Irina-Eugenia Iamandi

Quantifying Corporate Social Responsibility Involvement in Art and Culture Projects in Romania and Bulgaria

Abstract The recent crisis has deeply changed the present business environment and new priorities are now emerging for companies in order to meet the economic and social criteria that the society is imposing on them. On a pragmatic approach of business ethics, companies are developing their contribution to social causes by considering a large area of corporate social responsibility CSR projects, aimed at inducing bidirectional benefits, expressed at corporate and societal level. Taking this general context into account, the aim of our present research paper is to investigate and measure the corporate participation in supporting art and culture initiatives in Romania and Bulgaria, in a comparative and empirical approach intended to shed a new light on the development of specific CSR in the two above mentioned countries. In this respect, we analyze the top companies by revenues in Romania and Bulgaria and we construct an innovative index AC-CSR Index for quantifying their implication in art and culture projects in the last years, as a part of their recognized accountability towards society as a whole. The AC-CSR Index, derived as a composite measure of arts and culture actions, aims at encompassing the performance of top companies regarding a broad-spectrum of corporate culture responsibility engagements. The main results emphasize an increasing thoughtfulness of companies in Romania and Bulgaria to this class of CSR projects, especially considering the leader position of the analyzed companies. More detailed results and comments about the AC-CSR Index are also presented.

Outsourcing and Business Networks in Top Southeastern European Banks: The Quest for Competitive Advantage

The present chapter aims to examine the role that outsourcing and business networks play for top banks in Southeastern Europe (SEE). From a theoretical perspective, the first part of the chapter briefly examines the concepts of outsourcing and business networks, as well as their application in the banking industry, in an era of continuously changing technologies. The next section is dedicated to the banking sector in SEE, in order to identify the main characteristics that lead to competitive advantages through outsourcing and business networks. The third section provides an empirical analysis aimed at identifying whether or not SEE banks use these business processes in their daily activities, what their main reasons for applying these processes are, and what primary forms of inter-organizational collaboration are practiced in the banking system. Based on a set of cross-national empirical cases of top SEE banks, the chapter finally proposes a methodological framework for analyzing outsourcing and business networks in the respective industry, as well as some conclusions about enhancing the competitive advantages of the explored companies.