Business Excellence and Management

5-23

Authors: Richa N. Agarwal

Digital transactions are growing globally. India has embarked on this journey but still lags behind, in comparison to other countries. The paper attempts to find factors which affect behavioral intention among small merchants for adopting technology. Small merchants in unorganized sector are an important part of Indian business framework. The paper is a deductive research wherein it makes UTAUT model its base and adapts to the Indian context. The paper tests models and hypotheses with the help of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Few variables like performance expectancy, effort expectancy and habit were found to have an effect on intention to adopt cashless method; surprisingly factors profound to Indian consumers such as trust, perceived value and social influence were not found to have an effect on behavioral intension. The study is useful for the digital payment service providers, telecom companies, small merchants, Government and society. It also proposes strategic initiatives to boost digital transactions. It is unique as the survey is in the unorganized sector.

36-46

Authors: Alexandra DINU,Marian-Mircea STĂNESCU,Andreea BARBU

Nowadays, it is well known that money, through the means of obtaining and saving, has a major influence on the good functioning of the economy in society and implicitly in the process of its development. This influence has an impact on every individual in our society, on our decisions, choices, plans and preferences. At the same time, however, each participant in the economy of a state, whether it be individuals, companies, corporations or business partners, competes in the evolution of the economy through the type of management of the finances it adopts. In this regard, the present research aims to establish what is the young peoples' behavior (aged between 18 and 40) in terms of how to save money as well as the peoples' inclination to call a financial advisor for making decisions regarding the management of personal income and expenses. Therefore, with the help of survey type research, based on a questionnaire, the results of the study reveal an increased interest of Romanian young people in terms of the tendency to save money. It also highlights the awareness of the importance of financial knowledge in the process of saving money, as well as the tendency of respondents to constantly update this information, with the help of financial experts.

61-79

Authors: Cozmiuc Diana, Petrișor Ioan

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the updates brought by the New Economy, especially new business models brought by digitalization, on value-based management. This objective is to see if classic valuebased management and the updates brought by the New Economy conflict or are somehow harmonized or complementary. Another objective is to illustrate the updates brought by digitalization as case object on Siemens as case subject. The paper is focused on value-based management particularities for digitalization products, services, solutions. The context of the paper is digitalization technology and its impact on business and society, digital transformation. The phenomenon is new to society in all and therefore both literature review and case studies are highly relevant. The article is a case study on a top European corporation, both leader in digitalization and excellent value-based management practitioner. The case study is exploratory and descriptive, searching for the connections between digitalization and value. It relies on secondary evidence about Siemens. The questions are how New Economy value patterns work in practice and how do they relate to classic value indicators, net present value of discounted cash flow or its equivalent Economic Value Added. The paper finds a connection between innovation lifecycle and investment approval or capital budgeting. The beginning of the project lifecycle involves investment in intangible assets, business models, an open network structure and is funded by venture capital. As the idea matures close to customer contract negotiation stages, the network structure turns into a project budgeted via program management and equity and debt. The findings show how so-called new capital budgeting methods, venture capital, are reconciled with classic value-based management using equity and debt and Economic Value-Added investment appraisal. Both funding methods have their logic and place in idea lifecycle at Siemens. The paper finds a match between the lean start-up method and early stages of digital offering lifecycle, and a complementarity between venture capital funding methods and equity and debt capital funding methods given by the innovation lifecycle.

99-118

Authors: Nicolae Nae,Simona Cătălina Ștefan,Cătălina Florentina Albu

For the time being, many companies around the world attach great importance to corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and policies. This trend that manifests itself worldwide, is also characteristic for Romania, many companies being regularly active in the CSR field. The motivation of these companies to get involved in social or ecological activities is not only related to the moral or ethical side of business, but also to many benefits that CSR can generate, such as improving the company's image or customer loyalty. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between CSR and customer loyalty in the Romanian retail sector. Moreover, the effect that CSR has on corporate reputation and the mediating role of reputation on the relationship between CSR and customer loyalty has been studied. In this regard, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted to measure the level of social responsibility and corporate reputation perceived by customers of retail stores in Romania, but also their loyalty to a particular store. The obtained results confirm the existence of a positive relationship between CSR and customer loyalty, but also the partial mediation that the corporate reputation exerts on this relationship