Romania stands at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Since 1990, when the country experienced the bloodiest revolution of all of the Warsaw Pact members, Romania has gone through withering change. While the formal transition from a totalitarian, communist state was completed in 2007 with Romania’s accession into the European Union, the adaptation of the nation’s people and business climate to a market-based economy is a daily occurrence. In the 2000’s, in the lead up to EU accession, Romania was one of the largest recipients of Foreign Direct Investment in the world. While multinational corporations poured in hundreds of billions of dollars, there was also a restructuring of the way business was conducted. Western systems of management and organization—foreign to most Romanian academics and business people—almost overnight transformed the way the marketplace was perceived. Romania’s entrepreneurs were quick to adapt to the new ways, leveraging new opportunities in the environment. Fortunes were made. Multinationals also burgeoned in Romania. Companies like Microsoft, General Electric, Timken, Kraft, P&G, Renault and dozens of others successfully took advantage of the possibilities created by a relatively well-educated population that was moving into the middle class. For the most part, however, researchers and scholars were caught off guard by the quickening pace of business change in Romania. Only until very recently has the academic community at large been able to wade through the murkiness and begin to see what the new landscape looks like. It is the purpose of this edited volume, which includes the work of some of Romania’s finest business scholars, to provide even greater clarity to the current and future scene. Moreover, the experience in Romania helps shed light on the dynamics of economic and business transition throughout Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and other emerging regions, with implications for practice, policymaking, and research.
Promoting organizational knowledge is an important consideration for any business looking toward the future. Understanding the dynamics of knowledge-intensive organizations is a crucial first step in establishing a strong knowledge base for any organization. Organizational Knowledge Dynamics: Managing Knowledge Creation, Acquisition, Sharing, and Transformation introduces the idea that organizational knowledge is composed of three knowledge fields: cognitive knowledge, emotional knowledge, and spiritual knowledge. This book is useful for graduate students, researchers, and practitioners in knowledge management, intellectual capital, human resources management, change management, and strategic management.
CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title 2017 Romania since the Second World War is the first book about Romania designed to chart the progress of the nation under the communist regime as well as the transition period that followed, providing detailed analysis of the aspects of continuity and change that can be identified over the period as a whole. The book begins with Romania's involvement in the Second World War, looking at the communist regime in depth. It examines how communism took hold and the elimination of traditional elites took place, before discussing the impact of Gheorghiu-Dej and Nicolae Caeusescu, the two most important leaders of the communist era. The following chapters cover the main social and economic changes during the communist regime. The second part of the book explores the transition period following the end of communism in 1989, with special attention given to international relations and Romania's drive for inclusion in NATO and the EU. Romania since the Second World War assesses socio-demographic trends across the postwar period before concluding with some thoughts on the nation's development during this time. The book includes a useful appendix covering the key figures in Romania's recent history and a helpful bibliography, making this a key text for anyone interested in the modern history of Eastern Europe.
The fall of the Soviet Union was a transformative event for the national political economies of Eastern Europe, leading not only to new regimes of ownership and development but to dramatic changes in the natural world itself. This painstakingly researched volume focuses on the emblematic case of postsocialist Romania, in which the transition from collectivization to privatization profoundly reshaped the nation’s forests, farmlands, and rivers. From bureaucrats abetting illegal deforestation to peasants opposing government agricultural policies, it reveals the social and political mechanisms by which neoliberalism was introduced into the Romanian landscape.
This proceedings volume explores the concept of civil society as an engine for economic and social well-being. Featuring contributions from the 2017 Griffiths School of Management and IT Annual Conference on Business, Entrepreneurship and Ethics (GMSAC) held in Oradea, Romania, this volume provides different perspectives, emerging studies and trends that are crucial to the further understanding of the interconnection of civil society, economic development and social stability. The enclosed contributions address key topics such as a) the ways in which national, regional and local governments are best equipped to support economic and social development, b) how government, business and non-profit sectors can support economic and social stability and c) the ways in which growing economies’ active societies can strengthen civil society. Research and practice have proven that there is a great potential for civil society organizations to support socio-economic well-being, both directly and indirectly. As a result, the interplay between civil society, economics and social well-being is highly relevant to current business and economic research and is a topic of discussion by academics and practitioners in the government, business and non-profit sectors. This volume showcases some of the current research, cases and discussions in this area from an interdisciplinary, global perspective. Featuring contributions exploring timely subjects such as consumer behavior, the hospitality industry, education, corporate social responsibility (CSR), banking, health care, and semiotics, this book is appropriate for researchers, academics and policy makers in economic and social development, business ethics and sustainability.
Twenty-five years have passed since the system transformation initiated from Central and Eastern Europe in 1989. Since then, studies of social science have focused more on the external phenomenon that caused the collapse of the socialist system. Immediately after building the system, much attention was centered around the ‘revolution of a society and the establishment of the system,’ until it was replaced by the ‘maintenance of the system.’ The disintegrated socialist system was a part of living mechanism that was introduced to manage human societies in the former Soviet Union, including Central and Eastern European countries. The living mechanism has endured in a collective manner through diverse organically-connected fields. Therefore, the theories of socialist system is to simultaneously analyze the political, economic, and socio‐cultural transformations by taking this organic living mechanism into consideration. In addition, this analysis is subject to be established based on a generalized perspective which is commonly drawn from various examples regarding the system transformation. Upon these studies, we have continued on the analysis of the costs and benefits of Korean Unification which was launched in 2011. In this year’s research, we decided to view lessons from the system transformation and integration of the countries that had already undergone similar processes. Scholars from seven different countries were asked to submit papers on the analysis of system transformation or integration on their countries as well as the implications on the unification process of the Korean peninsula. Various implications, concerning Korean unification, are suggested by each scholar. In Poland’s perspective, seeking consensual relations with major powers in the Northeastern Asia seems to be an encouragement of the unification process. Polish case indicates that in the unified Korea, some major economic efforts must be undertaken to lift out the North Korean population from poverty. Romanian scholar mentioned mainly about how the economy should be transformed and how the North Korean totalitarian managements should be dealt with after the unification. Czech and Slovenia pointed out that the biggest obstacle in their system transformation was the ‘socialist way of thinking’ which had been indoctrinated into the population so that Korean must take it into consideration. Ukraine and Kazakhstan cases suggest that South Korea has to take a great caution not to make radical economic reforms in the Northern part of the unified nation which could lead to an anti-unification sentiment among the North Koreans. Irish case puts emphasis on the normalization of relations between North and South Korea, which is not likely to be accomplished in a short period of time. Vietnamese case presents meaningful implications and suggestions on the possible economic reforms in North Korea. Finally, the last part of this book includes suggestions on South Korea’s policy toward North Korea, as well as the South’s foreign policy during the whole process of Korean unification. Some typical points that should not be overlooked are as follows. First, South Korea needs to keep an eye on the North Korean scholars in case of a precocious achievement of reformation, open-door policy, or unification. Second, the South Korean government should persuade the advocates of reform and open-door policy in North Korea to stand independently and gain the majority of parliamentary seats, or join negotiations for unification. Third, South Korea needs to urge the North to undertake a gradual economic reform rather than a radical one when those who favor the reformation and open-door policy seize the power of the country. Fourth, the prompt dissolution of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly is prerequisite for unification of Korea, for it can be an obstacle in the process of North Korea’s system transformation. Keywords: Polish, Romanian, Czech, Slovenia, Ukrainian, Kazakhstan, Irish, Vietnamese, Transformation, Integration ------------- CONTENTS ------------- Abstract Ⅰ. INTRODUCTION Ⅱ. CASES OF TRANSFORMATION AND INTEGRATION 1. The Polish Case 2. The Romanian Case 3. The Czech and the Slovenia Case 4. The Ukrainian Case 5. The Kazakhstan Case 6. The Irish Case 7. The Vietnamese Case Ⅲ. ANALYSIS OF TRANSFORMATION AND INTEGRATION PROCESS 1. Theoretical Types 2. Distinctive Features Ⅳ. CONCLUSION References Recent Publications
With an increase in global competition among universities and national higher education systems, educational programs desire to offer compatible content without losing their competitive advantage. Because of this balance, the issue of convergence, along with its benefits and limits, has emerged. Handbook of Research on Trends in European Higher Education Convergence aims to identify the indicators that meet the consensus of the academic community and higher education management experts. Analyzing the recognized trends within the publication and concluding which measures should be taken to improve convergence pace and avoid potential pitfalls; this reference book is a useful resource for academics and students, as well as specialists, policy makers, and professionals connected with the educational sector.
This book addresses the emerging field of neuromarketing, which, at its core, aims to better understand the impact of marketing stimuli by observing and interpreting human emotions. It includes contributions from leading researchers and practitioners, venturing beyond the tactics and strategies of neuromarketing to consider the ethical implications of applying powerful tools for data collection. The rationale behind neuromarketing is that human decision-making is not primarily a conscious process. Instead, there is increasing evidence that the willingness to buy products and services is an emotional process where the brain uses short cuts to accelerate the decision-making process. At the intersection of economics, neuroscience, consumer behavior, and cognitive psychology, neuromarketing focuses on which emotions are relevant in human decision-making, and uses this knowledge to make marketing more effective. The knowledge is applied in product design; enhancing promotions and advertising, pricing, professional services, and store design; and improving the consumer experience as a whole. The foundation for all of this activity is data gathering and analysis. Like many new processes and innovations, much of neuromarketing is operating far ahead of current governmental compliance and regulation and thus current practices are raising ethical issues. For example, facial recognition software, used to monitor and detect a wide range of micro-expressions, has been tested at several airports—under the guise of security and counterterrorism. To what extent is it acceptable to screen the entire population using these powerful and intrusive techniques without getting passengers’ consent? Citing numerous examples from the public and private sectors, the editors and contributing authors argue that while the United States has catalyzed technological advancements, European companies and governments are more progressive when it comes to defining ethical parameters and developing policies. This book details many of those efforts, and offers rational, constructive approaches to laying an ethical foundation for neuromarketing efforts.
Seventeen in a series of annual reports comparing business regulation in 190 economies, Doing Business 2020 measures aspects of regulation affecting 10 areas of everyday business activity.
