Gheorghe Militaru

Towards a Platform for Prototyping IoT Health Monitoring Services

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a priority topic for research and innovation in ICT as well as a major trend for its development in the next period. Due to the large variety of IoT based solutions and their economic and social impact, the healthcare is among most relevant application domains to illustrate this trend. The paper presents the main adopted design and development decisions to build a platform for prototyping IoT based assistive applications with health monitoring capabilities. The prototyping approach is expected to improve the quality and speed up the deployment of these interdisciplinary solutions. A special emphasis was put on the platform architecture which is based on an IoT reference model and a reference architecture to take advantage of, and be compliant with relevant solutions in this field. The functional and information views of the platform architecture are detailed and the main development solutions are outlined.

A Service Oriented Architecture for Total Manufacturing Enterprise Integration

The paper describes a, framework and implementing issues addressing service orientation in the management and control of enterprises. A hybrid, semi-heterarchical control model based on the paradigm of holonic manufacturing is proposed; it switches its operating mode from hierarchical to heterarchical in the presence of perturbations to ensure both global optimization and agility to changes in batch orders, while featuring robustness to disturbances in the production environment. In order to ensure these conflicting functionalities, a service oriented architecture is proposed and implemented, whose structure includes a distributed fault-tolerant Resource Service Access Model. Besides the design of a generic structural and dynamic model, a real implementation solution is proposed using a multi-agent framework.

The Role of Technology Entrepreneurship Education in Encouraging to Launch New Ventures

Abstract Technology entrepreneurship refers to processes by which entrepreneurs use resources, and technical systems through collaborative exploration and experimentation to pursue opportunities. The purpose of this study is to explore the role of technology entrepreneurship to increase the intention and motivation of engineering students to establish and manage sustainable new ventures and commercialization of technologies developed in university laboratories. Quantitative data were collected via a questionnaire-based by investigating whether engineering students have sufficient entrepreneurial skills to evaluate opportunity, developing new products, and recognizing potential market applications. Engineering students need to be able to exploit opportunities that rely on scientific and technical knowledge to create and capture value by launch new venture. Our important findings have a series of important practical implications for managers, engineering students, engineers, and scientists interested in encouraging economic growth. For example, technology entrepreneurship education increases the intention to start a business and stimulates the activities in a group setting and a network context because of increasing global competition based on agility, creativity and innovation. The findings of the study also provide practical implications suggest that increasing engineering students understanding and awareness of entrepreneurship lead to greater levels of interest in entrepreneurship careers.

The E-Government Role in the Future of Jobs in Accounting and in Auditing: A Theoretical Proposal Applied to the Italian Public Sector

The article attempts to outline possible future developments in the field of the public accounting and auditing professions resulting from the present e-government processes, which dates back to the early 2000s. This change has an untapped potential that could have a profound effect in many areas, such as the rationalization of public spending, business ethics, and university education to new professions required by the future labor market. It should be noted also that the future change of labor is a generalist issue proposed in many prestigious international researches: the paper seeks to make a contribution specifically oriented to the field of accounting and auditing professions applied to the public sector. After a methodological premise of systematization of the related topics of reference – whose origins can be traced back to the New Public Management Theory – the theoretical approach of the contribution will try to develop some Italian real implications regarding the change under study.

Examining the Impact of Social Networking Sites on Performance of Service Firms: Evidence from Romania

The purpose of this study is to extend research on social networking sites and the role of these tools on business performance of service firms. To date, there has been little investigation of the contribution of these tools in order to identify the opportunities for improving business performance. Using cross-section data from a sample in Romania, we empirically investigated the mediating effects of service innovation on the relationship between social networking sites and business performance. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to perform reliability and validity checks, and structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the research model. The findings fill the gap in the literature by demonstrating social networking sites influence the collaboration, ideas and knowledge sharing among employees, customers, and business partners, leading to growth the business performance. The results also indicate that innovation capability played a key role on business performance but its mediating role between social networking sites and business performance of service firms was not confirmed. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Investigating the moderating role of work experience on students` entrepreneurial intentions: evidence from Romania

Abstract The purpose of this study is to explore the moderating role of work experience on the relationships between entrepreneurial education, self-efficacy and students’ entrepreneurial intentions. Quantitative data were collected via a questionnaire based by investigating whether engineering students have sufficient entrepreneurial skills to evaluate opportunity, developing new products, and recognizing potential market applications. Engineering students need to be able to exploit opportunities that rely on scientific and technical knowledge to create and capture value by launch new venture. Our important findings have a series of important practical implications for managers, engineering students, engineers, and academic staff interested in encouraging economic growth. The results show that entrepreneurial education and self-efficacy have a positive impact on students’ entrepreneurial intentions. Work experience only has a partial influence on students’ entrepreneurial intentions, it exerts a significant indirect effect does not have a significant moderating effect. The findings of the study also provide practical implications suggest that increasing engineering students understanding and awareness of entrepreneurship lead to greater levels of interest in entrepreneurship careers. To the knowledge of the authors, this study is the first to investigate the mediating effect of work experience on students’ entrepreneurial intentions.

Branding in the age of social media: how entrepreneurs use social networks to boost their service-based businesses

Abstract The basics of product and service branding are generally the same. However, creating a brand for a company that offers services requires more effort because the services are hard to visualize and each client has different expectations. More than promoting any of the services, branding aims to create a perception of trust so that the brand name to be associated with integrity, quality, and innovation. The purpose of this paper is to determine how entrepreneurs develop their service-based business through social networks branding and also what are the benefits obtained from each method. The authors have researched previously what is the impact of social network marketing on business development and noticed that service-based businesses tend to obtain benefits from different activities comparing to product-based businesses. The authors researched through a semistructured questionnaire the online activities of 71 SMEs from Bucharest that offer various types of services to their customers. The results obtained are then correlated with the online and offline performance of the company.

Examining Cloud Computing Adoption Intention in Higher Education: Exploratory Study

The purpose of this study was to examining the factors that lead to cloud computing adoption in a higher education setting. This cross-sectional empirical research is based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) framework. Data was collected by surveying 96 students from University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania. The factors that affect cloud computing adoption in higher education were identified and tested using LISREL software. The findings suggested that factors identified can be successfully integrated in our conceptual model. Perceived value and usefulness have a strong positive influence on intentions to use cloud computing in higher education, but student’s attitude towards technology had no significant effects on dependent variable. Perceived risk has significant negative effects on students’ intentions to use cloud computing. The findings are expected to enhance the understanding of cloud computing adoption for students and faculty members. The implication of these findings for faculty members and students are discussed.

Export Strategy for a Romanian Food Product

As internationalization increases in nowadays competitive business environment, companies must consider it as a viable option to their growth and development. The paper analyses a wide range of factors to elaborate and finally decide upon the most appropriate export strategy of ROM chocolate from Romania to the Spanish market. It is concluded that indirect export is the most suitable entry mode, the marking and packaging regime is detailed, the quality assurance requirements are listed. The recommended delivery terms are FCA (Free Carrier) and CPT (Carriage Paid To), and the preferred method of payment is the letter of credit. The export strategy which is presented is viable and offers an efficient alternative to domestic operations for the producing company.

The Depression Produced by Impellers and the Similarity Problem

The authors intend to apply original analytical formulas to estimate the depression produced by different types of impellers. The problem has been approached in different studies, especially by numerical simulations and not from the analytical point of view. The study is useful to estimate not only the magnitude of the depression, but also the dimensions of the depression zone. Unpleasant effects can be produced if cavitations appear, leading to propelling unit damage and consequently increasing the operation costs of different applications, such as power industry, chemical industry equipment or naval transport. The authors test impellers of different sizes in two experimental setups in order to characterize the phenomenon.