INTEGRATION AND COMPETITION – APPROPRIATE APPROACHES FOR ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE IN MANAGEMENT

The integration can be used in a strategic way to weaken the short-term competition, by raising the rivals’ costs, or long term - by increasing input costs, to prevent potential competitors. It represents the unification of production, distribution, sales and/or any other economic processes within the same organization. The essence of the integration decision is not represented only by the financial calculation, but also by the qualitative analysis of the efforts and involved effects and by the competitors’ analysis. This paper presents some appropriate approaches in this way, needed to be understood for achieving excellence in management.Integration, Competition, Excellence in management

THE APPLICABILITY OF STRATEGIC ANALYSIS METHODS FOR COMPETITION ENVIRONMENT IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF CULTURAL ORGANIZATION IN REGIONAL CONTEXT

Culture has various dimensions, from instrument of communication and promotion of national values and expression of the national spirit to ways of spending free time. One of these dimensions has a special manifestation in the arts management performance context: culture is a vital element for institutions aimed at mobilizing community`s social, moral and educational resources. Therefore, cultural institutions have become interested in issues such as costs, financing and competitive advantages, as development and profitability have become priorities for managers in this field, which has witnessed a shift from cultural institution to cultural organization. Indeed, nowadays cultural organizations use more and more intensively management instruments as a consequence of environment changes and increasing complexity of the approached problems. The paper aims at revealing the implementation methods of strategic analysis models for identifying the appropriate opportunities and strengths required for creating distinctive features and competitive advantages within cultural organizationscultural institution, cultural organization, competitiveness, strategic diagnosis, strategic analysis methods, competition environment, cultural management, opportunities and threats of the competition environment.

Strategic Analysis on the Public Power INfluence

Competitors, clients, suppliers, potential competitors, substitute products. All represent competitive forces, considered as being representative for characterising the competition relationships in all industries. In reality however, within the market competition game, a new „economic organisation” interferes- the state. It can directly or indirectly influence various aspects related to the structure of one specific field. The state can either be client (for defence sector products) or supplier (of raw materials controlled exclusively by the state) in many sectors or can influence the structural evolution of a certain activity field by regulating key variables such as: sector entrance, concurential practices, profitability. Regulations regarding products` quality and security, environment`s quality, custom rights or facilities offered to different investors` categories are less direct instruments public power uses to influence relationships in a concurential environment. The present paper focuses on the main modalities and forms of intervention through which the state currently prevails as a major concurential player.state, competitive environment, intervention, price control, international competition.

THE ROLE OF THE MARKETING MIX IN CONCEIVING THE STRATEGIC OPTIONS FOR THE COUNTY MUSEUM OF BOTOSANI

Museums are institutions that collect, research, promote and interpret objects (Sandell and Janes, 2007). It was insisted on the idea that the whole existence of the museums depends on the possession of a collection (McLean, 1994). While the collection’s care and interpretation are recognized to be the museum’s base functions, the decline in public funding and the pressures on responsibilities have conducted the perception that marketing in museums has an important contribution to the museums’ viability (McLean, 1994). This finding has leaded to a change in the museum’s staff behavior so the base for marketing in the cultural organizations has been createdCultural Institutions, museums, the Marketing Mix.

THE ROLE OF TOURISM MARKETING IN THE STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOWN OF ROVANIEMI

In a small town from Lapland, near the Arctic Circle, lives the most beloved character that each of the children, smaller or larger, is waiting for him to bring gifts on the 25th of December. Santa Clause has set up his headquarters in Rovaniemi, in the north of Finland, the country’s most northern point that can be reached by train. It is the capital of the Lapland Provence and of the Rovaniemi region. Annually, Rovaniemi is visited by approximately 500.000 tourists; the city is not only the gate to Lapland, but also one of the top tourism destinations in the Arctic Circle area. Because of its weak provincial economy based mainly on the exploitation of natural resources (forest, agricultural and hydropower), the economic and social vitality of the Rovaniemi Provence is linked to tourism more than any other region in Finland. These represent the results of the tourism marketing strategy implemented by the town for its development. This paper presents the strategy’s main coordinates and its main results, and analysis the vectors which led to the town’s strategic development, materialized in sustainable competitive advantages.city, marketing strategy, tourism, strategic objectives, strategic development, competitive advantage

MUSEUMS, MARKETING, TOURISM AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT. THE BRITISH MUSEUM – A SUCCESSFUL MODEL FOR ROMANIAN MUSEUMS

The continuous growth of cultural influence upon the modern society combined with the increasing role of tourism in the economic life of cities, led to the development of the “emblem museums”. The “emblem museum” usually becomes a touristic attraction objective that must be visited by tourists from a city, and by taking the decision of prolonging their staying in that city, the tourists will increase the amount of money they spend in that location. The “emblem museums” represent a way to develop urban tourism, gain competitive advantage and attract new sources of income for the city`s economy. A recent study showed that 3 out of 10 tourists visited London for its museums. One of them is the British Museum, which, in 2010 was on the 2nd place in the top10 world`s most visited museums. This study aims to present the British Museum from the mix marketing perspective, from the visitor’s point of view, and to present some of the good practices this giant is using to attract more visitors and to maintain its competitive advantage, practices which may be used by Romanian museums in order to increase the visitors number and to obtain a better position in the economy life of Romanian cities.Museums, marketing, tourism development, cultural development, competitive advantage, marketing mix, visitors, best practices

Successful Strategic Practices in Building Malaysia’s Country Brand

An analysis of the macroeconomic indicators for Malaysia show that tourism represents a gold mine: in just a few years, the number of tourists has tripled and revenue from this area have increased in only 16 years, over eight times, and the country has reached the top 10 most visited countries in the world. This paper describes the brand campaign “Malaysia Truly Asia” and presents the vectors that generated a “blast” of positive effects: increased awareness and visibility of Malaysia internationally, created a clear and easily identifiable image of the country, the positioning of Malaysia as a leading destination in the region, diversifying tourism markets, encouraging and promoting domestic tourism. It is analysed the impact of this campaign particularly in terms of number of visitors, tourism revenue, visibility and prestige through the awards received. The paper addresses a multitude of best practices from the perspective of strategic opportunities transformed into strong points in a good ratio result / effort.

THE ROLE OF URBAN TOURISM IN THE STRATEGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF BRASOV AREA

The present work proposes to analyze the importance of tourism in the development of an urban area. Taking into consideration the areas with touring potential existing in Romania, we chose Brasov, whose variety of resources in this field, can offer countless possibilities of developing the area. In the first part of the paper we presented some theoretical aspects regarding the urban tourism. The present tourism and traveling industry offers many opportunities, enthralling destinations, niche products, brands, offering for sale one of the most complex products on the planet. These elements impose the use of managerial and organizational abilities of a well prepared and enthusiast personnel. The second part includes the general characteristics of the area, geographic, demographic aspects, existing resources, such as the touring potential and the way of improving it, pointing the types of tourism practiced in the area and the touring offer made available to those who see Brasov a possible holiday destination. Finally we presented the touring development strategy of Brasov area, by marking the main objectives and the essential ways of fulfilling them: market evaluation, development vision, development plan and creating an area brand.urban tourism, development vision, urban brand, development plan.

URBAN MANAGEMENT– CURRENT STRATEGIC APPROACHES

In recent years urban management conceptual evolutions are more and more connected to the chances in public administration practice, in particular to ways of raising efficiency and effectiveness. The interest shared by a great number of stakeholders regarding urban development, the increasing role of environment issues and the need for a broad vision for managing cities, are all premises required for a strategic approach to urban management performance. The paper presents some relevant issues related to urban management studies: the dynamics of the concept, missions and goals, strategic options. The results of the research indicate that the action directions required to obtain satisfactory levels of efficiency and effectiveness in urban management are: developing o strong habitation policy, locating economic activities, developing public equipment and planning urban transport.urban management, strategic options, planning, habitation, urban transport, public equipment.

THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE IMPROVEMENT OF MARKETING ACTIVITY ON THE PERFORMANCE OF CENTRAL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY IN BUCHAREST

After a prolonged and complex process of reconstruction, extension and modernization, Central University Library "Carol I" in Bucharest has re-opened to public access in November 2001, bringing a new concept on what library services should mean. Under these auspicious circumstances, the library's offer has widened, the quality of services offered has improved, gradually displaying an interest in developing a closer relationship with its customers. The necessity of being more oriented to the marketing tools and techniques has become more apparent. Therefore, the top managers of the Central University Library have included in their three general development strategies produced so far, specific objectives, such as: an increase of the volume of paid serviced provided, promoting the services and work elaborated by its specialists through leaflets, presentations, albums, folders with press extracts. Beyond these actions with positive effects, the efforts of Central University Library for strengthening its position on the market of the providers of information services are diminished by the various malfunctions that characterize the marketing activity of this institution. Therefore, this work intends to contribute to the improvement of the marketing activity of the library by coming up with some solutions that could remove or at least diminish these weak points.The marketing of libraries, performance, the marketing mix of libraries