Business Excellence and Management

16-20

Authors: Ana-Mădălina POTCOVARU

The world in which we live in is changing. And rapidly. The global economic crisis that is our living companion since 2007 might change the world for ever. Our beloved democracies, the US and the European Union, or even Japan are no longer the main economic forces that drive the world’s economy. New countries are rising towards becoming the top economies and most of these are not belonging to the western world, nor are functional democracies. But why is this happening? Why are we losing so fast all our power and influence? Well, one main cause might be that every major civilization develops, peaks, and eventually falls. This article insists on our cultural and demographic topics, which are the main reasons for this downward trend.

29-36

Authors: Cosmin DOBRIN, Ana-Maria STĂNCIUC

The purpose of this article is to study the application of total quality management in the innovation process. This article describes and evaluates concepts and techniques in the field of quality and innovation and identify and symbiosis between these two philosophies

43-60

Authors: Ana-Maria-Viorica MITRACHE, Mădălina-Gabriela NECEA

The fast development of the information and communication technology in the last few years and its impact on the society and the economy are reasons for investigating the issues regarding this sensitive field of activity. Starting with a short history of telecommunications around the world, the article reveals the role of cell phones, radio, and TV in leisure activities, disclosing both their benefits and drawbacks. Furthermore, the study explores the computers and internet, as vital elements in contemporary society. In the end of the article a case study regarding the use of information and communication technology in leisure activities is disclosed.

22-37

Authors: Philippe DUEZ, Ioan RADU, Cleopatra ŞENDROIU, Monica SABĂU

Many reforms are based on the recasting of health and social sector in France and Romania. The two countries do not have the same needs but what they have in common is the need to transform the role of the state. The economic analyse of law allows us to offer an interpretation of these transformations. First of all, this article shows that the two states seek the regulation mode best adapted to their health and welfare system but they rather turn to a subsidised and territorialized regulation. It then shows that in order to ensure public services of general interest in the field, they are interested in using arranged lump sum contracts.

45-54

Authors: Ion VOROVENCI

General Union of Industrialists of Romania (AGIR) was a representative institution which aimed to support Romanian industrialists in the country's economic development. The Romanian economy had reached a certain level, the current favorable to the industrialization had also penetrated here, given the fact that Romania had huge resources, warning a number of foreign investors. A group of industrialists, almost all educated in the West, understood to develop the most diverse industries, particularly those related to a specific tradition, given the diversity of raw materials for safekeeping. The political struggle, carried out to promote the industry, was not devoid of contradictions between the „agrarians”, who considered Romania a country eminently agricultural, on the one hand, and the promoters of industrialization, on the other hand. Industry superiority eventually defeated the former. In 1938, the year of peak economy, Romania had an industry that had come to equal, in terms of the share of the national income, agriculture.

17-30

Authors: Teodora ROMAN, Emil MAXIM, Adriana MANOLICĂ

Quality insurance is not simply an option, but rather a duty for organisations, being a must in the relationship with the clients, the main beneficiaries of the offer, as well as in the relationship with all those having direct or indirect interests connected to its existence and functioning. The extension of the focus from the client-centred quality to the quality for all those interested is an essential component of the philosophy of total quality management (TQM) and the starting point in the implementation of continuous improvement strategies. For the educational services this approach becomes more important if we take into account the role of education in the development of modern society. In this context, the analysis of the preoccupations of higher education institutions for a better understanding of the stakeholders’ requirements regarding the quality of the performed activity and of the degree of satisfaction generated by the performance and the offer to the society becomes a fairly significant action.

39-46

Authors: Cristina Emilia CIOVICĂ, Aurelia Gabriela ANTONESCU

Size does not represent a condition for a company to become competitive and profitable in the market, but in the unhappy situation when an acquisition seems to be the last solution of saving a company, a manager must know how to take the right decision and to prepare the company for the transaction. That is why the objective of the current paper is to analyze the situation of the Romanian mergers and acquisitions market, pointing out in the same time some mistakes that should be avoided in the case of an acquisition. Our results showed that the Romanian merger and acquisition market has not yet bounced back from the crisis due to the differences between the expectations of sellers and those ones of buyers and due to the tensions of the euro zone, but there are still international breaking opportunities for the years to come

56-66

Authors: Catalina Soriana SITNIKOV, Claudiu George BOCEAN

The term corporate social responsibility has become part of the economic vocabulary since the seventh decade of the 20th century. Since the beginning of the 21st century this term extended, became complex, multidimensional with many economic, legal and social connections. Corporate social responsibility focuses not only on the means of using companies’ profits, but also on the means and ways, companies achieve these profits. Social responsibility means considering stakeholders’ expectations, and the management of economic, social and environmental domains manifested in relations with stakeholders in all areas of influence: the workplace, market, value adding chain, community and public policies. The companies must address these issues from a strategic point of view. This paper aims to analyse developments in social responsibility in terms of standardization. The first part is dedicated to an exploratory investigation conducted on the developments in the field of CSR and Global Governance and on the development of ISO 26000 as the most important tool to ensure standardization in the field of sustainability. We also paid special attention to the development of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, the main existing standards related to sustainability. To determine the interest in standardization, we forecasted the trend in issuing ISO certificates based on ARIMA and Holt statistical models.

11-32

Authors: Mahmud Hassan TALUKDAR, Ryo FUJIMORI, Yijia ZHONG, Distinction CHAN

Sustainable urban design is widely considered a promising approach to deal with the multifarious array of social, economic and environmental problems in urban agglomerations. Sustainable design principles and policies helps to improve social inclusion, mobility, accessibility and various urban problems and thus enhances the overall quality of life in cities. But what will be the appropriate policies for sustainable urban designs are yet to be addressed. If, policies are identified than worldwide researchers, urban planners, urban designers and policy makers can easily use them for making urban area sustainable. So, the aim of this paper is to explore the sustainable urban design policies. To cite an example of how cities can use the explored policies, relevant lessons for Hong Kong is briefly described. Literature review and case study are the main source of information of this study. This paper is divided into three chapters; in its first chapter emergence and definition of sustainable development and sustainable urban design is described, in its second chapter policies for sustainable urban design explored and in the third chapter relevant lessons for Hong Kong are narrated.

43-52

Authors: Shpend IMERI

This study aims to explore the current status and future patterns of Logistics Information Systems [LIS] of organizations in Macedonia. Basically the aim and objectives of this research are threefold: 1) To identify the major challenges and developments of Logistics Information Systems by firms’ in Macedonia, 2) To assess the current state and future policies of LIS 3) To clarify the need of LIS efficiency and effectiveness to organizations strategies. Grounded methodology is adopted in order to analyze the data collected as well as other sources of information. However, the questionnaire used in this research was adopted from the study developed by Ketikidis et al. (2008) but again changes were incorporated. The data collected from 65 companies are analyzed by the employment of descriptive statistics by utilizing ‘Statistical Package for Social Sciences’ (SPSS) software in order to test the collected data. The findings, nevertheless recommend that organizations face common challenges in general, majority of the respondents state that they are emphasizing more into closer partnership with suppliers and Just In Time (JIT) supply rather than concentrating on customer service. Thus, findings suggest that firms in Macedonia are not ready yet to play an important role in the South-East European supply chains or in global supply chains. The present obstacles that embrace the abilities of developing relationships with the forward links, weak organizational strategic planning and low level of infrastructure as well as low level of Logistics and Supply Chains Management education are the main drawbacks for this country. Indeed changing managerial mentalities within these companies is gradually progressing and in the future it is expected for better Logistics and Supply Chain knowledge.

63-76

Authors: Ghada Ali TIMRAZ, Faris Nasif AL-SHUBIRI

This study aims to examine the impact of stock options trading on the market value of companies listed in Kuwait Stock Exchange. The phenomenon of volatility in securities prices concerned as a threat to the companies listed on Kuwait Stock Exchange, which forced companies' managers to deal with new financial instruments particularly financial options to hedge from those risks .we will take a sample of (30) companies that deal with stock options, these companies are listed in the appendices, we have chosen these companies because of the availability of adequate information about trading on stock options from 2006 to 2011. All companies must adopt options contracts because of its significant impact on the market value of those companies through the impact on the trading volume of companies' stocks and thus changes in the demand and supply of such shares which leads ultimately to changes in the value of shares of these companies in the market. The researcher recommends using options contracts from the perspective of the investor because of its role in achieving high and guaranteed profits, when exercising the option contract whether is call or put option at a predetermined price and thereby yielding a capital gains resulting from the difference between buying and the selling price.

13-24

Authors: Vijay M. KUMBHAR

The purpose of this study was to test reliability and validity of eBankQual scale. Basically this scale was developed for measurement of service quality and customer satisfaction in e-banking. In the present study, author has conducted survey of internet banking users and examined reliability and validity of eBankQual scale. This scale was tested using Cronbach’s alpha reliability test which is well-known test. Result of the reliability and validity test shows that System Availability, E-Fulfillment, Accuracy, Efficiency, Security, Responsiveness, Easy to use, Convenience, Cost Effectiveness, Problem Handling, Compensation, Contact, Brand perception and Perceived value are most important dimensions of eBankQual Scale and it is reliable and valid for its further use.

35-46

Authors: Radu FILIP, Irina-Eugenia IAMANDI, Sebastian Mădălin MUNTEANU

The application of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming in the international business context a source of competitive advantages, especially taking into account the current economic crisis and the prevalence of socioeconomic business models in Europe. In order to prove their CSR involvement, companies could use specific voluntary instruments, one of them being the management standards. The purpose of the present research is to analyse the way in which national or international companies acting on the Romanian business environment apply some of the most significant CSR management standards and to determine a relationship (if any) between corporate culture and CSR management standards, on one hand, and between corporate financial power and CSR management standards, on the other hand. The main results emphasize that the financial power dictates the implementation of CSR management standards and not the corporate culture. The results are consistent with the main findings in the specialized literature.

71-78

Authors: Gheorghe HURDUZEU, Liviu Bogdan VLAD, Raluca HURDUZEU

In recent years the mergers of companies have seen a setback due to the economic crisis and the implications that it has generated in the market. As such, the reasons behind the implementation of mergers have changed, if, in prior periods the common reason for merger was the desire to integrate into current business activity and the profits resulting from the resources which were to be invested in that business creation and development, under the present conditions, the mergers are becoming more and more a way to keep the business or selling on the best terms. One of the options available, especially for small and medium sized private companies, seeking new sources of funding, is to achieve a reversed merger. The objective of this paper is to present the concept of reversed merger in relation to Initial Public Offering. A company must always set to the smallest detail, the reasons for wishing to change its status from private to public. One way to obtain public status is given by the reversed merger, an alternative to the Initial Public Offering. The private company that wants to go public, purchases over 80% of a public company but inactive, company called shell company. Once this shell company merges with the operational company of the buyers, they form an active company, a listed company, in which the majority of the shareholders are represented by the major founders of the operating company.