BUSINESS EXCELLENCE AND MANAGEMENT

ISSN

2248-1354 (print)

2668-9219 (online)

ISSN-L: 2248- 1354

 

1. MODERN UNIVERSITY MANAGEMENT TOOL – EDUCATIONAL PORTAL CASE STUDY: HIGHER EDUCATION IN ECONOMICS Ramona LACUREZEANU University Babes-Bolyai, Cluj Napoca Romania Paul BRESFELEAN University Babes-Bolyai, Cluj Napoca Romania Robert BUCHMANN University Babes-Bolyai, Cluj Napoca Romania Alexandru CHIS University Babes-Bolyai, Cluj Napoca Romania

Nowadays, the delivery of learning services is accomplished in a diversity of ways and subordinated to the rules of a competitive market, in the context of a globalization expansion. Moreover, the Internet, the websites and related technologies sustain this unprecedented diversity. In this paper we try to provide a usability requirement analysis from the e-Learning perspective, as psychology studies have demonstrated that users follow their intuition, they are inpatient and want their results immediately, but at the same time they don’t always do optimal interaction decisions. In other words, we illustrate user requirements through a method of analyzing educational portal usability for higher education in economics. Using data mining methods, we also built a profile for the students and grouped them in specific clusters based on their preference for e-Learning (instead of traditional methods) for their studies - a very motivating approach which could help both institution and students. ...

2. THE EVALUATION OF THE EDUCATIONAL SERVICES QUALITY Teodora ROMAN Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Iasi Romania Emil MAXIM Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Iasi Romania Adriana MANOLICA Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Iasi Romania

Quality insurance is not simply an option, but rather a duty for organisations, being a must in the relationship with the clients, the main beneficiaries of the offer, as well as in the relationship with all those having direct or indirect interests connected to its existence and functioning. The extension of the focus from the client-centred quality to the quality for all those interested is an essential component of the philosophy of total quality management (TQM) and the starting point in the implementation of continuous improvement strategies. For the educational services this approach becomes more important if we take into account the role of education in the development of modern society. In this context, the analysis of the preoccupations of higher education institutions for a better understanding of the stakeholders’ requirements regarding the quality of the performed activity and of the degree of satisfaction generated by the performance and the offer to the society becomes a fairly significant action. ...

3. A MODERN MICROECONOMIC APPROACH OF COMMERCE Alexandru TRIFU “Petre Andrei” University of Iasi, Iasi Romania

The most important steps taken in commerce, as consequences of the scientific and technical progress, are reflected in the sequence of the six major revolutions completed in this sector of activity: the emergence of large stores, the development of branches, the emergence of popular stores, the emergence of self-service, the emergence of shopping centers and the expansion of electronic commerce. This paper represents a part of a larger project in which, starting from the analysis of different types of e-commerce and instruments serving this modern commerce application, we want to determine the efficiency of the electronic commerce, its superiority to the classic commerce and, specific to the present work, to underline the half of a SWOT analysis, i.e SW (advantages and disadvantages between e-commerce and tangible commerce). Unlike traditional commerce, electronic commerce is based only on the information that can be transmitted without being altered through a computer. We used the analysis and comparison of and between different forms of the new commerce technologies and theirs impact on consumers’ decisions and behavior. The results only for the present paperwork indicate the favorable trend of e-commerce, but this on has to be promoted safely and not to produce damages or dissatisfactions for both parts involved. The online commerce, as trend and dynamics, will overwhelme the offline commerce. ...

4. MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS – BETWEEN VIABILITY AND VULNERABILITY Cristina Emilia CIOVICA The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest  Romania Aurelia Gabriela ANTONESCU The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest  Romania

Size does not represent a condition for a company to become competitive and profitable in the market, but in the unhappy situation when an acquisition seems to be the last solution of saving a company, a manager must know how to take the right decision and to prepare the company for the transaction. That is why the objective of the current paper is to analyze the situation of the Romanian mergers and acquisitions market, pointing out in the same time some mistakes that should be avoided in the case of an acquisition. Our results showed that the Romanian merger and acquisition market has not yet bounced back from the crisis due to the differences between the expectations of sellers and those ones of buyers and due to the tensions of the euro zone, but there are still international breaking opportunities for the years to come. ...

5. SUCCESSFUL LEAN LESSONS FROM ROMANIAN COMPANIES Ana Maria GRIGORE The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest  Romania Florica BADEA The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest  Romania

The companies today have to adapt to different changing conditions, like rapid technological development, shorter product life cycles and more demanding customers, in order to improve their position on the market. The objective of the paper is to present and analyses the impact of lean by using as research methodology a successful Romanian case study: ASSA ABLOY Romania. The article concludes that improvement and learning is part of the lean methodology and it requires follow-up processes and results. ...

6. CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY THROUGH THE LENS OF ISO STANDARDS Catalina Soriana SITNIKOV University of Craiova, Craiova Romania Claudiu George BOCEAN University of Craiova, Craiova Romania

The term corporate social responsibility has become part of the economic vocabulary since the seventh decade of the 20th century. Since the beginning of the 21st century this term extended, became complex, multidimensional with many economic, legal and social connections. Corporate social responsibility focuses not only on the means of using companies’ profits, but also on the means and ways, companies achieve these profits. Social responsibility means considering stakeholders’ expectations, and the management of economic, social and environmental domains manifested in relations with stakeholders in all areas of influence: the workplace, market, value adding chain, community and public policies. The companies must address these issues from a strategic point of view. This paper aims to analyse developments in social responsibility in terms of standardization. The first part is dedicated to an exploratory investigation conducted on the developments in the field of CSR and Global Governance and on the development of ISO 26000 as the most important tool to ensure standardization in the field of sustainability. We also paid special attention to the development of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, the main existing standards related to sustainability. To determine the interest in standardization, we forecasted the trend in issuing ISO certificates based on ARIMA and Holt statistical models. ...

7. SIX SIGMA - STRATEGIC OPTION FOR ENABLING SYNERGIES WITHIN BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT Paul SOARE The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest Romania Vlad BALANESCU The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest Romania

Six Sigma and Business Process Management are two concepts that became highly regarded in the last couple years through their perspective on how organizations can manage and continuously improve their processes. These two, are approached in research mainly separately, and only at seldom times we might come across articles such this one that attempt to underline the power of the mix. ...

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