Holistic Marketing Management, Volume 2, Issue 1, Year 2012

Editorial Board of “Holistic Marketing Management” (A refereed journal published four times annualy by the School of Management-Marketing of the Romanian-American University) Editor -in- Chief Theodor Valentin PURCĂREA Editorial Board

Bernd HALLIER

John SAEE

John L. STANTON Léon F. WEGNEZ William PERTTULA Levent ALTINAY Dana ZADRAZILOVA Riccardo BELTRAMO Sinisa ZARIC Gabriela SABĂU Hélène NIKOLOPOULOU Vasa LÁSZLÓ Peter STARCHON John MURRAY

Managing Director EuroHandels Institute Retail, Germany; President of EuCVoT; President of European Retail Academy; Member of the Astana Economic Scientists Club; Chairman of the Advisory Board of EuroShop; Chairman of the Board of the Orgainvent; Trustee of EHI Retail Institute at GLOBALG.A.P. Association of Management and International Association of Management, USA; Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, the Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology; Member of France’s National Academy of Scientific Research (CNRS) Professor of Food Marketing, Erivan K. Haub School of Business, Saint Joseph’s University Philadelphia, USA; Editor, Journal of Food Products Marketing Secretary General, International Association of the Distributive Trade, AIDA Brussels; Member of France’s Academy of Commercial Sciences Internet Marketing Professor, College of Business, San Francisco State University, USA Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Research Area Leader, Oxford School of Hospitality Management, Faculty of Business, Oxford Brookes University, UK Dean of Faculty of International Economic Relations, University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic University of Turin, Italy University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia Memorial University, Grenfell Campus, Corner Brook, Canada University of Lille 3, France Szent Istvan University, Hungary Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia Faculty of Business, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland

Kamil PÍCHA

Faculty of Economics,University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice

Constantin ROŞCA

President of Romanian Scientific Society of Management- SSMAR

Irena JINDRICHOVSKA Dumitru MIRON Valeriu IOAN-FRANC Iacob CĂTOIU Virgil BALAURE Gheorghe ORZAN

Luigi DUMITRESCU

Deputy Head of Department of Business Economics, University of Economics and Management, Prague, Czech Republic Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest National Institute for Economic Research, Romanian Academy; Romanian Marketing Association Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest

Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu

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Marius D. POP Petre FILIP Ion VOICU SUCALA Virgil POPA Ana-Maria PREDA Ileana PONORAN Ovidiu FOLCUȚ Doinița CIOCÎRLAN Marius Dan DALOTĂ Mihai PAPUC Gheorghe ILIESCU Alexandru IONESCU Olga POTECEA Oana PREDA Nicoleta DUMITRU Monica Paula RAȚIU Costel NEGRICEA

Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca Dimitrie Cantemir University, Bucharest Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Management and Economic Engineering Department; University of Glasgow, UK, College of Social Sciences, School of Social & Political Sciences; Managing Editor, Review of Management and Economic Engineering Valahia University of Târgovişte Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University

Associate Editors Cristina NEAGOE Dan SMEDESCU Art Designer Director Alexandru BEJAN

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CONTENT

Theodor Valentin PURCĂREA

Editorial: Managing change by changing management: Facing the challenge of making management more adaptable, innovative, inspiring, and accountable............

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Marius Dan DALOTĂ

Considerations concerning implementation of Knowledge Management in Small and Medium Enterprises.................. 6

Ion SMEDESCU Mihai PAPUC

The Scientific Content of Management Marketing and Marketing Management......................................................

Constantin ROŞCA

LAUDATIO, Professor Levent Altinay, PhD – Honorary Member of Romanian Scientific Society of Management (SSMAR)............................................................................... 16

Alexandra MIRONESCU Natalia BURLACU Mariana CRINTEA

Working Paper regarding the Vitality of Work System Improvement during the Post Merger Integration of Resources.............................................................................

Mihaela MOLDOVAN

Rethinking the “Prevention Innovation” in the Hispanic Culture................................................................................. 25

Alexandra MIRONESCU Svetlana RUSNAC Marieta MICU Mariana CRINTEA

Working Paper regarding the Human Oriented PostMerger Strategies in Terms of CSR.....................................

Roxana Nicoleta MATEI

A Brief Analysis on the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises............................................................. 40

Theodor Valentin PURCĂREA

A new Book of Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier is already challenging the Professional Readers: „From Crisis to Competence” (European Retail Academy, ORGAINVENT GmbH)................................................................................. 46

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The responsibility for the content of the scientific and the authenticity of the published materials and opinions expressed rests with the author.

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Editorial: Managing change by changing management: Facing the challenge of making management more adaptable, innovative, inspiring, and accountable As we all know, making change (organizational, operational, commercial) happen is not an easy matter because it depends on how receptive the organizational environment is to this idea of change as a two-way process, considering the degree to which forces in the task and general environments change and evolve over time, and the organization develops the skills and knowledge necessary to deal with these environmental changes while competing and cooperating according to the tone of the organizational culture (organizational structure, employment relationship, characteristics of organizational members, organizational ethics), and re-imaging and re-innovating on the basis of the managerial actions impact, knowing that the best transformation is only through an improved understanding of how people interpret their environment and choose to act, bridging the gap between top management and the hole organization by building hope and conviction. We expressed our opinion concerning the importance of the quality of team relations, as well as the quality of the network in initiating partnerships, along with establishing a fluid and flexible process for planning sequential stages, of a supportive organizational culture that goes beyond just the aggregation of the three components of the holistic marketing management and finds alternatives to the current bureaucratic and disempowering management practices so as to adequately managing the probability to capitalize on the opportunity to satisfy the customers and transforming them in team members. And here there is a direct connection with some ideas expressed in our latest Editorial, in December 2011, while considering the real pressure of quickly responding to the signs of customers’ changing needs, focusing on problem-solving and strategic-marketing skills, stimulating cross-functional collaboration and a clear delineation of roles, entering into creative arrangements with outside parties, and raising the organizational barrier to engagement and avoiding the risk of being overtaken by competitors. Which also implies to well understanding the difference between being responsible (in a general sense; you can delegate it) for something and being held accountable (more measurable; you can’t delegate it to anyone) if it goes wrong.

In September 2011 McKinsey Quarterly (Social technologies on the front line: The Management 2.0 M-Prize winners, Organization practice, McKinsey Quarterly, McKinsey Company, September 2011) attracted our attention on how Web 2.0 tools and technologies are changing management, thanks to the experience shared by the winners of “The Management 2.0 Challenge” (cosponsored by McKinsey, the Harvard Business Review, and the Management Innovation eXchange - MIX) winners share is a concern with ensuring that even employees on the front line can contribute to organizational strategy and innovation. According to the winners it is important to consider relevant ideas such us: sharing common resources more efficiently; making self-management work at scale; reaching consensus on complicated issues; improving global training with local expertise; taking feedback from the front line to senior managers; building a better idea market; using communities of interest to manage globally. We take note within this context of the challenge of making management more adaptable, innovative, inspiring, and accountable, finding among others the real concern with ensuring that even employees on the front line can contribute to organizational strategy and innovation.

It is worth remembering that in our first Editorial we showed that according to Gary Hamel's Management Innovation eXchange (MIX, an open innovation project aimed at reinventing management for the 21st century), organizations must be adaptable, innovative, inspiring and socially accountable in order to thrive in the 21st century, being necessary to find alternatives to the current bureaucratic and disempowering management practices. And considering Peter Drucker’s Holistic Marketing Management

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words - “Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans” - in order to set up rigorous plans and carry them out step by step, it is necessary both: to properly understand the manager’s personal development in the context of the interaction between the managerial culture, the workplace culture and the surrounding culture (along with an accelerated evolution related to the continuous pressure to develop strategies and embrace management practices able to ensure organizational effectiveness); to decide adequately which markets to target (marketing strategy), which involves a clear relationship to strategy, taking into account the company’s organizational competencies, both marketing (markets to enter, optimizing in chosen market; proper criteria) and strategy (acquiring, using/combining; proper criteria), and then choosing the adequate design (resources suited to the task; coordination, difficult both, at large firms and between firms; incentives, including relationship between incentives and coordination) and management of marketing channels (contracts used to align objectives, co-location, standardization, exclusivity).

That is why we are continuing to pledge for a clear understanding of the transformation context, and bridging the gap of the timeline and the urgency and allowing to envisioning new possibilities, encouraging emergence, conveying the message across multiple levels in the organization, exploring marketing resource management solutions and transforming holistic marketing management in a profit center. This presupposes to understand the difference between being responsible and being held accountable, and to take a disciplined approach of the specific requirements, with the whole organization in mind, with the leader at the second inner circle, with the employee at the first inner circle, and the customer at its center, moving all together to new knowledge, rediscovering our involvement in dynamically changing and ongoing process, in fact our engagement in groups, by taking into account that group dynamics are ultimately the dynamics of relating, and recognizing, re-imaging and re-innovating our direct experience within the organization.

Theodor Valentin Purcărea Editor - in - Chief

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CONSIDERATIONS CONCERNING IMPLEMENTATION OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES Prof. Marius Dan DALOTĂ, Ph.D. Romanian-American University 1B, Expoziţiei Avenue, Sector 1, Bucharest dalota.marius.dan@profesor.rau.ro

Abstract: Knowledge has become one of the critical driving forces for business success.

Organizations are becoming more knowledge intensive and the needs for leveraging the value of knowledge are increasing. Organizations need to be cognizant and aware of the factors that will influence the success of a knowledge management (KM) initiative. The effective implementation of KM in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is governed and facilitated by certain factors. Organizations can certainly benefit from a more thorough understanding of the factors that are critical to the success of KM. The adoption of factors which are not!suitable can impede the achievement of the desired performance.

Keywords: Innovation management, Knowledge management, SME’s growth, Performance management JEL Classification: M15, M31 1.

Introduction

The development of a knowledge-driven economy has become a key priority for both local business development agencies and central government as the way forward to sustain economic growth and enhance skills levels across all sectors. Within what is known as the knowledge economy, at the level of SMEs, developing strategies to differentiate the organisation in the marketplace, creating knowledge in the organisation and utilising human assets are essential ingredients for success. For the SMEs within a specific cluster to be effective in their broad business development, investment in good practice human resource management activities and the identification and development of talent are key.

In order to respond positively to the rapidly changing environment and to perform effectively in spite of uncertainty, firms need to devote much of their time and effort in listening carefully to their customers, while at the same time participating in the development of their organizations so that they are able to effectively respond to the changing business environment.

Traditional forms of management for successful SMEs of the future will not be sufficient to meet these changing demands and a wider participation in the development of the organization and management of the business process will be vital ingredients for future organizational effectiveness. While the notion of the learning organization is not yet clearly

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defined and many authors on the subject have difficulty in reaching agreement as to the exact nature of, and the key ingredients of, the learning organization, many are agreed on the benefits.

The foundation of organisational competitiveness in the contemporary economy has shifted from physical and tangible resources to knowledge. The key focus of information systems has also changed from the management of information to that of knowledge.

Many organisations are increasingly viewed as knowledge-based enterprises in which formal knowledge management (KM) is essential. Nowadays, KM is rapidly becoming an integral business activity for organisations as they realise that competitiveness pivots around the effective management of knowledge.

2.

Action learning SMEs

Action learning is a means of development, intellectual, emotional or physical that requires its subject, through responsible involvement in some real, complex and stressful problem to achieve intended change, sufficient to improve his intended behaviour henceforth in the problem field [1]. There are several questions which have arisen by SME owner managers from the literature, and which would need to be addressed in order to convince them that power sharing in the organization through widening questioning and reflection would be beneficial to the business: a. If the learning organization model is so effective in terms of business performance, why isn't it more widely used?

Entrepreneurs according to the literature are by nature individualistic, desire almost total control on the direction and policies of the organization and find delegation difficult. This constraint can be further exacerbated when direct control of the company is in the hands of a family oligopoly. Another barrier (as shown in literature) emerges from negative feelings of SME owners and managers directors towards the higher education sector in general and academic research in particular. b. Why entrepreneurs find it difficult to share power?

As some of the high profile entrepreneurial icons who were casualties of the late 1980s and early 1990s have demonstrated the nature and structure of organizations do change through time. Concomitant perhaps with those changes to the structure come a requirement for a shift in management emphasis from entrepreneurship to professional management. c. When we are struggling for survival, we have not got the time to be engaging in esoteric discussion and learning. We need immediate results?

The company then has the opportunity for more empowered and enabled people to navigate effectively through change and uncertainty. Indeed, it is a key role of management to manage change effectively, in order to generate a learning culture within the organization which produces the climate not only to survive but to flourish. d. How can we implement a learning model in a practical context when the concept of the learning organization is so difficult to tie down?

The learning company is not a standard formula to follow, or a proven winning formula to be benchmarked and imitated. It is a proposal, an invention and a broad concept that is the best suggestion that can be made about how work and organizations proceed in this period of history. It is for us all to experiment with responsibility and imaginatively through a process that will itself be one of learning and discovery [2].

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e.

Isn't extending effective marketing effort in the organization going to produce improved profits, not extending learning?

One of the key strengths of the SME sector is their closeness to the customer. The knowledge which the SME marketer has of his or her customer base and their businesses enables change in terms of the individual customer demand and signals from the market to be perceived and managed in a speedy and effective manner. The critical challenge for any business is to create the combination of culture and climate that maximizes organizational learning on how to create superior customer value in dynamic and turbulent markets, because the ability to learn faster that competitors may be the only source of competitive advantage.

The learning culture and climate created by action learning produces the trust, openness, flexibility and eventually effectiveness which lead to the competitive of advantage.

3.

SMEs factors in accomplishing KM

In the literature are indicated numerous factors that had been identified as important for accomplishing KM. Although different researchers have used different terminologies to indicate these factors, they can be represented by generic themes. Based on the literature, the basis for KM adoption in the SME sector are [4]: • leadership and support; • processes and activities; • motivational aids; • resources; • culture; • information technology; • strategy and purpose; • measurement; organisational infrastructure; • training and education; • human resource management.

The top three factors according to the SMEs are recognized by literature to be ‘‘senior management support and leadership’’, ‘‘a knowledge-friendly culture’’ and ‘‘a clear strategy for managing knowledge’’, while the bottom three were ‘‘development of a technological infrastructure’’, ‘‘incentives to encourage KM practices’’ and ‘‘measuring the effectiveness of KM’’. With regard to the ‘‘contributors’’, ‘‘senior management support and leadership’’, ‘‘a clear strategy for managing knowledge’’, and ‘‘a knowledge-friendly culture’’ were ranked the highest, while ‘‘roles and responsibilities for KM’’, ‘‘development of a technological infrastructure’’ and ‘‘measuring the effectiveness of KM’’ were the least critical.

In order of importance (ranked from the highest to the lowest) for implementing KM in the SME sector are [6]: I. management leadership and support; II. culture; III. strategy and purpose; IV. resources; V. processes and activities; VI. training and education; VII. human resource management;

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VIII. information technology; IX. motivational aids; X. organisational infrastructure; XI. measurement.

The specialists argue that there are differences in the perceived importance of factors for adopting KM, between large and small businesses. Successful KM in SMEs requires proactive entrepreneurial support and leadership from top management. Besides its importance, the fact that this factor was ranked the highest means that it should be addressed first, before dealing with the other critical succes factors. Top management or leaders should devote themselves to promoting a corporate mindset that emphasises cooperation and knowledge sharing across the organisation. They should also contribute to the creation of an environment in which knowledge creation and cross-boundary learning can flourish. More essentially is for them to provide continual support and commitment to initiate and sustain the KM effort.

The second most important factor, culture, indicates that a knowledge-friendly cultural foundation is certainly more important than the deployment of information technology in KM. It has been asserted that the success of KM is 90 per cent dependent on building a supportive culture [4]. Important facets of a knowledge-oriented culture include such attributes as trust, collaboration and openness.

Another important criterion for effective KM is to have a clear strategy and purpose. A rational strategy helps to clarify the business case for pursuing KM, and steer the company towards becoming knowledge-based. In addition, it provides the essential focus, as well as values for everyone in the organisation. SMEs differ from large companies, because they suffer from resource scarcity. Consideration of resources’ availability as well as their proper allocation and management are therefore of prime importance for SMEs in adopting KM. It is also crucial not to overlook those factors which were ranked to be less important such as information technology, motivational aids, organisational infrastructure and measurement. It is indisputable that information technologies such as document management systems, information retrieval engines, relational and object databases, groupware and workflow systems, push technologies and agents, and data mining tools can facilitate KM. However, technology should not be seen as an absolute answer to KM, since it is only a tool.

4.

The identification knowledge capital within SMEs

KM practitioners cannot afford to ignore the value that can be gained from HRM. After all, people are the sole originators of knowledge. Traditionally owner/managers of SMEs do not pay a great deal of attention to their own development, in large part because of a perceived lack of time, when other priorities compete for attention. Where the owner/manager is highly entrepreneurial, the focus of business development is often on technical, financial or marketing based initiatives rather than on people development. Often very small firms do not have the luxury of employing a human resources specialist to help with the identification, design and delivery of development opportunities, nor indeed do they think of locating such activities strategically within company plans. Where this does happen, it has been found that the positive attitude of the owner/manager and his/her understanding of business benefits are the key driving forces. Effective recruitment of employees is crucial because it is through this process that knowledge and competences are

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brought into the organisation. Employees with the required knowledge and desired skills to fill knowledge gaps should be recruited.

Entrepreneurs, demonstrating creative flair and associated characteristics, will be able to translate their drive, motivation and creativity into action. They will bring about change and make things happen for them and their business. The entrepreneurial management is often described as[5]: • opportunistic: continually searching for new opportunities; • value-driven: based on personal values and drive; • value adding: seeking to increase the value of organisational resources; • risk taking: able to accept some risk in introducing changes; and • creative: able to innovate and take forward ideas into sustainable development.

In the SME sector in particular the combination of entrepreneurial skill with commercial focus and continued knowledge acquisition and application will be the key drivers of success. Many venture capital companies connected with high-tech start-ups, also make it a prerequisite for the SME to have some demonstrable management team capability in place to take things forward. This is a very good reason for the SME to invest in staff and, in particular, in managerial development. Two levels of development are required, at senior management and the lower employee levels. Both of those levels are extremely important in the growth and development of the SMEs. A range of personnel were found to be responsible for human resource (HR) activities, including the identification of development needs. In many cases this work is undertaken by senior managers themselves. A pattern of involvement by such parties is common in the SME sector. Employee development is seen as a way to improve and enhance the personal value of individuals. The skills and competences of knowledge workers need to be continuously developed in order for them to produce valuable contributions to a company. If not, as with other tangible assets, their value will depreciate. SMEs have to provide appropriate professional development activities to their employees.

In terms of a toolkit to be developed to help SMEs professionals, their approach to managing their human capital and ensure longer-term growth, a number of areas of content were identified from the research. These include: • strategic HR planning including assessment of labour availability; • professional recruitment and selection; • training needs analysis of new and existing personnel; • performance appraisal; • pay and reward strategies; • career planning and development; • HR policies and procedures; and • employment legislation.

It would also be possible to cover some of these areas through placing a particular HR focus on soft skills development included in any senior management development programme to be run by the university.

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Conclusions

The management leadership and support are perceived to be the most critical factor, whereas measurement was the least. The critical factors of success in KM as well are useful for both managers and researchers. Since SMEs may not be able to manage all

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aspects of KM at the same time, an ordered list of the factors of success will provide a clue to SMEs to prioritise and adjust their KM practices.

Concerning the human capital and KM, the companies are considering how to grow their managerial talent at both the top of the organisation and at the next level down.

A number of factors such as lack of resources, availability of personnel for release to undertake development programmes and types of development opportunities available were hindering their progress. Their small size and lack of specialist in HRM expertise, in terms of strategic HR planning, talent identification and utilisation in terms of career development, are very obvious.

Bibliography: [1] Choueke Richard; Armstrong Roger - “The learning organization in small and medium-sized enterprises -A destination or a journey?”, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, Vol. 4 N0. 2, 1998, pp. 129-140.

[2] Burgoyne, J.; - "Feeding minds to grow the business", People Management, 21 September, Vol. 1 N0. 19, 1995, pp. 22-6.

[3] Sanz-Velasco Stefan - "Opportunity development as a learning process for entrepreneurs", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, Vol. 12 No. 5, 2006, pp. 251-271.

[4] Wong Kuan Yew; Aspinwall Elaine - "An empirical study of the important factors for knowledge-management adoption in the SME sector", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 9 No. 3, 2005, pp. 64-82.

[5] Keogh William; Mulvie Angela; Cooper Sarah - "The identification and application of knowledge capital within small firms", Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 12 No. 1, 2005, pp. 76-91.

[6] Wong Kuan Yew - "Critical success factors for implementing knowledge management in small and medium enterprises", Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 105 No. 3, 2005, pp. 261-279.

[7] Dalotă Marius-Dan; Tănăsoaica Laura - "Implications of resource planning, innovation and learning for work processes and performance management", Romanian Economic and Business Review, Vol.5, no.1, 2010, pp. 132-138.

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THE SCIENTIFIC CONTENT OF MANAGEMENT MARKETING AND MARKETING MANAGEMENT Professor Ion SMEDESCU, PhD Romanian-American University 1B, Expoziţiei Avenue, Sector 1, Bucharest

Professor Mihai PAPUC, PhD Romanian-American University 1B, Expoziţiei Avenue, Sector 1, Bucharest papuc.mihai@profesor.rau.ro

Abstract: In the last decenniums, economic literature has debated more and more vividly a new concept – Management Marketing1. The rightful understanding of this compound noun has to take in consideration the complex content of the two sciences, the way in which their conceptual defining, methods and specific instruments appear in the common relation generated by processes and connections through which the company’s activities are organically integrated in its economical and social environment.

The present paper brings into discussion some points of view that could contribute to the conceptual understanding of the notions of Management Marketing and Marketing Management, but also brings some information concerning other expressions linked to these two notions, namely: management of marketing activities (or Management of marketing), marketing of management, managerial marketing or even marketing of marketing.

Keywords: management, marketing, management, managerial marketing.;

management

marketing,

marketing

JEL Classification: M31 The deep knowledge of both management and marketing and, especially, of their convergent evolution, within the company-environment relation, has as point of departure the separate explanation of the two concepts’ scientific content.

Management is the coordination process of human, informational, physical (material) and financial resources, in order to accomplish organization’s goals (Nicolescu O.,Verboncu I., 1999, pg.16). From a functional point of view, this contains all the actions

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The compound noun Management Marketing should not be mistaken with the association

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that need to be done in order to lead an organization, with the purpose of accomplishing its objectives.

The functions of management have been settled from 1916 by Henry Fayol in its book called „Administration industrielle générale”, namely: planning, organizing, command, coordination and control.

The management has a normative dimension through which it identifies the company’s potential and settles its principles, norms and objectives for its existence and development; a strategic dimension consisting in plans, decisions and actions for the accomplishment of the objectives settled; and an operative dimension consisting in implementation of the strategic plans in the practical activity.

Marketing represents a complex of practical activities, programmed and organized with a general objective of adapting the production to the actual and future needs of the market and of trading the products in the best conditions (Florescu C., 1992, pg.68).

The main functions of marketing are: investigation of market and consume needs; connecting the company to the dynamic of the economical-social environment; satisfying consumers’ needs; getting an optimal profit.

Marketing assumes a maximum receptivity concerning the changes in the market and society as a hole, a high adaptation capacity to the consumer needs’ evolution, a single vision (marketing vision) over all the activities that form the products and services’ economical cycle.

The term “Marketing Management” is taken over from the English literature and is the title of a valued book from 1967, considered a milestone for the marketing thinking, its author - Philip Kotler being, by common consent, appreciated as the father of modern marketing.

The translation of this term in Romanian, especially Teora Publishing House translation, as “Managementul marketingului” (the management of marketing), wanted to be a correct grammatical expression, but the term used does not reflect the content of the book, which has a larger vision.

Anyway is written, thought or translated, the term Marketing Management or Management Marketing represents a dual concept.

From the marketing perspective, leading all the company’s activities has in view the market and the permanent satisfaction of consumer needs, which means that marketing is a central and guiding concept of management.

From the management perspective, marketing is a main function of the company, that monitors all the activity, especially limit situations (strong points, weak points, opportunities and threats) that have to be dealt with within the so-called management of marketing process, with activities specific for management (analysis, coordination, control).

Because marketing is a young science, still suffering clarifications and delimitations, many economists tend to adopt this term as a main function within the company and not as a guiding principle in all the company’s activity.

The concept of Management Marketing (or Marketing Management) must not be understood as an assembly of knowledge resulted from the fusion of the two. It can be considered as a complex concept born from the interdisciplinary approach of one of the most important aspects of the social-economical activity, namely the company-environment relation.

When we make the grammatical accord between the two words - management of marketing (Managementul marketingului) or marketing of management (Marketingul managementului) – it is easier to define the object of activity.

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The management of marketing (managementul marketingului), often translated as the management of marketing activities, is understood as a complex of activities containing: „planning, coordination and control of all the company’s activities oriented towards the potential markets, with the objective of accomplishing a permanent satisfaction for the clients needs” (Florescu C., Mâlcomete P., Pop Al. N., 2003, pg.352).

As systematic planning, coordination and control are general functions of management, marketing and management professionals believe that management of marketing process is made of the next three phases: analysis, containing all the essential elements of the marketing system (demand, supply, clients, competition, trading goods) and of the company (strong points, weak points, opportunities and threats – SWOT analysis); coordination, which has in view the settling of the main marketing objectives, adopting the corresponding strategies and planning concrete activities in order to achieve the objectives; control, which has to assure the implementation of the strategies and of the marketing mix in the organization’s activity.

Philip Kotler affirms that the management of marketing contains „planning, leading and control of all the company’s marketing activities in order to make and maintain some profitable changes” (Kotler Ph., Saunders J., Armstrong G., Wong V., 2008, pg.757).

Within this concept, the main place is held by the management of demand, concretized in the formulation of objectives, policies, programs and strategies for all the problems related to obtaining performances from the activity carried on.

A broader and more recent view of the expression management of marketing („Managementul marketingului”) shows that this term „expresses the manner in which the processes and management relations are organized and carried on by incorporating the marketing philosophy (vision, optic) with its entire suite of concepts, methods, techniques and instruments” (Niculescu O., Verboncu I., 1999, pg.37), becoming more and more clear and visible the so called „market oriented management”.

Marketing of management and marketing of marketing are concepts approached especially by the American school of management through its representative Igor H. Ansoff and by the English school of marketing through Michael Thomas.

In Ansoff’s vision, marketing of management represents the continuous scanning of the external and internal environment in order to obtain the signals concerning the evolution of strategic elements, capable of influencing the company’s operations. The strategic element is Ansoff analysis unit and not the other conventional elements of the business environment (competition, risks, opportunities), which represent the analysis area of marketing.

The marketing of marketing concept, developed by Michael Thomas (Thomas M., 1998, pg.35-36), implies that marketing must improve its reputation as information supplier in markets and consumer needs areas and create closer relations with the other knowledge generating disciplines.

Thus, marketing must act on three plans: a cultural plan, where specialists support their theories and guidelines placing the client on the first place in goods’ circulation chain; a strategic plan, where marketing has a set of techniques for managing internal and external markets and a suite of strategic alternatives for every component of marketing mix (product, price, distribution, promotion); a tactical plan, where it should be considered all the practical actions for the implementation of the strategies.

A different concept and term compared with the Management Marketing combination described above, yet connected with these two words, is the term managerial marketing –linked to the company’s most important production factor, human resources.

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Also called Job-marketing, this concept develops the theory concerning the organizatio and developing of selection, education, training and hiring of the best specialists for leading activities.

According this concept and having in view the marketing side, the manager employee have to be permanently aware of the present and future demands of the company and of the market, in order to adopt the necessary measures for satisfying the buyers in maximum efficiency conditions.

The main objective of managerial marketing is the study of high skilled labor force demand and its satisfaction by hiring the selected personnel in areas with optimal conditions for the execution of this profession and insuring a maximum economical and social efficiency. Accomplishing this objective implies the elaboration of some special programs, taking into account the fact that the managerial labor force producer is the university, the coach is the perfection center and the beneficiary is the company.

The professionally formed manager has to correctly handle and combine the management and marketing techniques when coordinating the entire economical and social activity.

Conclusions: The distinct approach of the concepts of management and marketing, but also their interdisciplinary approach by surprising the common relation generated by the organic integration of the company’s activities in its environment, represent one of the important premises for the correct defining of the new scientific domain named Management Marketing.

Bibliography: [1]. Ansoff H. I.- Implanting Strategic Management, Prentice-Hall International, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1984; [2]. Florescu C. (coordinator) – Marketing, Editor Marketer-Grup Academic de Marketing şi Management, Bucureşti, 1992; [3]. Florescu C., Mâlcomete P., Pop Al. N. – Marketing. Dicţionar explicativ, Editura Economică, Bucureşti, 2003; [4]. Kotler Ph. – Managementul marketingului (translation), Editura Teora, Bucureşti, 2007; [5]. Kotler Ph., Saunders J., Armstrong G., Wong V. – Principiile marketingului (translation), Editura Teora, Bucureşti, 2008; [6]. Niculescu O., Verboncu I. – Management, ediţia a II a, Editura Economică, Bucureşti, 1999; [7]. Olteanu V. – Management Marketing: o provocare ştiinţifică, Editura Ecomar, Bucureşti, 2002; [8]. Papuc M. – Marketing, Editura Era, Bucureşti, 2000; [9]. Purcărea Th., Franc V.I. – Marketing-evoluţii, experienţe, dezvoltări conceptuale, Editura Expert, Bucureşti, 2000; [10].

Thomas M. – Manual de marketing (translation), Editura Codecs, Bucureşti, 1998.

[11]. Smedescu I.(coordinator) – Marketing, Editura Universitară, Bucureşti, 2004.

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The President of SSMAR, Professor Constantin ROŞCA, PhD (who is also Executive Director of the Association of Faculties of Economics in Romania - AFER, and Member of the Editorial Board of the “Holistic Marketing Management” Journal) , allowed us to present the Laudatio made by him, and read by Professor Viorel LEFTER, Member of the Executive Board of SSMAR (Professor Viorel LEFTER is one of those who had the great honour of being received to discuss personally with the “Father of Management”, Peter F. DRUCKER), on January 12, 2012, on the occasion of the Diploma Award ceremony held at the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest.

Professor Levent ALTINAY (who is also one of the distinguished Editorial Board Members of „Holistic Marketing Management” Journal), received the Diploma of Honorary Member of SSMAR from Professor Professor Gheorghe ZAMAN, President of the Scientific Council of SSMAR (Professor Gheorghe ZAMAN is an Associate Member of the Romanian Academy, Vice President of the Economic, Law, and Sociological Sciences Section of the Romanian Academy, President of the General Association of Economists from Romania - AGER, Chairman of the Group of Experts of the Romanian Distribution Committee, and the Director of the Institute for National Economy - IEN, the oldest public settlement of economic research in Romania).

LAUDATIO To Professor Levent Altinay, PhD on the occasion of the Honorary Member Award Ceremony Thursday, January 12, 2012 The Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, Virgil Madgearu Hall Dear Professor Altinay, Dear Colleagues, Distinguished guests, It is a privilege for me to read the Laudatio for a distinguished personality in today’s challenging debate of finding the right balance at system level for higher education systems to both produce high level research and meet social and educational objectives at a reasonable social price, knowing that academic research is understood as research and development undertaken in the higher education sector. As we all know, Oxford Brookes University is a premier learning and teaching institution with an outstanding research record, and is the only UK modern university to have achieved 24 subjects rated as excellent for teaching, having a longstanding reputation for employability, and being host to two national centres of excellence in teaching and learning.

The Senate of Romanian Scientific Society of Management (SSMAR) decided unanimously to award the title of Honorary Member to Professor Levent Altinay, PhD for his acknowledged sustained contributions to the field of strategic hospitality

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management, entrepreneurship, strategic alliances and international business within the context of hospitality and service related industries, for his research that offers value and relevance to both practitioners and policymakers, and for his struggling to continuously refine the curriculum development that benefits students in highereducational institutions, and, thus the forward advancement of the industry.

Levent Altinay (PhD, MSc and BSc) is a Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, at Oxford Brookes University Business School. Using primarily qualitative methods as well as mixed methods, he is particularly interested in how entrepreneurs start up and develop their businesses and also how firms establish partnerships internationally.

Professor Levent Altinay Levent has strong record of attracting blue chip external funding, having secured funding from the ESRC (£100k) and the British Academy (£7.5k) as well as funding from Hong Kong Polytechnic University (£20k) and Macau Institute of Tourism (£10k) for an international collaborative project. His ESRC funded project aimed to investigate how entrepreneurs' socio-cultural backgrounds influence the entrepreneurial orientation of firms and how this in turn influences firm growth. This study was conducted with particular reference to Turkish and Chinese small firms in London, operating in a variety of sectors including manufacturing, retailing, and catering. Different stakeholder groups, including the Association of Community Based Advisors have taken the findings of the project on board and started to develop more effective training programmes for ethnic small businesses.

Professor Levent Altinay has authored and co-authored very challenging books (which have been named on Elsevier’s Hospitality & Tourism 2010 Best Seller list), released by prestigious Publishers: Strategic Management for Hospitality and Tourism, Butterworth-Heinemann, July 2010, (Levent Altinay, Fevzi Okumus, Prakash Chathoth), Strategic Management for Hospitality and Tourism: Content and Process, Elsevier Science & Technology, 07 January 2010 (Fevzi Okumus, Levent Altinay), Planning Research in Hospitality & Tourism, Elsevier Science, USA, 2008 (Levent Altinay), Planning Research in Hospitality & Tourism, Butterworth-Heinemann, 1 edition, 30 Nov 2007 (Levent Altinay, Alexandros Paraskevas).

The Book „Strategic Management for Hospitality and Tourism: Content and Process”, for example, targets all those studying cutting edge theories and views on strategic management. The book’s unique selling proposition is that it approaches the latest in strategic thinking and theories at the same time providing critical and analytical discussion on whether these models and theories can be applied to the industry and how, within specific contexts such as culture, profit and non-profit organisations. It includes supporting up-to-date case studies related to the strategy content, context and process, from international industries such as Radisson, McDonalds, Carnival Cruiselines and Disney. It also features online support material for both tutors and students, along with guidelines for instructors on how to use the textbook, and case studies with additional exercises and web links for students.

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Professor Levent Altinay has chaired numerous international conferences, and coedited special editions of journals as well as serving as an editorial board member for numerous journals, and the guest editor for the International Journal of Service Industry Journal. The faculty of Economics, Department of Business Studies and Environment, University of Piemonte Orientale, Italy, and Koc University, Turkey recently appointed him as a Visiting Professor. His work has been published or accepted for publication in International Small Business Journal, Small Business Management Journal, Journal of Services Marketing, The Service Industries Journal, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Annals of Tourism Research and Tourism Management. He is also a distinguished Member of the Editorial Board of the Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine, and of the Holistic Marketing Management Journal of the ManagementMarketing School of the Romanian-American University.

Let me conclude on a personal note. I agree that while „research is creating new knowledge” (Neil Armstrong), „there is no substitute for face-to-face reporting and research” (Thomas Friedman). I also agree that „the important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them” (William Lawrence Bragg), and „the most remarkable discovery made by scientists is science itself” (Gerard Piel). And paraphrising Antoine de Saint-Exupery, „as for the future, our task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.” If I’m wrong, that means I’m an expert, because as Niels Bohr said: „An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field”. But I’m convinced that I’m not wrong when I consider the utility of such comprehensive approach to knowledge– sharing within the actual specific advances in the hospitality industry enabling an increased quality of services, while trying to stimulate both, the capitalization of all customer touchpoints, and the partnership for a responsible and a sustainable hospitality industry development.

Allow me, Dear Colleagues and Distinguished guests, to hand in the specific signs of appreciation the Diploma of Honorary Member of SSMAR.

Professor Constantin Roşca, PhD President of SSMAR

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WORKING PAPER REGARDING THE VITALITY OF WORK SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT DURING THE POST MERGER INTEGRATION OF RESOURCES Assistant Lecturer Alexandra MIRONESCU, Ph.D Candidate, Romanian American University 1B, Ezpoziției Avenue, Sector 1, Bucharest

Professor Natalia BURLACU, PhD Universitatea Liberă Internațională Moldova, Chișinau

Mariana CRINTEA, PhD Candidate Universitatea Liberă Internațională Moldova, Chișinau Abstract: Organizations seek mergers and acquisitions for many reasons. The primary reason for large mergers and acquisitions is the potential benefit that can accrue to the stockholders of both companies. Synergy is often cited as a rationale for mergers.

In facing these new challenges, most of the organizations learned from experience that not only the material, informational and financial resources need to be optimized but alto the human resources must be continuously improved. And the best way of making human capital provide gainful results was found to be throughout educating it. So the basis of developing academic spin-offs are found once again in the need of putting valuable information in well cognitive developed person’s hands. Therefore distributing the most precious know-how must cover the specialized labor force.

In the context of the smoothing the capital flow movement at global level sizes we are witnessing at the transformation of dimensions, forms of organization and management of firms and corporations, and the shift towards a new dimension of development strategies and policies for conducting business, having as that central pillar the intellectual capital.

Keywords: post merger integration of resources, intellectual capital, work system improvement, synergy, gainful results.

JEL Classification: M51 INTRODUCTION

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Corporations seeking to implement growth strategies have a number of tactical options from which to choose. Mergers or acquisitions, joint ventures, and internal product or business development are ways of implementing growth strategies.

The human capital development strategies focuses on their dimensions in terms of strategic and operational needs of the national economy and ensuring efficient use of these resources. They will help formulate strategies for economic development through the establishment of future human capital requirements, by identifying ways to top use of this capital, where human capital will be available to support the implementation of plans for economic development. But it must be shown that there are stringent limits on the use of human capital, such as shortages of qualified personnel, difficulties in recruitment of labor, low labor productivity, lower flexibility and adaptability to climate or insufficient discourages cooperation and committed staff [1].

The modern society is characterized by a series of phenomena and by the apparition of certain processes which emphasize the fact that we find ourselves in a period of major changes that define the transition towards the necessity of knowledge.

1. POST MERGER WORK SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT In this context, promoting lifelong learning in the development of activities from different domains arouses interest. Regarding the sector of post merger integration, we consider that the most important aspects refer to: the human and collective dimensions in the globalization era, the exigencies of the modern world concerning the satisfaction of needs, the role of information access, in the context of the new exigencies of the modern world regarding the consumption and the role of the human resources in the coordinates of the new managerial concept, economic intelligence – the core of synergetic forces, the relation between the process of learning and the development of contemporary sciences.

Therefore, human capital represent the amount of all knowledge skills, skills and competences acquired by the consumer directly to educational services, put forward the production capacity of the economy, whose main feature are sustainable development and maintaining quality of life for human factors. From this perspective, human capital is indeed subject to depreciation. For this reason a decision for sizing the investment in human capital is rigorously analyzed, along with putting into balance the perspectives offered by various alternatives, and bringing into the equation the financial and nonfinancial efforts and the possible resulted effects [2].

Mergers and acquisitions are two frequently used methods for implementing diversifications strategies. A merger takes place when two companies combine their operations, creating in effect, a third company. An acquisition is a situation in which one company buys, and controls another company.

Horizontal mergers or acquisitions are the combining of two or more organizations that are direct competitors.

Concentric mergers or acquisitions are the combining of two or more organizations that have similar products or services in terms of technology, product line, distribution channels, or customer base.

Vertical mergers or acquisitions are the combining of two or more organizations to extend an organization into either supplying products or services required in producing its present products or services or into distributing or selling its own product and services.

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Conglomerate mergers or acquisitions involve the combining of two or more organizations that are producing products or services that are significantly different from each other.

Organizations seek mergers and acquisitions for many reasons. The primary reason for large mergers and acquisitions is the potential benefit that can accrue to the stockholders of both companies. Synergy is often cited as a rationale for mergers.

The interdependence between economic growth and human capital quality, determined the implementation of policies that support the return of "brains" in the country of origin, while ensuring the favorable conditions for their development in the workplace, in the purpose of promoting the maintenance and improvement of life quality for them.

In facing these new challenges, most of the organizations learned from experience that not only the material, informational and financial resources need to be optimized but alto the human resources must be continuously improved. And the best way of making human capital provide gainful results was found to be throughout educating it. So the basis of developing academic spin-offs are found once again in the need of putting valuable information in well cognitive developed person’s hands. Therefore distributing the most precious know-how must cover the specialized labor force.

From this point of view new business development, particularly in the context of high-tech or knowledge-intensive, is found by the organizations being a complex process in which many agents, organizations and other stakeholders are involved. Thus universities are expected to support further development of markets for innovation dissemination, and evaluation of their transfer to industry [3].

Therefore, many contradictions and the economic unit through which they develop led to the emergence of global problems requiring global solutions. In other words, because social problems were not resolved on a fair and effective cooperation at national level, with equal participation in rights of all stakeholders, they turned into real social crisis.

Therefore we should focus on ensuring optimal efficiency of staff training system by obtaining a report that rates the optimum allocated resources – results report and developing policies to promote increased labor mobility, as occupational type (between jobs) and the geographic type (between regions and countries), because this phenomenon contributes to social and economic progress to greater employment and work in a balanced and sustainable development.

2. PERPETUAL DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN CAPITAL WITHIN THE NEW ECONOMY Given that knowledge management is in the approaches, methods, techniques of companies focused on production and use of knowledge, which provides superior recovery compared to the previous period, with multiple facets of knowledge, developing a knowledge-based society is an essential condition in the evolution of economic and financial states [4].

Thus corporate management is acting to reorganize the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a company for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs. Alternate reasons for restructing include a change of ownership or ownership structure, demerger, or a response to a crisis or major change in the business such as bankruptcy, repositioning, or buyout. Restructuring may also be described as corporate restructuring, debt restructuring and financial restructuring.

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Figure 1: The Improvement of Work System by Eliminating the Undesirable Aspects, [5].

This figure shows the needed changes to be made in order for the work system to better function by eliminating the undesirable aspects of its operations which can be uncontrolled or unacceptable Benefits of virtual job improvement, it will undoubtedly noticed by reducing, and ultimately, the elimination of: ! ! ! ! !

Inefficiency: when worker’s effort produces an inadequate result; Fatigue: in bad designed positions people get tired very quickly; Accidents, Injuries And Errors: due to bad designs interfaces or physical or mental stress or excess; Difficulties in use for human operators: due to combinations that are inappropriate for making the subtasks dialogue / burdensome and unnatural interaction; Low Moral and Apathy: due to repetitive tasks monotony and lack of rotation on stations.

Taking into account the perpetual development of human capital within this new economy we can say that the use of new technologies is an evolutionary process, which allows improving business processes, provided there is a primordial ongoing review of strategies, techniques and tools to companies who choose the path to this new digital economy. Special role it plays, of course, globalization through the generalization of technological changes creating a substantive dimension of competitiveness between firms.

But at the same time, it cannot be obtained sustainable competitive advantages in the long term. Examples from the global market, demonstrates the validity of this concept.

Quality of life may also be intensified by improvements in the built environment.

Although scientific and technical progress has determined qualitative changes in the process of work, and increasing efficiency followed a path almost parallel with the improvement of working conditions, paradoxically the full recovery issues of human potential and decreasing effort not only that are very present, but became with the passing of time more complex.

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In the context of the smoothing the capital flow movement at global level sizes we are witnessing at the transformation of dimensions, forms of organization and management of firms and corporations, and the shift towards a new dimension of development strategies and policies for conducting business, having as that central pillar the intellectual capital [6].

Thus, in the circumstances of companies development from national to multinational, moral values and rules governing the economic game take birth under the aegis of competitive advantage, for the purpose of survival in a world market based on knowledge. From this perspective, social responsibility and ethical obligations of companies become more complex and dynamic than they have ever been before.

CONCLUSIONS From this point of view the methods of learning and many others ways to access information offer opportunities to expand mankind horizons. In order to survive in today’s changing world, with a global business environment and instantaneous access to information, we must continue to learn how to adapt and maximize our own growth potential. As technology evolves, new knowledge, skills, and abilities are created every day. An undergraduate or advanced degree earned tomorrow will incorporate many new aspects that were not even blips on the radar ten years ago. How then, to further our individual development? We must begin to see learning as more than just a formal education process and embrace continuing education and lifetime learning.

Thus the systematic assimilation of data and information potentially valuable for the individual and the organization represents a positive attitude which must be carefully developed by the human factors [7].

The transition from industrial economy to knowledge-based economy determines the incorporation of certain normative values of local business environments and their translations into a multinational and multicultural environment, based on economic sustainable development criteria more than on the moral correctness, which still show an increased dynamics.

Therefore, modern technique, although it releases human effort and increases efficiency, also broadened the area and variety of applications, by adding many unknown issues in the man-demand relationship. In these circumstances, there is natural and justified concern of modern society for the rational use of human energy, and the ergonomic research gains a special importance through the role of designing conditions for the effective recovery of human potential.

Thus, most corporations, being in the post merger integration stage are managing the interaction of human capital globally, and imposing its ethics needed for the economic progress, and implicitly improving moral practice in the business environment. Integrating local economic markets in the context of promoting intellectual capital as a strategic resource designs the premise that professional ethics begins from the moment that legal rules may not apply.

Bibliography: [1]. Nica Elvira, Health human resources planning and the dynamic nature of the health care needs of populations, Proceedings of the Fifth "Administration and Public Management" International Conference: "Public Institutions' Capacity to Implement the Administrative Reform Process", Bucharest, June 23-24, 2009 with number 19

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[2]. Elvira Nica, Gheorghe Popescu - Assessing the financial benefits of human resource development, Economics, Management and Financial Markets, vol 1, no. 3, Dec. 2006 Denbridge Press, New York [3]. Armenia Androniceanu , Managementul schimbarilor. Valorificarea potentialului creativ al resurselor umane, Editura CH Beck , Bucuresti, 1998 [4]. L. Voinea , Sfârşitul economiei iluziei, Criză şi anticriză, Editura Publica, Bucuresti 2009 [5]. Aurel Manolescu et all., The benefits of respecting ergonomic requirements within virtual workplaces, Global Conference on Business and Finance Proceedings, 2010, ISSN 1941-9589 online, Kona, Hawaii [6]. Ovidiu Nicolescu, Ion Plumb, Mihai Pricop, Ion Verboncu, (coordonatori lucrare), “Abordări moderne în managementul şi economia organizaţiei - Eficienţa economică şi performanţa managerială a organizaţiei” (volumul 4), Bucureşti,Editura Economică, 2003 [7]. http://www.strategy-implementation.24xls.com/en132

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RETHINKING THE “PREVENTION INNOVATION” IN THE HISPANIC CULTURE Mihaela MOLDOVAN, PhD The Florida State University 1816F Jackson Bluff Rd. Tallahassee, Fl, 32304, U.S. Abstract: In 1997, due to high rates of diabetes and increasing treatment and management costs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) introduced the largest national campaign to prevent diabetes. Despite the wide availability and accessibility of campaign materials and information, Hispanics still lack awareness and knowledge about healthy behaviors to prevent diabetes and fail to adopt physical activity and healthy eating habits as part of their daily routine. This proposal will focus on the re-invention and re-introduction of the health fair and other demonstrations as health promotion resources in areas with large number of Hispanic population. This report will highlight a hypothetical health campaign among Hispanics. The diffusion of innovations theory will serve as the foundation for developing this campaign.

Keywords: diffusion of innovation, social change, hispanic culture, health fair JEL Classification: M 31 I. Introduction In 1997, due to high rates of diabetes and increasing treatment and management costs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) introduced the largest national campaign to prevent diabetes (the National Diabetes Educational Program – NDEP) (National Diabetes Education Program, 2007). Concurrently, other health organizations and groups such as the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the American Heart Association (AHA) have developed campaigns focusing on prevention, management and treatment of diabetes (American Diabetes Association(a), 2008, American Diabetes Association(b), 2008; Hispanic PrWire, 2007). Despite the wide availability and accessibility of campaign materials and information, Hispanics still lack awareness and knowledge about healthy behaviors to prevent diabetes and fail to adopt physical activity and healthy eating habits as part of their daily routine (CDC, 2004). This proposal will focus on the re-invention and re-introduction of the health fair and other demonstrations as health promotion resources in areas with large number of Hispanic population. This report will highlight a hypothetical health campaign among Hispanics. The diffusion of innovations theory will serve as the foundation for developing this campaign. Diffusion of innovations is a theory of social change. The process begins when a new idea, product, service or behavior is diffused into the society (Rogers, 2003). It then continues with the adoption or rejection of the innovation which in turn will lead to certain consequences that will end with the alteration of the social structure. The process includes five steps that follow a certain rationality and sequence of purposes and behaviors. It starts

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with knowledge, continues with persuasion, decision, implementation and confirmation. In addition, the innovation itself is characterized by five attributes including relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability, which are expected to influence the rate of adoption (Rogers, 2003). To overcome some of the weaknesses of the diffusion of innovations theory, other elements from communication theories and health campaign planning will be employed to develop a culturally significant and individual relevant heath promotion campaign against diabetes.

II.Hispanic Cultural Characteristics Familismo and collectivism are important traits of the Hispanic culture. In Latin America, there is a strong sense of interdependence among members of a family or a group.

Most chores, activities and celebrations are done in a grouplike fashion. There is also a deep feeling of loyalty and reciprocity among individuals (Korzenny and Korzenny, 2005).

The young are responsible to take care and to provide for the old while the old are responsible to spread their knowledge to the young (Korzenny and Korzenny, 2005).

Because of this reliance on family to provide for each other in times of need and illness, prevention and planning are not common practices among Hispanics. Consequently, the relative advantage of the adoption of the prevention innovation should emphasize other benefits than prevention such as health activities that are group oriented and that emphasize a strong feeling of belonging and respect for the group and the family. Closely related to collectivism, Hispanic culture can also be viewed as a relatively homophilous society.

Language, history, religion and food are some of the elements that bring Hispanics together into a homogenous community (Korzenny and Korzenny, 2005). Rogers (2003) indicates that homophily can represent an obstacle to the acceptance of an innovation as new ideas usually enter the community through more innovative individuals. Individuals in a homophilious group usually interact with other individuals within their own system rather than with individuals outside their system, making it difficult for the innovation to get recognized (Rogers, 2003). Finding community and opinion leaders that can introduce the innovation in the system without being considered a threat to Hispanics’ own traditions and customs will facilitate the adoption of the innovation.

Another consequence of the homophilious nature of the Hispanic community as well as their strong family ties and close neighborhood relationships, is Hispanics’ tendency to seek advice through interpersonal channels of communication rather than though mediated channels (Korzenny and Korzenny, 2005). Group or community membership provides a venue where large numbers of individuals come together to exchange information. Group affiliations can also facilitate the dissemination of information in a more comfortable setting as materials and messages that come from the community will be received with greater level of trust and lower level of threat (Stephens, Rimal & Flora, 2004). The selection of communication medium thus, has important implications in the allocation of campaign resources to media versus interpersonal communication channels and in choosing community opinion leaders that help the target audience adopt the innovation. Opinion leaders and their network have very influential roles in the system of communication structure (Rogers, 2003). In Latin America, elders represent knowledge, experience and expertise. Younger family members and individuals look up to elders for guidance and support (Korzenny and Korzenny, 2005).

Similarly, individuals who become sick will turn first to the elders in the family for support and advice before they turn to more distant sources such as doctors. Thus, elders have the necessary prestige, communication network, social acceptability and

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competence to sway other individuals in the system towards adoption of innovations. They are potential gatekeepers that can introduce the innovation in the community.

The goal of the social norms approach, introduced by Perkins and Berkowitz (1986), is to correct the negative misconceptions about what is socially correct. Using this framework, Perkins and Berkowitz (1986) conducted a study among college students and their perception of peer frequency and amount of drinking. They concluded that students overestimate peer’s frequency and amount of drinking as well as peer’s positive attitudes towards drinking. Correcting these misconceptions will help reduce heavy drinking on campuses. Applying the social norms approach to the Hispanic community to correct their negative misconceptions about food, physical activity, health ideal and prevention promotes and establishes positive social norms towards healthy eating and exercising. Thus, if the preventive innovation becomes more acceptable and more strongly related to what is considered an acceptable social norm, Hispanics will be more likely to find the new behavior less complex and in opposition with cultural valueConcurrently, Naumer, Fisher and Dervin indicate that a person is viewed as “embedded in a context-laden situation, bounded in time and space” (p. 2). When community resources (presence of bike trail and parks in the community) are supportive of the campaign goals and establish leisure and regular physical activity as a social norm, the promotional materials are more likely to be persuasive and convince Hispanics to adopt regular physical activity. When planning a health campaign cultural similarities as well as system characteristics and norms should be taken into consideration.

III. Campaign Development There are two central goals of this hypothetical campaign include: increasing physical activity and improving eating habits among Hispanics. The objectives will be achieved through participation in community activities and being exposed to community actions which will raise awareness and knowledge as well as encourage members to actively engage in physical activity and healthy eating. The campaign will run year long with evaluations conducted throughout and at the end of the campaign. The health fair concept is based on the transmission of persuasive educational messages about health issues to the target population in an entertaining environment where individuals will not feel vulnerable. The persuasive messages of the proposed campaign will be presented during a Hispanic social event. An advisory committee will be created that will be responsible for gathering all the resources necessary for the implementation of the campaign. In addition to the committee, community volunteers and health professionals will also participate in running the campaign. Latin American food experts will also be contacted to develop healthier recipes for the participants. In addition, volunteer dance instructors will be contacted to participate in the fair to teach participants dance styles that are less well-known.

The campaign will have three phrases and will be conducted as a pilot study in a city in Texas that is largely Hispanic. The first phase will last between two to three months and it will include exposure to campaign materials through media outlets that will increase awareness about the benefits of physical activity and healthy eating. During this stage the Hispanic community will also receive information that will increase their awareness about the second phase of the campaign. For the most part, brochures and radio announcements and PSAs will be used to accomplish the objectives for this segment of the campaign. In addition, minimum television interviews, radio interview and grassroots promotional

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activities will also be implemented. At this stage, the communication efforts are focused on delivering a uniform message to the large Hispanic community.

The second phase of the campaign which is the most complex one, aspires to increase Hispanics’ intentions to engage in physical activity and encourage them to adopt healthy eating habits. The promotional materials and persuasive messages will be presented during traditional fiestas, health fairs and various community socials and celebrations organized by campaign planners in collaboration with community volunteer and organizations. Health campaign planners and change agents will identify community leaders that would help diffuse the innovation into the larger Hispanic community. Through community funding as well as sponsorships and partnerships, campaign planners will fund and organize 18 traditional celebrations that will take place in the community during six month duration.

During each of the six months of the second phase, there will be three social events in the community. The first and the second one will be considered regular celebrations while the third one will consist of a community competition. When appropriate, community celebrations will integrate traditional fiestas and holidays such as Cinco de Mayo, Dia de la Raza, Dia de Los Ninos, Hispanic Heritage Month, the Three Kings and others (Florida Department of Education, 2008).

Hispanics will attend community gatherings that will offer them an opportunity to dance, play traditional games, eat traditional food and interact with other members of the community. The set up of the celebration will include booths that will provide traditional foods cooked in healthier ways along with recipes to learn how to cook the meals themselves. In addition, designated dance areas will also be set up. In each health fair, there will be multiple themes across the same social gathering: Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican and others to include all Central and South American countries. Each of these theme areas will exhibit dances and foods that are specific for each country. Each social event will feature different countries. When all countries exhibited their traditional foods, the themes will be reintroduced. Thus, both cultural similarities and differences will be incorporated in the campaign implementation.

Few hours before the start of each fair, Hispanic women that are innovative opinion leaders (mother-daughter involvement will be encouraged though not required) in the community will participate in free demonstrational workshops that will teach them how to cook healthy traditional foods. They will be assisted by food and health experts. Once the workshop is over similar foods like the ones that they cooked will be served as meal options during the social along with their recipes. Local vendors and restaurants who wish to affirm themselves and gain Hispanic market share, will provide meals that will satisfy the guidelines of healthy diet promoted in this campaign. The food stands and dance areas will also exhibit posters and brochures to inform participants about the health benefits of eating healthy and participating in regular physical activity. This workshop followed by the health fair will hopefully diffuse the innovation of tasty and healthy traditional foods to the rest of the community while giving innovative women the chance to experience themselves the advantages of these new recipes. The celebration will offer the opinion leaders the chance to experience cooking healthy foods themselves, in addition to providing them with a social context to interact and influence other individuals within their personal network.

Thus, the spreading of the innovation takes place in a relaxed setting where individuals are more open to change and acceptance of new ideas. The dynamic component of the health fair will present physical activity as a fun, enjoyable and social exercise. Adults will engage in dancing and walking

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sessions as forms of physical activity. Similarly with the food booths, there will be dance areas specific to each country of origin (four traditional dance areas per social event) thus, conferring each individual a sense of belonging. Salsa is probably one of the most wellknown and practiced Latino dance, however, informal instructors will also be available to teach participants less known dances from other areas in Latin America such as Gato, Zamba and Cumbia (Bensusan and Carlisle, 1978). In addition, children will be reintroduced to old traditional childhood games such as soccer, escondidas19, el bote20 or el chicote21 (Castillo, 2008). Limited playground would be designed for children to play as well. However, due to limitations of space the traditional childhood games would be somewhat modified to fit the available play areas. There will be no specific promotional material designed for the Hispanic children. The campaign will indirectly target children through the social learning approach. The social learning theory indicates that people can learn by observing and modeling the behaviors of others and the outcomes of those behaviors (Bandura, 1977). Based on this theory, having parents and guardians adopt healthy behaviors, the campaign attempts to provide children with a standard model of healthy lifestyle as well as inspire them to imitate a model that is consistent with their culture and the environment. This will allow children to develop healthy eating habits and regular levels of physical activity that would persist during their adult life.

Reshaping the concept of physical activity will perhaps improve Hispanics’ attitude towards exercising. Some of these options have been tried before, although the burden of initiaindividual. The proposed project creates an environment that is familiar, open and conductive to adoption of physical activity without extensive effort from the Hispanic individual. In addition, dancing is portrayed as a social event that is not limited to certain age ranges.

Every third social event of the month during the second phase of the campaign will consist of a community competition, more precisely a mother daughter and father-son competition. The set up of the gathering will be similar, except each booth will represent families competing for a general prize. Thus, each pair that will enter the competition will have to prepare a traditional food following one of the recipes given throughout the summer during previous socials. The making of the healthy traditional food will take place before the official start of the competition and will be assisted by food experts to confirm the truthfulness of the recipes. The best recipes will win an event prize. Similarly, Hispanic fathers and their sons will engage in low to moderate level sporting events such as miniwalking marathons and other mini-games. The winning pair will also receive a price. The third phase of the campaign will return to the same characteristics of the first phase. This phase will last two to three months. During these three months brochures and radio announcements will be designed to remind community members of the healthy habits promoted during the summer time through the health fairs. Even though each part of the campaign targets the Hispanic individual, the overarching goal is to change the community in a way that it accepts and views physical activity and healthy eating habits as part of its cultural customs.

The proposed campaign has taken into consideration some of the most defining characteristics of the Hispanic culture, in an attempt to facilitate the dispersion and adoption of healthy behaviors such as regular physical activity and healthy eating habits.

Creating an environment that welcomes change and innovation, the campaign hopes to provide individuals with enough practical experience and knowledge to confidently adopt the new behaviors.

Collectivism was highly emphasized in this campaign. The games, the dance, the social concept were all supportive of collectivism. The preventive innovations were introduced in

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a cultural environment that was familiar to the members of the Hispanic community. A compatible relationship could emerge between the healthy behaviors and the cultural background. Physical activity and healthy eating would not be perceived as a threat to the Hispanic customs anymore. In addition, framing prevention within the context of a festival could synchronize it with beliefs about celebrating life rather than emphasize the contradiction with beliefs about fatalism. The compatibility between health and celebration would only grow stronger. The campaign subtly emphasized the respect for the elders as well. Having mother-daughter and father-son competitions strengthen the older-younger relationship. Thus, the relative advantage of the campaign will be highlighted through the respect for the family and elderly individuals in the community as well as the importance of group membership.

Campaign communication channels were also consistent with the cultural characteristics, the structure of the system and the preferences of the Hispanic individual.

Considering, the high level of social interaction between family members and the homophilous nature of the Hispanic community, the campaign allocated more resources towards communicating through interpersonal rather than mediated channels. Hispanic individuals were exposed to campaign messages in a social context and through the personal networks of the opinion leaders in the community. Less emphasis was put on mediated channels. Nevertheless, mass messages were distributed through radio and brochures during the first and last phase of the campaign. The first part raised awareness about the campaign and healthy behaviors and the last part reminded participants of the already experienced behaviors. Opinion leaders’ polymorphic style also helped to diffuse the prevention innovation through their personal network influences more rapidly than if an external change agent came into the community promoting the behaviors.

In terms of complexity, women were offered onsite workshops to practice methods of cooking healthy foods while being assisted by professionals. These new recipes used existing traditional and available food items that were inexpensive and very easy to acquire.

In addition, a sense of identification could be established with the dance instructors who were members of the community themselves which reduced Hispanics’ degree of perceived complexity of implementing physical activity in daily routine. Taking advantage of community resources, Hispanics did not feel strained to allocate money from their already low income to purchase gym passes or expensive foods. The campaign was design to attract active participation of all members of the community while employing existing community resources to reduce the attitude behavior gap. The advantages of the innovation as presented in the campaign are obvious and more immediate. The prevention aspect of the innovation becomes a secondary purpose in the eyes of the Hispanic participant, while pride, social acceptance, prestige and fun became the primary goals.

Lastly, observability was also somewhat present in this campaign but under a different form. Through the social learning theory, children are able to observe and hopefully model the healthy behaviors of their parents and other members in the community thus creating a strong foundation of a healthy lifestyle later in their adult life.

From a social marketing perspective, the campaign has addressed all of the important Cs: convenience, cost, communication and consumer. The consumer was at the forefront of all campaign decisions. Campaign promotional and educational materials were presented in a convenient and comfortable setting, the cost inferred to the consumer to conduct the promoted behaviors was minimal and the communication channels fit target audience’s cultural and individual preferences.

More importantly, the project attempts to overcome the major limitation of the diffusion of innovations theory by implementing other concepts from health

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communication theory and practices. The campaign tries to surpass the pro-innovation bias by using existing research to explore some of the reasons for the rejections of past innovations. Based on those conclusions, the campaign reinvents some of the previously implemented ideas. In addition, the individual-blame bias and the inequality concern are also taken into consideration. Showing Hispanics how they can take advantage of the existing resources regardless of their socioeconomic status, the innovation did not favor individuals with higher education, social status and opportunities.

IV. Partnerships and Sponsorships Partnership and sponsorships will be sought in the private sector, the food and beverage industry as well as health organizations and NGOs. In addition, the healthy meals exhibited at the fair will be made available through possible contracts with food and beverage vendors that are interested in attracting the Hispanic market. The foods and drinks provided through this venue will have to correspond to certain health standards that are consistent with the message of the health fair. Community and Hispanic organizations will be encouraged to participate with monetary allowances or volunteers. City official will also be sought to assure universal support. Lastly, the campaign will seek the financial and practical support of advertising and public relations agencies.

V. Evaluation and Monitoring Design The final stage of the health campaign includes the monitoring and evaluation of the campaign effort. Lefebvre, Olander and Levine (1999) suggest several components of evaluation and monitoring including what are the outcomes the campaign measures, how and when will the outcomes be measured and how will the results be reported.

The measure of the main outcomes include determining the change in awareness and knowledge levels about healthy behaviors as well as the change in behavioral intent. In addition, the evaluation will also consist of several process measures such as participation and contributions from outside sources including partnerships and sponsorships. Other measures consist of evaluations of participants’ satisfaction in and with the social events.

Campaign outcomes will be assessed through quantitative methods of evaluations.

However, qualitative methods such as in-depth interviewing will also be employed to determine areas where the campaign could improve and whether and why participants found the campaign a success or a failure.

The campaign will be measured in the beginning, throughout its course as well at the end of the cycle. The beginning measures will focus on people’s awareness of the campaign. More specifically, at the end of the first phase surveys will be distributed to Hispanics individuals in the community to assess their familiarity with the upcoming social event, their current knowledge about the benefits of the healthy behaviors promoted in the campaign materials and their current health behaviors. The measures employed throughout the campaign will assess community and individuals’ immediate feedback about the effectiveness of the campaign and will direct campaign planners to potential changes or adjustments. During the second phased of the campaign qualitative evaluation method will be used to determine perceptions and attitudes towards the campaign. Every two months, researchers will conduct multiple short interviews. The findings will serves as indications of any immediate changes that need to be made to the ongoing campaign. In addition, at the end of the second phase of the campaign, campaign researchers will conduct focus groups to get a better understanding of the strength and weaknesses of the social event segment of the project.

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After all campaign materials are distributed and all mid-campaign components are completed, a final overall evaluation will take place. At the end of the third phase, campaign evaluators will administer surveys again to determine campaign recall, behavioral intention as well as after-campaign eating and physical activity habits. The results will serve to the betterment of future campaigns.

This hypothetical campaign proposal introduces a new approach to marketing health to Hispanics. The campaign takes into considerations the deeply rooted Hispanic cultural beliefs as well as the socioeconomic shortcomings associated with being a minority, immigrant and having low income levels. A thorough understanding of a wide array of factors that impact Hispanics’ lifestyle choices can help campaign marketers develop materials and programs that connect with the Hispanic individual at both the emotional and practical levels.

Bibliography: [1]. American Diabetes Association(a), 2008. Feria de salud port tu familia. Accessed June 15, 2008.

[2]. http://www.diabetes.org/communityprograms-and-localevents/whatslocaldetail. sp?id=LOCALINFOITEM_304054&zip=90241&title= [3]. American Diabetes Association(b), 2008. Latinos and Diabetes. Accessed June 15, 2008.

[4]. http://www.diabetes.org/communityprograms-and-localevents/latinos.jsp [5]. Bandura, A., 1977. Social Learning Theory. New York: General Learning Press.

[6]. Bensusan, G. and Carlisle, C., 1978. Raices y Ritmos/Roots and Rhythms: Our Heritage of Latin American Music. Latin American Research Review, Vol. 13, No. 3, p. 155-160.

[7]. Berkowitz, A. and Perkins, H. Current issues in effective alcohol education programming. In: Sherwood, J.S. (Ed.) Alcohol Policies and Practices on College and University Campuses. Washington, D.C.: National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, 1987.

[8]. Berkowitz, A., and Perkins. H. 1986. "Problem Drinking among College Students: A Review of Recent Research." Journal of American College Health, Vol. 35, No. 1, p.

2128.

[9]. Castillo, G., 2008. Traditional Hispanic Children's Games Disappear.

[10]. Borderlands, An El Paso Community College Local History Project. Florida Department of Education, 2008. Hispanic and Latino Holydays. Accessed June, 2008.

[11]. http://www.fldoe.org/JustForTeachers/hhmholidays.asp [12]. Hispanic PrWire, 2007. Ad Council and Leading Diabetes Organizations Launch First Campaign to Educate Hispanics with Diabetes about the Importance of A1.

Accessed June, 2008.

[13]. http://www.hispanicprwire.com/news.php?l=in&id=9457&cha=9 [14]. Korzenny, F. & Korzenny, B., 2005. Hispanics marketing: a cultural perspective.

Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, Burlington, MA, U.S.

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[15]. Lefebvre, C., Olander, C. & Levine, E., 1999. The impact of multiple channel delivery on nutrition messages on student knowledge, motivation and behavior (Part I). Results from the Team Nutrition Pilot Study. Developing a plan for evaluating and monitoring.

Social Marketing. National Diabetes Educational Program, 2007. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Accessed June 15, 2008. http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/ndep/about.htm [16]. Naumer, C., Fisher, K. & Dervin, B. Sense-making a methodological perspective.

SHICHI Conference presentation.

[17]. Rogers, E., 2003. Diffusion of Innovations. Free Press, New York, NY [18]. Stephens, K. Rimal, J., & Flora, J., 2004. Expanding the reach of health campaigns: community organizations as meta-channels for the dissemination of health information. Journal of Health Communication, International Perspectives, vol. 9, p.

97-111.

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WORKING PAPER REGARDING THE HUMAN ORIENTED POSTMERGER STRATEGIES IN TERMS OF CSR Assistant Lecturer Alexandra MIRONESCU, PhD Candidate Romanian –American University 1B, Expoziției Avenue, Sector 1, Bucharest

Associate Professor Svetlana RUSNAC, PhD Universitatea Liberă Internațională Moldova, Chișinău

Marieta MICU, PhD Candidate Universitatea Liberă Internațională Moldova, Chișinău

Mariana CRINTEA, PhD Candidate Universitatea Liberă Internațională Moldova, Chișinău

Abstract: The society evolved and with it also the human’s professional needs. Employees want and need to be acknowledged for their valuable and extra contributions. Rewards and recognition are powerful tools for demonstrating appreciation and reinforcing those behaviors that lead to superior products, outstanding support, strong supplier relationships, and lifelong customers. Digitalized societies primary tool for providing spot rewards is new total rewards process, a resource for global compensation, benefits, variable pay, equity and rewards plus recognition program information as well as job architecture valuable information.

Regarding new tendencies, in order to grow profit or survive, more and more companies are merging, but, also in terms of successful post-merger integration the key to generating sustainable added value for companies stand for CSR. Every merger is unique and requires a customized solution, so the expected synergies can be generated and additional growth achieved is the CSR variable is also taken into consideration.

Also, the center of all, human resource, is without a doubt, the most important resource in every company. The efficient usage of human resources, the evaluation opportunities of the employees, the proper selection methods, special programs for personal training, are just a few examples for obtaining success of company’s activities. The human resource management represents the main area to improve in order to have a competitive market position. Regarding this, the implementation and development of informatics systems is considered to be a must in the human resources department.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, post-merger strategies, human capital, social responsibility guidelines, valuable opportunity for corporations.

Jel Classification: M51

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INTRODUCTION In the context of the smoothing the capital flow movement at global level sizes we are witnessing at the transformation of dimensions, forms of organization and management of firms and corporations, and the shift towards a new dimension of development strategies and policies for conducting business, having as that central pillar the intellectual capital.

Thus, in the circumstances of companies development from national to multinational, moral values and rules governing the economic game take birth under the aegis of competitive advantage, for the purpose of survival in a world market based on knowledge.

From this perspective, social responsibility and ethical obligations of companies become more complex and dynamic than they have ever been before.

In a society under globalization, in which information is global, the employment policies must become global itself, and that is the reason why, the work in a team is the most important part of training.

The globalization compels the organizations to redefine the employees’skills and competence, their specific work tasks and the marketing approaches. A progressive tendency is represented by the reduction of the products’ prices, of the services offered by manpower which is also cheap. The experts believe in the rivalry between the human capital in the developing countries and that in the western ones, the first being visibly more accessible due to the low retribution.

1. THE NEW ORGANIZATION

HR

WITHIN

THE

GLOBALLY

INTERTWINED

Marques argues that the new HR within the globally intertwined organization should have a focus on cross-functional HRD. Open communications between various departments and HR will reduce negative effects of internal politics and increase positive interconnectedness throughout the organization. A cross-functional unit will deepen the effectiveness of the organization’s most valuable resources, increase the organization’s success in implementing responsible HRD, and enhance the company’s chances to excel in its industry. HR as a cross-functional unit in an organization does not necessarily require a tremendous physical reorganization. “As anyone who has been part of an organizational change effort, the business organizations that will implement this operational model first will likely run into detractors and roadblocks. Yet those who implement such an adventurous undertaking will obtain a competitive as well as a comparative advantage. By ensuring the most important assets of any organization, that of an optimal level of recognition, trust, need response, and attunement between skills, desires, and organizational requirements, these organizations will have discovered the key to lasting and increasing excellence” [1].

As recognition is being known worldwide as the greatest motivator and one of the greatest strengths of any organization are the people who work there, the necessity of implementing the new total rewards process becomes acute.

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Source: Deborah E. Rupp, An employee-centered model of organizational justice and social responsibility, Organizational Psychology Review, 2011 SAGE Publications and the European Association for Work and Organizational Psychology, 2011 1: 72, pag. 77 [2] Long-service employees provide the knowledge, experience, and attitudes that are responsible for much of digitalized societies success. In recognition of this, new total rewards are presented to eligible employees in celebration of their career milestones and to acknowledge their contribution to the company [].

The society evolved and with it also the human’s professional needs. Employees want and need to be acknowledged for their valuable and extra contributions. Rewards and recognition are powerful tools for demonstrating appreciation and reinforcing those behaviors that lead to superior products, outstanding support, strong supplier relationships, and lifelong customers. Digitalized societies primary tool for providing spot rewards is new total rewards process, a resource for global compensation, benefits, variable pay, equity and rewards plus recognition program information as well as job architecture valuable information.

Essentially, the human oriented post-merger strategies in terms of CSR focuses on the sizing of human capital in terms of strategic and operational needs of the national economy and ensuring efficient use of these resources. Developing such strategies will build strategies for economic development through the establishment of future requirements for capital, by identifying top ways to use of this capital, where available human capital will support the implementation of plans for economic development.

However, it should be maintained the aspect that there are certain restrictive barriers in the

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use of human capital, being offered for instance, according to literature specialists: the deficit of qualified personnel, difficulties in recruiting labor, low labor productivity, insufficient flexibility and adaptability or the climate that discourage human operator’s cooperation and commitment.

Employees, therefore, look in, around, and out, in order to comprehend their working experiences, and depend on these judgments to navigate the organizational milieu.

A full understanding of justice phenomena requires consideration of individual differences; contextual influences; affective, cognitive, and social processes; as well as a person-centric orientation that allows for both time and memory to influence the social construction of worker phenomena.

2. HUMAN ORIENTED POST-MERGER STRATEGIES IN TERMS OF CSR By introducing the new total reward process the truly effective recognition will be no longer a program or a policy mandated by HR, it will become a way of organizational life that touches all corners of the organization most every day of the working week.

We are referring, primarily, to reformat the characteristics of training modules, which involve organizational integration of new employees and improvement of existing employees, being also a form of non-financial motivation of the staff, being as part of the variable components Electronic Learning, is proving to be often a valuable opportunity for corporations in maintaining a high rate of profit. A key factor of prosperity of a company is satisfaction of employees. Since the activities of a company have a high degree of sameness, a number of increasingly large employers are trying to provide opportunities for professional development, thereby contributing to increased satisfaction of employees, gives them the opportunity to professional grow, opening new prospects and eliminating tension of new responsibilities.

Thus, the analysis of stochastic variables that reflect the migration of human capital shows that at macro social level, human capital is estimated by aggregating the individual stocks of human capital. Aggregate human capital at national level has been used in particular to characterize the development of a country or to explain its growth.

So, a proper management of human capital allows not only the decrease of management personnel cost, but also the increase of individual profitability. The central pillar should be the positioning of the employee in the company strategy and the integration of all functions into traditional human resources management.

The organizations must ensure a favorable environment to the professional progress, to the job ascension, as well as a support for progress in the careers of those employees who have managed to make themselves respected by their colleagues through their hard work and worldwide recognized results. The beneficiaries of the information, research and development results are firstly the members of the entities, who increase, thus, their chances of professional success, then the organizations that take advantage of the exploitation of a specialized human capital (from their own financial sources or other legal ways) and, last but not least, the state/nation by rising the living standard of a well-prepared population.

In October 2011 the European Commission published a new policy on corporate social responsibility, the new policy puts forward an action agenda for the period 20112014 covering 8 areas [3]: Enhancing the visibility of CSR and disseminating good practices: this includes the creation of a European award, and the establishment of

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sector-based platforms for enterprises and stakeholders to make commitments and jointly monitor progress.

Improving and tracking levels of trust in business: the Commission will launch a public debate on the role and potential of enterprises, and organise surveys on citizen trust in business.

Improving self- and co-regulation processes: the Commission proposes to develop a short protocol to guide the development of future self- and coregulation initiatives.

Enhancing market reward for CSR: this means leveraging EU policies in the fields of consumption, investment and public procurement in order to promote market reward for responsible business conduct.

Improving company disclosure of social and environmental information: the new policy confirms the Commission’s intention to bring forward a new legislative proposal on this issue.

Further integrating CSR into education, training and research: the Commission will provide further support for education and training in the field of CSR, and explore opportunities for funding more research.

Emphasising the importance of national and sub-national CSR policies: the Commission invites EU Member States to present or update their own plans for the promotion of CSR by mid 2012.

Better aligning European and global approaches to CSR. Therefore, knowledge, information and communication are new factors of development, while the industrial speed of changes is determined by a global factor, also called the technical and scientific revolution. Now, knowledge is the most important strategic resource of material wealth and social development, and the computer is the technical symbol of change.

The long-lasting character of the educational process during a life time represents the longevity key in an organization and the core element of the educational institutions.

Holders of a serious self-educational skill will “orientate” the organizations’ way in future.

Statistics in this field confirm the doubling of the human knowledge volume, at every five years, and by the year 2020, at every 73 days. The huge amounts of information, stored on various data supports (traditional, magnetic, and optic) will certainly overwhelm those persons implied in learning and documentary activities. The odd feeling of uselessness regarding the “waves” of successive electronic resources that may be accessed off-line or on-line has become omnipresent [4].

Also the modern technique makes the human effort easier and increases the effectiveness enlarged the area and the variety of demands by adding many aspects or many "unknown" in the man-demand relationship. In these circumstances, it is justified and normal the modern society concern for more rational use of energy human, and so the ergonomic research is gaining great importance in the role of design work conditions and effective recovery of human potential [5].

CONCLUSIONS Taking into account the fundamental element that in the human transfer of information, the digital encoding became indispensable, prioritizing the risks in accordance with the parameters relating to their importance and the efficient allocation of necessary funds, reveals to be a priority axis in the optimizing of work processes, outlining in this

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way the levels of partial risk and levels of global risk for risk factors introduced into the automatic system as exogenous variables.

Thus, in the context of technological developments in modern society appears to be absolutely necessary to maintain the quality of life at an optimal level and to respect the integrity of human rights during their work activities. So, directives on safety and health are foreseen to be moving towards sizing research in the field of limiting accidents due to human errors [6].

Therefore, computerized management of risk factors introduced as exogenous variables in the analyzed system and at the same time their quantifying effectuated through digital encoding, allows the risk grading in accordance with the importance and frequency of maximum possible consequences on the human body, consolidating the control of known risks.

Hence, it is necessary to implement an integrated informational system for risk assessment, based on digital encoding, in order to enable real-time knowledge of human error production possibilities.

Bibliography: [1]. Nica Elvira, Health human resources planning and the dynamic nature of the health care needs of populations, Proceedings of the Fifth "Administration and Public Management" International Conference: "Public Institutions' Capacity to Implement the Administrative Reform Process", Bucharest, June 23-24, 2009 with number 19 [2]. Deborah E. Rupp, An employee-centered model of organizational justice and social responsibility, Organizational Psychology Review, 2011 SAGE Publications and the European Association for Work and Organizational Psychology, 2011 1: 72 [3]. http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sustainable-business/corporate-socialresponsibility/index_en.htm [4]. European Commission (2010) Communication from the commission, EUROPE 2020 A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth [5]. L. Voinea , Sfârşitul economiei iluziei, Criză şi anticriză, Editura Publica, Bucuresti 2009 [6]. Ovidiu Nicolescu, Ion Plumb, Mihai Pricop, Ion Verboncu, (coordonatori lucrare), “Abordări moderne în managementul şi economia organizaţiei - Eficienţa economică şi performanţa managerială a organizaţiei” (volumul 4), Bucureşti, Editura Economică, 2003%

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A BRIEF ANALYSIS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES Assistant Lecturer Roxana Nicoleta MATEI, PhD Candidate, Romanian-American University 1B, Expoziţiei Avenue, Sector 1, Bucharest rmateiura@yahoo.com Abstract: This paper deals with the growth processes, growth dimensions and the conditions for growth, especially for small and medium enterprises. It is presented the importance of a strong management mentality, capable of providing an adequate organizational planning and supporting competitive growth.

A firm’s growth has an important value because this way it develops, but how a certain growth is achieved is much more significant. The growth of an organization, the technologies that are being used to achieve all its activities, and the business strategies that have been mentioned are strictly related and also the organizational culture deals with technologies and growth. Furthermore, SMEs must adapt their management and must apply the market trends, in order to develop and to become successful.

Keywords: SMEs, ISO 9000, Quality standards, Knowledge Management, Knowledge transfer, Environmental Management, Strategic Management, Internationalization, Globalization.

Jel Classification: M10 1. INTRODUCTION It is obvious that small and medium enterprises or SMEs are companies whose headcount or turnover falls below certain limits. Nowadays the EU has begun to standardize the concept. Its current definition classifies companies with fewer than 50 employees as “small”, and those with fewer than 250 as “medium”. For instance, in the United States, when a small business is defined by the number of employees, it often refers to those with less than 100 employees, while medium-sized business often refers to those with less than 500 employees.

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises are significant from the social and economic point of view, since they represent 99 % of all enterprises in the EU and provide about 65 million jobs, thus contributing to entrepreneurship and innovation. However, they face certain hindrances which the EU and the national legislation strive to improve by granting many advantages to SMEs. It goes without saying that, in order to survive, maintain on the market and be successful, SMEs must adjust their management taking into consideration the new trends on the market.

2. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SMEs Good corporate governance requires the development of organizations. Moreover, in a globalized world, if SMEs want to participate more actively in sustained economic

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growth, they have to establish the main stages of their own development processes.

Developing organizations organically is a great challenge which most firms and also SMEs have to cope with.

Sustainable growth and profitability require technological innovation and attentive control perspectives. Innovation through new products and technologies has a tremendous impact on the organizations’ development. The development plans rely on more than new products; they also comprise innovation management and adequate management mentalities to adopt new technologies within several processes.

To maintain their competitiveness on the market, SMEs need to integrate, build and provide more functioning economic growth systems. These systems are based on proper technologies and applications, implementation logistics management, critical financial infrastructures, and information/knowledge distribution platforms.

SMEs should take into consideration the three main sources of growth: technological improvement, an increase in the quantity of capital and an increase in the number of workers. Improvement in productivity refers to the value of combining the investment and the technological improvement. But investment is not only directed towards equipment and other forms of real capital. Education, skills improvement and training are other fields where investment should be managed.

SMEs, just like any other enterprise, can enhance their activities and businesses in some aspects and grow in some dimensions. So, they can increase the number of markets where the company operates – The Internationalization and globalization are direct consequences of this measure. They should also increase businesses’ portfolios, because the company that is currently involved in a given industry can extend its investment to other industries in the future. Another relevant dimension is the magnifying of innovative technological processes – This trend of innovation is a decisive contribution for the businesses modernization and the implementation of competitive strategies. SMEs must also improve the integration level of the technologies – The management of technologies and the exploitation of all their potential is strictly connected to the possibility to integrate their synergies. And last but not lest, according to Alberto Carneiro, SMEs should increase the number of operational uses of technologies – Many technologies can have applications in various operations.

To get a better position for future growth in the global marketplace, an organization has to make efforts to increase its investments in R&D and to concentrate on the implementation of advanced production innovations and practices. By doing so, firms will contribute to important steps in the development of the national economy.

3. ISO 9000 CERTIFICATION BENEFITS Non-financial auditing and ISO 9000 quality system certification has triggered considerable confusion and frustration with managers, especially with the business value of this process. Thus, an important study was conducted in the UK by the Science and Engineering Policy Studies Unit (1994) it were identified the reasons why organizations become certified and it was also ascertained the effectiveness of ISO 9000 certification.

There seems to be a relation between the manager’s reasons for adopting ISO 9000 certification and the subsequent experience. Those organizations that follow ISO 9000 certification willingly and positively, according to a wide range of objectives are more likely to report improved organizational performance than those organizations that follow ISO 9000 certification in a reactionary way owing to the customer pressure.

The fundamental issue concerning the obtaining of the ISO 9000 certification is perception-based. Managers consider the ISO 9000 certificate as an end in itself rather than

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a means to an end. Many managers consider that certification ISO 9000 standard is synonymous with the adoption of a quality procedures or the winning of a quality award.

Managers misunderstand the role of ISO 9000 certification because they fail to make the difference between the conformity and the performance specification. ISO 9000 certification can bring business advantages, but should be viewed as a part of an overall continuous improvement process rather than an end in itself.

4. KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER IN SMEs External knowledge is generally considered vital for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This hypothesis is sustained by many studies, one of them being the research conducted by Shizhong Chen, Yanqing Duan, John S. Edwards and Brian Lehaney. This study was undertaken to report on an empirical investigation with the UK SMEs, mainly in the service sector, so as to identify their needs and practices regarding inter-organizational knowledge transfer. Eventually, the empirical evidence collected from the survey and interviews confirms the general belief that external knowledge is very important to SMEs, and demonstrates that SMEs have very acute needs for external knowledge and inter-organizational knowledge transfer.

Nowadays, knowledge has been considered the only meaningful resource. The traditional production factors have become secondary. It is straightforward to obtain them, provided there is knowledge. So, knowledge is the key to business success. That is why, remaining at the forefront and maintaining a competitive edge, require companies to have a good capacity to retain, develop, organize, transfer and utilize their knowledge resources.

This requires systematic knowledge management (KM). Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly contributing to the success of a national economy.

SMEs distinguishes from large companies, having the following features: flexibility and volatility, skill (or expertise) shortages, very limited market power, market behaviors that are mainly influenced by partners, or competitors. Therefore, external knowledge is extremely important to SMEs, whereas large businesses give a lot of credit to the knowledge of their internal aspects. Knowledge transfer is considered an important part of KM. Organizations need channels to facilitate their knowledge exchange in the interorganizational knowledge transfer activities. Social and electronic networks are the most reliable channels. The social network gives opportunities for face-to-face communication, establish strong ties between member organizations through the appropriate application of the two mechanisms – trust and power, and thus work as a channel to transfer both tacit and explicit knowledge between member organizations. An electronic network operates as another channel to exchange knowledge between organizations. Although there are some difficulties for an electronic network to transfer tacit knowledge, it has advantages over social networks because it sends explicit knowledge rapidly, develops weak ties rapidly and considerably reduces the communication cost.

5. STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT Strategic management is both an art and a science, accommodating intuition, experience and expertise; it is value-based, committed to human, organizational and environmental sustainability; it focuses on achievement of goals, both long- and short-term, and provides the basis for resource allocation; it integrates organizational effort, and it makes an entire system framework for improvement. Additionally; it identifies opportunities, it reacts promptly to changing environments, minimizes adverse conditions while maximizing strengths; at the same time, it engages employees and identifies individual and group effort, encouraging cooperation and strategic management, enhances

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leadership at all levels through communication, dialogue involvement and it justifies cross cultural and productive diversity management.

Generally speaking there are many reasons why the management of companies, and particularly the one of SMEs must adopt a more strategic approach on its activities.

These new requirements on business stem from the changing world order of power and economics, from the worldwide demographic changes and from new recognition of cultural diversity, all in the context of the planet’s survival.

The contemporary world is influenced by a number of seemingly distinct processes that take place more or less simultaneously and acquire a global reach in a highly interconnected trend (for example, 11th September 2001 in New York), having impacts on every aspect of life – on business confidence, national and international security, personal safety and community relations.

6. THE IMPACT OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM In order to improve the quality of the environment it must be a partnership between government, businesses and the community. The ability of corporations to manage their environmental performance is emerging as a strategic issue for many companies worldwide. This aspect occurs because the environment is now seen as an asset.

Consequently, managers are expected not only to reduce lead times, improve quality, reduce costs and enhance flexibility, but they are also expected to become more environmentally responsible. And in response to the urgent need for companies to report the impact of enterprises’ activities on the environment, in 1996 the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) introduced the ISO 14000 series of standards. The standard that primarily focuses on environmental management systems (EMS) is ISO 14001. ISO 14001 is designed to introduce environmental improvement into every aspect of a company’s operations, and offers an organized approach to deal with all the occurring environmental issues. Furthermore, it focuses on the entire organizational structure of the business, thus bringing environmental issues into the mainstream of the corporate decisionmaking process. Taking into account businesses are increasingly assuming their role as responsible social players and regarding environmental concerns as an integral part of their daily activities, the ISO 14001 standard turns into an indicator of a company’s commitment to environment protection.

Obtaing the ISO 14001 certification a company, like SME, is able to demonstrate to its customers, suppliers, competitors and the regulators that its operations are committed to environment protection 7. SME INTERNATIONALIZATION Internationalization is a phenomenon researched thoroughly over the last few decades from different perspectives, including: organization theory, marketing, strategic management, international management, and small business management. Aspects such as international decision-making and management, the development of international activities, and factors favoring or non-favoring internationalization have been analyzed for both large and small businesses.

Given the nature of today’s marketplace, SMEs are increasingly facing similar international problems as those of larger firms. For many SMEs, especially those operating in high-technology and manufacturing sectors, it is no longer possible to act in the marketplace without taking into account the risks and opportunities presented by foreign and/or global competition.

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Globalization usually refers to a stage in which the firm’s operations are managed on a global scale, not in just a few selected countries. It is characterized by the worldwide integration of ever more competitive markets and companies facing global competition.

Globalization’s impact on the SME sector is likely to be greater than on the already highly internationalized large corporate sector. SMEs have been previously considered passive victims rather than active players, but the evidence shows that this view is no longer valid.

In the last few decades, many SMEs have successfully set up activities beyond their home markets and their role is highly important because it contributes to future development.

Traditionally, SMEs restricted their activities to the region of their location, or stayed within their national boundaries, but today many have been active and operational in one or two world regions, thus becoming international or regional players.

8. SME PARTNERSHIP Research on strategic alliances has been mostly focused on large companies. This focus is perhaps the result of the immediate availability of important secondary data, which tend to ignore entrepreneurial and relatively unknown companies engaged in strategic alliances. But now there is a great interest in small and entrepreneurial firms that engage in strategic alliances, many of which are in the biotechnology, semiconductor, and computer industries.

Strategic alliances have been developing at an increasing rate in the last few decades, mainly in technology-intensive industries. In particular, alliances between entrepreneurial and established firms have developed significantly in recent years in the telecommunications, pharmaceutical, internet, electronics, and oil and gas industries.

As a rule, large companies are considered the main source of innovation because of their capability to invest heavily in R&D. However, although large firms have been set up to spend more on R&D, small firms have been set up to have higher rates of innovation compared to their share of sales or number of employees, especially in the early stages of the latest technologies.

9. CONCLUSION The technological boom and innovation have a great impact on the development of companies, including several dimensions. The advanced manufacturing, exports and the offer of comparative advantages can be considered as the backbone of industrial SMEs. The advanced manufacturing technologies, information and communication technologies and new services lead to the increases in productivity that are essential to any country’s economic growth under a perspective of competitive advantages.

Successful organizations, like SMEs, will be differentiated by their ability to visualize the logic growth dimensions and to leverage technological developments to create an appropriate organizational planning to support competitive growth. The future of technological innovation and advanced manufacturing processes depends on the emerging investments in high-quality research and development, reaching new market segments, and a highly qualified workforce.

The management’s challenge is to continually try to focus on the organizations’ growth, adapting technological capabilities in order to be in dynamic alignment with the chosen growth dimensions and to take into consideration the vision of the enterprise and environmental opportunities.

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Bibliography: [1]. Carneiro, Alberto (2007), What is Required for Growth?, Business Strategy Series, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 51-57.

[2]. Carneiro, Alberto (2006), Adopting New Technologies, Handbook of Business Strategy, pp. 307-312.

[3]. Chen, Shizhong; Duan, Yanqing; Edwards, John S; Lehaney, Brian (2006), Toward Understanding Inter-Organizational Knowledge Transfer Needs in SMEs: Insight from a UK Investigation, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 6-23.

[4]. Das, T.K.; He, Irene Y. (2006), Entrepreneurial Firms in Search of Established Partners: Review and Recommendations, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 114-143.

[5]. Goh Eng, Ann; Suhaiza Zailani; Nabsiah Abd Wahid (2006), A Study on the Impact of Environmental Management System (EMS), Certification towards Firms’s Performance in Malaysia, Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 73-93.

[6]. Moore, Sharon; Jie Wen, Julie (2007), Strategic Management in Australia and China: the Great Leap Forward or an Illusion?, Journal of Technology Management in China, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 10-21.

[7]. Ruzzier, M.; Hisrich, R.; Antoncic, B. (2006), SME Internationalization Research: Past, Present, and Future, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 476-497.

[8]. Terziovski, M; Power, D. (2007), Increasing ISO 9000 Certification Benefits: a Continuous Improvement Approach, International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 141-163.

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A NEW BOOK OF PROF. DR. BERND HALLIER is already challenging the Professional Readers:

„FROM CRISIS TO COMPETENCE” ( European Retail Academy, ORGAINVENT GmbH) Professor Theodor Valentin PURCĂREA, PhD Romanian-American University, 1B, Expoziţiei Avenue, Sector 1, Bucharest

theodor.purcarea@rau.ro Jel Classification: A11 Released in two languages (primarily in order to facilitate international comparability and research), the book „From Crisis to Competence” represents a collection of material arising from the practical experiences of the food industry in Europe. This new book of Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier is well organized and has achieved its goal. Allow us to remember only the Chapters: Chapter 1: From EHI label to EU regulation; Chapter 2: From Transparency towards SmartAgriFood; Chapter 3: Industry responsibility, references, networks.

Beyond evident contributions (such as: a case collection of proactive ideas along similar lines that have emerged from market participants and institutions both in Germany and elsewhere; working material for universities with a collection of literature and a chronology based on the history of ORGAINVENT GmbH Deutschland), the book also constitutes: - an endorsement of our liberal civil society (the private initiative taken by the proactive lead actors of the industry as a solution during the initial phase of the crisis, and the extension of this chain of responsibility made at its own expense by ORGAINVENT that is making available material and sources in a way that might not be possible for other market participants), and - a real offer of a common platform for dialogue to all of the partners in the market, inspiring this way further market innovations.

In “Introduction” (Bonn, December 2011) of the book , the author also argues that: the road from the EHI label to the EU regulation would not have been possible without the many domestic and foreign partners in the industry with similarly focused interests; these industry solutions are discussed in Chapter 2, where an effort is made to treat them all on an equal footing (this being done despite the fact that one of them involves limiting itself to the technical aspects of traceability, whereas the others envisage accommodating the wishes of the consumers for more detailed information and see

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opportunities for regional marketing or the promotion of branded meat); EU projects in which the European Retail Academy is involved are similarly incorporated; Chapter 3 is given the title of “Working Material” for universities, its purpose being to motivate those studying for BA, MA or PhD theses in this subject, either with the European Retail Academy, which was initiated by the EHI Retail Institute, or with other research groups in Germany and elsewhere, to pursue interdisciplinary literature research in the libraries.

It is worth to mention that Professor Bernd Hallier, a distinguished Member of the Editorial Board of the “Holistic Marketing Management” Journal, and the “designer” of the European Retail Academy (ERA), has a real passion for transparency of the market and trends discovery, for promotion of benchmarking in retail education and for one of the most internationalized markets, the Art market. In 1998 I was discussing Dr. Hallier’s view on the correlation between “the so-called political changes in many countries from Central and Eastern Europe and people necessity to live, consume like it is done in the West”, as well as his thoughts on issues pertaining to the globalization process.

Following an invitation of the Romanian-American University (RAU), Professor Bernd Hallier, has participated, at the end of May and beginning of June 2011, to a series of Round Tables and Public Lectures (The intertwine of Culture and Trade; Introduction of the European Retail Academy; Branding: the successful example of EuroShop; Evolution Tornado Retail; the Global House of Harmony; Lifelong-Learning; Environmental Retail Management). On this occasion , on the 1st of June, in the RAU’s Senate Hall, the ceremony of awarding the RAU’s Diploma for Special Academic Merit to Professor Bernd Hallier took place, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the promotion of the international transfer of know-how between business and universities, bringing more transparency on retail-research and retail-education, his successful involvement in the Social Dialogue project “Establishing a European Network for Anticipating skill needs in the commerce sector”, the attention paid to the evaluation of philosophies offered by the steady upgrade of retail-technologies, and his active involvement in developing cooperation between Germany and Eastern markets. Before the award ceremony a working session took place concerning “EU-Study, EuCVOT, EuCoCo”, in order to form a national EuCVoTRound Table (a significant pillar in this respect being the Universities already involved in the ECR Academic Partnership Romania: Valahia University of Targoviste/ECR Department, Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest/Department of Commerce, Romanian-American University/Management-Marketing Department etc.)

Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier is Managing Director EHI Retail Institute (former EuroHandelsinstitut), President of EuCVoT (European Competence Center for Vocational Training for Retail), President of the European Retail Academy (ERA), Chairman of the Advisory Board of EuroShop (world’s largest capital goods show in the retail sector), Member of the Board of AIDA Brussels, Member of the Astana Economic Scientists Club, Member of the Advisory Board of “Transparent Food”, Trustee of EHI Retail Institute at GLOBALG.A.P., and President of the Supervisory Board of ORGAINVENT GmbH.

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