Perceptions of the support granted to female entrepreneurs in Romania: between anticipation and assessment

In the 2007-2013 European Union programming period, Romania benefi tted from assistance provided through the Human Resources Development Operational Programme, fi nanced by the European Social Fund, to promote social inclusion. Women are, in many instances, a vulnerable group that needs support from various sources for greater integration in the labour market. This integration resides in encouraging entrepreneurship. The purpose of this paper is to analyse how support is anticipated by women planning to start a business and assessed by those who already have experience in entrepreneurship. To achieve the research objectives, a study was conducted on a sample of 774 women in three NUTS 2 development regions of Romania in 2013. The variables used in the analysis were grouped using factor analysis in two factors. The results of the primary analysis reveal a greater emphasis on the fi rst factor, represented by institutions, and less importance given to the second factor, represented by family and friends. However, potential female entrepreneurs are characterised by a tendency to overestimate the fi rst factor, as positive on the one hand or rather negative on the other, in terms of starting an entrepreneurial approach. Our results point out the need for a stronger involvement of the responsible institutions in building trust and ensuring the support needed by female entrepreneur

Perceptions on the Managerial Competencies Needed in the Organization of Festivals: Case Study

Art festivals have a significant importance in the development of a local community, being a factor of cultural and social cohesion, a platform for interaction between those who share the same cultural values. The purpose of this research is to identify the managerial competencies needed by festival organizers, being known that performance in the organization is given by the existence of cognitive skills, emotional and social intelligence. The study conducted on several festivals organized in Cluj, Romania involved carrying out an exploratory and descriptive research, through a pre-existing questionnaire, on the competencies and roles that organizers must have from a professional standpoint. The results showed an approximately identical perception of the two groups in assessing the skills of emotional intelligence and empathy, managers and artists, a different one in terms of cognitive skills and the dimensions ordered by the number of mentions highlighted the need to professionalize the competencies

INFLUENCE OF ADVERTISING ON THE WAY OF ACTION IN THE ACQUISITION OF OVER-THE-COUNTER DRUGS

Advertising of the Over-the-counter drugs is a growing segment. Our research aims to identify the main factors involved in making decisions for the purchase of OTC drugs and to identify what are the ways of informing consumers for this process. To test the hypotheses, a number of statistical tools such as factor analysis, Shapiro-Wilk and Mann-Whitney U tests have been used. The analyzed factors were: (A) doctor’s choice , (b) former own experience, (c) pharmacist’s advice, (d) information stated on the prospectus, (e) opinion of people who bought that drug, (f) opinion of colleagues, friends, relatives, (g) price, (h) brand, manufacturer, (i) information from advertising, (j) quality of advertising. For our analysis, we focused on two main populations: students and employed educated people. The main conclusion of this paper is that recent exposure to OTC advertising is likely to change both related behaviors and decision grids

Evaluating Renewable Energy Sustainability by Composite Index

Renewable energy is a global interest area in achieving sustainable development. Renewable energy sustainability has been assessed using the most commonly used dimensions of this concept: economic, environmental, social, and institutional dimensions. In this paper, we designed a composite index named the Renewable Energy Sustainability Index. The proposed index may represent a national monitoring mechanism that points out the strengths and weaknesses of a state in terms of renewable energy. The data were normalized by calculating the z-score. We tested the proposed index on a selection of 15 European countries ranked by final energy consumption and with different levels of development. The Kayser-Mayer-Olkin values were above the 0.700 limit, which indicates the robustness of each dimension. The proposed index reveals the development stages of renewable energy sustainability and can provide solutions to increase the sustainability of a country by improving positive impact indicators and mitigating negative impact indicators