Volume 26 (2016): Issue 4 (November 2016)

Business valuation is dealing with a series of difficulties, legislative and/or normative inaccuracies, as well as problems related to divergent results obtained by standard approaches. This material is synthesizing some of these problems, highlighting possible research directions. Each of the standard approaches is investigated, theoretically and practically analyzed, and the conclusions constitute a basis for developing new theories in the field of valuation.

The level of crime in Nigeria has become devastating and in order to put more sanity into the economy and the country at large, the Government has embarked on different deterrence measures in curbing crime. Thus, this study examined the interaction of deterrence measures with crime in order to see how economic growth was affected when they were used in curbing crime at different instances. That is, the interaction of deterrence measures with crime informed us how they have helped in lowering crime in Nigeria for a better economic growth to subsist. The deterrence measures considered in this work are in line with the rational choice theory being the cost of crime imposed on the society. Furthermore, this study considered data from 1975 to 2013 with the use of autoregressive distributed lag model. Moreover, the results showed that crime dependency on deterrence measures asymmetrically constituted means of lowering economic growth in the country. Hence, this study suggested that prosecution should be well funded and in order to curb crime and improve economic growth in Nigeria. That is, this would afford the country to reduce the congestion of prison inmates and thus, it would discourage long waiting trials.

The paper analyses the trend of globalisation, trade openness and foreign direct investments (FDI) in Romania and the link between them in the last 25 years. Data from UNCTAD, World Bank and KOF globalisation index were used in econometrical models testing the link between globalisation, trade openness and foreign direct investment. A strong positive and statistical validated link is found between globalisation and FDI, between trade openness and FDI, and between FDI and globalisation. In the context of Romanian economy, these three phenomena are interrelated and each of them is acting to potentiate the effect of the other. Moreover, a multivariate regression analysis emphasized the dependency between globalisation index and foreign direct investment, trade openness and market capitalisation. These results can be taken into account when national policies aiming to attract FDI and stimulating export-import activities are designed.

The article clarifies the concept of “innovation”, including “educational innovation”, examines some innovative teaching methods in universities. The main approaches of implementation innovations in modern higher education of Ukraine are analysed. It also defines the differences between traditional and innovative teaching, discovers different variants of the classification of innovative teaching methods and formulates basic approaches to the selection of innovative didactic purpose in accordance with the classes, the advantages and disadvantages of the use of certain methods. It tightly describes actual interpretation of innovative study methods in the Ukrainian higher educational institutions, as well as the realization of the innovative aspects in the separate Ukrainian universities. The importance of innovation in the learning process of entering higher education of Ukraine into the European educational space is also being highlighted.

The emergence of the female entrepreneurial social class is certain and convincing in many countries, including Romania. Through this study we wish to portray a relevant image regarding the situation of female entrepreneurship in Romania. The starting point and a question to which many seek answers are: What was and is the economic strength of female entrepreneurship in Romania? After a short historical presentation regarding the evolution of feminine entrepreneurship, we presented the analysis of results after 25 years of democracy and capitalism. The main inference that we have deducted was: that the number of female entrepreneurs is on ascending path.

The study aims at highlighting the link between educational marketing (product/service and price determination for educational services) and investment in education, using empirical models and customization of classic approaches (interpolation method) addressed to individual educational investment.

The methodology discussed in the paper, considers essential invariants of these educational investments, such as seniority - part of the work experience and period of studies. In the models presented, the level and the period of studies are quantified through transferable credits, expressing units of time, normal volume of working alleged student learning. It is also used a parameter which introduces an essential element of the quality of work - the psycho-physical characteristics of the fellow that are correlated with age.

Empirical study materializes on developing, while testing and validation of the models show that the rate of return to investment in education is a rationale for individuals to decide investing in their education. The study offers some customized recommendation to improve reverse marketing price policy of the educational services.

The study results lead us to the conclusion that education providers (colleges, universities, other training entities) and clients should take into account that education is an investment. The private return of investment in education - as argument of educational marketing (price policy) is increasingly important in the context of a fragmentary and dynamic market, led by strong competition.

The SMEs in Romania, which remained reliable after the economic crisis, had a better dynamic of business development in relation to large and very large companies. The increase of the fiscal value of these companies has improved every year, leading to spectacular results in certain fields of activity, particularly services, trade and IT. After the economic crisis, the SMEs from the Western region had a dynamic business market, outstripping all other regions of economic development. The result was the increase in the number of SMEs and the number of jobs in this region. In this article, we propose a mathematical model based on multivariate analysis, specifically on cluster analysis, in order to analyse the economic activities of SMEs in the Western development region. Cluster analysis is a multivariate analysis method that includes algorithms able to identify and group efficiently and descriptively a similar group in terms of certain common properties, in a lot of time objects.

The purpose of this paper is the analysis of the economic efficiency of SMEs’ activities in the Western area of Romania and the extraction of activities through modeling in order to maximise the efficiency of the companies in the future.

The paper aims at highlighting a current phenomenon on the labour market in Romania, related to the existence of important categories of unemployed persons and looking for a job, but not registered in the statistics of state institutions dealing with unemployment.

The analysis is conducted in the area of western Romania (for the Arad, Bihor and Timis counties) and aims categories of unemployed people with different skill levels, which for different reasons, are not accounted for statistically.