CLUSTERS – A FORM OF SPATIAL STRUCTURE WITHIN THE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

Success stories like Silicon Valley, Hollywood film industry or the economic region of Northern Italy brought into debate the role of clusters in regional development. What is a cluster? What drives organizations to build clusters or local and regional authorities to sustain such forms of spatial structure? Are clusters necessary in the new terms of globalization? These are questions actual for the Romanian business environment and for the local and regional authorities. This paper brings in discussion the main facts about clusters and looks for the potential of clusters in Romania.cluster, cluster drivers, regional development

The Relationship Between University Research And The Marketability Of Universities

As universities are presently involved in a world-wide competition for students, and, implicitly, for markets in which to sell their services, the issue of the advantages research brings, transformed in market share increase, becomes an issue for university management. The paper examines, comparatively, the profitability of basic and applied research in terms of strengthening the market position of a university actively involved in one type of research or in both at a time. Well developed indicators to measure the relationship between research activity and prestige, on the one hand, social capital, on the other, and we will correlate these two research outcomes with the university market share and competitive advantage. The interest a university has to invest in its research activities has a market feedback, which provides a sense of involvement for practical reasons, and that goes beyond the bare purpose of reporting results .entrepreneurial university, performance ratios, basic and applied research

RECENT TRENDS IN LIFESTYLE RESEARCH - A LITERATURE REVIEW PERSPECTIVE

The paper comprises a literature review on the occurrences of lifestyle in literature, on samples of academic publications. The importance of work-personal life balance increased in the last 20 years and this can be seen especially in the changing role of lifestyle. So we find it natural that lifestyle is a topic highly debated in literature. Still, given the all-roundness of the concept, some frequency disparities appear. The first results show that only few articles refer to lifestyle in Europe, analyzed from the point of view of social sciences. The remaining majority discusses lifestyle from life sciences perspectives, with a particular focus on health acceptations of the concept.family studies, lifestyle, marketing, sociology

Stability analysis of a hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis model with inclusion of glucocorticoid receptor and memory

This paper analyzes a four-dimensional model of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis that includes the influence of the glucocorticoid receptor in the pituitary. Due to the spatial separation between the hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal glands, distributed time delays are introduced in the mathematical model. The existence of the positive equilibrium point is proved and a local stability and bifurcation analysis is provided, considering several types of delay kernels. The fractional-order model with discrete time delays is also taken into account. Numerical simulations are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical findings.Comment: 9 page

THE EFFECTS OF THE ENERGY TO ECOSYSTEM AND RISK MANAGEMENT SOLUTION FOR COVERING THE POTENTIAL LOSSES

In this paper we analyse the influence on climate change by one of the most important factors: the energy production and consumption, who caused in the last decades important damages to the ecosystems. The available resources of energy production are quitenergy, climate change, risk management, catastrophe, insurance

Issues and Challenges for the Romanian Insurance Market: Risk and Return Analysis

Romanian insurance industry has a competitive market, having, however, a deep character of heterogeneity, which has had an impact on different financial ratios that define it. In an international framework, non-life insurance market in Romania was a different pattern as compared to similar markets from Central and Eastern Europe and in relation to similar markets from 42 countries in the world, with a growing trend, even in the year 2009, when this sector stagnate or even decreases. In Romania, within the class of non-life insurance, motor third party liability insurance ranks second, as a source of income and expenses, even since 1990. Peculiarities of this type of insurance motivated a detailed analysis based on its compulsory character, together with public availability of the financial information. In order to better understand the developments for this class of insurance, for 2005-2008 a wide range of financial indicators was used such as gross written premiums, gross claims payable, loss ratio, coverage rate, solvency ratio, etc. Even if the risk management had no major problems, nevertheless this insurance class faced some difficulties, especially regarding the growing trend for the loss ratio, the solvency margin, the casualty and coverage ratios and for the outstanding claims reserve adequacy. In addition, correlations between different financial indicators specific to the sector, analyzed over a period of four years, provided additional findings for a deeper understanding of the characteristics of this insurance class. Overall, some correlations between indicators had normal levels and directions, but some of the results revealed some anomalies, which can be attributed to the fact that non-life insurance market, as a whole, is still growing.development and concentration, financial correlations, motor third party liability insurance, non-life insurance, return, risk

The Third Mission of Universities in the Development Strategy of Vienna City

Vienna City is one of the most attractive cities in Europe and according to different rankings [1], [2]it is placed on the top ten in the list of cities with best living conditions, excellent education, infrastructure and good urban planning. This is the result of a systematic approach of the local government, companies, universities and public in the development and modernization of the city. Since 2000 the city has known a growth in different areas (number of researchers, number of patents, joint programs for the popularization of science etc.) and evolved into a network point not only for business but also for research and innovation. In this paper we investigate the strategy of Vienna City regarding research and development and the extensive and complex role of universities in the city

The Relationship Between University Research And The Marketability Of Universities

As universities are presently involved in a world-wide competition for students, and, implicitly, for markets in which to sell their services, the issue of the advantages research brings, transformed in market share increase, becomes an issue for university management. The paper examines, comparatively, the profitability of basic and applied research in terms of strengthening the market position of a university actively involved in one type of research or in both at a time. Well developed indicators to measure the relationship between research activity and prestige, on the one hand, social capital, on the other, and we will correlate these two research outcomes with the university market share and competitive advantage. The interest a university has to invest in its research activities has a market feedback, which provides a sense of involvement for practical reasons, and that goes beyond the bare purpose of reporting results

THE RISK CONNECTION OF AN ORGANIZATION WITH INTERNAL AUDIT. SPECIFIC CORPORATE GOVERNANCE PRACTICES

There is risk in everything we do. A risk-free situation is one where we know exactly what will happen and there is no variation doubt, which is otherwise impossible. But not all risks have only a negative connotation, some of them can even create opportunities. A good risk management means to keep an unwanted risk in certain permissible limits and exploit its „opportune” side. Corporate governance represents an innovative method of supervision on firms’ activity. Executive boards now exert more and more influence, the investors become more and more pretentious, and the managers have become more aware of the key problems their business have to confront (every day). All these are tendencies that result from the higher importance laid on corporate governance in the business world. Given the reasons, this theme awoke in us a great attention, considering the present tendencies of organizing the management of companies. They consist in finding those ways that would prevent investors and the taxation from being manipulated.risk appetite, risk management, SOX model, corporate governance, the Cadbury Report

The Integrated Educational System. The Impact of Information Technology on the Educational Process

SEI (computerized educational system) governmental program, initiated in 2001, is a national approach whose objective is to computerize the education system by giving schools the necessary equipment, by designing a large number of software for the interaction student-contents of subjects taught, by offering psycho-pedagogical training to teachers in order to ensure the placing of the student at the centre of the teaching-learning process and by setting the premises of a computerized network as support of a modern management (Ilia F., 2003, p. 34). As a generic term, the "impact" envisaged in this paper is noticed in the analysis of the beneficiaries' opinions - managers, teachers, and students - about the usefulness and need of using the information technology in the education process. Probably the most significant answer obtained in this respect is the general opinion of students concerning the legitimacy of using the new technology in order to avoid socio-professional cast out.Most students consider that those who do not have access to a computer will be in a disadvantaged position later (90,4%), while only 8,7% think this issue is not important. The impact plans of the new technology on the educational process and system are countless, and determining them is a difficult and complex process. Anyway, a few incidence points have been found during the evaluation and they concern aspects of institutional development of schools, some implications for the professional training of teachers, as well as perceptions of beneficiaries regarding the effects of TIC (Information and Communication Technology) on students' proficiency and the development of digital skills