the 3rd conference from SEA events series (Share. Empower. Awareness.)

Event Location: ROMANIAN ACADEMY – THE SUBSIDIARY Iasi

Organizers: ROMANIAN FOUNDATION FOR BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE and the Romanian Academy, a subsidiary Iasi – the Commission for studying the marketing problems

Period: 4 to 5 April 2014

List of articles submitted, accepted or rejected.

Scientific Committee President:

Professor Dumitru Zait, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania

The Committee of organization:

Manager: Editor-in-Chief, PhD Dan Serghie

CMJ members of the organization committee:
Editor: Corina Anamaria Ioan
Language Advisor: Diana Prisecaru
Editor: Dragoș Florentin Mariciuc
Editor: Alexandra Lotzing Stanciu

Academy Members within the organization committee:
President of the Commission for studying the marketing problems: Florin Alexandru Luca

The approach to the Conference was multidisciplinary, being accepted as participants, researchers and enthusiasts in such fields as: Economy, Management, Marketing, Anthropological Research, Communication Sciences, Sociology, Psychology, Political Science, Language, Education, Human Geography, History and Law. The event program has been structured as follows:

I

In the opening which took place in Aula of Romanian Academy in Iasi county, they have been invited to speak teachers high-class, representatives of prestigious educational institutions.

Thus, the conference have been opened by university professor doctor Dumitru Zait, framework at the University of. I. Cuza in Iasi city and president of Cross-Cultural Management Journal. He spoke about the “Cultural context of innovation” and in this regard concluded that the cultural dimension is not what gives us the dictionary definition, it may be designated as an extension of human, context in which behavior and attitude gives the intelligence of the activity . Mr. Zait enumerated below a series of three specific items for the relationship culture – innovation: the most important of these components is the communication language; on the second place is the philosophy of creation and creativity; and finally, but not less important, is the approach of the solutions. In his lecture, mister president concluded that every one of us must be sufficiently open to observe differences between their own solutions and other solutions.

From the Technical University of Iasi honored us with this Mr. pro-rector professor doctor engineer Neculai Eugen Seghedin. He spoke of “Intercultural awareness in developing higher technical education” and to this end has reviewed the steps of formation of the School for inventions inside of Technical University of Iasi, stressing the role engineer particularly on which it has in the context of creativity. Thus, the engineer is the one who gives birth technique, apply technique, but it’s just as well, he must be able to lead groups of technicians and especially creates a new technique. Professor gave a few examples of engineers managers or managers-engineers (Thomas Edison or Bill gates) indicating that it is very hard to set up where each of them is an engineer and in the place where they begin to be managers. Beyond this aspect, has been enjoyed when prorectorul has referred to existing folklore as regards the relationship engineers – economists.

From the University Pierre Mendes Grenoble, France, has taken the word Professor Alain Resnais Spalanzani, who held a lecture on Innovation, Hazard et developpement economique: le case grenoblois. Within the framework of this lectures, professor made a brief overview of history of the Grenoble site, stressing the importance of performing a series of practical activities, as well as natural context for the development of the research center from Grenoble. Also presented a history of the Universitary Center whose honorary president is, highlighting the next issue: if, in a first stage, the engineers and the workers were the ones who came with the research ideas, the direction is reversed in contemporaneity, in the sense that research provides ideas of practice by engineers.

Subsequently, at which it captured auditor’s attention was professor doctor Constantin Sasu which has delighted the audience with a animated presentation about The influence of the elements of culture that influences the activity of worldwide marketing. In this respect, he has defined culture as all material and spiritual values acquired by a nation over time and transmitted from generation to generation. He captured public attention and when presented a series of proverbs or maximum of each culture, such as: “The order is half his life” – German proverb which emphasizes the value of organising and compliance; “The promise given is clean debt” – French proverb underlines the importance of compliance with word given; “Lightnings powerful fetch some rain” – Chinese proverb which underlines the importance of being modest, reserved. Subsequently presented a series of examples of manifestations of marketing where the role is essential in culture is correctly sending the message.

The opening session of the Conference has been completed by Mr. university lecturer doctor Florin Alexandru Luca, in her capacity as the president of the Commission for studying marketing, of the Romanian Academy, a subsidiary in Iasi. He reviewed the history of the marketing caught matter in education plans, and his speech underlined the role and importance of the Marketing and intercultural awareness. The speech he has been built on human beauty, increasingly less visible nowadays, further illustrated in a advertisement in the conference. The idea of it was that a specialist FBI in drawing robot portraits for the same person on two fronts: The first is that of self description, and second is a description made by another person. Valid unanimous conclusion is that in self description persons are seen less beautiful than how others see them.

II

In plenary session were invited to present articles the following authors:

Anca-Diana Popescu

A STUDY ON MULTICULTURAL PERSONALITY

”For the twenty-first century organization, the multiculturalism presence is a success factor that provides a favorable environment for the cultural diversity development and management (Aoun, 2004)”

Para Iulia, co-author along with the first author Moise Judith

INTERCULTURAL ASPECTS AND TOLERANCE IN THE BANAT COUNTY

”The Banat County may offer a model of cohabitation, so as to avoid any conflict or misunderstandings, by perceiving “the other” as being different. Being different, and being accepted as such leads to the progress of creativity and, in this respect, the population of Banat, whatever its nationality, or religious confession, offers a model of cooperation to be followed.”

Prodan Mircea

PRODUCTIVITY IN SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE MULTICULTURAL TEAMS

”Multicultural side has impact also on many of the “traditional” factors. Besides having a major impact on communication inside and outside of the team, it has a potential impact on other factors impacting productivity.According with our simple way of calculating the productivity, in order to have a positive impact, a team needs to either increase the number of requests in a given period of time(reduce time required by one request) or increase the “available” time, meaning eliminate non value added activities.”

Patricea Elena Bertea, author next Mrs prof. Adriana Zaiț For the article

RESPONSE STYLES IN CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH – EVIDENCE FROM HISTORICAL REGIONS

”Our study focuses on extreme response styles (ERS), which have, as potential consequences, spurious findings, an inflation (or deflation) of the observed means variance , a decrease in the magnitude of multivariate relationships (Baumgartner and Steenkamp, 2001; Moors, 2008; Van Vaerenbergh and Thomas, 2012). According to the synthesis realized by Baumgartner and Steenkamp (2001), the theoretical explanations for extreme response styles include a certain rigidity, intolerance, ambiguity and dogmatism, higher levels of anxiety and even possible deviant behaviours, poorly differentiated or developed cognitive structures, stimuli that are important or involving to respondents. Our study aims to identify differences in response styles between regions which belong to Romania, but have previously been under foreign occupation. To do that, we employ data from the European Social Survey, the round of 2006. The historical regions investigated have different economic development levels and also cultural differences, which allow us to hypothesize that ERS could appear. ”

Slusarciuc Marcela

MATRIX FOR COOPERATION IN THE CROSS-BORDER AREAS

”The other question was to make a hierarchy of the factors that block the development of the cross border cooperation in Romania-Ukraine-Republic of Moldova area, namely existence of different legal systems (1), membership to different supranational structures (EU Member State/EU Partner Country) (2), economic gaps (3), historical events (4), language differences (5) and territorial disputes (6). The number of intervals was six and the size of the interval was five.”

Colibaba Cristina Anca

GAINING CULTURAL COMPETENCE THROUGH THE GLOTTODRAMA PROJECT

”With mobility becoming a key feature in today’s world, learning foreign languages has never been so important. Students’ level of communicative competence (where intercultural knowledge and behaviour are included) should ensure their survival and confidence irrespective of the culture and educational context they find themselves in. In this respect, their perception and understanding of the new cultures, as well as of their own, plays a vital role.”

III

Subsequently, it has been passed to the presentation of items on sections , our photographer captured some presentations:

Mihail Busu – SCREENING METHODS FOR THE DETECTION OF CARTELS

”As a general conclusion, we assume that screening methods should be combined with specific data of the applicable law and of the current economic context for not creating distorted images on economic reality. Used with discretion by the trained personnel in competition field, screening techniques are able to furnish to the users the necessary clues for market analysis, both the structural and behavioural ones.”

Valentina Daniela Constantin – THE IMPACT OF ORIGIN ON CREATING A CULT BRAND: THE CASE OF APPLE

”Modern society gathers a large spectrum of elements that create a perfect environment for developing cult brands. The most significant is perhaps fragmentation, determining the increasing cases of violence, a higher divorce rate and other problems among people. Cult branding exploits the remaining human need of security, belonging and interaction with other people. On this background there is a higher competition among brands to gain consumers’ loyalty and commitment. Apple is an example of maintaining an emotional bond with its customers, often functioning as a refuge for their daily problems.”

Dan Constantinescu – BIBLICAL REFERENCES TO MONETARY AND CREDIT RELATIONS

”The existence of money and credit can be associated with the existence of economic relations, since their beginning, as well as the natural tendency of development, seen in abroader sense, which include both the desire for accumulation and the effects of temporary redistribution function of cash on handor material goods. Accepting the character of historical document of biblical texts, you will see that they offer adiverse documentary material, easy to structure on the patterns of modern disciplines related to monetary and credit relations, which is why we consider that it confirms the hypothesis stated in the introduction, regarding the biblicalorig in of the subjects.”

Silviu George Cordoş – AUDIT REPORTING AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: LINKS AND IMPLICATIONS

”Hence, we conclude that an effective corporate governance can be achieved by transposing the transparency principle, which implies disclosure of accounting information of the company. Keeping the same focus, we have outlined the importance of audit in corporate governance. In our approach, we have started from the study of literature that highlights audit importance in the context of corporate governance.”

Andrei Răzvan Crişan – GOVERNMENTAL FINANCIAL REPORTS – BETWEEN VARIETY AND INTEGRATION

”The recommendation is to try to implement a system that generates both GFS Statements and IPSAS Statements or a combination between them. Creating this system could reduce the costs and make the providing of information easier. Also, the paper contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between GFS and IPSAS.”

Alexandrina Cruceanu – THE HEALTH STATUS – A PREDICTOR OF PERSONAL QUALITY OF LIFE

”The healthy people’s life style is,indeed significantly different from the unhealthy people’s one.Our study confirms,once again that,generally,the individual’s health state is not a “divine gift”,but rather our conscious choice to adopt all those favourablebehaviours,ornot,for a healthy,balanced,even moderate life style,which influences the health state’s evolution. The residential area (urban/rural) “imposes” certain behavioural patterns regarding the health state perception,choosing medical services,hospital locations that they choose for treatment or other medical services.”

Magdalena Daniela Dinu (Popa) – SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT – KEY FACTORS

”Creating value for customers and gaining competitive advantages are the objectives of all companies. In order to achieve them the companies pay attention, increasingly more, to Managing of Supply Chain. Effectively Managing the Supply Chain requires commitment from all parties involved. Since Supply Chain Management consists of managing the flow of information, products and services across a network of supply chain partners, manufacturing plants, and customers, the most challenging key factor would be an accurate communication.”

Andra GAJEVSZKY – THE IMPACT OF AUDITOR`S OPINION ON EARNINGS MANAGEMENT: EVIDENCE FROM ROMANIA

”The most significant findings of this research are that the probability to manage earnings to the decrease is related to the issuance of a qualified audit report and the presence of a Big 4 auditor. Consistent with the findings of Gerayli et al. (2011) and Chen et al. (2005), the results of this study indicate that auditor size is negatively associated with the earnings management measured by discretionary accruals, thus indicating that companies audited by Big 4 audit firms will engage in less earnings management than firms audited by non-Big 4. In other words, Big 4 auditors are associated with reduced management discretion over earnings.”

Ana-Maria GEAMĂNU – TAX HAVENS IN THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CENTERS INDEX

”The favorable fiscalsystems presented by the six former tax havens: Monaco, Jersey, Guernsey, Cayman Islands, Isle of Man and British Virgin Islands remain an important factor of their success in creating well established financial sectors. At the same time their adherence to the OECD`s international standards of transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes contributed to the creation of a good reputation at the international level. Therefore, the latest Global Financial Centers Index of the Z/Yen Group nominates the six states among the leading 50 jurisdictions that succeeded in developing strong financial industries, their main competitive advantage remaining taxation.”

Maria Hermel Stănescu – MANAGEMENT COACHING VERSUS MANAGEMENT CONSULTING: WHICH COMES FIRST?

”Consulting, training & coaching are all about transferring knowledge to the client. In time the method to do this may vary. We may imagine that Thales and Pythagoras were consultants, constructing and formulating theories and schools of thought, Socrates and Platon were coaches, dialoguing with the client, helping himself to reveal the truth from the inner self, while Aristotle was merely a trainer, teaching various theories at Academia. There is no such project in which we perform just a consultant, or just a trainer, or just a coach role. Or just a single role. Our main role is to add value to the organization using knowledge; whether we call it consulting, training or coaching is actually less relevant to the client.”

Elena Sabina Hodor – TOTAL REWARDS MODEL IN ROMANIAN COMPANIES

”The conclusions for the methodological aspects illustrate that the present research involves three strategic steps in order to achieve the objectives presented: the analysis of organizational environment of the companies from the sample,checking if the Total Rewards Model proposed in the previous research is applicable for the same romanian companies from the previous survey, the analysis of the differences between results, and, if necessary, the adaptation of the model for Romania.”

Maria-Cristina IORGULESCU – EXPATRIATE HOTEL MANAGERS’ PERSPECTIVE ON CROSS-CULTURAL SKILLS

”Expatriate managers also feel that an effective communication is dependent on the ability to learn and use foreign languages such as French and English, while also having a minimum understanding of the host country’s language. Responses also revealed the fact that surpassing cultural distance does not mean changing the culture of the host country, but rather embracing it. Being present in the social life of employees, having a warm relationship with the staff, and understanding and respecting the traditions of the host organization ultimately motivates employees to also make efforts towards accepting their expatriate manager and helping him or her adjust to the new culture.”

Aivaz Kamer Ainur – A STUDY REGARDING THE MAJOR GEOGRAPHICAL DISPARITIES IN THE ROMANIAN NUMBER OF SCHOOLS

”The challenges facing the European Union and, implicitly, Romania are now inumerous, interdependent and complex. The social consequences of the global financial and economic crisis are felt in all Member States. In this context, the education and training systems must change their priorities so as to ensure that all European citizens have the knowledge, skills and competencies to meet the challenges and demands of jobs and modern life. In 2010, the Member States and the European Commission agreed to include education and training as the key elements of the EU 2020 Strategy for a smart and sustainable economic growth, favorable to the inclusion in the current decade.”

Paul Ivan – STRUCTURAL FUNDS FOR HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT AND MIGRATION – A GENERAL OVERVIEW

”Unfortunately the inconsistencies in the administrative system have braked the projects activities and slowed the achieving of important goals which made unfulfilling the purpose of that financial allocations. Although recent history have showed that POSDRU axes were well planned and rigorously structured, the future axes will require the increasing the adaptability of the administrative system to the problems and needs that arise in projects of this area.”

Eliza- Olivia LUNGU – WHAT DETERMINES YOU TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR?

”During 2010, Romania registered the highest rate of nascent entrepreneurs (% of the 18 – 64 population who is actively involved in setting up a new business), around 3.3%, while Denmark was at the bottom of all the five countries considered, with 1.8%. In case of the rate of informal investors (% of the 18-64 population who has provided money for a business of another person), Denmark maintains its position, while the first place is occupied this time by Greece with 5.4%. If we look at the entrepreneurial intention rate (persons that are considering starting up a business within three years), Greece again occupies the first place with 12.8%, while Spain and Denmark are at the bottom with 5.8%, respectively 5.9%.”

Monica Mihaela MAER MATEI – VOLUNTARY WORK: TRENDS, PROFILE AND VALUES

”The present article aimed to provide a better understanding of patterns of voluntary work in Romania as compared with other European countries. While Romania registered low and decreasing rates of voluntary work in 1993-2008, one could notice a significant change in the profile of Romanian voluntary workers. In the first decade of the analysed period, full time employed and males are very present among voluntary workers, especially for trade unions. In the context of important changes at the level of Romanian economic and social environments in the 2000s, patterns of voluntary work changed in a significant manner. Full time employees were no longer those performing voluntary work in the highest extent, while students became the category with highest propensity to unpaid work.”

Alexandru Lucian MIHAI – MEDIA RELATIONS IN SPORT

”Media relationships are one of the most important factors in designing marketing communications. While the primary goal is the provision of accurate information for all media sources, the trend in the sport environment is for the media relations director to take a lead role in shaping the corporate image and brand. Productive media relationships require sophisticated skills and the highest of ethical standards. This mandates a high level of service, well organized press conferences, professional quality written material, and the development of personal relationships across all media outlets. Internet, radio and television programming are evolving in new directions, and top sport marketers will need to be current with technology and trends.”

Marius Ioan MIHUȚ – GRUPISMUL – PIATRA DE TEMELIE A MANAGEMENTULUI NIPON

A.R. MUNTEANU – AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN ROMANIA

”Farmers that organise themselves in cooperatives have several advantages. First of all, they have a better negotiating power with buyers due to increased volumes. Moreover, large buyers are interested in a constant and considerable supply, much more than a single farmer’s production. The tradition of cooperatives in Nepal acts as a favourable background which facilitated formation of groups and communication and problem solving in the groups. Organising the farmers in cooperatives was proven to increase the chances of success mainly due to increased traded volumes, storage and processing facilities and more negotiating power with the buyer resulting in better prices.”

Alina Petra MARINESCU-NENCIU – MEDIA AND THE AUDIENCE-DRIVEN DISSEMINATION OF NOTHINGNESS

”At the same time, mass media theoreticians should take into consideration the revising of the hierarchy of the system’s functions as the linkage one seems to have become at least of same importance as the informative one while the interest for keeping the immediate environment under control is not an issue anymore (this probably being already checked?) in comparison to “having to be an informed person” notwithstanding real interest or even real discontent.”

Tudor OPRIȘOR – THE INTEGRATED REPORTING FRAMEWORK: BETWEEN CHALLENGE AND INNOVATION

”This research is of significant importance because it can improve feedback provision effectiveness (if the proof of the findings is valid). The mediation would be an advantage to the proper understanding of several issues proposed in the questions (which are not well comprehended by some users), as well as to the supply of a unitary submission (with accurate conciliation on opinion differences, conducted by several organizations and not by only one entity – the IIRC). A proper strategy in this direction would significantly reduce costs in the standard-setting process.”

Maria Ramona SÂRBU – FORMS AND MOTIVATIONS OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

Roxana Mihaela SÎRBU – DEBATE ON ROMANIA INTEGRATION IN EUROPEAN UNION

”Structural and Cohesion Funds are designed for integrated sustainable development of the EU countries, and for creating a competitive economy, a green economy. The low percentage of structural funds attracted by Romania to date has prevented the integrated sustainable development of the country and the reduction of gaps between Romania and the other EU countries. The low rate of absorption of structural funds can be explained by excessive centralization, bureaucracy, corruption, blocking some sectoral programs, lack of transparency in the awarding of tenders, lack of human resources experience in implementing European projects, financing some underperforming projects.”

Adi Eleonor TRIFU – THE FINANCIAL ANALYSIS OF THE PETROLEUM COMPANIES IN ROMANIA

”The Financial Crisis had a great impact on the activities of petroleum companies, because of the financial activities were unprepared, as the companies were used to the high prices and the high demand from the period of the Energy Crisis of the 2000s. The study revealed that the most of the oil companies that have economic activities in Romania were in great danger of bankruptcy in the 2010, but their financial situation improved after the companies started to adapt to the new economic environment.”

Adriana Radan UNGUREANU – KNOWLEDGE GENERATING FEATURES OF INTELLIGENT TEXTILES INDUSTRY

”The prospering societies are more creative in comparison with the poorer economical conditions ones. Today we see cross border interaction among all the sciences, a certain advance in one discipline bringing advances in other fields of knowledge. In textile industry there are more and more links to research in other industries, especially to the most advanced technologies. The new industry created in this manner is called intelligent textiles industry that uses the results of a wide range of scientific research fields which are multidisciplinary and cover the so called „Key Enabling Technologies” (KET’s).”

Iulian WARTER și Liviu WARTER – CROSS-CULTURAL INCENTIVES FOR THE FDI

”Much of the risk associated with working in Central Europe stems from uncertainty and lack of experience. This gives neighbouring countries with close historical and cultural ties to the region, such as Austria, a distinct advantage over more distant investors. The findings show that proximity to the investor country will reduce transport costs, and may give the advantage of cultural proximity and special knowledge of the host country.”

Oana ZIGMAN – ROMANIAN SOCIAL CARE WORKERS’ EXPOSURE TO WORKPLACE VIOLENCE

”Workplace violence in the social care sector is not a problem that appeared overnight. It was and still is a major concern, and its disastrous effects, on both organization and employees have been largely documented in various papers and studies around the world. This study analyzes social care workers’ perceptions and experiences with workplace violence, phenomenon which has been largely ignored in the Romanian research field, and is still considered a taboo subject in the organizational environment. Even if most employers recognize its general existence they tend to deny or refuse to accept that their institution or company is affected by it. The present paper will provide information concerning problematic issues in studying the phenomenon and will try to provide an image of the social care workers’ perception and attitude towards risk and workplace violence.”

IV

Mediators of the plenary section and of the dissemination of the results of scientific have been:

Corina Anamaria Ioan – Editor Cross-Cultural Management Journal, Mediatorul întregului eveniment

Professor Maria Bedrule-Grigoruţă – Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași

Associate Professor Irina Teodora Manolescu – Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași

Associate Professor Florin Alexandru Luca – Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iaşi

Dragoș Florentin Mariciuc – Editor Cross-Cultural Management Journal

Event photographer: Cătălina VASILACHE