Viorel Cornescu

Considerations Regarding the Role of Indicators Used in the Analysis and Assessment of Sustainable Development in the E.U

Abstract This paper aims to capture the role of the analysis and assessment indicators of sustainable development of EU Member States during the last years. Based on the EU sustainable development indicators and not only it is shown how they can be used in the assessment of the three major dimensions of sustainable development: social, economic and environmental. Nowadays the concern to not limit options for future generation’ has become a priority for most governments around the world and not just Europe. The aim of this paper is the enhancement of the sustainability assessment framework by selecting the sustainable development indicators according to each country characteristics. The paper discusses several models of sustainable development analysis and identifies different indicators that were chosen to explain sustainability. With the aid of a thorough literature review and data analysis we provide arguments regarding the existence of a general model of social, economic and environmental indicators which may be applied in every country and if such model could be appropriate.

The Consumer Resistance Behavior towards Innovation

Abstract The purpose of this work is to identify and analyze consumer resistance in order to understand this concept in the area of resistant behavior. The paper converges on studying the resistance to innovation from a theoretical perspective and to show it importance in innovation process. The paper concludes bydescribing the complexity of resistance to innovation, its forms and effects on the behavior of consumers and market. Although most authors focus their research on positive adoption decisions, this paper instead focus on developing insight into the relatively underdeveloped area of resistant behavior literature by presenting key concepts of resistance to innovation.

Overconsumption Society through the Looking-glass of Behavioral Economics☆

Abstract The academic literature concerned with consumerism and overconsumption society is mainly dominated either by the principles of free choice under a capitalist economy or by the more humanistic language of consumer culture. Both perspectives bring to the table interesting arguments but there are so polarized that the final image of the discourse is still confuse and inconclusive. The purpose of this paper is to define a behavioral approach of the consumption society that aims to surpass the existing framework of consumerism and to decompose the phenomena departing from the bounded rationality of individuals and the way it is transferred into their consumption patterns.

Health Knowledge and Health Consumption in the Romanian Society

Abstract Similar to other countries from Eastern Europe, the Semashko health care system before 1989 in Romania was a highly regulated, standardized and centralized system, characterized through an inequitable allocation of resources, the lack of response to local needs and poor managerial capacities. After 1990 the country has engaged into a long road of health care reforms in order to significantly improve the health system performance and patient satisfaction. The focus of these reforms was mainly on the financing issues, finally transforming the state financed model to an insurance based system, a system that has almost totally ignored the socio-economic and cultural metamorphose of its “patients”. Liberty, globalization and multiculturalism are the current buzz words, allowing the language of consumerism to progressively incorporate more and more the health care system, and inspiring us to view health just as another simple commodity. The paper explores the way health it is perceived and dealt with in the Romanian society, analyzing the contextual consumption background along with influence of variables like health information and health knowledge.

Indirect Privatisation – A Solution for Completing the Privatisation Process in Romania☆

Abstract Privatisation attracted the interest of the economic and political environment ever since the beginning of transition. The incomes obtained from the privatisation processes represented real breaths of fresh air for the economy. Today we notice the existence of hundreds of minority interests that are still waiting for a method of trading. The goal of the present study is to substantiate a solution to capitalize these minority packages of shares interests starting with the analysis of the current situation. The idea we try to develop refers to an indirect privatisation by creating a company listed on a regulated market, which will manage and trade the minoritypackages of shares in a transparent and competitive way, thus bringing added value in the economy.