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During the Second World War, Kurt Lewin was part of a wider research team commissioned by the U.S. Department of Defense to study how dietary habits of American citizens could be changed so as to avoid protein starvation due to the lengthy war efforts. Lewin’s research on food habits can be linked to his earlier studies on social fields. This paper aims to interpret Lewin’s findings on changing dietary habits by using his very own field theory approach, in order to hypothesize how the such findings can be drivers of social change, with the findings being applicable for business management settings as well. Concepts of time and space, as well as ‘simultaneity’ and ‘psychological ecology’ are brought up to discussion in order to back up the purpose of research.

Traditionally, the university is understood to be a custodian/depositary of common values, knowledge and inheritance of human cultures and civilization. In contrast to mere libraries, as well as to the complexity of the Internet, the uniqueness of the university consists of the fact that it coagulates individuals who interact in one-of-a-kind manner with this intellectual treasure. The activities associated with universities reside not only in the rigid preservation of knowledge but also in its flexible rediscovery, i.e., by discerning valuable ideas from the works of past scholars, on top of which comes the exploration of fresh views and their partaking with future generations of peer researchers for keen reflection. Still, judging the university’s performance, which these days focuses chiefly on measurable, quantitative, scientometric indicators, should not obscure one distinctive trait of this institution, namely the sustenance of a tradition, as a qualitative expression of its life. Translating this idea into present verbiage, we identify a sense of “profound sustainability”. In this essay, we have opened up four reflection fronts regarding “sustainable universities”. The first one reviews the conventional literature on sustainability, in the ecological sense, and responds with a broader view: that of a generic socio-cultural ecosystem, that is embodied by both the university itself and the surrounding community which integrates it. The second front outlines the constitutive ingredients of such deep sustainability. Thus, we emphasize two paramount facets: “cultural lastingness” and “academic freedom”. The third front radiographs what is sustainable, broadly speaking, in the institution of the university, identifying it in the societal landscape by the invariant features of time/space that make it both different and desirable in comparison with other educational-cultural forms. Finally, the fourth front highlights a paradoxical posture. We argue that this much-fetishized and politically-charged pursual for “new sustainability” ends up in eroding “old sustainability”, viz., the cultural/generic/profound meaning of it. The main take of this essay is that we need to wittily defend the very “university tradition” from the excesses of faulty modernity.

This research starts from the findings of a previous study (Roșca, 2018) and intends to develop the preceding statistical model through testing new and more elaborated hypotheses based on the recommendations for future research made in the aforementioned work. The current paper tests demographic and transportation related variables for a multiple regression carried out at a confidence level of 95%. Regression results show a valid relationship between motorization and the selected regressors. Findings further reveal that motorization rates are most strongly influenced by the gross disposable income of households per capita (H4, β = 0.010, p = 0.000). Given that three of the demographic and transportation related research hypotheses have not been supported (age, overcrowding, fatalities), it might be argued that motorization should be looked upon more as a market(ing) feat rather than as a social or psychological fact. Car manufacturers should invest more in branding and in market segmentation in order to address the right target groups and properly position themselves with the customers. Branding, hence, becomes important as it creates an emotional connection between the corporate identity of the producers and the image that customers share about it. The closer the brand identity is to the brand image, the more of an impact the brand will have upon customers to spend part of their gross disposable income for car purchases. Starting from the main finding, this article also claims that future research needs to insist more upon the economic determinants of motorization (e.g. inflation, poverty rate, available resources, unemployment rate, interest rate etc.) and to determine their influence on brand preference and car ownership. At the same time, some other demographic variables such as age or generation could be double-checked, as researches provide shattered views upon their role: while some hold them as influential, others subjugate them to the economic determinants.

According to pundits, Romanian football is at an unprecedented low in terms of sporting quality and fan followship altogether. A mix of mismanagement and public regulations have transformed football clubs into under-financed organizations, unable to groom their academic work, raise quality players and, subsequently, perform at highest level which ultimately led to a decrease in entertainment on the pitch and of the numbers in attendance. Adding to this is the loss of brand identity that has created a rupture between clubs and their fan-bases. The paper aims to look at customer relationship management principles that lower-league clubs can use to build better fan relationships, while also identifying, using the same CRM optic, what actually led to the decline in quality. Second tier football has been chosen as opposed to top-flight because it consists of several clubs with development potential within their municipalities, because some of their problems are more stringent than in the upper league and, last but not least, in many cases, total attendance per game is as low as 50-300 people. The research starts with a general presentation of customer relationship management. In order to prepare CRM’s adaptation to the business of professional sports, some focus will be set on the services industry. The article then presents how CRM can be applied to sports, and, in the end, it narrows down to the specific case of Romanian football by starting the investigation from some of the challenges currently faced by the sport. Particular attention is granted to the online environment, as the latter one is host to a wide range of not very expensive CRM strategies and tactics that clubs can use, cost being a factor to be taken into account for a sector with scarce monetary resources. Last but not least, the paper ends with a set of recommendations as well as future ideas for research.

The controlling activity has developed in the past years because of the need of companies to permanently monitor their performance and because of the need to adapt to the changes of the environment. In comparison to some decades ago, the present dynamic changes in the technological and social environment determine companies to be more agile regarding their strategies. In this article there are presented the main instruments used in marketing-controlling and an overview of the use of controlling instruments in companies, based on secondary data. The results of these researches show that companies use more and more frequent controlling instruments than in the past.

Few to almost none sports teams measure the entertainment value they provide to fans in exchange of the money the latter ones spend on admission fees. Scientific literature oversees the issue as well. The aim of this paper is to present a model that can be used for calculating value for money in the context of spectating sports. The research question asks how can value for money be conceptualized and measured for sports marketing purposes? Using financial and sporting variables, the method calculates how much money, on average, a fan had to spend for receiving quality entertainment – defined as won matches – from his favorite team, during the last season of the Romanian first division football championship. The results only partially confirm the research hypothesis, showing that not just price and sporting performances may influence the value delivered to fans, but other factors as well.

Drawing on a database containing information on spending power of individuals and match attendance in the national football championship for 2006-2010, this research has the purpose to find out whether Romanian football is a normal or an inferior good. For making the correlation between the two economic proxys, the bivariate analysis function in SPSS was used. The results show a significant and negative correlation between the variables, indicating that football is an inferior good. In the discussion section, the paper presents some of the reasons that made local soccer reach inferiority and shows suggestions that could be implemented in order to not allow further coverage and attendance losses to occur due to the inferior status. The paper contributes to a better understanding of the local football industry, the latter one lacking economic and business oriented management which could make it more performant.

This study estimates the hypothetical level of contributions collected and pensions paid in the future by the social security budget in five of the most influential countries in the world today. Historical data from 1980 to 2009 declared by each state's monitoring organization have been analyzed in order to find and propose a forecasting model for the period 2010-2025. Two models have been developed based on global specialists' data for complex forecasts on population changes and economic prospects: one both measuring and forecasting the contributions gathered for the social security budgets, and one forecasting the levels of pensions paid. The focus of the analysis is on the effects that an ageing population could have on social security budget. The models suggest that there is a real need for change in the social security systems in use in order to strategically avoid predictable deficits and achieve budgetary equilibrium.

The purpose of this descriptive research is to present what kind of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities English football clubs are implementing. The paper was designed by approaching the examples of the twenty clubs playing in the 2010-2011 season of the Premier League. A key finding is that football clubs are not only interested in the sporting outcome on the field, but they are also aware of their social status. An implication of this research would be to encourage academics to research more upon the use of CSR in professional sports, as there is a lack of literature regarding this topic. Diminishing the lack was the reason why sport has been chosen as an example, while the reason for selecting English clubs as case studies is backed up by the fact that these organizations have some of the most developed CSR programs in European sport. Limitations of the paper are that it does not offer financial implications of running CSR programs, nor does it trace very deep the implications of the programs on individuals. The originality of the research is provided by the combination between CSR and football, resulting in a topic that few academics have been concerned with researching.

The article has the purpose to present the three roles a coach plays at a rugby team: leader, manager and trainer. In his leader role, the coach has to influence the player to follow him on the way of obtaining a common goal, which is, mainly, sporting success. In the analysis of the coach’s leader role, the focus is set on his social relationships with the rugby players and the other human ressources in the rugby club, whereby the presentation of the managerial role focuses on how the coach may use the ressources in the club in order to develop a solid organization, with a powerful administrative basis. Last but not least, the article presents the differences between the training tasks and the managerial and leadership ones. For a better understanding, the principles of governance in rugby – which includes all leadership, management and training - are also presented. According to the governance principles, the coach has to use his leadership, managerial and training roles in order to influence two social groups - the players’ group and the stakeholders’ group.

The socio-economic impact of structural changes that have affected Romania since 1989 is still being felt. The test of crossing towards market economy still wishes to be passed, although, economic legislation and public administration were harmonized to European model. Strengthening private property through restitution of approximately 95.6% hectares of agricultural land between 1991 and 2005 was the key moment in this process of transition. Since then, the image of the Romanian agriculture and rural areas experienced important changes, individual farms enjoying a numerical domination and determinating a new structure of the rural economy. Given the problems rural Romania is facing, as well as the objectives of the next stage of EU financial programming 2013-2020, and, in addition, Europe 2020, a clear and coherent situation of rural Romania's situation is required. Rural Romania has an important share, totalling around half of the total population and most of the land. The economic and social results of these areas are far behind those obtained in other regions of the EU, but they shall be aligned. The discrepancies are large, but ought to be recovered. This paper defines rural Romania, trying to explain the concept using OECD methodology in the field. The scientific approach aims to establish the main features of rural Romania, using statistics, particularly by analysing the social and economic aspects. A comparative study between Romania and EU in rural areas, defined as OECD methodology, is conducted and revealed the pour results at economic and social level.