Romanian Banks – Romanian SMEs: A Mutual Business Relationship

This paper analyzes the bank-SMEs partnership in terms of ICT collaboration. The data about ICT projects developed in the Romanian banks having SMEs as a technology provider is collected by web content mining. Then, the paper addresses two main perspectives. At first, we identify the features that characterize the successful SMEs that managed to develop business relationships with the Romanian Banks and we build an econometric model to express this dependency. On the other hand, the paper analyzes the problem from the Romanian banks’ perspective, identifying patterns in their IT investment decisions.SMEs; banking industry; IT investments; clustering; decision patterns.

An Exploratory Study on Knowledge Management Process Barriers in the Oil Industry

This paper identify and discuss barriers affecting knowledge management (KM) processes in the oil industry. Based on reviewing the literature on this topic, we used a conceptual model comprising the most important barriers, grouped in three categories–organizational, knowledge and people related–influencing four critical KM processes–creation, storage, share and application. Using factor analysis, we identified which barriers influence the most each of the KM process and what are the practical implications for companies operating in the oil industry. This study provides useful insights regarding knowledge processes barriers, enabling top executives to better cope with factors hindering successful implementation of KM initiatives

ROMANIAN YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS FEATURES: AN EMPIRICAL SURVEY

There are many studies linking entrepreneurship and economic development. For specialists and public decision makers, developing entrepreneurship seems to be an easy policy action, even though actions and results are rather debatable. Unfortunately the relevant literature is not so generous concerning youth entrepreneurship. Youth is one of the most vulnerable groups in society, especially in the current economic and demographic situation in European Union and worldwide. At the same time, youth is the period when most people engage in their first job, are gaining financial independence and are assuming new responsibilities and roles shaping their identity. With respect to this, starting their own business is a natural choice for many young people. When considering entrepreneurial potential of young Romanians, there is almost not any data available. This paper aims to disseminate the results of a survey focused on young entrepreneurs, designed to fill the gap in the literature about Romanian young entrepreneurs’ features. The empirical study was divided in five parts: A. Personality of young entrepreneurs, highlighting the main features of behaviour and personality of young entrepreneurs. B. Professional background, focusing on young entrepreneurs’ background and how it influences their interest and performance improvement. C. Risk and crisis acceptance, highlighting the ability of young entrepreneurs to deal with critical situations. D. Business and business environment, focusing on internal and environmental aspects of the business. E. Social - cultural attitude, highlighting the attitude of society (incentives and disincentives) to entrepreneurial initiatives of young people. This are excerpts of results from the first part, regarding personality of Romanian young entrepreneurs, concerning issues like level of independence, capacity for innovation, self-confidence, decision making process, level of persistence flexibility of young entrepreneurs, opportunities, energetic capability, social goals, entrepreneurial incentives or entrepreneurial determinants. In the end, we highlight the main characteristic of young entrepreneurs, as they occurred according to survey

Toward a Romanian NPOs Sustainability Model: Determinants of Sustainability

Non-profit organizations (NPOs) have become increasingly important in the last decade for Romanian society since the state often failed to fulfill some of its social responsibilities. Romania’s economic and financial crisis several years ago hardly hit non-profit sector because it led to a significant drop in public spending at the government level and cuts of financing programs from companies, two main donors for NPOs while simultaneously has amplified society’s problems and gave rise to new target groups requiring support. This led to an acute need to address sustainability at organizational level since existing sustainability models in the literature are hardly adequate for Romanian context. We developed a model based on literature survey and Romanian experts’ interviews, which allow us to identify relevant factors for Romanian non-profit sustainability. Three determinants were considered: Cognitive competence (nine items analyzed), Social awareness (seven items analyzed) and Financial vulnerability (four items analyzed), as well as two types of results: economic and social. The model was tested through an empirical research on 103 Romanian NPOs and on two sub-samples (nongovernment organizations and community based organizations) and found, using univariate and bivariate analysis, that the three considered determinants are correlated and statistically influence Romanian NPOs sustainability

Women Entrepreneurship in Romania: the Case of North East Development Region

Women entrepreneurship benefit from a process of expansion all over the world. Business established and developed by women are an important source of wealth and improved living standards in many countries. Even though women represent 46% of Europe's working population, which means in theory that trend of this type entrepreneurship can only go upward, however entrepreneurship is still considered an activity for men. Entrepreneurship has an active role in employment, economic development and quality of life, constituting a dynamic part of any developed economy. Supporting women in their involvement in setting up new start-ups and small business and unlock their potential is an important part of government actions to foster entrepreneurial activities. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) study found out that economies of Eastern European countries are in poor condition in terms of women's participation in entrepreneurial activity. Romania is no exception. This paper analyze women entrepreneurship in the poorest region of Romania, North East region, through an empirical survey but provide also some insights on overall Romanian situation based on National Trade Register Office data

Community-Based Healthcare Programs Sustainability Impact on the Sustainability of Host Organizations: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis

The sustainability of community-based programs represents a major focus of the literature on community-based interventions in the last few decades. However, without sustainable host organizations to effectively implement them, many are prone to failure. This paper analyzes the influence of the sustainability factors of healthcare community-based programs on the host organization’s sustainability. Based on a sample of 11 community-based healthcare programs and 401 respondents and using structural equation modeling, the study investigated if program specific, organization specific, and community specific factors are indeed measures of community-based programs’ sustainability, if social and economic dimensions are measures of host organization sustainability, and if the sustainability of the community-based program influences thee host organization’s sustainability. The results confirmed all three research hypothesis. The main contribution of the paper is to demonstrate a direct relationship between the sustainability of community-based programs and the overall sustainability of the organizations implementing them

Innovation ambidexterity and impact on the performance in IT companies: the moderating role of business experience

International audienc

COMPETITIVENESS ASESSMENT: AN OVERVIEW

Measuring competitiveness of companies, industries or nations and their ranking according to the level and dynamics became, for several decades already, a significant concern for scholars. Competitiveness should be approached in a multi-layered and comprehensive manner, considering that it has a specific content and is perceived differently depending on the system involved. In our view, a comprehensive approach has to adress five levels, facilitating a rigorous and consistent approach to variables that determine competitiveness. These levels are

Assessing the Role of Strategic Choice on Organizational Performance by Jacquemin–Berry Entropy Index

This paper investigates effects of strategic choice on organizational performance for Romanian family-owned Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). Using adapted Jacquemin–Berry entropy index for both product and international diversification and using a regression model, our study discusses family involvement as a moderating factor for organizational performance assessment. We discovered that there are multiple interactions between strategic choice and organizational performance while family involvement fails to have a significant role in moderating these interactions