. But in order that corporate governance measures have a strong impact in the economy, a set of democratic, market institutions and legal system should be settled up. The Romanian governance system follows the patterns of the Continental European model based on the internal control of the employees and the management but with some particularities in function of the specific economic, political, cultural conditions.corporate governance, developing countries, principles, models, firm, performance

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT IN ROMANIA - RECENT TRENDS

Though some substantial gains in recent years, direct investment flows have remained relatively low compared to the potential of a market with great natural resources, skilled labor and flexible legislative environment. Romania has lowered personal income and corporate tax rates and strengthened tax administration in order to attract the investor’s interest but the legislative unpredictability continues and determines the investor’s lack of confidence.foreign direct investment, taxes , integration, investors

FINANCIAL VS OPERATIONAL LEASING –THE ROMANIAN EVIDENCE

Leasing is an important source of medium and long-term financing in developed economies and also in countries with transition economies because leasing is an economically-efficient solution to the question of asset acquisition. Leasing is particularly important in financing to small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups, which play a key role in introducing innovation and competition into the economy and in job creation. The Romanian leasing market is developing in present and is extending to new fields, conquering a part of the fields which belong to the banks. In the same time, the sector will get to maturisation, the small firms will merge and will form important firms.leasing, operational leasing, financial leasing, Romanian leasing market

Corporate governance in developing and emerging countries. The case of Romania

The experiences of the developed countries reveals that a good corporate governance could reduces risk, stimulates performance, improves access to capital markets, enhances the marketability of goods and services, improves leadership, increases the value of the corporations, enables the corporation to acquire external finances more easily and at a lower cost. In the case of developing and emerging economies the need for corporate governance extends beyond resolving problems resulting from the separation of ownership and control. Developing and emerging economies are constantly confronted with issues such as the lack of property rights, the abuse of minority shareholders or contract violations. But in order that corporate governance measures have a strong impact in the economy, a set of democratic, market institutions and legal system should be settled up. The Romanian governance system follows the patterns of the Continental European model based on the internal control of the employees and the management but with some particularities in function of the specific economic, political, cultural conditions.corporate governance, developing countries, principles, models, firm, performance

New Trends regarding the Operational Risks in Financial Sector

Risks, especially "operational risks" are part of corporate life, they are the essence of financial institutions' activities. Operational risks are complex and often interlinked and have to be managed properly. Today, there is more pressure to avoid operational risks while continuing to improve corporate performance in the new environment. The operational risk management of the future has to be seen in the wider context of globalization and Internet-related technologies. The two major future drivers - globalization and Internet-related technologies - will challenge the firms from financial sector to take on additional and partly new operational risk.operational risk, financial sector, models, trends

A Global Vision over Benchmarking Process: Benchmarking Based Enterprises

Benchmarking uses the knowledge and the experience of others to improve the enterprise. Starting from the analysis of the performance and underlying the strengths and weaknesses of the enterprise it should be assessed what must be done in order to improve its activity. Using benchmarking techniques, an enterprise looks at how processes in the value chain are performed. The approach based on the vision “from the whole towards the parts” (a fragmented image of the enterprise’s value chain) reduces the focus of the benchmarking process of the enterprise. This is the reason why we introduce a new concept: “benchmarking based enterprises” (BBE). Accordingly to this, the enterprises, particularly corporations, gather common features, accept their industry leaders, adapt to their specific features and accept a new vision of benchmarking shifted “from part to the whole”.benchmarking based enterprises, value chain, corporation, SME

MODERN INDICATORS OF MEASURING A FIRM’S COMPETITIVITY

The traditional financial ratios reflect the historical performance of the companies, having a limited relevance in the forecasting of their future evolution. The modern financial ratios are based on the concept of value creation, having a high relevance on expressing the real financial performance of the firm. The main modern financial ratios used for the evaluation of the firms financial performances are: Market value added- MVA, Excess return, Economic value added-EVA, Return on Capital Invested–ROCI, Cash Flow Return on Investment–CFROI, Total Business Return–TBR, Total Shareholder Return - TRS.financial ratios, market value, profitability, capital, firm

Bretton Woods Fixed Exchange Rate System versus Floating Exchange Rate System

One of the most important issues of monetary policy is to find out whether the state should intervene among the exchange rates, taking into account the fact that changes in the exchange rates represent a significant transmission channel of the effects generated by the monetary policy. Taking into consideration the failure of fixed exchange rate regimes and the recent improvement of financial markets, the return in the near future to such a regime – as for example the Bretton Woods system – is probably almost impossible.Fixed exchange rate; floating exchange rate; Bretton Woods system