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The success of companies is greatly ensured by achieving high economic performance. In turn, the economic performance is influenced by a complex of factors acting in the internal and external environment of the companies. The main objective of this study is to investigate the performance of companies and to identify the determinants of economic success. The research is conducted based on certain companies listed in the Top Companies of Romania, for the period 2005-2017. In the regression analysis carried out, the performance of companies is expressed by Return on Sales, and as explanatory variables we mainly used the financial ratios. The research results indicate that the performance of Romanian companies is significantly influenced by the way in which the financial capital is managed – its structure, its efficiency, the way of financing the company activity and the financial risk, as well as the extent of investment in fixed assets

The business risk is a permanent presence in the activities carried out by the companies. The financial decisions are often based on a compromise between risk and returns. To optimise the management of the companies, it is important to know the factors that generate risk and have a certain influence on the performance. This study has as main objective the explanation of the relationship between the financial performance and the factors that can be found within the microeconomic environment of the companies and determine the risk occurrence. The research is conducted on Romanian agricultural holdings from the vegetable sector, taking into account the period 2009-2014. The research methodology is based on econometric modelling. The results of regression analysis indicate that the farm performance is largely influenced by various business risk factors, of which the most important are the financing structure (financial risk) and sales effectiveness (commercial risk). The findings helped us knowing the risk generating factors in the agricultural holdings activity, to find solutions for a proper management that leads to increased performance.

A major trend adopted by the European Union member countries that are making efforts for sustainable development is the development of organic farming. The article studies the influences generated by the organic farming development in the EU countries, in the period 2006-2014, in terms of sustainable society. The statistical analysis is based on the use of certain variables that have a significant influence on the components of sustainable society. The identification of estimators for panelling data showed the favourable consequences of increasing the organic area for many indicators underpinning the economic, environmental and human wellbeing. The results confirm that the organic farming is a viable alternative to the conventional agriculture for raising the quality of life. The paper essentially quantifies the multiple effects of the organic farming for sustainable development and demonstrates that one of the directions to accelerate the development of the European economy on a sustainable basis is to stimulate the organic farming.

Romania is one of the EU countries with significant agricultural potential. The economic and social changes occurring after 1990 has profoundly affected the agriculture in Romania. The excessive land fragmentation due to land restitution to the former owners and their heirs, as well as the subsequent developments have led to a large number of small-sized agricultural holdings and a small number of large agricultural holdings, in terms of size and economy. The sustainability performance must be assessed from the economic, social and environmental points of view. The paper aims to assess the sustainable performance of the agricultural holdings in Romania on economic size classes, to highlight the directions for enhancing the performance by reorganizing the agricultural structures. For achieving this purpose, we used the Sustainable Value-based approach. The results of comparison between Romania and other EU countries highlight the importance of medium-sized farms, which achieve the best performance expressed by the Sustainable Value.

Romania has favourable conditions to develop the agriculture thanks to its significant agricultural land, climate conditions and labour force employed in this sector. In the last decades, the economic transition has determined major structural transformations within the agriculture sector, which generated certain disparities between the performance of Romania's agriculture and that of the EU's developed countries. This paper deals with the relationship between the size of agricultural holdings and the performance of the agricultural production factors in Romania. In order to achieve the paper's goal, we used the Data Envelopment Analysis and the comparative analysis, taking into account the features of the other EU countries. The research findings revealed that the efficiency of production factors used in agriculture is low and, therefore, a new organization of holdings is required. This can lead to an optimal sizing of the holdings, so that the differences in performance compared to the EU's developed countries to be minimized or even eliminated.

This paper investigates the socio-economic factors which have defined the evolution of farm output in Romania after the integration into the European Union. The performed statistical and regression analysis, highlights the elements that impact the output value, the relevance changing of the main production factors and the agricultural production 's growth reserves. The obtained results suggest that for Romanian farms, an important factor of economic growth is the used agricultural area. This element is one of the main production factors through which increased scale effects can be obtained. On this basis we have formulated some suggestions regarding the substantiation of farms consolidation strategies in Romania and their competitiveness increase.

The analysis of financial economic ratios provides managers and external partners feedback on the results obtained from operational activities and the associated performance and risks. This paper studies the functional dependence of the companies’ success (on performance) over internal financial management elements. The research was carried out for the most traded non-financial securities Bucharest listed companies and covers the period 2011- 2013. To carry out its purpose it analyzed the interdependence between the key financial ratios, studying the impact of liquidity ratios, solvency and efficiency on profitability. The study provides empirical evidences to identify factors that have ensured the performance of companies and their ranking in the segment of the most traded companies in Romania. Results suggest the view that the source of company success on the capital market lies in the positive signals sent to investors regarding profitability and the low risk of solvency. This study gives additional information for managerial decision-making in order to create more value and a better positioning of the companies in the market

Improvement of the sustainability in the farming sector is a core objective of the European Union which generates important consequences on the life’s quality. The sustainable agriculture has to bring an own contribution to the raising of the food safety and security, development and revitalize rural areas, environmental protection.In Romania improving the sustainability features of the agricultural practices is an ongoing preoccupation of the making cisional factors, the sustainable development being introduced in the national strategies and implemented in the practice by the agricultural holdings. This paper investigates the main characteristics of sustainability of Romanian agriculture having in view the three pillars of sustainable development, namely, economic aspects, social aspects and environmental aspects. For achieving this purpose it is carried out a dynamic analysis of the holdings’ economy which have a commercial profile from Romania and the other EU new member states. The analysis results reveal the contribution of some production factors on the economic efficiency to sustainable growth of holdings. The study findings suggest the action directions that have to be addressed by the decisional factors in order to consolidate the sustainability of farming practices.

Abstract: By joining the European Union, the new member states have benefited from more opportunities for interaction and knowledge transfer, which boosted the transition to the knowledge economy. This paper deals with three areas that are the drivers of KE, education, research-development-innovation and information for a selection of European countries, which are the new EU member states (NMS). It focuses on identifying the current state of growth performance in Romanian economy in relation to some of the relevant KE indicators, the main tendencies manifested in the last years and their contribution to the KE development within the EU’s developing countries group. The findings of the research reveal that the Romanian economy performance in KE terms has registered a positive dynamism, but this country is not on the efficiency frontier yet, being closer rather to the middle level of development from the new EU member states.

The new EU Member States have made important efforts to achieve an economic growth based on accumulation of knowledge according with principles and realities of developed countries. After accession, Romania has initiated an extensive restructuring process in entire society. The main purpose of this study is to appreciate the knowledge based economy’s features in Romania, comparative to other countries which joined later the EU. In this respect, the study aimed to evaluate the state of knowledge economy depending by a group of elements which refer to the following areas: innovation system, education and ICT. The research methodology was based on the econometric analysis of a representative panel data for the twelve new member states of the EU. Results highlight that for the analyzed countries, education system and the R&D activity had positively affected the economic growth, but the education factors had a stronger impact on the knowledge economy dynamics

At the microeconomic level, the appreciation of the capitals’ profitability is a very complex action which is ofinterest for stakeholders. This study has as main purpose to extend the traditional analysis model for the capitals’profitability, based on the ratio “Return on capital employed”. In line with it the objectives of this work aim theidentification of factors that exert an influence on the capital’s profitability utilized by a company and the measurementof their contribution in the manifestation of the phenomenon. The proposed analysis model is validated on the use caseof a representative company from the agricultural sector. The results obtained reveal that in a company there are somefactors which can act positively on the capitals’ profitability: capital turnover, sales efficiency, increase the share ofsales in the total revenues, improvement of the expenses’ efficiency. The findings are useful both for the decisionmakingfactors in substantiating the economic strategies and for the capital owners who are interested in efficiency oftheir investments.

To meet the desiderata expressed by the implementation of knowledge-based economy, companies must reconsider development strategies and must facilitate the shift from a management largely based on resource consumption to knowledge-based management. In this view, the importance of the human factor increases, becoming a precious resource that creates value and competitiveness. This paper shows the interaction between company performance and human capital, exemplifying this aspect through a case study based on a regression model in Romanian software companies. The obtained results show the strong connection between company performance, expressed by net income, and the quality of the human capital, synthesized by labour productivity.

Romania has determinant factors (climate, soil quality, local conditions) favouring quality wines, which gives it an important wine potential. The objective of this paper is to study the effects of the management of the production factors on the performance of the Romanian wine sector. The results of the study show that labor productivity and efficient management of technical capital elements have positively influenced the economic performance of Romanian vineyards, but the financing modality (debts level) has negatively influenced. The policies recommended in the study to increase the economic performance in Romania viticulture refer to an efficient management of the production factors to increase their efficiency, and utilization of an adequate financing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Romania has favourable conditions to develop the agriculture thanks to its significant agricultural land, climate conditions and labour force employed in this sector. In the last decades, the economic transition has determined major structural transformations within the agriculture sector, which generated certain disparities between the performance of Romania's agriculture and that of the EU's developed countries. This paper deals with the relationship between the size of agricultural holdings and the performance of the agricultural production factors in Romania. In order to achieve the paper's goal, we used the Data Envelopment Analysis and the comparative analysis, taking into account the features of the other EU countries. The research findings revealed that the efficiency of production factors used in agriculture is low and, therefore, a new organisation of holdings is required. This can lead to an optimal sizing of the holdings, so that the differences in performance compared to the EU's developed countries to be minimised or even eliminated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The competitiveness of vineyard holdings depends on its activity based on economic efficiency. The objective of this paper is to study the effects of different management production factors on the performance of Romanian wine sector. The results show that there is a positive relationship between the performance of vineyard holdings and efficient use of labour and industrial capital items. But the sector's performance is, however, negatively influenced by the debts acquired by the company. It is necessary that effective policies to be issued for each type of capital to be used. Optimizing capital management aims to increase yields and achieve adequate funding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficiency registered by a country in the economic, social and ecological areas determines the growth pattern to achieve sustainable development. The contribution of each system component of sustainable development can be appreciated by various indicators. The main goal of this work is to present a possibility to evaluate the performance of new EU Member States related on the three important directions of sustainable development, using information from international databases. The paper used a Data Envelopment Analysis method for investigating the efficiency levels of sustainable development in the selected group of countries. These efficiency levels depend on each country's specific conditions in resources management. The application of the method led to obtaining an efficiency frontier, and the possibility of ranking the countries in accordance with their relative scores of sustainable performance. The results obtained highlight that Romania did not register enough efficiency in using its economic, social and ecological resources, since consistent possibilities to improve the sustainable performance existed. Some measures are identified for reducing the gaps between the Romanian economy and the other EU countries, which could lead to a better harmonization of the three sustainable development components and could increase their favourable effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving high performance is a crucial objective aimed by the management of any company. The accurate and efficient economic resources management contributes decisively to improving performance. The paper presents an econometric model that shows the link between economic performance and patrimony management reflected through a series of indicators, such as the return on current assets, fixed assets ratio and the funding structure of capitals (financial leverage). In terms of research tools, we used techniques of regression analysis based on specialized software. The obtained results allow drawing conclusions about the elements upon which decision makers should intervene in order to increase economic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inventory represents an essential component for the assets of the enterprise and the economic analysis gives them special importance because their accurate management determines the achievement of the activity object and the financial results. The efficient management of inventory requires ensuring an optimum level for them, which will guarantee the normal functioning of the activity with minimum inventory expenses and funds which are immobilised. The paper presents an analysis model for inventory management based on their rotation speed and the correlation with the sales volume illustrated in an adequate study. The highlighting of the influence factors on the efficient inventory management ensures the useful information needed to justify managerial decisions, which will lead to a balanced financial position and to increased company performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rationality of allotting the resources for investments in sustainable agriculture needs the selection of alternative projects depending on numerous factors. The decision analysis process allows the identification of one variant with the highest utility that corresponds to the exigencies of economic, social and environmental impact efficiency. The integrated approach of the objectives specific for sustainable development actually leads to the selection of the investment portfolio based on multi-attribute analysis. The integrated perspective of the effects generated by the projects is absolutely necessary in the current context of the constraints derived from the resources' limited features, the quality of life's improvement, the diminishing of the social disparities, the environment's protection, the development of the rural area, etc. The paper suggests a theoretical and practical approach for the analysis and selection of the investments projects done by agricultural holdings for achieving the sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Metalurgia is the property of Fundatia Metalurgia Romana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Metalurgia is the property of Fundatia Metalurgia Romana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper presents aspects regarding the study of green produce's consumer's behaviour on the Romanian market. The study used the correlation chart and the variance analysis in order to identify essential aspects which influence the demand for green produce. The obtained results are useful for producers and other economic agents who turn into account green produce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]