Annals of Spiru Haret University. Economic Series

8

Authors: Daliana Ecaterina TAȘCOVICI, Carolina PLATON

The present paper speaks about the changes the Romanian system of learning suffers. Under these circumstances of social, political, economic and cultural changes and challenges, the pre-university and university systems of learning have to cover several forms and situations, namely those high school graduates without the baccalaureate diploma. The case study under analysis revealed some unexpected pieces of information referring to the young undergraduates’ vulnerabilities and degree of information and implication in their own future.

10

Authors: Bogdan SOFRONOV

The purpose of this paper is to show how marketing in developing and changing the tourism industry in the world. Tourism marketing is the business discipline of attracting visitors to a specific location. Hotels, cities, states, consumer attractions, convention centres and other sites and locations associated with consumer and business travel, all apply basic marketing strategies to specific techniques designed to increase visits. In the tourism industry, marketing includes determining the unique selling benefit or benefits one area has over its competition. A destination might offer people looking to combine business and pleasure ease of travel to and from the area, ample convention halls and hotels, interesting nightlife, and activities for adult partners and children. The tourism marketing uses a wide variety of communications strategies and techniques to promote areas and destinations. A convention centre might purchase advertisements in trade magazines for meeting planners and send direct mail materials to corporations that hold events. They might place ads in tennis or golf magazines to attract those consumers. The tourism destinations build websites and place ads in consumer publications read by their target customers. The chambers of commerce are involved in promoting their areas generally and the businesses within their areas specifically. This often includes offering potential visitors packets filled with brochures, discount coupons and other materials.

20

Authors: Beatrice Georgeta PETRACHE (LANG), Camelia Maria ISMANĂ-ILIȘAN, Raluca CREȚOIU,

In this article we aim to analyze the preferences and opinions of European furniture buyers in the context of Germany, Italy, Poland, France and Austria being among the top 10 world furniture manufacturers, accounting for over 19% of the world production and 60% of the European one. We have developed this research given that the furniture industry is an important sector in the economy, employing about one million people at the level of the European Union, in 130,000 companies in the field. The furniture segment is also well represented in the field of innovation also, accounting for 12% of the applications for design registration in the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). This also reflects on the production of furniture, currently 2/3 of the world’s leading peak production coming from Europe. The research is of a quantitative nature, the technique adopted is the interview, and the research tool is the questionnaire. The purpose of the research is to identify the way and the level at which European consumers’ value furniture accessories in the general context of furniture quality assessment in conjunction with the need for accessory information.

6

Authors: Amelia DIACONESCU

The consequences derived from any sentence pronounced for a crime committed by a major person pertain to the constitutional law, administrative law, civil law, family law, labour law or commercial law and consist in legal effects of criminal or extra-criminal nature, perpetual or long term ones which result from the fact of the criminal conviction itself and they place the convict in a disadvantageous situation. Having a legal tool character by which the legal consequences resulting from a conviction cease or, in a larger sense, a legal tool character by which the ex-convicts are legally reintegrated in the society, its effects are the same.

9

Authors: Bogdan SOFRONOV

The online tourism is part of e-commerce and unites some of the fastest growing technologies, such as communications and information technology, the hospitality industry, and strategic management / marketing / planning. Online tourism activities involve tour operators, travel agencies and other entities with tourism-related interests in the virtual space through a dedicated portal. The phenomenon itself has implications for the tourist services consumer. The Internet has revolutionized the travel industry both as a source of information and as a sales channel. Online marketing, photographs, and consumer reviews are bringing destinations and attractions to the screens of potential travellers around the world. The ease with which a customer can review and compare travel options opens up new markets for both large and small businesses and the ability to confirm prices and purchase services online benefits travellers and businesses alike.

13

Authors: Viorica JELEV

Artificial intelligence and automation will radically change the world, but if we want society to benefit from these changes, we need to properly prepare ourselves through an education tailored to new times. Until the last century, it was the manufacturing industry that created jobs. But today, as a result of the existence of artificial intelligence, robots, the manufacturing industry is no longer the main driver of job creation, but the service industry. As competition grows, brand manager imagination needs to work, and sales growth solutions need to focus on customer focus attention. It is a difficult task if all brands offer discounts in the malls they are in, and the announcement of differentiation is put to the attention of specialists who offer solutions for fun of any kind for the clients. The article aims to present the evolution of world trade in recent years and the various ways of diversion invented by retailers to keep customers in store chains longer time for them to buy more. The conclusion of this article will focus on the idea of future trade based on modern technology inside stores, which will lead to profound changes in customer buying behaviour.

17

Authors: Lawrence UFOEZE, Camilus N. OKUMA, Clem NWAKOBY, Udoka ALAJEKWU

1Department of Banking and Finance, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Anambra State, Nigeria 2Department of Banking and Finance, Madonna University, Okija Campus, Anambra State, Nigeria 3Department of Banking and Finance, Nnamdi Azikewe University, Anambra State, Nigeria, Tel.: +2347030997856, Email: blueben2010@yahoo.com Abstract This study investigated the effect of exchange rate fluctuations on Nigerian economy. The fixed and floating exchange eras were compared to know the exchange rate system in which the economy has fairly better. The time period covered was 1970 to 2012. The study employed the ordinary least square (OLS) multiple regression technique for the analysis. The coefficient of determination (R2), F-test, t-test, beta and Durbin-Watson were used in the interpretation of the results. The resulted revealed that about 85% of the changes in macroeconomic indicators are explained in the fixed exchange era. In the floating exchange era, 99% was explained while the whole periods has 73% explanatory power, hence the floating exchange era (1986 to date) is more effective in explaining economic trends in Nigeria. Also, exchange rate has significant positive effect on GDP during the fixed exchange rate era and negative effect during the eras floating and all-time; inflation has insignificant negative effect on GDP during the fixed exchange era; significant effect in floating era and significant negative effect in the all-time period; money supply has insignificant negative effect on GDP during the fixed exchange era; and significant positive effect during the floating and all-time period; and oil revenue has significant positive effect on the GDP in all the exchange rate regimes (floating, fixed and all-time) in Nigeria. The study thus concludes that exchange rate movement is a good indicator for monitoring Nigerian economic growth. So far, exchange rate has always been a key economic indicator for Nigeria. The floating exchange period has outperformed the fixed exchange rate in terms of contribution inflation, money supply and oil revenue to economic growth. This indicates that the floating exchange rate has been a better economic regime for sustainable economic growth in Nigeria..

20

Authors: R. N. WEERASINGHE, A. K. W. JAYAWARDANE2

The university sector in the national innovation system (NIS) is considered as one of the key players, which links new knowledge with the industry for the purpose of diffusing new knowledge for economic and social benefits through commercialization of products, services, processes and other artefacts. This paper inquires the role of Sri Lankan universities in the innovation process by paying special attention on the strength of universityindustry linkages. Responses from the industrial sector were obtained through a surveys and interviews with respondents. Data presented and analyzed through descriptive statistics using summery statistics and figures. Social Network Analysis (SNA) was employed to determine the strength of the networking relationship among the universities and the firms’ qualitative data were analyzed employing the method of content analysis. The study revealed a positive trend in the higher education sector towards performing effective role in the future towards innovation. However, it was evident that these relationships have still remained very weak. The industrial sector remains inward oriented with little intention to innovation, while universities still prioritize their traditional teaching role in higher education.

27

Authors: J. N. ELOSIUBA, Emma OKOYE

1 Department of Accountancy, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Anambra State, Nigeria 2 Prof., Department of Accountancy, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria Abstract In the light of globalisation, where foreign investments have become trendy, comparability of financial reports of Nigerian firms and those of other firms across the world has become a concern. Nigerian firms have been mandated to adopt the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in their financial reporting. This study has examined the effect of the IFRS adoption on the reported performance of Nigerian banks listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Eight (8) out of the fourteen (14) quoted banks were selected for the study. The four indices of performance employed in the study are profitability using the return on equity, liquidity using total deposit to total loan, loan grants and then market value measured by price earnings ratio for the period (2011 and 2012). 2011 represented GAAP era while 2012 stands for IFRS adoption. A comparability index for the banks was computed using the Excel Spreadsheet for each of the banks on each variable. Then the One Sample Test was employed for the analyses. The mean was used to answer the research question while the t-statistics tested the hypotheses. The results showed that mean values for profitability, liquidity and market value are greater in the GAAP era (2011) than in the IFRS period (2012), while loan grant was higher for the IFRS period (2012). The t-tested indicated the fact that none of the variables had significant effect. Thus, the study concluded that IFRS adopted does not have significant effect on bank performance reported in 2011 and 2012. The use of IFRS for all firms, as well as incorporation of IFRS guideline in professional training are recommended by this study.

7

Authors: Luminita Ionescu

Accounting errors and fraud are common in most businesses, but there is a difference between fraud and misinterpretation of communication or accounting regulations. The role of management in preventing fraud becomes important in the last decades and the importance of auditing in curbing corruption is increasingly revealed. There is a strong connection between fraud and corruption, accelerated by electronic systems and modern platforms. The most recent developments tend to confirm that external auditing is curbing corruption, due to international accounting and auditing standards at national and regional levels. Thus, a better implementation of accounting standards and high quality of external control could prevent errors and fraud in accounting, and reduce corruption, as well. The aim of this paper is to present some particular aspects of errors and fraud in accounting, and how external audit could ensure accuracy and accountability in financial reporting.

10

Authors: Yuriy Holynskyy

In the structure of the financial system of each state, one of the most important places is given to the budget, which characterizes the degree of development of budget relations that arise between government bodies and economic entities in the process of distributing gross domestic product. The budget as an instrument of macroeconomic regulation has an impact on the development of social sectors, the functioning and modernization of national defense and law enforcement activities, the development of national economic sectors and the welfare of the society. At the same time, the implementation of budgeted activities of supporting the sectors of the national economy and other activities depends not only on their consideration in drawing up the budget, but also on the quality of its execution. In this paper author determine the possibilities of using the financial management principles in public sector during all stages of state budget execution.

12

Authors: Dumitru Raluca-Ana-Maria

Through its object of activity, an economic organization has the role to use efficiently the means of production that it possesses in terms of the full utilization of the production capacities, of a high quality of the products and of obtaining profit. Companies need in their human, material, financial, informational, human resources activities that they have at a certain moment in order to accomplish the mission and strategic objectives around which they rely on the whole activity.

6

Authors: Ionuț Cristian NUTA

This paper intends to briefly explain how the internal regulations concerning the Romanian public purchases have changed lately.

7

Authors: Agil VALIYEV

Today, culture is one of the main feeble factors of economic development. The leading role of culture in economic development should be argued as multiple: so, firstly, as domestic value, secondly, as a main factor of regional economic development advanced to raised gravity of different regions for residents, tourists and investors, thirdly, as major parameter of social development based on tolerance, creativity and knowledge. To the different international experiences, culture is the main part of economic development in our life. Cultural diversities are combined into a main reasonable economic development model. The article consist of explanations about the understanding of culture, cultural diplomacy and economics, approach on the conflicts between culture and economics, to find how is culture affecting the economic development, and the role of culture in economic development of Azerbaijan. The article can be considered as a useful resource for experts and researchers conducting research in this field. Keywords:

8

Authors: Elitsa PETROVA

This article presents a research on the influence of positive reinforcements on the motivation of civilian and military students in the training process and its relation with the rewards given from the superiors for getting better performance at the university. The study is conducted in a real educational environment. The subject of the study is the positive reinforcements and the end results in the training process. The object of the study are cadets in the last year of their education in the Military Science professional field, specialising in Organisation and Management of Military Units at a Tactical Level at the National Military University in Bulgaria. In the course of the theoretical research, there were studied the motivational theories of needs, socially acquired knowledge, behavioural, cognitive, psychoanalytic and biological motivational theories.

12

Authors: Ioan I. GÂF-DEAC1, Cristina Monica VALECA2, Elena GURGU3, Adrian BĂRBULESCU4

The paper shows that, at the present moment, intangible assets are considered “goods” and, as such, the practice of classical accounting considers intellectual capital in the same category of “goods assimilated/similar to those visible/tangible”. From the research it results that the professional literature on measuring knowledge assets/intellectual capital, both in Romania and worldwide, is not large enough and does not provide finite significant, “strong” aggregates regarding the semantic classifications, of content and quality, of the issues in the field. The book titled New Economy between Knowledge and Risk (Ioan I. Gâf-Deac) presents the original systematization and classification of some models and methodologies for measuring knowledge assets, and intellectual capital in socio-economic sciences, and, as such, in this present article, we have resorted to the applied extension of formalizing the measurement of intangible assets in the areas of natural resources’ operation and exploitation.

18

Authors: Antonia DELISTAVROU1, Hristo Katrandjiev2 and Irene TILIKIDOU3

The paper presents a segmentation on the basis of the overall ethical consumption concept for the first time in Greece. Four segments were identified: Ethical Consumers (18.09%), Boycotters (20.48%), Ecological Consumers (27.86%) and Conventional Consumers (33.57%). The Ethical Consumers’ segment consists of well educated citizens, who adopt all ethical behaviours more frequently. These consumers were found to be more confident they can control politics, less materialists, most attracted by postmaterialist goals, as well as less sceptical towards ethical products and less indifferent about ethical consumption issues. This segment may be considered as attractive enough to be targeted by business and non-profit organisations.

9

Authors: Daliana Tascovici, Robert Gabriel DRAGOMIR

The present paper aims at presenting the actual situation as concern the values the students are taught about during their university courses on one hand and the necessity of the labour market on the other hand. At first, we referred to the values within the European dimension of education, as they were established by the European Commission for every state. Here we made special reference to the plan of the educational contents, as it has to contain elements of proximity and coincidence. Secondly, we talked about the new paradigms met with the educational policies. Here we stress the importance not only of knowledge, but also of competences and values the students will achieve. In order to fulfil this task, the usage of the TIC and of the educational resources opened for every type of educational contexts should be intensified. Here we also mentioned the series of activities which help the learning of the common language for a European citizenship and the defining of the new educations, adapted to the dimension of education, the European Commission and the Council of Europe propose. The next treated aspect was to establish the defining of the problem mentioned at the beginning. Here we reach the following objectives: to describe the nature of the problem, to establish the scale of the problem, to identify the affected categories, to establish the causes of the problem, to argue the need for intervention, to estimate the risks and the uncertainty of the problem discussed and also to present the healing activities. In order to get real information, we used the following methods: questionnaires (were disseminated to two different categories of respondents: students who want to get a job on one hand and employers on the other hand) and observations. The activities supposed data collecting, processing, analyzing and interpretation. In the end we draw the conclusions.

10

Authors: Radu Bucea-Manea-Țoniș, Rocsana Tonis (Bucea-Manea)

The article presents a survey applied on a representative sample of Romanian SMEs. The article represents a case study and focus on technical elements that allow collecting data from Romanian SMEs managers and save it in a MySql database. The Back-End component is developed with the newest Spring Boot MVC.

15

Authors: Iulian Warter, Liviu Warter

During the last decades, the corporate world has witnessed a significant rise in the number of cross border mergers and acquisitions (M&As). In cross border M&As, not only different corporate cultures collide, but also different professional and national cultures. The purpose of Cultural Due Diligence (CDD) is to get a coherent image of the intercultural challenges of the M&A in order to be aware of the intercultural risks and opportunities. This article aims to reveal the perception of managers involved in the pre-M&A stage on the soft risks factors that need to be investigated during CDD. This study proposes an appraisal of the most important intercultural issues that need to be considered in M&A. Our contribution to the intercultural aspects of M&A literature consists in improving the current understanding of Cultural Due Diligence content.

30

Authors: Sanghamitra Kanjilal Bhaduri

The paper has presented an empirical picture of inequalities, both within and outside the labour market for women, from gender relations emerging within the framework of overlapping social stratification in rural India. Analysis is based on secondary data, where the emphasis is not only on measurement of quantitative variables, but also on the interactions between various qualitative, socio-economic and socio-cultural variables. Main finding of the present study is that the participation of women in labour force varies across economic classes, social groups, religions, regions and the rural urban divide. Factors determining labour supply decisions of women are different from those of men. Interconnectedness of female employment with other social parameters which are outside the realm of the standard labour market analysis gets highlighted in the study.