The impact of entrepreneurship on economic development through government policies and citizens’ attitudes

This research aims to investigate the field of entrepreneurship in the context of public sector governance in eight of the largest economies in the world (the G7 countries and Russia). To analyse the composition and evolution of entrepreneurship, data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor was collected, while the economic stability was based on GDP data from the World Bank. To understand the relationships between the public sector governance policies and attitudes towards entrepreneurship in terms of economic development, the 2001-2018 period was considered. The relationships studied were observed through correlation and regression analyses, based on indexes obtained through principal component analysis. Results indicate that there are strong positive correlations between GDP and cultural and social norms promoted in society, total early-stage entrepreneurial activity, physical and services infrastructure, and tax and bureaucracy, while the fear of failure affects the GDP. Besides, this research emphasises the fact that individuals’ entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviour may reduce the level of GDP, while the entrepreneurial framework developed by the public sector would have an important role in increasing economic stability

PRIORITETI UPRAVLJANJA JAVNIM KOMUNALNIM USLUGAMA U ZAPADNOJ RUMUNJSKOJ

Public utility services are an important vector for the development of regional and local communities. Providing these services is equally important to citizens, central, regional and local authorities, and academics. The management of public utility services needs to be completed in the spirit of an efficient and performant process. This paper highlights the perception of the users of public utility services regarding the quality of various public services. Also, it identifies potential improvement measures that can be adopted by the authorities with competences in the field of utility services. In this respect, we apply a methodology based on the survey method, considering a sample of 220 respondents, between December 2014 and April 2015 at the level of the Western Region of Romania, namely the counties of Timis, Caras-Severin, Arad and Hunedoara. The main conclusion of the study reveals users’ dissatisfaction with the quality of public utility services provision, as well as the lack of communication between authorities and citizens.The results of the present paper can form a basis for well-grounded proposals for efficient measures which need to be implemented by local and regional authorities in order to improve the provision of public utility services.Javne komunalne usluge važan su vektor razvoja regionalnih i lokalnih zajednica. Te usluge jednako su važne građanima, središnjim, regionalnim i lokalnim vlastima, ali i akademskoj zajednici. Upravljanje javnim komunalnim uslugama mora biti učinkovit i djelotvoran proces. Ovaj rad bavi se percepcijom kvalitete javnih komunalnih usluga od strane njihovih korisnika. Također navodi moguće mjere za poboljšanje tih usluga koje mogu uvesti tijela nadležna za upravljanje komunalnim uslugama. U radu se koristi metoda ankete te se analizira uzorak odgovora 220 ispitanika prikupljenih u razdoblju od prosinca 2014. do travnja 2015. u zapadnoj Rumunjskoj, točnije u općinama Timis, Caras-Severin, Arad i Hunedoara. Zaključak studije otkriva nezadovoljstvo korisnika kvalitetom pružanja javnih komunalnih usluga, ali i nedostatak komunikacije između nadležnih tijela i građana. Rezultati ovog rada mogu biti temelj za predlaganje mjera koje lokalne i regionalne vlasti mogu provesti kako bi poboljšale kvalitetu komunalnih usluga

The effect of socioeconomic factors on crime rates in Romania: a macro-level analysis

The article outlines the need to identify appropriate explanations for various acts of deviant behaviour, mental illness and violent reactions in Romanian contemporary society which is facing a crisis of values and character. The objective of the article is to provide empirical evidence and raise awareness regarding the relationship between crime and socioeconomic factors in Romania over the period 1990–2014, based on statistics for testing co-integration theory and causal relationships. Specifically, the proposed analysis intends to capture the complexity of socioeconomic pressures on individuals and to clarify the ways in which the vitiation of modern society represents a manifestation of implemented economic mechanisms. By using data related to income, unemployment, inflation, inequality, development, education and population density as socioeconomic factors and also data on crime divided by region and type, the article supports the hypothesis of significant causality between socioeconomic factors and crime. Two directions can be considered for revealing the general result of the proposed analysis: one is that an increase in income inequality has a strong and robust effect regarding crime rates rising, and the second reveals that the place of residence is essential, the urban agglomeration being a generating factor for crime

NACIONALNI ZAKONODAVNI SUSTAV I MEĐUNARODNI STANDARDI I PROPISI: SLUČAJ USVAJANJA MEĐUNARODNIH STANDARDA FINANCIJSKOG IZVJEŠTAVANJA

This study is focused on the linkages between the legislative families as descriptors of national legislative systems and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). We consider such analysis as a case study for the more general issue of explaining the preferences of national regulators in the adoption of foreign norms, rules, standards and practices. By using a dataset of 162 jurisdictions and dummy variables designed to capture the current stage of IFRSs adoption and, respectively, the taxonomy of their legislative systems, we find that a full IFRSs adoption is more likely to occur in countries which have principles-based on legislative monosystems. In addition, we observe that a strong rule of law, with an effective mechanism of property rights reinforcement, as well as the pre-adoption existence of a pro-growth set of public policies can contribute to the encouragement of IFRSs adoption.Ova studija je fokusirana na veze između zakonodavnih okvira kao deskriptora nacionalnih zakonodavnih sustava i Međunarodnih standarda financijskog izvješćivanja (MSFI), koje objavljuje Odbor za međunarodne računovodstvene standarde (IASB). Takve analize se razmatraju kao studije slučaja za šira pitanja u objašnjenju preferencija nacionalnih vlasti u usvajanju stranih normi, propisa, standarda i praksi. Korištenjem skupa podataka od 162 pravne i dummy varijable, osmišljene za dostizanje trenutne faze usvajanja MSFI-a, odnosno, taksonomije njihovih zakonodavnih sustava, smatra se da će se puna primjena MSFI-a vjerojatnije dogoditi u zemljama koje svoja načela temeljena zakonskim monosustavima. Osim toga, primjetno je da snažna vladavina prava,uz učinkovit mehanizam jačanja imovinskih prava, kao i prethodno donošenje skupa javnih politika rasta, može pridonijeti poticanju usvajanja MSFI-a

Science Mapping and Country Clustering Regarding Challenges of Public Governance to Ensure Societal Well-Being

This study maps the challenges public governance faces in its mission to ensure a high level of societal well-being in European countries due to complex and multidimensional analysis, both on scientific and economic levels: bibliometric analysis, vector quantisation mapping, and clustering analysis of countries. The proposed research advocates considering relevant descriptors of the two phenomena, namely the six dimensions of public governance and the composite quality of life index, to analyse their interdependence by 2020, the year for which official statistics reveal data. Our research proposes a classification of the European Union Member States from the perspective of the progress made at the governmental decision-making level for the multidimensional approach to quality of life to identify the models of good practice. The methodological support was offered by cluster analysis and a vector quantisation method, namely K-means. KNIME software has allowed us to connect to various data sources visually. Clustering of European countries has revealed several disparities thus, Denmark and Finland (which are countries with a high level of quality of life) are examples of good practices, while countries such as Romania and Bulgaria are facing difficulties in significantly improving their quality of life due to the deficiencies of the governing act. Finally, the research highlights the channels through which public governance can substantially contribute to societal well-being, keeping in mind the relatively low importance of welfare given to formal aspects of democratic representation compared to the extent of quality governance.</em

PUBLIC DECISION-MAKING IN THE CIVIL SOCIETY CONSTRAINTS CONTEXT

The frequency with which individuals are assessed as having competences to influence decisions taken by the authorities is an indicator of the extent to which they consider their own society as being democratic. This paper is outlined from the 2013 Eurobarometer survey in witch Romania "emphasize" through the lowest level of organizations membership, only 3-4% of respondents declaring themselves members of NGOs, although 66% of Romanian state that they share values and interests of organizations and they have confidence that they act right in order to influence public decisions. In this paper we tried to observe which are most effective ways to influence policy making for Romanians. It can notice that there is a proportion of over 75% in terms of voting in local and national elections, respectively a proportion of over 65% in the degree of attachment of Romanians towards the NGOs. However, the contradictions are obvious because turnout fell in the last 10 years below 50% in terms of parliamentary elections

MEASURING ROMANIAN DEVELOPMENT

<p><em>The present paper analyses the evolution of the degree of development in Romania, between 1991 and 2014, using composite indices and taking into account 16 sub-indicators. Identifying suitable methodologies for measuring development is an important empirical issue. In order to perform a more complex analysis of development, we use the aggregation process through Principal Component Analysis, being the most advanced and used methodology for composite index determination. The result of the empirical analysis reveals an involution of the degree of development in Romania.</em></p

THE CIVIC EDUCATION IMPACT AMONG YOUTH IN A DEMOCRACY

This paper seeks to address awareness, importance and applicability of the concept of "citizenship" based on the assumption that schools can play an important role in the development of youth civic education. Such education and the role that the school plays in the development of participatory citizenship has become of considerable importance in recent decades due to the fact that, in most developed countries, schools are required to provide civic education and active youth. Studies addressing youth civic education led to the conclusion that there is a noticeable lack of involvement and education of young people in terms of their ability to meet the challenges of civic behavior. It must be necessary to consider mandatory continuing training civic and social skills to another level of understanding as education level ISCED 5 and ISCED 6, where the generalization and abstraction concepts already previously acquired, can develop flexible civic and social skills pointed directly through a constructive participation in community life and decision-making process at all levels, by the turnout

EMPIRICAL STUDY REGARDING THE DETERMINING FACTORS OF THE ROMANIAN COMPANIES COMPETITIVENESS

The complexity of the concept of competitiveness lies in the fact that the term is used in various levels of aggregation, allowing the generation of its different meanings at microeconomic, mezzo-economic and macroeconomic level. This study is focused on the concept of company competitiveness, on the relevant factors in order to analyze and explain the advantage of competitiveness for a company in regard to another, as well as the dimension and intensity which it uses the sponsors’ capital, the organizational capital, the human capital, the innovational capital and the capital represented by the customers portfolio. Secondly, using the questionnaire method as a research method, the objective of this paper is to provide some empirical evidences designed to assess the factors determining the Romanian company competitiveness on the competitive market. By using an initial dataset of 300 companies, which are part of the 14 fields of activity provided in the activity classification of the national economy, Reviewed NACE 2, we have made their classification on size classes, taking into account as classification criteria the number of employees, the annual net turnover and the value of the total assets held, then testing the opinions of the managers from the selected sample concerning the factors determining the competitiveness of the companies they manage. According to the results, the analysis of the sample structure reflects the control of microenterprises followed by the small and medium sized enterprises. The manner of administration and organization and the quality of the employed human factor are influenced by the company dimension and position held on the market. We consider that the managers of the small size companies, as well as the ones from the provided sample, rely on a preponderant intuitive management, they deal the administered businesses based on the spur of the moment inspiration, make decisions subjectively not starting from objective economic criteria, being concerned only with the management of the current problems. Since they aren’t the beneficiaries of a managerial education, they don’t possess the necessary competences to focus on the elaboration of certain strategies by which to provide competitiveness and performance on the long-term. However, the managers’ training and competence influence on the identification and use of the factors which are able to provide the company development