Pages: 121-129
Introduction. The place and role of SOEs in a national economy was debated many years ago from the collapse of socialist economies when it came to the former communist countries to make a transition from the planned economy to an economy of free market, and even back in time to the early 80s, an example being the Teacher government in the UK. The subject remains as important nowadays for Romania, given that there are still many problems in connection with the responsibility of the state towards various fields of economic activity, the leadership and the involvement of public authorities and, not least, the economic performances brought by this type of enterprise.
Aim of the study. This paper try to make a review of the scientific literature in order to reveal significant researches in the domain, a short presentation of Romanians SOEs and their economic environment in 2014 and an analysis of the economic efficiency of public enterprises in Romania that focuses on the evolution of the 2012-2014 period of the number of public companies, of the major financial indicators, of the number of insolvencies, of the outstanding payments and of the state subsidies, as well as correlation between these results and the type of management and leadership applied in public enterprises, and that reflects the importance of this study for actual research in Romania.
Keywords: state owned enterprises, corporate governance, leadership, economic efficiency, financial indicators
JEL Classification: H54, H83, I32, I33
