The concept of human capital is concerned with the added value people provide for organizations. It has been well said by Chatzkel (2004) that “it is human capital that is the differentiator for organizations and the actual basis for competitive advantage”. Human capital theory, as stated by Ehrenberg and Smith (1997), conceptualizes workers as embodying a set of skills which can be “rented out” to employers. The knowledge and skills a worker has – which come from education and training, including the training that experience brings – generate a certain stock of productive capital. Human capital is an important element of the intangible assets of an organization. The significance of human assets explain why it is important to measure their value as a means of assessing how well they are used and of indicating what needs to be done to manage them even more effectively. Human capital concept is viewed as a bridging concept and defines the link between HR practices and business performance in terms of assets rather than business processes (Scarborough and Elias, 2002).
- Published on: 1st November, 2011
- Keywords: Human capital, organization, performance, skills, assets, return on investement
- Final revision and acceptance: 15th October, 2011
Small and medium businesses have become more and more important in our society, as employment opportunity suppliers and key elements for the welfare of the local and regional community. The small and medium European businesses hold 99.8 % of the entire European businesses and 67.1 % of the private business area job market. Entrepreneurial business demands special abilities like responsibility, spontaneity, adaptability, clear-sightedness, initiative and management talent. Although European business environment and industry are up to date and competitive most of the time, the reality is that they cannot afford to take a passive stand towards the challenges that innovation and globalization bring. In a world of constant change the anticipation before action principle is as important as it is in a stable environment. In order to reach a goal, choices need to be made, actions need to be planed, resources need to be allocated, and the environment evolution has to be observed. To establish how predictable the Romanian economical environment is and by which degree it encourages the entrepreneurial initiative the systematical study of several political, economical, social, ecological and legal influential factors is necessary.
- Published on: 1st November, 2011
- Keywords: Entrepreneurial environment, SME, strategic reflection, environmental diagnosis
- Final revision and acceptance: 15th October, 2011
This article aims to analyze the process of the standardization or adaptation of the international SMEs in Romania. The internationalization of the SMEs is a reality and a desideratum for many entrepreneurs. Giving the disparity of the business environment, SMEs are dealing with the same national specificities as the multinational companies. The decision to standardize or adapt business operations is very important because it will actually affect the fundamental business strategy of the company. This article reinforce the significance of transformation strategy, that is a combination of standardization and adaptation and requires the transformation of the new environment so that the company fits better. However, interviews with foreign entrepreneurs who achieved success in Romania are very revealing, showing that are many differences between the ways a SME and a multinational company cope with the influence of the host-country’s culture.
- Published on: 1st November, 2011
- Keywords: SMES, culture, standardization, adaptation, transformation
- Final revision and acceptance: 15th October, 2011
This paper aims to highlight in explicit form, the inter-influences between business model and entrepreneurial approach for identifing ways to increase competitiveness and consequently the competitive advantage of organizations. In this way we have investigated the instruments of business models theory which have a positive influence on entrepreneurial success in organizations. Also the entrepreneurial spirit is investigated in terms of the influence that it can exert on the dynamics of business models in terms of innovation. In order to investigate the dynamics of the relationship between business models and entrepreneurial approach, we used the following methods: the explorative method, the case study method and the descriptive method. The research identifies specific tools from business models literature which have a positive influence on entrepreneurial approach, and how the entrepreneurial spirit can lead to an improved business models.
- Published on: 1st November, 2011
- Keywords: Business model, Entrepreneurship, Business model innovation, Competitive advantage
- Final revision and acceptance: 15th October, 2011
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the main definitions, theories and principles regarding the corporate social responsibility concept and the individuals’ expectations towards it. Though the expectations towards CSR are increasing, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a contested and evolving concept, a fact that is also evidenced by the different points of view concerning the definition and also by the lack of consensus about why it might be a worthy marketing objective. The article provides a brief analysis of the most important theories and definitions of CSR.
- Published on: 1st November, 2011
- Keywords: Marketing, corporate social responsibility, research paper, literature review
- Final revision and acceptance: 15th October, 2011
The aim of the article is to discuss the importance of innovation, that is a priority for managers. The entrepreneurial context can enable the success of innovation by preparing the process and by leading the outcomes to the market. The article presents the characteristics of new business models that apply several methods of innovation depending on the features of the business context. According to those mentioned above, some characteristics of the innovation process will be presented, focusing on both the strategic and operational levels. The opportunities, the limits and the risks associated to the integration of innovation among the other processes of the company, will be analysed from a managerial perspective. The cases selected from the practice of innovation management will show: different approaches of innovation adopted by competitors in the same market and different approaches of innovation taken by the same company, according to different innovation projects. A model of how to analyse and how to select the best formula of cooperation in innovation projects will be presented. The model is focused on how to match better the vision and the capacity of adaptation of the partners. The conclusions of the essay will focus on the main tendencies concerning the integration of innovation in the new entrepreneurial context. In the same time, the perspectives of fitting entrepreneurship to the challenges of new innovation sources, methods and techniques will be discussed. The particular features, the advantages and the risks, associated with the new tendencies of innovation management will be examined also.
- Published on: 1st June, 2011
- Keywords: Innovation management, entrepreneurial context, business model
- Final revision and acceptance: 15th May, 2011
Althought on international level the ERP are well known and there has been a lot of research in this field of informatical changes,especialy the ERP implementation, the integration between change management or between a part of it and the implementation of ERP systems is poor. Lack pf conection between those fields is much deeper on national level of our country. This article has the objective to analyze some dimension of these two fields, with the pourpuse of integrating them for obtaining higher perfomance in the process of informatical change.
- Published on: 1st June, 2011
- Keywords: Change Management, Management, ERP, intregration, informatical systems
- Final revision and acceptance: 15th May, 2011
Innovation is the process of bringing new products and services to the market. By finding new solutions to problems, innovation transforms the existing markets, changes the old ones, creates new ones; it can bring about huge profits or send small outsiders to dominant positions. The ability of developing new ideas and innovations is one of the top priorities in many organisations. The ability of innovation represents a high-level integrating capacity, a capability of shaping and controlling multiple abilities. Those organizations possessing innovation abilities also possess the ability of integrating competences, key capabilities and the resources of their firm in order to successfully stimulate innovation. Market orientation supposes a continuous innovative effort and, together with organisational culture, it represents the quintessence of receptivity or of the desire to develop new ideas, called by the researchers “innovativity of the firm”. The innovativity of the firm is a cultural aspect that positively influences the capacity of adopting and implementing new ideas, processes and products. Innovativity includes orientation towards innovation at organisational level. It measures the tendency of an organisation to engage into innovative behaviour. Ii is the preference of an organisation for adopting ideas that are different from the usual way of approaching business issues and it implies an inclination towards forgetting old habits and trying ideas that have not yet been tested. Identifying the needs and desires of a customer and delivering products and services that are able to satisfy these needs are keys to attaining organisational objectives. Customer orientation and orientation towards innovation are not incompatible; the important thing is that the organisations should be able to correctly appreciate the extent of their orientation in both directions. The orientation towards innovation has the potential of creating markets and consumers.
- Published on: 1st June, 2011
- Keywords: Management, marketing, research paper ,orientation towards innovation, innovativity, organisation
- Final revision and acceptance: 15th May, 2011
Our article explores the concept of „entrepreneurial government” introduced in 1992 by Osborne and Gaebler in their national bestseller Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector. They call for an entrepreneurial revolution, a process of transforming and reinventing the government which will ensure the replacement of bureaucratic government with an entrepreneurial one. We argue that a transformational approach of entrepreneurial leadership will create the basis for achieving the goals of reinvention and transformational leaders will play a key role, because they are considered by nature entrepreneurial.
- Published on: 1st June, 2011
- Keywords: Public service, reinventing government, entrepreneurial government, entrepreneurial leaders, transformational leadership
- Final revision and acceptance: 15th May, 2011
Nongovernmental nonprofit organizations are becoming more and more prominent social actors in today's world. Their relevance is increasingly visible especially in the sociology-political and economical arenas. This coagulation and development of the nongovernmental sector, as an alternative to the market and public institutions, warrants an analysis of those aspects specific to operations management in nonprofit nongovernmental organizations. Where possible, examples and data reflecting management practices in these organizations in Romania were included.
- Published on: 1st June, 2011
- Keywords: Operations management, operations function, nongovernmental organizations, nonprofit organizations, resources
- Final revision and acceptance: 15th May, 2011
