The oil and gas industry is among the most affected industries as a result of war in Ukraine, on top of other economic, political, and environmental global turbulences that culminated with the ...coronavirus pandemic. The purpose of this qualitative, explorative study was to identify strategic changes as well as the role played by newer technologies—digital technologies in particular—in this industry. The focus is on the Romanian oil and gas industry, more specifically on the retail fuel networks of the top companies. In addition to secondary research (literature and company documents), interview-based primary research was conducted. The data were collected during spring of 2022 by conducting interviews with two groups of subjects: the strategists—consisting of top managers from the largest companies active in the oil and gas industry in Romania; and the informed consumers—selected from people working in the oil and gas industry. The interview guides were slightly different depending on the two groups targeted, and the structure of the interview guide was developed according to research questions. Among the findings, we can observe that the fuel retail market and consumer behaviour changed due to a series of factors, such as the global economic crisis, COVID-19, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and inflation. Those factors forced fuel retail companies, at the global level, to invest in filling station shops, services development, digitalization, and divestment—selling gas station networks in countries with poor integration with refineries. Romanian fuel retail companies are following the global trends and focusing on filling station shops, alternative fuels development, and digitalization. The results are followed by discussions, and several managerial implications are suggested. The study limitations and several further research paths are also identified. Based on the data available, we can conclude that the strategic directions at the level of products and services are aligned, but at the execution level, specialists offer different solutions for customer expectations.
IT projects are becoming increasingly complex due to rapidly advancing technologies, the need to tackle more difficult problems, and the involvement of a larger variety of experts with different ...backgrounds and experiences from different countries and cultures. It is also common for these teams to often work remotely in virtual settings. In this context, besides conflicts between IT project team members, cross-functional and cross-hierarchical organizational conflicts might emerge as well. These conflicts can vary in terms of their origin, nature, and intensity. This paper is a qualitative study focused on understanding interpersonal communication-based conflicts in multicultural and multidisciplinary IT project teams. The purpose is to find a common approach that can mitigate and eventually resolve these conflicts, aiming to promote shared knowledge and ultimately reduce the gap in understanding and the likelihood of conflicts. Both secondary research (a literature survey) and primary research (involving experienced managers and experts from project teams in the Romanian IT industry) were conducted in order to reach the objectives, besides sets of lessons learned and recommendations, to develop a framework for systematic conflict analysis and to propose a practice for a transcultural framework of common team vocabulary. To achieve these, a number of conflicts were investigated in IT project teams and corresponding cases. Based on the research findings, the authors concluded that a more formal approach is needed to address the problem of conflicts. From a theoretical standpoint, this paper suggests the concept of management diversity and provides a typology of organizational conflicts. Nevertheless, the framework for systematic analysis of conflict typology (FACT) and the framework of common team vocabulary in the multicultural environment of IT organizational project teams, as well as the sets of lessons learned and recommendations, might be useful and inspiring for both scholars and managers, not only in the IT sector.
Although the concept of “sustainability” is attributed to Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the principle of inter-generational equity substantiating it is older, at least in the Romanian tradition. This ...article attempts to take the first steps in looking for the roots of environmental sustainability starting from the traditional wisdom synthesized in proverbs, focusing on the sustainable environmental management. For this purpose, the universal and international principles of environmental law, which are interconnected to the concepts of environmental management (responsibility for protecting the environment) and scientific management in general (functions of the management, decision theory) are used as the backbone of a taxonomic approach. The concept of managerial responsibility takes in ecology the form of individual, group and collective responsibility for the decisions and actions related to the protection of the environment, and also the form of social responsibility. This study continues previous researches of the authors, opening the way to other trans- and interdisciplinary studies. Its main limitation (to Romanian proverbs) gives a possible direction for further research.
no. 313, Bucharest, Romania Abstract This paper scrutinizes the typology of successions in general, and business succession in particular - including both sides (ownership succession and management ...succession), which makes more sense in case of family businesses. The difficulty in studying the succession process in family businesses resides in its long duration - as the generations are measured in decades and centuries. The study objectives are intertwined, around two concepts: successful succession; generational trap. Hence the questions: What does make a business succession successful? How can the generational trap be avoided? Based on secondary research (literature survey) and primary research (business cases and succession examples), this study is conducted from traditional succession models to current trends. Not limited to Romanian environment, the study findings are useful for family businesses owners facing crucial succession
Undoubtedly, it was a remarkable progressive leap in the knowledge history of the modern society; the emergence of the scientific management was the result of an organic evolutionary process of the ...human society entirely, answering to its own needs and reflecting its own aspirations. Then: Why there in the Western world? The answer is complex and requires a more documented analysis, considering a multitude of factors; this endeavour is beyond of the purpose of this essay. However, the commonsensical explanation is that the Western world (from Western European France to the North-American US) was more industrialized, economically advanced, and better prepared for answering to the pressure of accelerated development of steel and metal processing industry that had required newer, more adequate methods -- in order to manage the more dynamic business organizations.
As interest in entrepreneurship and business management is increasing--so the number of buzzwords in circulation (in the currently spoken language) and their multiple meanings are. In other words, ...the accelerated diffusion of new business concepts is not necessarily associated with their proper meanings in communication. Here, Scarlat discusses the issues for understanding the business design process.
Since people are more or less inclined to organize their immediate environment (i.e. room, house or household) the bureaucracy is a reflection of this natural inclination embedded in human nature; ...then it is quite normal to associate bureaucracy with administration as well and, during last hundred years, with the scientific management development. For that reason, the question that comes up is whether bureaucracy is (with necessity) good or bad. And, possibly, to what extent bureaucracy is that way. Therefore, this essay aims to (i) identify the roots, philosophy and theories behind bureaucracy as organizing principle; (ii) underline the fact that bureaucracy is actually supporting the management process, and only exaggerations lead to its negative perception; (iii) provide examples and cases of bureaucracies in contemporary society. Thus, it is proposed to make the distinction between "good" bureaucracies in their original meaning (call them positive bureaucracy) and exaggerated, "bad" bureaucracies (call them negative bureaucracy). This paper is a result of mostly secondary research from historical perspective, then sustained by descriptive examples and cases. The research is essentially qualitative, sometimes illustrated by numbers. The examples are picked from business sector and public administration as well. The results open the perspective of further research on bureaucracy, both longitudinal and transversal studies (across sectors and industries or multi-cultural studies) - eventually towards identification of the fine delimitation line between positive and negative bureaucracy.
Let's Be Proactive in Crises Scarlat, Cezar
FAIMA Business & Management Journal,
09/2021, Letnik:
9, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The crises arise from inherent problems in the economy and their negative effects are far more destroying for the economies. Here, Scarlat asserts that the company managers must fight the crisis and ...find solutions. There are companies and company managers that perceive crisis circumstances as opportunities rather than threats: they take action, restructure their companies, adjust the product range, and get rid of ballast: sell less productive units, discontinue less profitable products, licence less talented people, even leaving too risky markets. In medical terms, the company illness is cured and these kinds of actions contribute to healing the economy overall. In other words, the crises have some positive effects too--if the company managers are strategically proactive and responsive.
Purpose--This paper aims to develop a unique instrument to be used for both assessing business ideas and monitoring the respective social enterprises while taking off, eventually IT-supported. ...Design/methodology/approach--A sample of 25 cases was selected--in the framework of a regional development project in the Horezu micro-region, Romania (the IDEALIS Project implementation is scheduled for 2011-2012). Each case corresponds to a business idea for starting-up a social enterprise (either agricultural co-operative or co-operative enterprise) in the region. The first phase of this project is to assess the viability of each business idea, and the second phase is to monitor the social start-ups as they are taking off. In both phases an original decision method is used, implanted on a methodology to assess the business idea's probability to succeed. This paper was prepared after the completion of the first phase while an IT application was considered as a vehicle to use the proposed method for monitoring the newly created social enterprises. Findings/results--The proposed instrument (ABIDIS: Assessing Business Ideas by the DISTEH method) was successfully used to associate a score to each business idea and, consequently, to rank the respective social enterprises accordingly: the higher the rank, the higher the chances to succeed. It is expected that social enterprises are considered for financial aid according to this ranking. Research limitations/implications--ABIDIS instrument is more useful when analyzed against a database of similar social enterprises and/or compared to its own historic data (which is monitoring actually). Amid successful method development and its use for assessing the chances of the social enterprises' ideas to succeed, the practical use of the proposed methodology for monitoring the recently established social enterprises is still in progress. Furthermore, the rightness of the assessment is a matter of time--as it is going to be validated after the project completion. Practical implications--The practical implications are twofold: the proposed method can be used for both assessing the viability of social enterprise ideas (by social entrepreneurs and consultants mostly) and monitoring the respective social enterprise while taking off (by entrepreneurs, consultants and funding institutions). In addition to these, the proposed methodology opens a larger research window for interested scholars. Originality/Value--The assessment instrument and decision method are the author's original development and their use for assessing the chances of the social enterprises to succeed is a premiere. Moreover, the use of this method
The contemporary world is an immense informational ocean, and everybody, as a buyer, has to deal with all kind of business news daily. Unfortunately, among them there are also fake news, ...manipulation, misinformation, and unprofessional or unfair sales techniques - most of them being simply useless or, even worse, leading to confusion and/or wrong buying decisions. Therefore, this paper is just highlighting some negative effects of online media news that impact the business management area, displaying four cases of misinformation that generate confusion and, ultimately, wrong decisions. Buying decisions are included. Following discussions associated with examples of fake news, misinformation and unprofessional to unfair to illegal sales techniques, the major conclusion is the stringent need for professional business services (as training, consulting, and marketing research), in the framework of better business culture education as well as fair business legislation. The managerial implications are important for business managers and providers of professional business services as well as business educators and press councils.
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