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The last four decades have witnessed the birth of numerous studies dealing with the research paper (RP), its rhetorical structure and contents, linguistic features, reporting verbs, review procedures, evaluative language, peer editing, transfer of academic writing skills, and many other features. In spite of the countless researches detailing academic writing features, not a small amount of textbooks on academic writing seem to ignore the results yielded by research conducted on this vital and crucial skill. A great number of academic writing textbooks seem to be unaware of the findings of research on academic writing practices. Thus, it is the purpose of this paper to briefly survey a number of academic writing textbooks claiming to be designed for teaching and developing university students’ academic writing skills and introduce the present author’s attempt in utilizing Swales’ IMRD and CARS patterns in teaching the overall rhetorical structure of academic research papers to tertiary students. The current author strongly believes that academic writing is an apprenticeship process. That is, the students should be shown samples of what they are expected to produce before they actually do it. Therefore, students were, individually, requested to find a journal RP, of 15 pages maximum, in the area they would choose for their research from any peer reviewed journal that uses APA style, print it, highlight only all the section headings, copy them on a separate sheet of paper and bring to the following class. In the second class session, students were divided into teams of 4, and were asked to share and discuss the research design patterns they identified. Then, they selected a representative team member to write the sections and subsections headings they found common in the research design on the whiteboard for all students to see. After this, a whole class discussion of the similarities and differences began. Then, Swales’ models were introduced for comparison with what they found. Using Swales’ models made it easy for students to think in an organized way and assign the information that they had gathered to their relevant sections/move(s).The students’ feedback was encouraging and the research papers they produced corroborated their positive responses

The importance of accounting in the modern economy is obvious. That is more elevated bodies of the European Union and elsewhere dealing with the organization and functioning of accounting as a fundamental component of business (Nistor C., 2009). The mission of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) is to serve the public interest, strengthen the worldwide accountancy profession and contribute to the development of strong international economies by initiating and encouraging the professional standards of high quality, the convergence process these international standards and to discuss issues of public interest which is extremely relevant international experience of (IFAC, 2011). Currently, the concepts related to financial reports in public sector are developed by IPSAS references. Many of today's IPSAS are based on international accounting standards (IAS / IFRS), to the extent that they are relevant to the requirements of the public sector. Therefore today's IPSAS are based on concepts and definitions of the IASB's conceptual framework, with changes where necessary for public sector specific approach. Thus this study present this brief draft statement under discussion by the leadership of IFAC in collaboration with other organizations and groups that develop financial reporting requirements of the public sector. Then, we highlight the importance and the degree of acceptance of the project which results from comments received. On the basis of combining qualitative with quantitative research seeks to demonstrate the necessity and usefulness of a common conceptual framework of the International Accounting Standards (in this case the Public Sector), starting from their emergence from presenting their bodies involved in the foundation, the content standards, experience of different countries. The results have direct implications on Romanian public accounting system, given that the reference of the international implementation and reporting is an actual goal. The study is primarily addressed to graduate, doctoral students, professors and researchers working in public sector accounting. The study aims at presenting the acceptance of the theme subject for discussion by the IPSASB. It is addressed also to all those interested to know the current evolţia development of International Public Sector Accounting.

This paper follows the already existing literature to address three main pressing concerns that Romania is currently facing with respect to sustainable development and economic growth, which has likely been impeded as a direct consequence of the ongoing sanitary crisis. The research questions of this paper were asked with the consideration of finding possible solutions to the current developments. These questions were “How will the global health crisis project on Romania’s GDP growth in 2021 and going forward?”, “To what extent can Romania face its current challenges with respect to the budgetary pressures?”. The research itself was conducted using the R programming language with quantitative data, namely quarterly GDP starting from 2005 Q1 onwards and its main objective is to simulate Romania’s GDP to answer the aforementioned questions. Therefore, this research is empirical in the sense that it derives the simulated data from real data which was taken from Eurostat. The main findings of this research were that Romania’s GDP could grow by a mean 3.2% in 2021, which is more conservative than the existing institutional forecasts made by the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the Romanian National Commission for Strategy and Forecasting, implying that the majority of the simulated outcomes have been in that respective range of values. Moreover, this research also finds that consumption is expected to increase by approximately 4.2% and that the budget deficit relative to GDP could go as low as to negative 7.8%. This paper creates value for future policymaking as it proposes solutions which could help Romania going forward. Thus, this paper creates value for not only the policymakers but the society as a whole.

It is valuable to take note that the majority of financial reporting pundits are in agreement that the financial reporting system of a country depends on several factors that include the legal, economic, and cultural background; The development of tasks performed by accounting is persistently inspired by needs of practice. It is clear of that accounting schemes play an essential role in the market economy, particularly in face of globalization of capital markets, where increasing need for comparable, transparent financial statements for the companies. Rather, it is proposed to present information that is used in making reasoned options amongst alternative uses of limited resources in the conduct of business and economic activities. The present paper discusses the possibilities to improve the accounting policies and procedures in Jordan and other Middle East countries in accordance with commitment of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Throughout this study we used a qualitative approach, to outline an overview of the history of financial reporting and its evolution from the origin, to the growth and development of accounting systems by studying a considerable amount of bibliographic material, using different textbooks and journals on accounting theories but also public information presented by the accounting organisations and the government of the two analysed countries. Furthermore, the paper reviewed the achievements made in the convergence of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), in the Middle East countries, in Jordanian context and in the European Union, specifically the case of Romania. International financial reporting standard (IFRS) implementation in Jordan has departed through several transitional phases wile in our previous work we noticed that Romania can be considered a benchmark of high degree convergence to IFRS.

Nowadays, tourism plays an essential role in economic growth and development in many countries. Tourists have different travelling motivations and behavioural manifestations, helping tour operators decide suitable for them. Developing a dark tourism niche concept is a necessary step for correct use of it in theory and practice. Dark tourism is an important concept studied in the past twenty years in worldwide literature. This empirical paper aimed to determine the tourists’ motivations for travelling to Romania’s dark tourism destinations and establishing them. A quantitative research method was applied based on a survey using a non-probabilistic technique based on convenience sampling. Secondary, it was studied the relationship between motivational determinants and tourists’ attitude-behaviour in visiting dark tourism sites (Theory of Planned Behaviour, TPB). The survey conducted online was primarily made of 40 items evaluated on the Likert scale. It has been used a sample based on 475 Romanian respondents: 72.3% who had already visited a dark tourism destination in Romania, and 27.8% who stated they planned to visit one. The theoretical framework has analysed five constructs as motivational determinants in the relationships with behavioural construct attitude (TPB). The results show support for two of five research hypotheses (H1 and H4). Dark experience (H1) and Unique learning experience (H4) have a significant and positive effect on Attitude. We did not find any significant effect of Engaging entertainment, Casual interest, and Emotional recreation on Attitude. Hence, H2, H3 and H5 are not supported. Based on these results, the government can develop tourism economic and marketing policy to develop dark tourism as important post-communist niche tourism. The practitioners can develop and promote tourism packages and products by applying the correct use of dark tourism sense. The present scientific paper’s originality is given by the lack of literature review studies based on empirical research on this topic. Limits of the research and future research directions are also pointed out in the conclusion part.

This paper presents the impact of inventory level on the financial ratios, namely Return on assets and Debt to assets ratio. This study is designed to help managers to establish an efficient inventory level to obtain a high ROA and a low D/A, which indicates that the company is doing well in managing its resources, can attract more investors and can meet financial obligations with its resources. Determining the inventory level that generates a high ROA and a low D/A is possible using the Primal or Dual Simplex Algorithm. Primal Simplex Algorithm has some limits in determining the inventory level, so the Dual is preferable. Using Dual, the company can simulate more production plans until the optimal stock level is obtained. Also, the Dual Algorithm can help managers to identify the initial optimal solution in the shortest time possible and to re-optimize this solution until the ROA and D/A have the expected value. This possibility of re-optimization is important nowadays due to the impact of the coronavirus crisis on the sales: the company can model the production plan whenever the demand is changing and can simulate the production process which generates the best ROA and D/A that can be obtained even if the revenues decrease or the liabilities increase. This paper presents the initial production plan created by the managers, a worst-case scenario (most common in crisis), where the turnover decreases, the ROA is low and D/A is high, and a best-case scenario (the ideal one), where the turnover increases and ROA and D/A have optimal values. Forecasting inventory level, and therefore ROA and D/A has also the advantage that it could avoid a potential conflict of interest between shareholders and managers. Despite these advantages, there are some limits: firstly, using Dual Simplex Algorithm on determining the inventory level that generates a high ROA or a low D/A makes managers simulate several times until the optimal solution is obtained and secondly there are some short them debts that are not considered. The first limit would be removed in further research, by using fuzzy numbers.

The start of a crisis, whether it is a financial, health, or any other crisis, is a negative macroeconomic phenomenon, with consequences for both the entire world and the European Union. The coronavirus epidemic manifested itself in European countries in the spring of 2020, leading to the emergence of economic imbalances amid slowing and shrinking economic activity. The measures taken by European states are unprecedented compared to those adopted in the previous crisis, ranging from financial support to individuals and legal entities, deferral of taxes and other debts, legislative changes, and the acceptance of work from home in more and more branches activity, which until this period was not possible. This paper aims to study and analyze the evolution of public debt and budget deficit in the European Union, but also the measures taken by the Member States in the context of COVID-19 compared to those during the financial crisis in 2009. In addition to this analysis, in this paper, I intend to identify the growth rate of public debt in the Member States in 2009/2008 compared to 2020/2019. To compile this paper, I will use statistical data taken from the Eurostat website on public debt and budget deficit, but also data taken from the European Commission`s AMECO database, section “Economic and Financial Affairs” which includes forecasts on public debt for the year 2020. Regarding the research method used, it consists of both descriptive analysis, dynamic macroeconomic analysis using graphs, and comparative analysis according to the objectives pursued throughout the research. Comparing with the way the information is presented in the bibliography used and found at the end of the paper, in this paper are found only the essential aspects, the particularities of the chosen research topic, which finally provides the overview.

The paper presents some philosophical practices and categories that can be successfully applied in organizations, trends that come from the openness manifested by aesthetics, a field of philosophy that although initially was dedicated to the art and concept of beauty, now it shows an opening for everyday life, where the interpersonal communication is present. The application of concepts and categories specific to aesthetics was developed in the form of applied philosophical norms and concepts, and will positively influence the communication process that takes place in organizations at all its levels. The aesthetic concepts may be involved in other activities of the organization, such as marketing, building branding or in promotion and advertising actions, or active participation to building messages and press communicating, preparing the company's mission statement, organizing events, presence and promotion of the organization in online, activities that will take into account and compliance to some rules derived from aesthetics. The elements taken from aesthetics are the form of some categories, defined since antiquity by Aristotle, synthetically reformulated by Kant, and contemporary, they are adapted to other forms of the social application, in a new applied concept called the organizational aesthetics, which can be successfully introduced into the practice of any organization, with beneficial effects on the organization as a whole, but also on the community in their areas. The introduction of the new concept of aesthetics applied in organizations can have a wider area of implementation than that of organizational communication, such as social actions of the organization, with effects in developing the social responsibility applied in the community and to increase the organization's reputation, both within the community and in the business environment where it is located. The paper also indicates some adaptations of organizational communication for periods of crisis, with the recommendation to include in the communication process rules and concepts specific to applied aesthetics, in order to maintain the current trend of including them in business consultancy, offered in the form of specialized services of philosophical practice, through the new specialists called the organizational philosophical consultants. Other philosophical practices and the ethics applied in organizations are briefly presented in the paper, projected to support leaders and managers in making optimal decisions, which can benefit from professional organizational consulting and ethics services, which are promoted through a new specialization in Romania, that of the philosophical counselling and the consultancy applied in organizations and communities.

More natural than analytical thinking, design thinking provides solutions to common dilemmas. Fundamentally, it is a human centered and collaborative approach. It all starts with empathy, through the help of a deep research. Furthermore, banking success resides from understanding customers, not exclusively from profits. It is necessary to figure out human thinking, the needs and desires of customers, in order to have a portfolio of appropriate products and services. This is where success comes from. Having this desideratum, the paper analyzes the characteristics of the design thinking method and the digital elements that appear in the banking sector. Certainly, the biggest challenges in the banking system are generated by the digital transformation, by emphasizing the relationship with customers and current social trends. Consequently, Bank of America is an example of a successful application of the design thinking method. Likewise, the beneficial impact that the design thinking method can have on the bank’s employees should not be ignored. Through this research paper, there was analyzed the environment of the banking system which is influenced by design thinking.

The paper introduces the concept of excessive pricing within the framework of the competition policy. Charging high prices by an undertaking is a natural freedom in the context of a market economy. Still, a company that detains an important market power has a special economic and social responsibility to ensure that its conduct does not distort competition or negatively affect the consumers’ welfare on that market. A company in such a position is deemed to poses a dominant position on the market. Specifically, in regard with the notion of excessive pricing, a dominant undertaking should not make use of the opportunities arising out of its special market power in such a way as to gain trading profits which it would not have benefit if there had been sufficiently competition. The paper briefly analyzes the method used when establishing dominance, as well as various forms of abuse of a dominant position on the market, finally focusing on the evaluation of excessive prices. Relevant excessive pricing cases are presented, covering 45 years of European experience, since 1975 to the present day. In regard with the evolution of the methodology for analyzing potential excessive prices by the competition authorities, the cost/tariff comparison as part of the United Brands test is a cornerstone in the European jurisprudence. The notion of ‘economic value’ is for the first time used in 1978 and criteria set in the United Brands case provide for a 2 steps approach to the assessment of excessive prices. Other ways of assessing excessive pricing are dealt with, as the European Court of Justice observed that economic theorists have not failed to think up several methods to deal with the issue. Yardstick competition and the elimination of the excessive costs from the evaluation are examples of such alternative methodologies used when analyzing excessive prices. The paper concludes with the presentation of the recent European Commission investigation into excessive pricing in the pharmaceutical sector, and proposes the idea that monopoly companies’ tariffs might be easier to evaluate in the context of excessive pricing.

Social media, and social networking, have changed the business landscape, both for companies that have adopted them and for those that have not. By definition, social media represent platforms where members share content with a wide audience, with the focus on the content, while social networking sites are more centered on conversations and groups having the same interests. Facebook, which pulls the line dividing the two types of interactions, has 600,000 regular users worldwide and welcomes companies, organizations, and brands to use its platform to connect with their audience. Almost all social networks have incorporated a measure of social media, allowing users to become curators of the interesting content they find, sharing links, images, and short personal stories. Businesses which have learned to create content and engage in conversations are already ‘in the stream' – and more and more, internet users expect they will be able to interact with their favorite brands. Companies that have embraced this have a definite advantage over those which have not. The aim of this paper is to investigate the role and economic impact of social media on businesses. It aims to investigate the benefits available from the use of the internet and social media sites for businesses. Social media have a positive impact on businesses and offer an opportunity for their audience to find them on social media. It helps to reach to their targeted audience, stay engaged with them and respond to their questions instantly. It is a great way to evaluate their competition by monitoring their social media pages. The paper focuses on the multiple positive impacts on business in terms of brand recognition, customer engagement, revenue, and customer service. It emphasizes the importance of social media in the growth of businesses, being also a great tool to evaluate their competitors and how they are using social media for their growth. By using social media, business are taking every opportunity to increase awareness of trade and development opportunities in a way that drives changes in behavior and inspires action. Doing so connects a certain industry with business opportunities abroad and leads to sustainable development in partner countries.

This paper presents a comparison between the net present value (NPV) and the optimal solution of the linear program in order to offer an alternative perspective on the decision process. In the decision process, companies have to use more tools in order to make the right decision and to increase their values. So, using these two tools, namely, the net present value and the solution of the optimization problems, the companies will put together the expected benefits of the fixed asset investments and the available or potential resources. Using only one of these tools means that the company is oriented either to the future benefits of the fixed asset or to the investment capacity, with all technical or financial restrictions. The NPV is determined by using the standard formula while the optimal solution for the resource allocation is obtained by using the Simplex Algorithm and The Big M Penalty method. The comparison and combination of these indicators are used in the company's acquisition process and create some debates on the results in the acquisition process. The significant advantage of this paper is the improvement of the decision process in acquisitions by providing information from both the internal business environment and the external environment. Also, this comparison combines technical and financial information, which will make the decision of acquisition more reliable. There are some limits to this research. One limit is that it does not consider the possibility of delaying the investments since the NPV compares the now-investing to never-investing attitudes. Another limit is that the Simplex Algorithm offers a restrictive horizon of the decision since its components are expressed in positive integers. These two disadvantages may be discussed in further research, firstly, by appealing for the cost delay for making the right decision at the right time, and secondly, by using the fuzzy number in order to make the decisions in the fixed assets acquisition process more flexible. This last recommendation could replace the sensitivity analysis, which is a more complicated way to make the decision more flexible.

The present paper intends to present the impact of different factors, such as - the legal standard breached by the host state, the method used in calculating the damages and the requested amount, on the damages awarded in ICSID - International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes – concluded cases in which the Tribunal ordered the Respondent to pay damages to the Claimant, and that damages had been calculated based on the market value. Usually, the Company Valuation process is driven by economists following the frame settled by the International Standards, which recommends three main categories of valuation bases: asset approach, income approach or market approach. The damages valuation in ICSID Cases are made primary following the same rules, and in the present paper will be presented the ones using the market value approach. We will present three regression analysis based on the 7 cases that are meeting these conditions, cases that were started against countries such as: Russia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Slovak Republic, Georgia or Macedonia. The industries from which these cases aroused are different, we are talking about petroleum industry, tourism, bank and finance. Going further in analysis in order to see which was the breach identified by the Tribunal, we can see that there is not any direct link between the valuation approach and the legal standard breached by the Respondent but we can find a direct link between the standard breached and the amount awarded. In the cases presented in the following pages we will see that in some cases we were taking about expropriation and in other about breaching the fair and equitable treatment that the host state must insure to the foreign investor. Anyway, these cases had a common aspect, and that is the fact that were other valuations approaches were presented by the claimants, those had higher values. The present paper is an analysing study, using the statistical instrument of regression, based on a previous paper published by the authors in which was presented a briefly description of those cases in which the ICSID Tribunal decided the amount of damages to be paid by the Respondent, using the market approach.

The paper outlines the types of diplomacy. This brief paper does not include all known and analyzed types of diplomacy. From a certain perspective, diplomacy is also a way of dialogue, of communication between states. Diplomacy seeks to settle and resolve conflicts or remedy differences of an economic, social and other nature. If, for various reasons, they do not find a solution with the help of diplomatic means, only military means are used. From the oldest information about diplomacy, we are informed that the people, respectively the leaders had a certain inclination to try to resolve conflicts, first, through diplomatic means. Even if this process is not necessarily a short-term process, it is preferable to resorting to military means. The latter would cause real disasters and much more material and even human damage. If this happens, it means that at least from a theoretical point of view, negotiations and diplomatic activities have failed. In all this context, it is imperative to take into account the specifics of the actors in question, their language and culture, history, geography, socio-cultural and political influences and, obviously, other elements that could directly influence or indirectly, the activity and the external relations. Thus, without limiting ourselves to these factors, we must admit that the existence of several types of diplomacy is generated. A good external relationship implicitly determines the advantages of those who are involved, advantages of an economic, commercial and other nature. In this way we can distinguish several types of diplomacy, among which we mention: British, German, French and Italian. In general, each state seeks to achieve certain objectives, and to achieve them it is involved in the international diplomatic sphere. Involvement in the diplomatic sphere also means cultivating foreign relations with as many states as possible, especially those with which it seeks to develop business relations, partnerships and agreements in various fields.

The exchange of information between market competitors has been analyzed from multiple economic perspectives. Taking into account the competition policy and its antitrust rules it is important that the exchange is evaluated exactly by the people who participate in discussions and meetings, because there is a real danger that the exchange of economic information might turn into a cartel. Thus, companies represented at meetings where such discussions take place are exposed to serious sanctions from the competition authorities, which can affect not only their commercial reputation but also the solidity of their market position. Cartels represent illegal agreements between undertakings and are one of the most pernicious anti-competitive practices, being targeted by competition authorities around the world. They create allocation inefficiency and reduce companies’ incentives to provide new or better products and services at competitive prices. The companies involved in a cartel are sanctioned in all European jurisdictions with fines up to 10% of their turnovers. The information exchanged may consist in future prices or future quantities, individual data about costs and demand, statistical data, aggregated data. The analysis of the competition risks over the collusive potential of information exchanged has to be done on a case by case basis and the undertakings should take into account factors like the market’s concentration degree, the elasticity of the demand on the market, the age of information exchanged, the public/non-public character of the data and the frequency of the information exchange. Sometimes it is difficult to draw a clear line between the legitimate exchanges of information on the market and the illegitimate exchanges. This paper analyzes the good practices in the field, as well as concrete examples of information exchanges to be avoided by companies, based on the enforcement activities of the European Commission and of the Romanian Competition Authority. The impact of COVID-19 outbreak over the antitrust rules on exchange of information is tackled in the paper as well, as unprecedented approaches are put into practice by the European Commission. The paper concludes with practical recommendations for the business environment, presenting the do’s and don’ts framework in a concise manner. Compliance with the antitrust rules regarding the exchange of information is a need for most of the undertakings, regardless of size, especially for those that are part of trade associations and / or professional organisations.

One of the main topics of debate in the specialized literature is the analysis of the efficiency of public and private investments and the impact of investments related to economic development, especially at the level of the European Union. The research methodology used in this paper involves data analysis, observation, modeling and interpretation of sensitivity analysis results. I will present the performance of the operational programs in Romania from the two 7-year multiannual budgeting periods of the European Union, 2007 - 2013 and 2014 - 2020. The purpose of this paper is represented by the analysis of investments made through European funds in Romania as well as the way in which the efficiency of these investments can be increased so that European money can lead to an increase in the quality of life in our country. In this paper I want to contribute to the development of literature by analyzing the limits of the use of European funds in Romania in the field of infrastructure and in a future paper I want to extend this analysis to other countries in the European Union. The absorption rate in the period 2007 - 2013 at the level of Romania was about 90%, Romania losing about 2 billion euro, enough money to achieve 400 kilometers of the highway at an average cost of 5 million euros per kilometer. From my point of view, the money received from the European Union has changed Romania for the last 14 years since the accession of 2007. Regarding the financial allocation for the period 2014 - 2020, there is a 72% increase for the Regional Operational Programme, so that for the regional development the beneficiaries have available 6.86 billion euros compared with 3.96 billion euros as they were allocated per funding periods 2007 - 2013. The North East Region, which is one of the least developed region in the European Union, has a lower allocation than the West Region, one of the most developed regions in Romania. This aspect is paradoxical and does not support the balanced territorial development and the reduction of the gaps between the regions.

Innovation is the key to sustainable growth, development and competitiveness, and also the engine of the economic clusters. Nowadays innovative processes are conducted within clusters where each component plays its own strategic role at the highest rate of specialisation. The development of the clusters relies on the cooperation between companies, universities and R&D institutions and local, regional or national authorities. First of all, a cluster emerges due to the spatial proximity of businesses, but the real motivation consists in the need for cooperation; the effect, along with the rational use of resources and the activities’ specialisation, relies in the enhancement of competition, a positive outcome for the economic environment. Within a cluster, the partners share resources and develop future strategies; the mostly known positive outcomes are the specialised labour force, products of higher quality, cost reductions, powerful networks of suppliers and clients, etc. In our paper we aim to assess the cluster phenomenon in Romania and we seek to determine the catalysts for the emergence of the cluster partnerships in Romania. Our approach is bidirectional: firstly we assess a correlation between the economic clusters, as a cause, and as effects, the number of working persons, unemployed persons and recorded turnovers of the regional businesses where the clusters exists; secondly, we analyse the presence of clusters in the selected regions as an effect caused by the size of the active labour force, unemployed persons, number of higher education institutions, population of 25-39 years old, working specialists and technicians and lastly, the recorded turnover, in our opinion, all these six factors being the most relevant for the development of clusters. We considered suitable for our statistical approach to calculate the Pearson coefficient and also to apply the ANOVA method being able to assess also the extent of each factor’s influence on the development of the Romanian clusters. In the last part of this paper the findings are tested by using the Student’s and Fisher’s tests.

A nation-wide survey was conducted between 2009 and 2014 in Hungary to examine the intercultural impact of the Erasmus student mobility programme on Hungarian students (Németh, 2015). A mixed methods research was carried out incorporating both quantitative and qualitative aspects. Primary and secondary source data analysis was included, comprising literature review and statistical records. An online questionnaire was distributed amongst former Hungarian Erasmus students, the results of which were analysed and compared with the outcome of an EU-level study (ESN Survey, 2008). Interviews were conducted with academic and administrative staff regarding their experience with the Erasmus programme. The results suggest that the Erasmus programme significantly facilitates the development of intercultural competences, including the foreign language skills of Hungarian Higher Education students. However, the findings also imply that, as not all students are mobile, alternative teaching methods, training programmes and classes should be implemented in the curricula to increase these skills of the non-mobile student population locally, as part of Internationalisation at Home. This paper aims at giving a brief summary of the background, methods and specific findings of the study related to the development of Hungarian Higher Education students’ intercultural competence and foreign language skills. Another goal of the present paper is to draw conclusions from the above study and provide insights into curricular innovations and changes that have since been implemented by the University of Pécs Medical School to increase the intercultural competence and foreign language skills of non-mobile medical students. The importance of these skills within medical and healthcare education has to be underscored, as the lack of a common language between patient and healthcare provider can result in misdiagnosis and may lead to improper treatment. Inability to communicate appropriately can be an obstacle to proper medical and healthcare and undermines trust in the quality of the system

This paper offers another perspective upon the well-known indicators of Modern Portfolio Theory (created by Harry Markowitz): arithmetic mean or geometric mean for return on financial assets, standard deviation or variance for financial risk, and covariance or correlation between the assets included in the portfolio. This perspective consists of modelling these statistical indicators, using the triangular fuzzy numbers, due to the advantages they have. The first advantage of the fuzzy approach is the returns on financial assets, and the financial asset risks are expressed in intervals with minimum and maximum values, called the triangular fuzzy numbers. This advantage makes the decision of investment more accurate, especially considering the volatility of financial assets. Using triangular fuzzy numbers in estimating the returns based on history of trading, can overcame the fact that past performance is no guarantee for future results, due to the different possibilities of fuzzification. In this paper, the returns will be fuzzified considering the mode value (the most frequent value in a given period of time) of the returns from the past period. This statistical value will help the investors to evaluate the frequency of the last returns and to estimate the most probably frequent value of the returns for the next period. So, the estimation, not only the decision, will be more reliable. The second advantage of using the triangular fuzzy numbers in modelling the financial return and the financial risk is their membership function, which allows the investors to evaluate their investments, depending on the membership degree. The returns of the assets that are closer to the mode return, will be most likely the returns for the next period. The returns that are closer to the limits of the fuzzy intervals, will be less probably the returns for the next period. This assumption has its own gap: the market should have the same conditions as the last period.

Any accounting firm need to develop a system of quality control (SQC), which have the purpose to offer a reasonable assurance, that the accountants or the auditors, and their personnel, respect the professional standards and any legal or regulatory requirements, and the reports issued are appropriate, with the circumstances. The quality control system contains polices and their implementation is achieved through a system of procedures. A company can have a system of quality control, but only as a form, and as result, it is very important for everyone to be able to assess, how effective such a system works. An effective quality control means more than compliance with rules and provisions, and this is the reason why, for an accounting firm, it is very important, not just to have the system, but, also, to have some methods to evaluate how effective this system is. A lot of benefits can result from a robust SQC, regarding competitiveness on the market and the financial performance, and through monitoring controls, an accounting firm apply tests to ensure that controls are designed and works properly. The paper has the purpose to identify whether the accounting practices, small and medium, know how to evaluate the effectiveness of quality control system, and in connection with is, whether they have enough information to develop a set of indicators, which could measure the effectiveness of the firm’s SQC The research is based on descriptive statistics applied on the results of a survey addressed to small and medium practices in accounting and auditing. The results can make their contribution to disseminating how to design the system of indicators used to evaluate the effectiveness of the quality control system. The findings of the paper are not very optimistic, but if, at least it draws attention to the importance of building a set of indicators to measure the effectiveness of the quality control system, the objective has been achieved.

This paper analyses the importance of stakeholders’ actions on the effectiveness of the European competition policy. The national governments, European decision-makers, advisory institutions and civil society take the form of interest groups that have expectations, invest resources and advocate on competition policy. The paper follows the process of adopting a specific strategy (insider/outsider), depending on the type of the interest group and it divides the organizations in those with ”strong ties” and ”weak ties”. The goal of each interest group is to arrive at the main European competition law authority, the European Commission. As it has the full power to investigate cases and manage the process, as well as implementing decisions based on proposals, influencing this institution represents a real challenge for the stakeholders. In this process, some relevant aspects are the perfect timing for lobby, the dimension of the lobbying coalitions and also the capacity of attracting supporters of the cause. Interest groups do not have equal amount of influence power nor the resources but they do change the policy, according to their particular interests, by choosing the right strategies, partnerships and means to influence the decision-makers.

Nowadays, there are numerous initiatives in response to contemporary socio-economic challenges. One possible response could be the social innovation phenomenon defined, according to Avelino et al. (2017), as the changing of social relations and involving new way of doing things. In this context, the aim of the paper is to discuss the empowerment and the social innovations concept by developing the empowerment mechanisms under a social psychology point of view, at one side, and exploring, in an empirical way, how people are empowered through transactional linkages, the translocal network. In particular, it is necessary to identify which translocal empowerment dimension is present across the European countries via the selection and the analysis of the possible social innovation proxies. To do this, it is necessary to comprehend the social innovation determinants at the macro-economic level across the European countries. Using the Akgüҁ multivariate regression model (2019), the paper studies the role of one possible social innovation proxy: the social protection expenditure. Under a methodological point of view, this model is used since it allows the combination between the traditional macro-level variables and the innovative ones, such as cultural norms and fear of failure; and it permits the inclusion of the country-specific characteristics. It also takes into account the macro-economic circumstance, the international financial crisis of 2008 until 2017. This period of analysis permits to control if the international economic crisis in 2008 might have influenced in some way the translocal empowerment dimension and brings together a panel data of different indicators from different data sources, such as Eurostat and Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), which provides measures of the entrepreneurial behaviour within countries. As part of the robustness check, we have used social innovation measures that could include country fixed effects accounting the heterogeneities across European countries. What emerges from the present empirical study is that the translocal network could be considered as a crucial factor for the social innovation implementation, since social innovation actors might access the local resources, developing, at the same time, the ability to interface with the local institutions, present in the current socio-economic system.

The paper examines the effects of trade openness, particularly, import openness and FDI inflows on life expectancy in Nigeria using annual time series data spanning the period from 1981 to 2017. The methodology involves the ARDL approach to cointegration and error correction modeling. The empirical evidence indicates that while import openness adversely affects life expectancy in the country, the effect of FDI inflows is positive, but not significant. Further evidence are that increase in the level of per capita income and government recurrent expenditure in health enhance life expectancy, while inflation adversely affects it. In view of the empirical evidence, the paper recommends, as measures to enhance life expectancy in Nigeria, imposition of restrictions on some categories of imports especially consumer goods (while encouraging domestic production of same through investment-friendly policies, programmes and initiatives, to meet domestic demand for consumer goods), deliberate and conscious effort to enhance the level of per capita real income through encouragement of investment to boost employment, increases in general government expenditure and, expenditure in health in particular, and control of inflation by the monetary and fiscal authorities using appropriate policy instruments.

The paper aims at revealing certain core service elements and features of the nowadays economy that come from services' economics but have general validity. The approach is purely theoretical and we make no mathematical or empirical propositions or developments. The roots from the classical economic thought and from the services literature concerning the service feature are also underlined as characterizing the whole economy developed to the level of a generalized market. The capital role of the business literature (and especially of the marketing developments) in the field of service and services is evoked, but the concern of the paper is for the economics approach, underlining that the most common approaches of this last one are scanty in involving the issue of serving and of service immaterial marks in its very substance. Certain details describing the characteristics of immaterial activities brought by the services economy literature are also evoked, in the purpose of seeing that their validity is not limited to the only most immaterial economic activities, but it is general, at least in the immaterializing nowadays economy. Thus the necessity of including their approach in the scientific theoretical perception of economic phenomena can be revealed, and the importance of capturing such marks in general economics is shown. Therefore, the presentation is focused just on those traits that are not particular (neither for material production, nor for immaterial), but consistent with all the economic activities, no matter their degree of materiality or immateriality. The paper concludes that such elements and approaches should be more profoundly included in economic analyses and more accurately described in theoretical plotting of nowadays economy. Such a research will be of use to scholars and generalists, in improving their approaches and in directing their researches on attempts to take into account widened (and thus more realistic) horizons, if compared with the most usual (rather particular) ones.

Every business has a series of objectives to achieve. Most of the businesses in the field of commerce follow a certain strategy in order to achieve a higher level of turnover or profitability. Over time, the importance of stores in general and supermarkets in particular has increased, with the transition to a consumer society. The consumer behavior thus becomes an important aspect for the way organization generally or the marketing departments develop their strategies. In order to achieve their goals, it is important for companies to be able to attract and maintain a large number of customers. The general trends in this regard, that can be identified worldwide, can be easily observed in the city of Resita also, reason why it can be studied a direct connection between the number of customers and the level of development of the stores. Whether we speak about supermarkets or small, proximity stores, it cannot be denied the fact that the commercial area has gain power and has been extended very much over the years. Still, each of these faced a new threat, namely the expansion of online stores, reason why many of them try to adapt in the digital environment also. Every analysis, however, depends on two perspectives: the consumer perspective and the managerial perspective. The present paper aims to present an overview of the first one, offering the possibility of further development from the managerial point of view. The first part of the paper consists in a theoretical background regarding commercial management, presenting general aspects regarding the consumption phenomenon, while the second part consists in a study carried out on a sample considered representative for the population in the city of Resita, in order to achieve the perspective of customers regarding the development trends of retail businesses in this part of the country.

Imperfect competition represent a known issue on modern economic analysis. Monopoly case classical induce a worse solution for consumer side but in the oligopoly competition scenario it will be possible to obtain a solution close to perfect competition situation. In this case, two of the most well-known game theory models in imperfect competition are Cournot model, respectively Bertrand model. First one offers an output equilibrium solution, while the second one, advocating for price competition, highlights an equilibrium solution in terms of price. Alongside these two models, in the last period, we can also note an increasing interest for the Cournot-Bertrand mixed scenario. All these three behavioral types can be identified in the real market. This paper aims to analyze a duopoly market, with linear demand and cost functions, as well as product differentiation characteristics, where a Cournot behavior is adopted by one firm and a Bertrand behavior by the other one. Both firms manage to survive on the market and a stable equilibrium will be manifested if there is sufficient product differentiation. In a very low product differentiation / very high product homogeneity scenario instead, the adjustment process proves to be a divergent one, undermining the equilibrium stability. In a homogenous products context, the Cournot-type firm will produce the perfectly competitive output level and the Bertrand-type competitor will leave the market. The selling price will match the marginal cost and duopoly profit will be null. Even with just one firm on the market, the basic threat of a Bertrand – type potential competitor, warrants a very prudential behavior while also further ensuring the perfect competitive outcome level. The paper is looking to also analyse in detail the existence of Nash equilibrium point, its local stability and uniqueness, as well as the product differentiation impact on this equilibrium and players surviving potential on the market. The final part of the paper contains a simulated study case for price, quantity and profit evolution for various values of model parameters.

This paper presents a multidisciplinary research that brings together areas such as finance, behavioral economics, fractal theory and management. Each of them presents a specific methodology for quantifying and measuring the analyzed phenomena. The present paper uses the multidisciplinary approach to the results of applying specific methods in areas such as psychology or exact sciences in the field of managerial finance, areas that apparently have nothing to do with each other. The results obtained from this approach highlight new knowledge, approached from a different perspective. The development of managerial finance science, a field of high interest at the moment at the level of companies, is at the heart of its financial decision-making. The paper analyzes the financing decision of enterprises both from the perspective of listed companies on the capital market as well as of the non-listed companies, and the scientific relevance of this research lies in the various conceptual clarifications presented. The degree of novelty brought by this research is supported by the innovative approach of the financing decision by addressing some elements of fractal theory, behavioral finance and managerial finances. At the same time, the paper highlights the theoretical and practical aspects of innovations in financial decision making. The impact of research results lies in the ability of the models approached to be used by any manager of a company in taking a financing decision in the context of efficient and innovative quantification of risks and performance. The risk associated with a particular form of financing is analyzed and quantified according to the specificity of the selected form of financing. This paper analyzes the defining characteristics of the risks associated with the financing decision taken by the managers of projects inside companies, taking into account the objective characteristics but also the subjective ones. This paper analyzes the innovative elements brought by the modern theories like behavioral finance, game theory, mechanism design-theory, managerial finance and others that have an impact on the financial decision process both at the enterprise level and from the perspective of the decision-making subject.

The aim of the paper is to analyze if independent internal audit committee has effects on firm profitability. By analyzing the annual reports of companies in 11 countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), we aim to highlight the implications and relationships of internal audit independence and the effects on company profitability expressed through return on assets (using pROA acronym in the paper) and return on equity ratios (pROE). The data used in our paper is from 2004 to 2013. We analyzed the listed companies from Central and Eastern Europe using company financial characteristics data collected from Orbis database and dummy variable manually collected by investigating the annual reports of the companies from our sample. Our results, using OLS regressions on panel data (fixed and random effects), suggest that our independent internal audit variable has a positive sign on firm`s profitability. Our findings suggest that independent internal auditors have an important role for the company`s profitability in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The analysis could be important for corporate practices, as an evidence for strengthening the role of the independent internal audit committee in companies. In this respect, it could be argued that independent internal audit committee enhance its importance in creating added value, respectively increase company profitability by providing independent and objective opinions, assurance and consulting services regarding the company’s activity.

Is profit an indicator that reflects the real performance of the economic entity? Or is it rather a benchmark for uninitiated users who do not know the artificial effects of policies, options and accounting estimates on this sensitive indicator? The vulnerability of the accounting result makes us focus on the objective nature of cash flow, which is a more modern and tangible measure of performance, eliminating the effects of using different accounting treatments for the same transactions. Corroborated, the two coordinates - the accounting result and the cash flow, and more specifically those related to the operating activity - would give a better appreciation of performance. What should we understand when these indicators contradict each other? Is that possible? The case outlined in this paper demonstrates that the answer is yes. But why does this happen and how do we appreciate the performance in this case? The present paper begins by presenting some beliefs that profit is an important indicator of financial performance. These are to be combated by presenting profit margins as an indicator of financial performance, the main or the disadvantage being its subjective character. Subjectivity does not apply to cash-flow, which leads us to say that the cash-flow reflects more objectively and more accurately the financial performance of the economic entity. Further, we will analyze the two indicators in parallel and comparatively, explaining the discrepancy that may arise between them and especially the situation where the profit is positive and cash-flow is negative. Our research is both empirical and theoretical. The results of this research point out to shareholders that profits can be misleading and recomend them to make a minimum simple comparison between proft and cash-flow, between operating profits and cash-flow from operations before they risk making decisions. Increased attention should certainly be given to the situation where there is a discrepancy between the two indicators, because according to some opinions it may even be a sign of the use of creative accounting, and practice has put us, not least, in the face of bankruptcy companies with huge profits.

The paper aims, for 2008-2018, a case study regarding the ranking of the European Union countries (Eastern Europe) by two indicators: corruption in the public sector and intensity of the technology transfer associated to the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). We use in our research the quantitative analysis method. As data panel, we have the values of corruption and technology transfer intensity delivered by Transparency International, Corruption Perception Index, and World Economic Forum, Global Competitiveness Reports. The paper begins with the definition of the corruption and is followed by the presentation of certain elements used inside the methodology of the index used to measure it. The characterization of the Eastern European economies through the Corruption Perception Index is doubled by the exposure of the values associated with the intensity of the technology transfer related to Foreign Direct Investments. For the last item, the paper also presents the set of elements necessary to attract it and some correspondent public policies, created and implemented by the public sector authorities

At the present time, demographic changes and migration are two economic and social challenges very debated within countries that are part of the Economic and Monetary Union, and also subject of various articles, books and studies. Over the years, various theories have attempted to explain demographic changes and migration and many economists and researchers tried to figure out the relationship between the two concepts and economic growth of both sending and receiving countries. The debates have argued the following statements: demographic changes and migration generally can promote, restrict or have no impact on the economy of a country. Likewise, the aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of the impact of demographic changes and migration on the economic growth of the EMU countries.This paper provides a theoretical framework of demographic changes and migration at international level, which emphasize the relevance and consequences of these two concepts on the economic growth of countries. Furthermore, is illustrated a summary of the Economic and Monetary Union, its main function and the benefits of the single currency in all European countries. An analysis of several demographic changes and migration indicators in EMU countries is also submitted, in order to highlight the situation in EMU countries. The research methodology entailed both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Statistical indicators regarding demographic changes and migration in EMU countries were used for research and a qualitative analysis made through discussions concerning the impact of demographic changes and migration on the economic growth of EMU countries. The results of this research emphasise that EMU countries are facing important demographic changes: an ageing population, low fertility rates, high duration of working, a high life expectancy at birth and a high number of immigrants. These changes could cause in the future important issues for the economy of the EMU countries. Furthermore, regarding the economic effects of migration for both sending countries and receiving countries, the debates have highlighted that can vary (both can experience gains/losses). In conclusion, EMU countries should take into account demographic changes and migration when they operate towards economic growth.

This paper presents issues regarding the diplomatic mission or diplomatic mission and its functions. The international context from a diplomatic point of view, and not only, has prompted us to address the theme of the diplomatic mission and diplomatic functions. In this paper, there is only a general framework on the diplomatic mission and its functions, and in a subsequent paper this subject will be discussed in more detail. The organizational structure of the diplomatic mission is directly influenced by the political situation, the economic issues, the cultural field, the military domain and others. Thus, the division of the departments and the areas of interest is also dictated. The establishment of diplomatic relations takes place through the simultaneous fulfillment of the following clauses: the holding of international legal personality and the competence to sign legal acts; the recognition by both sides of the international legal personality; the existence of the mutual agreement. It is important to note that there is no confusion between the diplomatic mission and its members, as it is a state organ, is a distinct structure. Diplomatic missions carry out their activities in two parts: they relate to the accredited state and also relate to the accredited state. Concerning bilateral diplomacy, the diplomatic mission is divided into the following categories: Embassy, Apostolic Nunciature, Legation, Internunciature, High Commissariat. The most famous diplomatic mission represents the embassy, being also the most important. For example, the Apostolic Nunciature is specific to the Holy Regiment, because besides its diplomatic functions, it also performs ecclesiastical functions. From the point of view of multilateral diplomacy, the diplomatic mission is divided into permanent representations or permanent delegations and permanent missions of an international organization to a state. Thus, the diplomatic mission and its functions are permanently a subject that can always be different depending on the international context.

This paper aims at analysing the labour market in Romania from the perspective of interregional disparities. In this sense we elaborate some INSSE and EUROSTAT statistical data which report to this type of market. In this analysis we mainly used the method of dispersion. In order to recognize the types of positive and negative effects of the national, sectorial and regional factors upon the employed population and the number of employees.The indicators monitored in the paper were the following: employed population, number of employees, activity ratio, unemployment ratio, job vacancy ratio. The analysed period included the years between 2008 and 2017. In the Northwest Region, expressive economic growth in the last decade has not continued at a progressive rate of employment, although labor productivity has resolved. Also, employment circumstance have steadily decreased, reducing the percentage of active population. Statistical labor market data put the Northwest Region at a disadvantage compared to he EU25; however this is a reasonable position in relation to the national average., The labour market on the national but also and regional level is determinated by regress, delayed reactions, reduced flexibility in the dynamics of the economy, the inability to create new employment opportunities mainly in branches with high added value. This article tries to capture the evolutions of the rural economy of Bihor county, whilst appreciating the matters within the broader context of the six region of economic development and socio-legal context in which to place economic and social life of the rural Romanian during the post-communist period. Although with a very important agricultural potential, both at the country level and also territorial, this potential has not produced economic development, but underdevelopment, on the background of a rural subsistence economy, and this economy tends to become chronic underdevelopment, as a result of diminishing in agricultural productions without the appearance of alternative strategies for the development of services of small rural industries, rural or agricultural farming or associative systems

The present paper aims to make a short presentation of the relation between Romania and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes – ICSID, whit special focus on the damages that Romania was ordered to pay to the claimants, by the ICSID Tribunal. ICSID was founded by the World Bank as a special organism to protect the foreign investors and their properties in the host state. After the recognition of ICSID by the states, the foreign investment flow grew and the number of disputes starts growing as well. Romania ratified the ICSID Convention in 1975. If one party is in breach of the Bilateral Investment Treaty or some other legal provision stated in international law, it will have to pay damages to the other party. The first arbitration request filled against Romania at ICSID was registered in November 2001 by Noble Ventures and the last one registered until now is in August 2018 by Alverley Investments Limited and German Properties Ltd. Until now, there were 15 cases registered at ICSID, in which Romania is the respondent. Ten of them were concluded and five are still pending. Until now, the proportion is in Romania favour, only in 30% of the cases Romania was ordered to pay damages, in 70% of the cases the claims were dismissed or the proceedings discontinued. The 3 cases where Romania had to pay damages were about some commitments that Romania undertook when the investments were made and then did not succeed to keep the commitments. In one of the cases, Romania granted some incentives for disfavoured areas and insured the investors that will maintain those incentives for a period of 10 years, but revoked prematurely them. In other case Romania made an agreement for 49-years concession over a land but, again, prematurely revoked the agreement. And, in the last case were Romania was ordered to pay damages, Romania promised to restructure the debts of Socomet, but failed to do so. The present paper is briefly describing those cases in which Romania was the Respondent.

This paper aims to examine the ethical and moral profile of accountants in Romania, as a further step in understanding the adapting of the accountants’ profile to the evolution of the profession in the context of an accounting system that “went through complex accounting reforms of more than two decades” (Mustață et al., 2011). The paper researched on studies focused on accountants’ ethics from different perspectives like ethics in education, ethics in codes of ethics, perception of ethics between men and women in different cultures. Since an individual’s personality is shaped within family primarily by behaviors of parents, responses indicated that family life plays a key role in the development of ethics awareness. Ethics is not part of curricula during university studies in accountancy in countires like Iran, where there were differences revealed in ethical standards according to gender as females have stronger religious beliefs and males are more egoistic than females. About ethics in the codes, the study questioned if the code of ethics is protecting the public interest or serving the private interests of the profession? Various literature states that responsibility of an accountant should be more than satisfying the needs of an individual and should meet the “public interest”. In Romania, the Body of Expert and Licensed Accountants of Romania (CECCAR) was established in 1921 and supports and promotes high quality professional practices through special concern for the competence, aptitudes and ethics of those involved in the profession. Due to its fundamental commandments, CECCAR provides quality assurance of the services supplied by its members, guarantees initial education and continuous development of the professional accountants, oversees knowledge and application of ethics and the deontological conduct of the professional accountants. This work is a qualitative study, based on the review of the relevant literature, blended with a research based on semi-structured interviews with several Romanian professionals. Our conclusion is that perseverance in applying the professions’ principles and the professionalism are key factors in maintaining ethics level.

On October 17, 2018, the law of the legalization of recreational cannabis comes into force in Canada. Considered by some to be a marked gesture of irresponsibility and political calculation on the part of the Government of Canada, or applauded by others, this event does not go unnoticed. This paper sets out to present the path to the legalization of cannabis in Canada, the main articles of the law on cannabis, but especially the ethical issues related to this legalization. Indeed, the legalization of cannabis was one of the Liberal Party's flagship promises during the federal election race in Canada in 2016. Having won the elections by becoming a majority in Parliament, the Liberal Party of Canada will have to keep its promise. Yet, there are several ethical issues on the horizon: protecting young consumers or encouraging consumption? Resolving some societal problems related to addiction or their aggravation? Profitability for the government or deficit? Positive or negative impacts on the organizations management? Here are questions whose answers remain to be validated by time. This paper is a work in progress one. It represents a personal reflection of the author. It is not based on a comprehensive literature review and does not claim to be standard scientific research.

The international demand of having speakers who are fluent in a multitude of languages is a significant one. The term ‘fluent’, by default, means that the speaker can continue a conversation (or their speech) without any possible hesitation or with only marginal ones. However, this is often not the case, as it can be seen both in everyday conversations with foreigners or delivering a speech at an international conference. Many non-native speakers of a language are facing difficulties when in a verbally challenging situation and as a result, come across the phenomena of a ‘communication breakdown’ or an episode of TOT (tip of the tongue). These two phenomena can be rather embarrassing for the speaker, resulting in a weakened self-esteem and may lead to the start of a negative spiral; a spiral that, in extreme cases, makes the speaker avoid communicating with foreigners all together. To help non-native speakers avoid such unpleasant situations, the usage of communication strategies should be carefully considered. In the following paper, the results of an online questionnaire will be presented, regarding the usage of communication strategies by Hungarian students and teachers of a secondary and tertiary level of education. The aim of the research was to shed light on the usage of communication strategies in modern offline conversations occurring between native speakers of a language and non-native speakers of the same language within Hungary. Some of the arguments presented in this paper are concerned with the most frequently used communication strategies used by Hungarians on such occasions; the research findings here seem to contradict that of common experience. Regarding taking the initiative if facing a foreigner in a conversation Hungarian speakers again seem to present a contradiction to popular belief. Furthermore, the notion of communication strategies and their likely conscious use is also dissected only to present some expected end results. In addition, the paper examines the possibility of teaching communication strategies in a school environment, while also considering the likely hindering factors and obstacles that could prevent students from acquiring above said strategies. It is worth noting, that teachers of a foreign language might want to pay attention to the question of teachability when it comes to communication strategies, both inside and outside the language classroom for the sake of a more effective future of language education. For this purpose, a section about this issue is also presented in this paper.

Languages for specific purposes is a subdiscipline of applied linguistics that looks at language learning and teaching for a specific education or training need. The long-established norm of this field is the teaching and learning of spoken languages. Sign languages have been excluded. This paper calls attention to this gap in the field and shows how a sign language can be taught and learnt for a specific purpose. This empirical work describes how students training to be healthcare practitioners are taught Jamaican Sign Language with a view to improving communication with Deaf patients when these students become healthcare practitioners. Overviews of course content as well as teaching and assessment methods are examined in light of the tenets of the field of languages for specific purposes. This is to assess how the content as well as teaching and assessment methods compare to current practice in the field of languages for specific purposes. Benefits of this programme are also presented. It is hoped that this paper sparks a much-needed discussion in the field of languages for specific purposes on the inclusion of sign languages and what best practice would look like in a subdiscipline of sign languages for specific purposes. Globally, the number of sign language courses offered at higher education institutions is increasing. It is a logical conclusion that more institutions will begin to offer sign language courses tailored for specific settings. The demand for such courses is just beginning. The need therefore to address the question of the place of sign languages for specific purposes within the field of languages for specific purposes is urgent.

Communication skills are among the top generic (soft) skills required by employers today worldwide. The major question this paper strives to answer is: what are the real work related communication skills that university students need to develop? It also focuses on determining the extent to which these needs match the objectives listed in the ESP for Business courses syllabi offered at the Language Centre (LC) at the South East European University (SEEU) in the R. Macedonia. At present at the LC at SEEU the same syllabi and the same teaching materials are used for teaching Business English to full-time undergraduate students with no previous working experience and to part-time undergraduate students, majority of whom are employed and have previous working experience. Currently, most emphasis in these courses is placed on developing speaking as a skill at the expense of slightly neglecting the development of business writing as a skill. This paper summarizes and reports on the findings from a small scale field research surveying the work-related communication needs of 20 employed undergraduate part-time students attending basic skills English courses at the LC at the SEEU as preparation for subsequent ESP for Business courses. An anonymous questionnaire was used as the main data collection instrument. The survey revealed that interpersonal oral communication was ranked as number one priority by the participants. This practical research paper rooted in the author’s daily teaching practise should be of interest to ESP for Business teachers constantly revising and improving the syllabi striving to create an ESP for Business course tailored to their students’ real needs.

Are letters still important? Are business letters as the classic means of communication needed and important to be taught during language classes these days? Or should the new and modern means of communication prevail over the classic written pieces of paper? This article discusses the findings and implications of an investigation meant to answer these questions about the role of business correspondence in English (i.e. email, letters, memos, faxes) and this is done as a case study addressed to the local door market. The results are based on four sources: 1. a questionnaire that had two versions: an online survey sent by email to 150 alumni of The Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea and to 8 companies and professional associations, and a paper-based version distributed to 80 professionals, who included students undertaking undergraduate and postgraduate programmes; 2. semi-structured interviews with 8 professionals, 3. analyses of 25 email chains comprising 190 separate messages, and a “week-in-the-life” case study. All these cover half a year span of investigation. This research comes with relevant information about the role of email versus letters, memos and faxes in the globalised workplace, the purposes and characteristics of these text types, and the challenges that Romanian professionals experience when writing business correspondence in a second language. The article argues that the irrelevance of the traditional approach of business English courses (letters, memos, faxes) when it comes to the needs of modern-day professionals and need for email and netiquette focus as the core of updated instruction.

The aim of this paper is to study and analyze the evolution of the Romanian fiscal pressure between 2006 and 2017, from a statistical point of view, and the main purpose is to highlight the correlation between fiscal revenues of Romania and gross domestic product. The first part of the paper is based on a comparative research into the level of taxation at the level of direct, indirect taxes and social contributions. This study seeks to highlight the impact of the Romanian fiscal pressure on the economy. The second part of the article seeks to see the correlation between fiscal revenues and gross domestic product (GDP), especially the impact of fiscal revenues on the growth or decline of GDP. In order to study the correlation, we used the Eviews9 statistical interpretation program. The research methodology was based on obtaining data from the main official sources, such as the National Institute of Statistics and the Ministry of Finance; the study of the specialized literature; the study of the evolution of the fiscal pressure, as well as the interpretation of the data obtained from the influence of the fiscal revenues on the gross domestic product. At the end of the paper some conclusions were drawn, as well as some proposals regarding the studied ones.

The aim of this paper is to conduct a cultural analysis of financial slogans based on the theoretical framework of Geert Hofstede. We chose to focus on the case of the United States of America and the sample includes slogans from two types of financial institutions offering similar services: banks and (federal) credit unions, further divided into “local” and “national” according to their reach, i.e. the number of US states where they have branches, thus making direct interaction with customers possible. The methodology relies on empirical research and content analysis. First, the choice of the sample is explained, as well as the way it is organized. The paper then proceeds to demonstrate the need to adapt the Hofstede model to the nature of the sample by focusing only on the appropriate cultural dimensions. The actual analysis begins with a brief cultural overview of the U.S.A., as this is the background against which the approach of US bank and (federal) credit union slogans should be set. The findings are first presented in column charts and the cultural aspects are quantified based on their number of occurrences in the sampled slogans. We then proceed to identify and map the underlying values that slogans convey according to the cultural aspect illustrated. Several things emerge at this point: from a general perspective – although the sample is limited in this respect – the cultural values represented by the slogans of national financial institutions fit the national pattern (high individualism, masculinity). Local banks and credit unions, however, generally value the opposite cultural aspects i.e., primarily, collectivism and femininity, as their physical presence is limited, most of the time, to a single US state, which in turn creates the need to appeal to a smaller target audience regarded as a community. Some interesting findings also emerge at this point, such as unconventional slogans and the concept of “unbanking” preferred by credit unions. The whole approach leads to the conclusion that the size, type and reach of the financial institutions have a direct impact on the cultural values portrayed, and implicitly on the rhetoric and cultural encoding of their slogans.

The purpose of this paper is to present the specific aspects that characterize classic professional orchestras (symphony, chamber music, radio and opera orchestras) as performing art organizations, the sound organism and the organization per se. In a society of rapid changes, it is intruguing to find out how one of the oldest art performing organizations, like the classical professional orchestra, is managed in the contemporary world, which are the innovative management methods that ensure the classical orchestra’s succes, what are the elements that have an influence upon the performance of the orchestra, or upon the level of satisfaction of the multiple stakeholders.As part of an extended research, this empirical paper reprezents the first part of our reseach and it is based upon qualitative research methods, interviews and observation of the existing situation in German orchestras.Germany offers an impressive variety of examples, since the country holds the largest number of classical professional orchestras, namely 131 out of 560 worldwide. Consequently, the emphasism is upon german orchestras (Kulturochester), where the value of cultural heritage and the responsibility vis-à-vis the cultural musical heritage acquired in hundreds of years of musical creation play a very important role.We will include the type of symphony orchestras, radio, opera and chamber music orchestras, and we will exclude universities’ orchestras, project orchestras and amateurs’ orchestras. We will obtain our data through archival access, observation, interview and later in the study, throughout the survey research method. At first, we analyzed and investigated twoorchestras: one chamber and one symphony orchestra. The second part will contain the analysis of a radio and an opera (theater) orchestra. Does the volatile environment generate innovations in the systems of management, informational, recruiting, promotion and reward changes, and in its functions of planning, organizing, leading and controlling? What strategies and best management practices are used by orchestras’ managers to maximize the satisfaction of multiple stakeholders

In addition to our previous research regarding inclusive entrepreneurship, this paper tries to analyse the progresses made by Romania in the field of entrepreneurship programmes for disadvantaged groups on labor market in 2014 - 2020 by comparison with the 2007-2013 period. The present paper aims to investigate whether Romanian inclusive entrepreneurship programmes for 2014-2020 both financed by the European Union (EU) and the Romanian Government respond to the specific needs of inclusive entrepreneurship target groups in the present context of Romanian SMEs development. The first part of the paper explores the dynamics of business creation in Romania and the sectors of interest for business creation as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the Romanian business environment and entrepreneurship policy. In the second part, the paper compares the two forms of inclusive entrepreneurship programmes financed by the EU and the Romanian Government. The main conclusion of the paper is that there is a clear improvement of the inclusive entrepreneurship programmes in Romania for 2014-2020 compared to 2007-2013 in the context of general improvement of Romanian business environment but existing reforms should continue.

The development of the child protection system is part of the strategic policies of the Romanian Government and takes into account the financing of services and of complementary activities, as well as of the specific social services at the level of national and local authorities through involving the entire society.The aim of the present paper is to present the system of social protection for children at the regional level in Bihor county by looking at its development in the period between the years 2010-2016 and also by looking at the specific characteristics which deal with the wide range of the provided social services, as well as the resources allocated for such services. The paper also discusses the social effects of the social protection system and the possibilities of improving the effectiveness of its financing.

The paper presents the modern methods and techniques in the philological research. Scientific research involves not only an individual activity, based on the information and data collection or the formulation of some innovative theses. It also involves communicating the results to a differentiated audience. One should find a purpose for the data collected: it should be taken over by their recipients in an accessible form. In other words, there must be a balance between the content of a research on the one hand, and the shape of the wording on the other. Being familiar with the steps to make in a research endeavour, and observing the rules developed to complete the research in the form of a scientific paper, are both secret ingredients of a successful endeavour. Scientific research involves, besides specialized knowledge, the mastery of appropriate working techniques. To be considered a scientific paper, a text must meet two fundamental prerequisites, namely: to bring something new and/ or to be useful. Between these extremely general boundaries, the scientific works take a wide variety of shapes, using a combination of several classification criteria. Depending on the fundamental approaching method, one may distinguishes the analytical method from the synthetic method. Size of the text is rather a more practical classification criterion than a scientific one. It influences the structure of the paper work only to a certain point. The modality of conveying the research paper influences the structure of the text only in the case of written - oral communication conflict. The paper presents in the end aspects about references, word processing typing and plagiarism.

Even if very much used in most economic research, the productivity issue and its common indicators do not profoundly capture the whole complexity of the productivity's very inner meaning. Our paper aims at developing elements in the purpose of setting original concrete proposals and suggestions for a more accurate unorthodox approach on productivity. It aims at applying a widened economics angle, in contrast with the common business view (focused on business private interest) based on usual performance criteria., Our research is a purely theoretical one, proposing conceptual grounds for applied quantitative and qualitative analyses that involve, as part of a larger research project, the productivity matter, in the purpose of those widening horizon. Our approach is conceptually fundamentally apart from the usual ones. Namely, in accordance with the reasons explained in each section, our paper is interested in indicators and manners of analysis that bring corrections to the unusual ones concerning market competitiveness, efficiency, productivity, by (a) completing the productivity formula (section 3), by (b) conceiving new indicators, as an alternative, may be even opposite to the usual ones (section 4), or by (c) building a system of equations that approach the market reality in an unusual way (section 5). Concretely, we aim at giving bigger attention to social and systemic aspects, to “externalities”, to certain connected qualitative and quantitative features of “productive“ economic processes; from the point of view of the interconnections on the market, the paper also explores some aspects of possible price relationships (negotiations) among economic entities, and related value transfers. Concluding propositions concerning prices, original concepts, analyzing ways, evaluating principles and correlation indicators are set and put forward, as apart from the most usual ones, and as possibilities of further theoretical an practical developments and in the purpose of practical application. Our proposals will be useful for economic researches that want to be more consistent with the growing complexity of the economic reality and that dare to put under question the most common approach, ratio and manner of analyzing productivity.

Fast paced technological innovation in the 21st century is continuously transforming the complex world of logistics, a performant strategy in the supply chain (SC) becoming a competitive advantage that all manufacturers strive to improve. Decision making to ensure the expected outcome is relying heavily on the SC with its associated partnerships and drivers. Customer service evolves at the same pace with technological innovation and it is backed up by qualitative and innovative SC processes, transferring the most important order winner criteria from the product itself to the product cycle from forecast to delivery. Manufacturers have to consider that integrating customers’ needs in the design of their supply chain strategy (SCS) is going to become an order qualifier, rather than an order winner criterion. Internal and external integration foster progress and development in the organizational and financial performance of the company. This implies not only a financial investment in the subsequent infrastructure but also a tailored strategy that employs advantages derived from supply chain integration (SCI). The present paper proposes a structured framework that middle and top management can use to identify synergies for integration opportunities, exploitable competitive advantages and markers for improving decision making affected by and affecting financial performance. Supply chain management (SCM) strategy can be viewed as a revolving concept as it can be both a driver of performance as well as a consequence of performance. The first concept is at the centre of the paper as the authors strive to create a framework of operational and strategic factors that foster performance, assuming that levels of performance can conversely steer SCM strategies. Operational strategies, supply chain integration, management and strategies are leading the research field in the attempt to interlink SC and performance, mainly due to a surge in the attention paid to the connection and synergies in between.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have impacted the way in which individuals, government and society interact each other. As a consequence, ICTs represent a dynamic and new way by which it could be possible to explain the countries’ development into the Knowledge-Based Society. Why is it possible to consider ICTs as a dynamic instrument for explaining this phenomenon? ICT can create networking, to connect learning experience and innovation to each other. Alongside the growing increase in ICTs, the concept of social capital in the twenty years has found interest in all sectors due to the rise of the concept of virtual community. In this context, researchers have focused on the role it could play in building communities, increasing economic productivity and contributing to country development. In this sense, ICT and social capital concepts interlink with each other in a variety of ways: social capital could contribute to the diffusion of ICT but, at the same time, ICTs could have a role in the social capital formation. Given the possible interactions between the two concepts, this paper aims to map out the relationship between ICT and social capital studying the related variables’ disparities among European countries. This paper shows evidence of the geography of this relationship in Europe. For the statistical and geographical analysis, we used a non-linear cluster neural network, the Self-Organizing Map (SOM). This tool was used to analyse the performance of European countries in 2015. The properties of the algorithm lead the SOM map to be a representation of the statistical property of the original dataset used to create it thanking the learning nature of the algorithm; the statistical dissimilarity is translated into space distance and vice versa. Also, it was possible because the dataset has been mapped onto the surface of the SOM by adding each neuron up to colour gradient. The results show the isolation of Balkan and Eastern European countries. In particular, we found that ICT may promote social capital, that is, ICT could play a decisive role in creating and developing social capital. These results prompt the formulation of new policies for European countries.

This article is a plea for the use of translation as a teaching method in the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) class in general and the ESP (English for Specific Purposes) class in particular, by highlighting its advantages, as revealed by recent research in the field. Translation as a teaching method was associated for a long time with the Grammar Translation method, and fell from grace sometime in the mid-20th century, where it remained until recently. Despite this marginalization, in EFL, many teachers have been quietly using both L1 (mother tongue) for explanations and translation as a supplemental teaching method. Its value has been reasserted by numerous recent theorists and their research. They have demonstrated repeatedly, as this paper will attest, that translation exercises have undisputed value if used pertinently and efficiently, and if prepared with specific goals in mind. Thus, for several years now, translation has regained its legitimate place in the teaching of English and has re-emerged as a useful tool in this endeavour. In English for Specific Purposes (ESP), its usefulness is even more appreciated, as this paper will propose. The purpose of this article is twofold. The first part is a presentation of the latest research regarding the use of L1 in the classroom and the issue of translation employed as a learning technique, with a review of the relevant literature. The second part refers specifically to ESP and to the particularities of this branch of EFL, offering a few suggestions for types of translation activities and ways in which they can be useful in such classes. The aim is to bring evidence that translation is neither old nor obsolete, but a valid teaching method that helps learners by consolidating difficult grammar issues, clarifying confusing aspects, enriching vocabulary and generally improving their knowledge of English.