ROMANIA AND THE KNOWLEDGE-BASED ECONOMY: INNOVATION THE SOURCE OF ECONOMIC GROWTH

The is already a vast literature on the role of knowledge in economic growth butthere is need to clarify the meaning and scope of this term and define the Romanianperspective on the relationship between knowledge-based economy and growth. This paper focuses on innovation systems in Romania as the key challenge and meanfor embracing growth based on knowledge-based economy.innovation, economic growth, knowledge

INNOVATION – A WAY OF INCREASING SMALL AND MEDIUM- SIZED TOURISM ENTERPRISES COMPETITIVENESS

The tourism phenomenon and the diversification of its forms have multiple consequences on the natural environment, the society and the economy. On the other hand, Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) competitiveness affects the competitive position of the economy as a whole. Innovation in tourism is associated with novelty of the marketing methods for obtain a favorable impact on consumers, creativity for creating a new tourism services according with the request at the market, performance for necessary in order to resist in a growing competition. Those key elements bring an improvement to the tourism services and are based on the efforts to adding value according to the consumers’ perspective. Competitive strength of a SMTEs lies in competitive advantages and distinctive competencies that we possess in relation to other competitors. The paper focuses on the questions: What could be the contribution of SMTEs to the development and competitiveness of tourism destination?small and medium enterprises, competitiveness, tourism

CHANGE – E-BUSINESS – THE MAJOR FACTORS FOR ADVANCED COMPETITIVE IN ROMANIAN TRAVEL AGENCIES

The Internet and e-business adoption are the most important issues of this century for travel agencies. Although, the Internet provides many opportunities to do business; therefore, in the near future the Romania travel agencies may lose their competitiveness. Redesigning the business processes of travel agencies to adapt them to e-business environment is aimed in this study. The present system is going to be analyzed and redesigned to make them able to utilize from technology efficiently.e-business, travel agencies, e-commerce

ACCOUNTING CONVERGENCE ON ECONOMIC CRISIS

If normalization accounting is the process of harmonizing the presentation of financial statements, accounting methods and terminology, accounting convergence is the process by which accounting standards are developed in a way that is able to lead to the same fact or purpose, by highlighting the similarity of national - regional - international. This paper put in light the importance of the normalization and harmonization process, what it's done in and what we have to do for that in Romania.accounting, globalization, convergence

The Critical Aspect on Using Fair Value for Financial Instruments

The variety of the book-keeping practices, of the financial auditor, of the fiscal norms and rules, can have a negative impact, not only on the companies’ ability in furnishing the needed and true financial information to the creditors and investors, but also on the capacity to analyze the future investment opportunities regarding the financial instruments, which are vital for the economic increment. Under the Accounting Standard for Financial Instruments, fair value measurement is required in certain circumstances similar to IFRS or US GAAP. There are also specialists who criticize the limited use of fair values in IFRS. However, those criticizing fair value accounting do not seem to provide any credible alternatives. Do we go back to historical cost accounting, wherein the financial assets are stated at outdated values and hence are not relevant or reliable? In the current crisis, a question that is raised is: Should financial instruments be marked down to their current throw away prices? This paper describes how the fair value is used under the Standard and purposes to decide whether fair value measurement is required or not based on the type of investment

The Companies and the Climate Change: differences between perceptions and practices

The companies are taking action in response to the increasing number of regulations related to the climate change, but also in anticipation to the future developments of public actions in this domain. For the operating companies, the fight against the climate change can also result in investments and business opportunities through, among others, in a more efficient use of the natural resources and the energy, less waste, streamlining logistics, diversification of energy sources, acquisition of advantageous positions on the market and introduction of new means of participation of the consumer and the provider. This article examines the steps taken by EU companies in the current context, conditioned by the public objectives regarding the climate change. The paper concludes that the efforts in eco innovation are led by developed small and medium enterprises and are still mainly concentrated in correction measures of environmental damagers than preventive ones.  &nbsp

Supporting Herbal Agriculture Market in Romania - Desideratum or Reality

Currently, Medicinal & Aromatic Plants (MAPs) sector are growing fast. This article is a trial of designing the challenges and future directions of medicinal herbal market in Romania, taking into consideration the medicinal plants market and individual exploitations. Data was collected from Romanian Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Growers, Manufacturers and Users Association using pretested questionnaire. Data were entered, cleaned and analysed by SPSS version 17. T-test, ANOVA and Regression analysis were carried out and the association was considered significant at p-value less than 0.05. A total of 220 respondents participated in the study, making a response rate of 88%. Our results indicate that the negotiation power of the legal person buyers is significantly bigger than that of the medicinal herbs individual producers and that this type of buyer benefits by significantly diminished prices. The study showed that a more positive attitude of consumers towards medicinal plants products will further strengthen the purchasing intentions, while the status of a bio consumers’ consumption will not affect any change on their willingness to purchase medicinal herbs products