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This paper aims at finding the suitable healthcare financial model, focusing on their pros and cons, as debated by several scholars. The focus is on the potential benefits for both Romanian and Russian healthcare systems. To reach this goal, a systematic review of the literature was conducted, and various competitive advantages and disadvantages of the financial models were extracted. We reviewed 77 papers published during the last 21 years that were found in famous scientific databases. The main findings of the research point out that the financing of healthcare systems should be based on hybrid sources, and the funds raised should be better invested in order to create added value. By assuring a proper financing, the population's quality of life will improve and life expectancy will increase. This paper provides a new viewpoint to the problem because it reviews certain papers from Russian literature which are not usually included in the review articles. The research results have implications for the government, medical community, and academia, which should work together to strengthen the healthcare system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents research on the importance of training in human resource development within clusters in the North-West Region of Romania. Data on the analysis of the importance of training as an element of human resource and cluster performance were collected during the years of doctoral research. The processing, analysis of the obtained data and interpretation of the research results were performed with the help of SPSS 20.00 program to determine the key factors leading to human resource development and efficiency within the clusters. This paper highlights that complex process at the level of clusters through the degree of technology, management values, the importance of competitive advantage over training, the degree of investment in training. This study brings to the fore the development capacity of the individual, organizational development, increasing the degree of involvement, improving performance, meeting the current and future needs of clusters in the field of human resources. Such research is extremely useful at national and international level in order to facilitate the training of as many employees of organizations as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today’s dynamic business environment forces companies to differentiate more than ever and focus on gaining long-term competitive advantages through innovation. The book market faces new challenges, mainly related to the shifting behaviour of readers. Innovation might be perceived as a path towards differentiation, attaining competitive advantage, and market success. Understanding the preferences of the readers and knowing the retail innovation trends could help all the decision-making actors of the book market adapt better to the dynamics of contemporary society and the business environment. The present paper aims at identifying the preferences of Romanian readers regarding the innovations employed in the book market retail. To gather the data, we applied an online questionnaire to a sample of 486 respondents from Romania. The main conclusion of the study underlines that the consumers are not necessarily sensitive to technological innovation or an innovative format of the stores but are highly sensitive to the atmosphere in the bookstores and to the special offers of the bookstores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of competitive advantage of Michael Porter stated that national competitive advantage is a reflection of a "diamond" which is running properly and efficiently. But if a developing country like Romania does not have the right conditions for effective functioning of the "diamond", what happens? This is the question to which we try to give an answer within this paper. In this respect, the paper aims to analyze the theory of competitive advantage of Michael Porter, followed by an identification of the advantages and criticisms of this theory over time. Finally we make a customization of this theory in the context of the competitive environment in Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present paper is to analyse the evolution of the foreign direct investments (FDI) attracted by Romania between 2007 and present, taking into consideration the fact that there were two main determinants during this period: Romania's adhesion to European Union and the economic and financial crisis. Considering these aspects, the main objectives of the paper are to identify the way in which the FDI evolved in the period immediately after EU adhesion, by the sectors of activity, and to determine the impact of the economic crisis on the FDI attracted by Romania. In order to achieve these objectives, we have collected, tabulated and interpreted the data included in various statistical reports and databases. The results show that the relatively low unit labour cost, fiscal facilities, geographical location, large internal market and the adhesion to the EU made Romania become one of the most attractive countries from the Central and Eastern Europe for the foreign investors. However, the economic and financial crisis influenced the country's development and, implicitly, the evolution of the foreign direct investments inflows, especially after 2009. Therefore, in Romania there was a negative trend of the FDI during the last three years, with slight signs of improvement in the end of 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge is one of the most important and fundamental resources of a company, providing it with the means to develop a competitive advantage and be innovative in the dynamic market, through creating, sharing, and transferring it within the firm. Family business distinguishes itself from others through the family connection that sets its mark on how the company is run and its highly contextual culture. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to gain a deeper understanding of how knowledge transfer occurs in family businesses. This qualitative study aims to gather empirical data using the case study methodology by applying semistructured interviews. The cases comprise family businesses from Romania acting in different industries. The analyzed family businesses, when it comes to knowledge transfer, rely on their social interaction and are reluctant towards processes that imply externalization of their knowledge mainly out of convenience and the fact that this process did not prove its need. This leads to both positive and negative effects on the growth of the company and its longevity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyse the evolution of the competitive advantages of the main products exported by Romania in the 2000-2014 period and the connection between this evolution and the current structure of Romanian exports. In the first part we calculated the Revealed Comparative Advantage Index (RCA) of Balassa, index for main groups of products exported by Romania the period 1990 to 2014 and we analysed the competitive advantage evolution. In the second part we presented the evolution of the structure of Romanian exports in 2010-2014 and we noticed that the recorded changes in structure of Romanian exports is in close correlation with the changing competitiveness of products exported by Romania. In this sense one of the most significant examples is given by the evolution recorded in exports of machinery and transport equipment that not only was raised every year but the sector succeeded and currently holds a competitive advantage in the market of these products - a market where it is knows is stiff competition. Although garment exports have recorded during the analyzed period the largest decrease, the advantages of the Romanian garment industry - labor force highly qualified endowing companies with machinery efficient, product quality achieved, flexibility and quick response to orders but also geographical position the country - still cause this sector recording still comparative advantages though its values are declining during the whole period analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the accession to the EU the oilseed crops, especially sunflower and rapeseeds, are becoming promising and advanced sector in Bulgarian agriculture. They account for more than 20% of total agricultural output and dominate in structure of Bulgarian export. Bulgaria and Romania are the largest sunflower seed producers in the EU, with sunflower yields increasing twice over the past ten years. The results in the sector are good starting point for a debate over its competitiveness and efficiency. The aim of the study is to analyze the competitive advantages of Bulgarian sunflower industry and to outline opportunities and challenges for post 2020 period. The sector is observed in terms of production, consumption and trade. Several of the commonly used indicators for the evaluation of competitive advantages have been applied such as the Relative index of export advantages -- RXA, the Relative trade advantage -- RTA and Related competitiveness -- RC. The results show that sunflower seed will continue to dominate in Bulgarian agricultural structure regardless the dynamic of international prices and production. The difficulties in Bulgarian livestock are reflecting the sector and causing dependence on export and foreign trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates on the issues related to the role played by the agriculture in the economic development should be considered as having primarily a macroeconomic perspective with a focus on growth-oriented policies. At the EU level, agriculture has always benefited from increased attention regarding the policies and the measures that had to be applied and has always been subject to some of the most controversial debates. Special focus has to be paid to the changes that have occurred nowadays in the demand trends and consumer behavior in relation to the food products, generating this way an increased attractiveness for the organic agriculture sector and organic food products. The organic agriculture has greatly expanded in Romania over the recent years, having a steady growth triggered by an increase in both the internal and external demand for this category of products. We should also state that, there is a constant interest in encouraging this niche sector, interest that can and should develop into a competitive advantage for the Romanian agriculture. As we have mentioned in the title, this paper will try to identify the future prospect and also point out the place occupied by this sector of activity at the level of the Romanian total exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of knowledge-based companies increased the importance of intangible assets, assets that were considered the most competitive advantages of companies. So, in this paper I tried to answer the following question: Which is the Romanian accounting reality about the intangible assets recognition, evaluation and reporting? What can we do that traditional financial statements do not become mostly useless for their end users? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current technologies are diverse, they are combined easily, transferred quickly from one industry to another. Even if, usually, the technologies are expensive and their creation is gradually becoming a business itself, can not overlook the fact that technology is the most important instrument for sustaining the competitive advantage of the companies with the potential to change the structure of the existing industries and to create new industries. All this dynamic challenges for the companies’ management born on the need the replacement of the old technologies, the assessment of the existing ones into the market, the integration of the new technologies, taking into account the strategic objectives of the business. The paper aims to identify a number of aspects relevant to the analysis of a portfolio of technologies of a company and to do an analysis of how these issues differ at the level of the industrial branch. Within the paper, two representative industries were chosen, namely the machine building industry and the IT & C industry, they are representative for Romania through dynamics and the economic impact. The paper work is part of a more complex approach that aims to extend the analysis to several industries in Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a mathematical model intended to investigate the influence of TQM and service innovation types on service companies performance. The company performance is regarded as the model output and is built out of the financial performance and the non-financial performance. The two performances are generating competitive advantage. The estimated non-financial performances are represented by the quality performance and the innovative performance. The data used to build the model were taken from the IT Romanian companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summarizing the results of theoretical and empirical research, the paper highlights key aspects of the evolution of the debates in the field, it presents the methodology of determining the global competitiveness index and reproduces its development in the Member States of the European Union. More than half of European Union Member States recorded an increase in the global competitiveness index on the account of the basic influence factors. With the exception of six countries (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, France, Italy, Malta), the other EU countries show a favorable influence of the efficiency on the index of global competitiveness. The highest contribution of the efficiency on the increase of global competitiveness is recorded in Portugal, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania and Bulgaria; on the opposite side is Malta, Cyprus and Germany. Regarding the influence of innovation, only three countries stand out by a negative impact on the global competitiveness index: Finland (-0.08), Spain (-0.08) and Austria (-0.01); Romania, Cyprus and Portugal show the highest favorable effect of innovation (0.21; 0.19 0.13 respectively). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Irrespective of the cultural environment in which companies operate (Europe, Asia, America or any other geographical area), intangible assets have a significant role in the development of a business since they contain knowledge that can be the engine of the respective business and they can offer competitive advantage. The current article is a study of companies listed on BVB under category I. We have considered the percentage of intangible assets that the latter companies have and that are present in financial statements, and their value under the circumstances in which the market value is higher than net assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maintaining the competitive advantage trough performance is the purpose of any company. This mission becomes difficult due to hostile economic, social and politic environment during the economic crisis. External and internal factors have a significant influence on company performance. Past studies show that internal factors as: physical, financial, human and organisational resources seem to be the most important. The research is focusing on the link between investing in human resources in order to gain competitive advantage and surviving the economic crisis. The main purpose is to show the evolution and importance of European financial assistance in Romania . The specific objectives of this paper are to highlight the relationship between human resources-performance-competitive advantage, based on the review of the theories and to describe the process of financial support trough structural and cohesion funds. The results will show the evolution of the implementation of The Sectorial Operational Programme Human Resources Development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the modern economy, creating agile business processes is one of the conditions to obtain/ maintain competitive advantage on the market. In addition, the agility of business processes, combined with the agility of employees and that of information technology are prerequisites for achieving business agility. Using a service-oriented architecture can provide numerous benefits to the organization, enabling it to reduce complexity and increase flexibility of business processes. This paper presents an approach on adaptation to the service-oriented architecture of tools and methodologies for modeling and management of business processes. Thus, in the paper is analyzed the aligning of BPM with SOA to achieve business agility, is provided a perspective view on the management of serviceoriented business processes and is presented a case study on agility of acquisition process in higher education institutions of Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction, one of the major economic sector of activity in Europe, was severely affected by the actual global recession, although the impact of the crisis and the moment when it occurred varied widely between the EU Member States. In Romania, the first effects of the economic crisis in the construction sector occurred since early 2009, being visible both in physical volume of construction works and in the volume and value of investments in this sector. The crisis in the construction works had a strong impact on the entire Romanian economy. With the present research paper „A strategic approach of the construction sector in Romania" we aim to highlight the competitive advantage the companies in the field have on the national market. To this end we will use the SWOT model of strategic analysis and M. Porter's five competitive forces model, in order to highlight the main problems faced by these companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper investigates how SMEs use ICT in order to obtain competitive advantage. We developed a questionnaire to which 79 companies responded. The main result obtained refers to the fact that there are connections between the uses of ICT and competitive advantage. Majority of respondents consider ICT a key factor in company development and building competitive advantage on domestic or international markets. Also, there is remnant potential in SMEs strategy regarding ICT who is not used appropriately. The research highlights the main tools of ICT used by Romanian SMEs and because it identifies the need for a frame of reference coherent for SME to manage and use the tools of knowledge economy in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational structure and competitive strategy play an important role in gaining competitive advantage and improving organizational performance. The objective of this paper is to examine how organizational structure and strategy affects firm performance within a sample of 92 Romanian firms. The data used in this study was collected through a questionnaire used to quantify the three variables of interest: organizational performance, strategy and structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the theme of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a subject of great interest for the management of organizations and for the scientific research. In the last decade, concerns regarding the advanteges of a social responsible behaviour have increased not only for large organizations and multinationals, but for the SMEs field as well, and CSR became an imperative for obtaining and maintaining competitive advantage in the market. This paper aims to highlight the theoretical studies on CSR in SMEs that are still at an early stage and the main tools that support SMEs in Romania to adopt best practices. The theoretical research presented in the article examines the role and contribution of various national and international organizations in order to eliminate the barriers against socially responsible behavior of organizations. Through a case study among SMEs in Dolj are highlighted the main trends and the attitude that romanian SMEs have on Social Responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the Romanian's competitiveness in the light of its external trade. There are a lot of quantitative measures that reveal different facets of the trade competitiveness, but we focused in this article on those regarding the geographical concentration of commercial flows, the intensity of intra-industry flows and the product specialization. All these measures were applied to the case of Romania, indentifying the most competitive traded goods of this country before its admission to the EU. We tried to demonstrate that the so called "low labor cost competitiveness" is a cliché and that this country hat much to offer as a new member of the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents advertising agencies as a new type of knowledge-based organizations (knowledge-intensive organizations), whose essential resource is its people with their competences, in conditions in which in the present society knowledge is becoming the most important source of competitive advantage for current organizations. Such professional services firms have to practice a particular type of management, focused on their employees, on thier aspirations and satisfaction, therefore the component processes of the human resources management (recruitment, selection, integration, motivation etc.) have a particularly important role in obtaining employees' loyalty and increasing their performance and consequently in the survival and development of the company. The empirical research used case studies based on in-depth interviews with managers in Bucharest advertising organizations, but also a survey through questionnaire sent by e-mail to advertisers across the country, to provide a clear picture on the characteristics of human resources management in Romanian advertising agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this article is represented by the recognition and detection, within the Romanian SMEs, of the main sources of competitive advantage. Regardless of the sector and their size, the main priority of market-oriented companies is to gain a competitive advantage. Because for the development and growth of SMEs, the business environment in Romania is not motivating enough, the article highlights the role that strategic orientation has in the development and promotion of business. In many cases, the main source of the competitive advantage of SMEs in Romania is generally represented by costs, ie they identify and obtain a competitive advantage by offering services but also products of medium quality and at a low price. Romanian SMEs are oriented towards innovation. Product innovations are specific to small enterprises and medium-sized enterprises are mainly focused on process innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]