Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy (E-Journal)
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Worthy Intentions on the Road to Brand Trust
Get PDFNowadays, technology enables businesses to make transactions without human interaction, which increases their operations, but also erodes the personal nature of commerce and brand loyalty, in most of the cases. Independent lines of research have warned about this phenomenon, pointing out that the lack of consumer trust represents the main cause of losing brand loyalty. Stressing on the benefits of updating branding practices by integrating results from other social sciences, our paper explores an interdisciplinary literature. The paper presents recent branding-related findings and how are they supported or not by results from social psychology and behavioral economics. It highlights two opposite views and theoretical contradictions, and extracts a hypothesis that would be conceptually supported by some convergent opinions and facts. Arguing why an effective branding process, meant to achieve both consumer trust and sales objectives, should change the focus from profit-maximization onto relationship building, we hypothesize that brands should reveal worthy intentions prior to competence. Since our paper is of conceptual nature, further empirical studies are needed to test the hypothesis. Yet, the present paper offers an integrative view of the consumer underlying behavior, as revealed by recent results from different social sciences, discussing the potential impact of worthy intentions and competences on trust building, and consequently, on the brand construction process
Some Challenges the Management Confronts with, in the Financial Institutions
Get PDFIn this paper, we analyze some features and components of the management in general, and of the management in the financial area in particular. Special attention is given to how they cope with some risk which could affect their activity. Trying to find from practice what kind of difficulties the management faces in their work, for sure, we get to interesting conclusions and furthermore, to optimum solutions. We already have some data, result of some earlier preoccupations of the specialists (Dănilă and Berea, 2000 pp.39-48) while others can be foreseen as specific elements for the beginning of the 3rd millennium, that started with what the rating agencies seem to admit as the most important economic decline and prolonged recession risk within the post World War II history. We consider an evaluation of the challenges the management confronts with, lately - while subject to pressures and to the need for radical changes that come with an astonishing speed and that are enhanced by the shareholders’ desperate need to protect their capital. Findings reveal that, in any business enterprise the shareholders’ strategy and the management’s objectives are earning new clients, enlarging the market share, creating added value and on these bases, maximizing the gained profits. We consider that the volatile and fluctuant nature of the raw material the banks operate with - namely the money – turn the management in this area into a particular one, depicted by some specific features, which we analyze in the following pages
Are Customers Rewarding Responsible Businesses? An Overview of the Theory and Research in the Field of CSR
Get PDFMany researchers consider corporate social responsibility (CSR) a key element in developing sustainable businesses today. The benefits for companies and communities are very diverse. From a company perspective, some benefits are non-financials while, on the other hand, many of them have a financial dimension. An important outcome considered in this context is the increase in sales. The present paper analyses the most reliable worldwide studies on how consumers are actually influenced by the social-responsible actions of companies. It aims to understand in what degree people are responsive to CSR actions and to see how much of the intended attitude towards responsible businesses is translated into actual behavior. Items considered are trust, purchase behavior, and loyalty in the case of responsible businesses and boycott in the case of irresponsible ones. The research developed worldwide in the last five years show that people are extremely concerned with CSR and they try to be responsible by rewarding companies that are responsible or by sanctioning the ones which are perceived as irresponsible. There is a difference between intentions and actual behavior, partly justified by the fact that people feel they are not sufficiently informed on the responsible companies. Nevertheless a larger part part of the respondents are actively recognizing and rewarding CSR contributions of companies. Research shows that country differences exist. The most responsive countries are the ones with emerging economies. Countries in Europe and North America are more reserved. Differences in reactions are to be registered also by taking into account the age of the respondents, as well as the domain in which companies get involved through their CSR strategies
The Influence of Values on the Leadership Style
Get PDFThe study of values has been an issue of interest for several subjects, such as philosophy, social sciences, ethics, axiology etc. Despite the fact that psychologists acknowledge the importance of values as orientation tools for every individual in their environment, generating attitudes which translate into behaviours, the empirical research on this topic has been rather scarce, given the complexity of the field, as well as the lack of a sensitive and valid tool able to allow the measurement of values. The academic research, however, cannot avoid an emphasis of (the) values in the study of leadership. Based on the complete leadership model (Bass & Avolio, 1997), the empirical research we propose aims at studying the influence of values on the informal leadership style. The lot of respondents is made up of students, master degree candidates and prisoners from Târgsor, Prahova county prison - totalling 135 persons, divided in 15 groups with one informal leader for each group. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Avolio & Bass), Schwartz Value Inventory and the socio-metric techniques for identifying the informal leaders have been applied to all of them. The proposed hypotheses approach the congruence between the leader's fundamental values and those of the group's members, the way the values influence the leadership in the educational environment (students, master degree candidates) as opposed to the prison environment and, in perspective, the interactions of the members within and outside the group, determined by the degree of identification with the others' values
The Impact of the Leadership Style on the Organizational Climate in a Public Entity
Get PDFMany previous researches had explored the concepts of leadership styles and organizational climate, but just a very few had explored them together. Therefore, in order to be able to build a theoretical basis to this topic and then to develop a case study to emphasise the relationship between the leadership style implemented within a public sector entity and the organizational climate characteristics found in there, I immersed myself into the specific literature and considered different theoretical patterns in particular for the above mentioned concepts.People’s general perception is that public organizations rarely achieve their objectives, the employees are not doing their job properly and there is no efficiency in using neither resources nor proper motivation of employees. This negative image could be a projection of the internal dissatisfaction towards payment, recognition, career prospects and leader's behaviour. Consequently, a deeper leader's actions analysis will provide further information on this perception and so will do the study of the organisational climate.The concept of organizational climate has a great deal of components through which it can be defined. Some of the organizational climate essential factors are: the structure, motivation, interpersonal relations, flexibility, support, communication, information, working conditions, rules and regulations, objectives, management and leadership. People tend to internalize the organizational climate and as a result the way they perceive it has an important role on their behaviour. Thus, there is a strong relationship between the leader's behaviour and the organisational climate.It is known that a leader’s best way of action depends on a series of situational factors and the employees' level of professionalism is one of them. Public sector leaders should also adapt themselves to the organisational climate requirements and should adopt a more flexible working system. Through their approach leaders have to succeed to motivate talent, capability and reward consistency. The relation with their employees should upgrade to absolute trust and open communication. Through all of these, public leadership will achieve performance and will also strengthen the organization's reputation and image.For a better understanding of the leadership process within a certain kind of climate into a public entity, we have conducted a survey by applying two questionnaires: the first one is to identify the leadership style operational into the entity and the second one is to analyze the organisational climate variables. The leadership questionnaire is a tool created based on the Hersey-Blanchard leadership model - leadership styles against the maturity of employees. The second questionnaire used was Ticu Constantin's organisational climate questionnaire through which the organisational climate intensity within the entity was measured. We would like to think that the outcome of the study is a supportive indicator when it comes to assess the results and performance in the studied organisation
Foreign Direct Investment Location Choice Factors: Some Evidence for Brazil
Get PDFDue to the liberalization and transformation of emerging markets economies, the attractiveness of these countries for foreign direct investors has been rising in the last decades. This paper explores foreign direct investment (FDI) location choice factors of German and Austrian companies in Brazilian regions. We perform a quantitative analysis, based on the Multinomial Nested Logit Model and supplement its findings by the qualitative analysis, based on the semi-structured experts’ interview. The analyses show that investor-nation specific agglomeration, industry specialization, workforce qualification and physical infrastructure were important FDI location choice factors for German and Austrian companies in Brazil. Suggestions for future research of the FDI location choice factors are discussed
For or Against the Eurozone? Romanian Students’ Perspective on the Economic Crisis and Their Future as European Citizens
Get PDFIn the context of globalization and of the aftermath of the economic crisis, the pillars on which the EU stands no longer satisfy the demands and necessities of the European citizens (Van Ham, 2005; Habermas, 2012). The euro crisis has generated, on one hand, a gap between the “center” and the “periphery” that can be correlated with the fragmentation both of the EU’s spheres of influence and of the European financial market (Dobrescu & Palada, 2012; EFCR, 2013). On the other hand, the euro crisis has generated a lack of solidarity and confidence in the European project. At this point, the major challenge for the European Union is not only the Euro-zone crisis, but also the level of confidence amongst young people. Recent polls (Gallup, 2013; Pew Research Center, 2013) indicate a dramatic rise in pessimism among Europe’s young people that have been labeled as “the Lost Generation” (European Commission, 2012). This paper explores the impact of the economic crisis on Romanian students’ attitudes towards the future of the European project and towards their European identity. The study aims at identifying the major concerns of Romanian students in terms of their future as European citizens. Our approach of this subject covers two perspectives: the first one is the utilitarian perspective, that is taking into consideration the actual advantages of the Europeanization process and the sustainability of the European social and economic model in the current national economic context; the second one is the identity perspective, that is taking into account the impact of the economic crisis on the Romanian students’ sense of belonging to the European community. The results of our study indicate that, overall, the Romanian youth holds an optimistic view concerning the EU, however they express some concerns in terms of lack of solidarity and fear of national identity loss
Simulation Models of Human Decision-Making Processes
Get PDFThe main purpose of the paper is presentation of the new concept of human decision-making process modeling via using the analogy with Automatic Control Theory. From the author's point of view this concept allows to develop and improve the theory of decision-making in terms of the study and classification of specificity of the human intellectual processes in different conditions. It was proved that the main distinguishing feature between the Heuristic / Intuitive and Rational Decision-Making Models is the presence of so-called phenomenon of "enrichment" of the input information with human propensity, hobbies, tendencies, expectations, axioms and judgments, presumptions or bias and their justification. In order to obtain additional knowledge about the basic intellectual processes as well as the possibility of modeling the decision results in various parameters characterizing the decision-maker, the complex of the simulation models was developed. These models are based on the assumptions that: basic intellectual processes of the Rational Decision-Making Model can be adequately simulated and identified by the transient processes of the proportional-integral-derivative controller; basic intellectual processes of the Bounded Rationality and Intuitive Models can be adequately simulated and identified by the transient processes of the nonlinear elements.The taxonomy of the most typical automatic control theory elements and their compliance with certain decision-making models with a point of view of decision-making process specificity and decision-maker behavior during a certain time of professional activity was obtained
Economic Rationality and Support for European Identity Providers
Get PDFDiscussions on the emergence of a European identity meant to provide legitimacy to the European Union (EU) often include references to factors influencing EU support. These determinants of support are essential in anticipating EU’s future, in solving its legitimacy deficit and for the development of a common European identity. European citizens’ support for the EU could be considered a predictor of sense of belonging to the European community that actually provides generating elements of European identity. In this context, the present article elaborates from a theoretical perspective on the relationship between EU support and European identity. First, the goal is to illustrate the theories on factors that strengthen European citizens’ support for the EU, whether economic or non-economic. Second, the focus is on establishing the differences between support for European integration and the attachment that Europeans feel for the EU or between economic rationality and affective evaluation in regard to the EU. The article argues that, while the identification of a European identity seems increasingly difficult to attain, this support for European integration could be viewed as a temporary solution for solving the legitimacy deficit the EU suffers from
Emotional Knowledge: the Hidden Part of the Knowledge Iceberg
Get PDFAccording to Daniel Kahneman (2011), our thinking process is based on two systems: system 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little awareness of voluntary control, system2 operates slowly and constructs thoughts in a logic order. System 1 processes actually emotional knowledge using our unconscious cognitive capability. Cognitive scientists discovered that we are primarily emotional decision makers, which means that managers and leaders need to rely on their emotional knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to present a qualitative and quantitative research concerning the paradox of emotional knowledge. That means that on one hand most of us ignore emotional knowledge by identifying knowledge with cognitive knowledge, and on the other hand by using emotional knowledge in decision making. The qualitative research has been done by reflecting on knowledge management, strategic management and change management literature concerning emotional knowledge and emotional intelligence, while the quantitative research has been done by conceiving a questionnaire and using it in an academic environment. A total of 1200 questionnaires were distributed to the students of Bucharest University of Economic Studies, and we got a response rate of 37%. Each questionnaire contains 40 questions concerning the awareness, education, transfer, and management of emotional knowledge. The data has been processed with the help of the specialized software SPSS version 19, and AMOS version 18. Statistical analysis includes both exploratory and confirmatory factorial analysis. The results of the statistical analysis reveal the main influence factors affecting our understanding of emotional knowledge, the way we learn through education about emotional knowledge, the way this knowledge is transferred, and the importance of using it by managers and leaders