Author: Valentin Mihai Leoveanu

Introduction. Leadership could be seen as a process to achieve company’s goals through company’s people. In any company and also in banks and central banks, leadership could register notable performance as a result of harmonization between formal and informal organization of the company. Maintaining a dynamic and optimal balance for ensuring the simultaneous attainment of individual aspirations of employees and company objectives should be a goal and a permanent preoccupation of the management team. Nowadays, leadership of the central banks have to face a multitude of issues that concern accountability and credibility of monetary authorities.

Aim of the study. In this regard, one of the essential characteristics that determine and influence leadership of a central bank was to ensure that the degree of central bank independence from the political authorities of the country concerned. Before and during the international financial crisis, NBR has faced some important and difficult periods, watershed might say, in terms of the proper functioning of his leadership. These include: adopting the strategy of monetary policy based on inflation targeting, the speculative attack on the currency in the period 17 October to 5 November 2008 and the liquidity crisis of Romanian banks with foreign capital.
Keywords: central bank functions, formal and informal organization, decision taking, inflation targeting strategy, speculative attack on currency
JEL classification: E52, E58, G20, M10, N20, O20

Introduction. In the years after the global financial crisis, central banks have undergone to a tremendous pressure from financial markets, from the real economy, but also from the population and politicians. Each part is interrelated with each other, but is in different positions in terms of the influence exerted on the other, in terms of the means and instruments through which their interest must prevail against the other parties. In this context, the leadership of a central bank is the key to the proper functioning of a central bank and also to its effectiveness and efficiency.

Aim of the study. Based on the central bank functions and on some important principles of decision and action, such as independence, transparency and accountability, the leaders of the central banks should provide guidance for the national economy in turbulent times. As a result, the main focus must be concentrate on aspects like: monitoring policy performance, monitoring efficiency of resources, setting functional goals, managing capital adequacy, balance sheet and liquidity, awareness of external perceptions and reputational risks, ensuring good institutional governance.

Keywords: central bank functions, policy formulation and decisions, effectiveness and efficiency of institutional governance, anticipating and avert new challenges, accountability and transparency
JEL Classification: E50, E52, G20, G28

Introduction. New business models no longer rely on expectations of increased consumption, but rewarding the saving of resources and penalizing the waste of them. Businesses based on stable cash-flows rather than speculative businesses are the ones that survive in times of crisis. The current economic environment is characterized by several features, namely: consumers are more careful with spending and seek substitutes for expensive products; economic downturn trend creates the need for new products and services such as adult education or corporate data security; consumers are looking for and choose products that provide the best value for the money spent on them.

Aim of the study. Economic and financial failure of many Romanian companies has been highlighted in recent years by the evolution of their insolvency, as emphasized the research leads by Coface Romania: the coverage of deteriorating equity was made by attracting additional debt; attracting capital was made especially over short terms with the suppliers credit; more than half of long-term investments were unprofitable; constant increase of the average day’s sales in receivables showed an inadequate policy of commercial risk. In this context, it is important to reveal how leadership styles applied in Romanian companies has led to the development and worsening of their financial problems. The main issues relate to selective rotation pay providers according to the volume of transactions, business relations history, future interests or, simply, bargaining power and importance of each supplier.
Keywords: leadership styles, leader’s personality, aims of the leader, relations with followers, leader’s behaviour, organizational culture
JEL Classification: G30, G32, G35

Introduction. The political, economical and social transformations that human society has known throughout its existence had as a basis the settlement of a wide range of relationships and interconnections among the different communities, populations, cultures and state formations, synthesizing gradually but surely the currently phenomenon that they called globalization. As part of globalization, financial globalization is highlighted by two main elements: the free movement of capital flows and the foreign participation in the share capital within the financial system at national level.

Aim of the study. This paper aims to highlight that throughout its entire evolutionary process, financial globalization has brought some significant challenges for monetary policy that requires an investigation of the multiple macroeconomic issues involved and that are crucial in ensuring and maintaining price stability. Global financial and economic crisis in the years 2007-2010 was impact of a “tsunami” – as expressed Frederic Mishkin, a phenomenon that has not only damaged and endangered the economic environment globally, but also brought a series of challenges science rethink its monetary policy purposes.
Keywords: monetary policy, financial globalization, agents of financial globalization, financial crises, floating exchange rate regimes, foreign capital flows
JEL Classification: E31, E52, E58, F36, F62, F65

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

Introduction. The impact of financial innovation is reflected in many aspects that best can be highlighted through the benefits and disadvantages of creating, implementing and using innovative financial products and services

Aim of the study. The paper tries to analyze the implications of financial innovation on a company financial management starting with a synthesis of the ways of financing a company. The differences between these ways have significant importance on how financial innovation has an impact. Another essential issue is highlighted by the characteristics and the typology of instruments issued by financial innovation.
Keywords: financial innovation, financial management, functions of financial services
JEL Classification: G21, G22, G31

Introduction. In the multitude of methods and procedures for initiating and implementing new businesses over the past decade, the Lean Start Up methodology also follows the research conducted by IT entrepreneur Eric Ries from 2008. The Romanian economic context after the effects of the international financial crisis revealed an increasing trend, albeit variable, in terms of economic growth and the development of new business and entrepreneurial initiatives. This article aims to highlight the possible impact of the Lean Start Up methodology on entrepreneurial thinking and practice in Romania, both at the beginning of the road and in its continuous evolution.

Aim of the study. The paper first performs a research on specialized scientific literature, then focus on the presentation of the Laen Start Up methodology, on the advantages and limitations of the method in question, and on the implications of its use in Romania. The results of the research result in highlighting a number of possible guidelines and guidelines to follow regarding the application of the method to the newly established enterprises in Romania.
Keywords: Lean Start Up methodology, entrepreneurship, business model, startup, innovation-accounting
JEL Classification: M13, M16, M53, O31

Introduction. Lack of financial knowledge and fair financial planning at the entrepreneurial level are the major impediments both in the start of a business and in its further development, among the major obstacles being the access to financing, which in the case of Romania is among the lower in the European Union.

Aim of the study. With this paper, the author wishes to highlight the importance of financial education in the entrepreneurial field from the earliest stages of starting a business and, on the basis of real observations, to mark the main problems and difficulties that arise in this context. The article is structured by considering a research in the scientific literature, a presentation of Romania Start Up Plus program, an outlook on the particularities and characteristics of the Sud-Muntenia region, and, finally, a close observation and analysis on financial training through Romania Start Up Plus program.
Keywords: financial education in entrepreneurship, business plan, financial planning, access to finance, Romania Start Up Plus program
JEL Classification: M13, O22, L26, M53

Introduction. The objective considered in the research undertaken by the authors is the investigation of students from the Faculty of Public Administration and Business at the University of Bucharest on how to use e-commerce platforms during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic crisis in 2020 from Romania. The analytical approaches focused on the frequency of use of e-commerce platforms during this period, but also compared to previous periods, the ways of accessing these platforms, the categories of products and services purchased, the typology of problems encountered in accessing and using, as well as methods of payment and delivery most frequently used.

Aim of the study. The analysis was based on a research methodology, both quantitative and qualitative, on the conditions and factors that determined the developments regarding the use of e-commerce platforms by students. The quantitative research was based on the analysis of a questionnaire containing 19 questions on the characteristics and determinants of the use of e-commerce platforms in 2020 by students. Qualitative research explores how the determinants of e-commerce use are placed in the context of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic crisis in Romania. The results of the present study highlight the leading factors that influence students’ purchases based on accessing e-commerce platforms, as well as the elements that could determine the increase in traffic within them.
Keywords: E-commerce, SARS-COV-2 pandemic, Social Media, security of payments, delivery methods
JEL Classification: C15, C51, D91, F14, M2

Introduction. As a result of the economic and financial relapses following the international financial crisis started in 2007, the examination of the way in which the bank lending of the non-financial companies at regional level in Romania evolved is relevant on the one hand, by presenting the transformations suffered by the credit conditions, and, on the other hand through its implications on the level of regional development, the absorption of structural and cohesion funds offered by the European Union, access to financing, as and the use of new financing methods.

Aim of the study. The approach by which this research is carried out is based on a qualitative method, and considers the collection, analysis and interpretation of the data from 2015 and 2019 included in the surveys and statistical studies carried out by the specialists of the National Bank of Romania and other Romanian institutions. The results of research underline a sustained correlation between the evolution of bank lending and the other aspects mentioned above, highlighting the importance of access to bank financing at territorial level in order to increase the level of regional development in Romania.
Keywords: bank lending, credit conditions, regional development, European funds absorption
JEL Classification: G21, G32