CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ROMANIAN CONVENIENCE MARKET

Consumers find convenience – understood as a quick and effortless shopping and consuming processes – anywhere where providers make life easy for them, and not just in a few selected convenience channels. Seen this way, the concept of “convenience” clearlyconvenience, on-the-go products, consumer behaviour, convenience channels

National and Regional Women Entrepreneurs’ Networks

Women Entrepreneurship tends to become worldwide a driving force both in terms of number and gross revenues, playing an increasing role in the process of wealth creation and innovation. The dynamic networking phenomenon is helping to strengthen female entrepreneurship’s positive impact. The network can offer psychological, managerial and financial support by providing information, innovative and adapted consultancy and technical assistance to women entrepreneurs and aspiring ones. This paper outlines the main forms of networking and their impact, both at national and regional level, as instruments of economic development and as a response to business women’s need of dealing with a highly complex and fluid environment.

WOMEN-ENTREPRENEURS: A DYNAMIC FORCE OF SMALL BUSINESS SECTOR

The field of Entrepreneurship is experiencing worldwide not only a renaissance but a revolution in which women tend to play an important role. Are women entrepreneurs good for the economic development? What is their contribution to a healthier economy? Is Entrepreneurship more suitable for males than females? How strong the gender stereotypes are and how can they affect business success? Is Entrepreneurship an attractive career path for women? What kind of motivation and personality is needed for women in order to succeed as business owners? What are the main field women entrepreneurs are represented? How successful are their businesses? Is there a gender gap in entrepreneurial ventures growth? How attractive are the women’s businesses to the venture capitalists? Are women business owners underrepresented in stories in the media, business school teaching materials and academic journals? How to increase the visibility of key role models? How to better educate, prepare and coach women entrepreneurs? These are the main questions this paper will answer in the light of U.S.A. vast experience in theory and practice, a country where women business owners are a driving force both in terms of numbers and gross revenues. The authors will also identify methods of applying this knowledge to the specificity of emerging entrepreneurial culture in Romania.Entrepreneurship; Women entrepreneurs; Motivation; Women entrepreneurs’ profile.

The Networking Organization as a Reaction at the Commerce Globalization

One of the main globalization process effect is the increase of dependency among the economic actors. Networking is the response to the companies’ need of dealing with a high complex and liquid environment. The network brings to its members the opportunity to share risks and uncertainty. Based on cooperation the network is a new dynamic form of organization that allows each member to follow its own objectives. In the field of commerce the enterprise developing internal and external networks has higher chances to increase its competitiveness.Globalization; Networking; Internal network; External network.

THE IMPORTANCE OF TOURISM FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN ROMANIA

The tourism and travel industry represents, worldwide, the most dynamic sector of activity and, at the same time, the most important job generator, as well as a source of recovering the national economies. Tourism is a complex activity because it generates the circulation of massive sums of money, thus contributing to the development of various economic activities which are favourable to the environment protection and to the globalization process emphasis. Tourism itself cannot be considered as a "positive" or "negative" action, but its very diverse consequences can be evaluated in this manner. In the process of sustainable development of tourism, it is necessary that an increased attention be paid to the quality of the touristic products, which should simultaneously offer "the taste of perfection" and "the perfection of taste".touristic destination, sustainable development, touristic potential

CLASSIFICATION CRITERIA USED AS BASIS FOR AN EFFECTIVE MUNICIPAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

The immediate reality reveals a significant difference in terms of practical use between public and private property management. It can be noticed that the emphasis is placed to a higher extent on the private property management, which is more profit-oriented, compared to the public property management, driven by the public sector’s purpose to achieve the welfare of its citizens. However, during the last years, the interest in assets management has grown also at municipal level. The motivation for applying a strategic municipal property management comes from the necessity to mach the municipal long-term needs for their own use of properties, as well as to use their properties in order to attract investment and promote sustainable socio-economic development of their cities and regions. Referring to the Balkan area, a lack of strategy can be noticed with regard to the real asset management of municipal properties. In order to support the efforts of the municipalities in articulating real asset strategies, a project on “Municipal Property Management in South- Eastern Cities (PROMISE)†is carried on (2009-2012), supported by the ERDF within the South-East Territorial Co-operation Programme. It is expected to contribute to supporting urban environmental sustainability improvement through regeneration programmes, to promoting economic sustainability via the encouragement of innovative investments, to facilitating social sustainability through urban social infrastructure development, as well as to improving social services and social cohesion policies. This paper, derived from the above mentioned project, emphasizes the importance of using the most suitable classification criteria in order to ensure an effective municipal property management. In the beginning a comprehensive international literature review and a structured conceptual clarification are provided, referring to papers like those by Jolicoeur and Barret (2004) and Musil (2006) as having had an important contribution to this topic. Then, specific classification criteria in the case of Romania are pointed out, followed by a discussion on features of assessment extracted from the evaluation practice. The results may contribute to the identification of reliable variables that can be used as a starting point for the strategic management of municipal properties. Keywords: municipal property, classification criteria, strategic management

CLASSIFICATION CRITERIA USED AS BASIS FOR AN EFFECTIVE MUNICIPAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

The immediate reality reveals a significant difference in terms of practical use between public and private property management. It can be noticed that the emphasis is placed to a higher extent on the private property management, which is more profit-oriented, compared to the public property management, driven by the public sector's purpose to achieve the welfare of its citizens. However, during the last years, the interest in assets management has grown also at municipal level. The motivation for applying a strategic municipal property management comes from the necessity to mach the municipal long-term needs for their own use of properties, as well as to use their properties in order to attract investment and promote sustainable socio-economic development of their cities and regions. Referring to the Balkan area, a lack of strategy can be noticed with regard to the real asset management of municipal properties. In order to support the efforts of the municipalities in articulating real asset strategies, a project on "Municipal Property Management in South- Eastern Cities (PROMISE)" is carried on (2009-2012), supported by the ERDF within the South-East Territorial Co-operation Programme. It is expected to contribute to supporting urban environmental sustainability improvement through regeneration programmes, to promoting economic sustainability via the encouragement of innovative investments, to facilitating social sustainability through urban social infrastructure development, as well as to improving social services and social cohesion policies. This paper, derived from the above mentioned project, emphasizes the importance of using the most suitable classification criteria in order to ensure an effective municipal property management. In the beginning a comprehensive international literature review and a structured conceptual clarification are provided, referring to papers like those by Jolicoeur and Barret (2004) and Musil (2006) as having had an important contribution to this topic. Then, specific classification criteria in the case of Romania are pointed out, followed by a discussion on features of assessment extracted from the evaluation practice. The results may contribute to the identification of reliable variables that can be used as a starting point for the strategic management of municipal properties

THE QUESTION OF CLUSTERS IN LESS DEVELOPED AREAS. EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM ROMANIA'S EASTERN REGIONS

Various research studies addressing the specific problems and difficulties in the underdeveloped regions in the transition countries from Central and Eastern Europe have identified possible reactions regarding appropriate economic and social policy measures. Some of them take into consideration the role of cluster initiatives as a response to poor competitiveness, low level of innovation, high levels of unemployment and out-migration of the highly-skilled labour force. Though, the simple presence of clusters in a less developed region does not automatically mean more competitiveness and prosperity. A series of policy measures meant to improve the frame conditions for business firms and overall regional development should accompany clusters formation, as a coherent package including economic, legal, institutional, infrastructure, cultural and socio-political elements. Staring from these overall considerations our paper brings into discussion the capacity of cluster policies to offer viable solutions to the Romania's Eastern regions, lagging behind the Western ones. First, an overall image of the clusters existing in the Eastern part of Romania is provided based on statistical methods, mainly location quotients, Gini and Herfindahl indexes of regional specialisation and industrial concentration and cluster analysis. Second, GIS techniques are employed in order to provide a spotlight on cluster identity, location and borders by means of spatial, thematic data at locality level. Performance indicators are also included, so as to get an image on clusters' contribution to the development of the corresponding local economies as well as the county and region economy. Third, based on these results, the interviews with business environment representatives and policy makers in the envisaged regions point out the clusters with the highest chances of success. Also, the best practices are discussed and connected with successful solutions from other Central and East European countries. They will be differentiated in accordance with the characteristics of the North-East and South-East regions, bearing in mind that, however, South-East region has a higher development level and different profile compared with North-East. The paper is the result of a CERGE-GDN funded project