REZUMATUL TEZEI DE DOCTORAT

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1 Investeşte în oameni! FONDUL SOCIAL EUROPEAN Programul Operaţional Sectorial Dezvoltarea Resurselor Umane Axa prioritară: 1 Educaţia şi formarea profesională în sprijinul creşterii economice şi dezvoltării societăţii bazate pe cunoaştere Domeniul major de intervenţie: 1.5 Programe doctorale si postdoctorale în sprijinul cercetării Titlul proiectului: Proiect de dezvoltare a studiilor de doctorat în tehnologii avansate- PRODOC Cod Contract: POSDRU 6/1.5/S/5 Beneficiar: Universitatea Tehnică din Cluj-Napoca FACULTATEA DE CONSTRUCȚII DE MAŞINI Ing. Carmen Maria Trif REZUMATUL TEZEI DE DOCTORAT THE ROLE OF MARKETING RESEARCH FOR SUBSTANTIATING DECISION MAKING PROCESSES IN ORGANIZATIONS Comisia de evaluare a tezei de doctorat: Conducător ştiinţific Prof.dr.ing.,ec. Laura BACALI Preşedinte: Membri: - Prof.dr.ing. Diana Popescu - Prodecan, Facultatea de Construcţii de Maşini, Universitatea Tehnică din Cluj-Napoca; - Prof.dr.ing.,ec. Laura Bacali - Conducător ştiinţific, Facultatea de Construcţii de Maşini, Universitatea Tehnică din Cluj-Napoca; - Prof.dr.ec.dr.H.C. Nicolae Al. POP - Referent, Facultatea de Marketing, Academia de Studii Economice; Decan Facultatea de Administrarea Afacerilor - cu predare în limbi străine, din Bucureşti; - Prof.dr.ing.,ec. Ioan Abrudan - Referent, Facultatea de Construcţii de Maşini, Prorector - Universitatea Tehnică din Cluj-Napoca; - Prof.dr.ec. Dumitru Matiş - Referent, Decan Facultatea de Ştiinţe Economice şi Gestiunea Afacerilor, Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai, din Cluj-Napoca; - Prof.dr. Gabriel Bădescu Referent, Facultatea de Ştiinţe Politice, Administrative şi ale Comunicării, Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai, din Cluj-Napoca. 1

2 Introduction Topicality of the research theme. The entire process of marketing research seeks to solve managers problems regarding the selection of the most adequate alternative action for obtaining the desired result. Marketing research targets the identification of decisional versions and the evaluation of each of them through the lenses of firm s objectives, of the level of satisfying clients needs, in certain environmental conditions. So the role of the marketing research is to present possible solutions and to formulate recommendations for the manager who will have to adopt the final decision. With the help of information, the firm is transformed by the proactive 1 management from a spectator of the market to a true actor. Thus management has to find, in its operating environment, real positive measures, meaning measures which, spilling the universally valid level, to determine the expected effects in a cultural specific space. 2. From this perspective, marketing research, through its analyses and forecasts, enables the development of long term strategies. It constitutes an input of the decisional activity. However, it does not substitute the development of decision. The purpose of the conducted research consists in developing some recommendations that will serve as support for substantiating specific marketing decisions in the organizations. In order to achieve this purpose, I proposed to approach the following directions: 1) Assimilation of the marketing research from a theoretical aspect as research stages, methods, instruments, etc., from both conceptual and applicative point of views, which represents the essence of the thesis too; 2) Systematization of theoretical approaches regarding the notion of marketing decision, its classification and the stages attributed to it; 3) Studying the opportunity and revealing the most significant information concerning the establishment of the examined investment objectives, by using some statistical analyses as support; 4) Identification of the relevant conclusions in order to be used as support for decision making by the interested organizations. The purpose of this thesis consists in underlining the role of marketing research in decision making, from the perspective of establishing some investment objectives by the interested organizations. As support of the research the following statistical analyses from SPSS were used: custom tables, correspondence analysis, factor analysis, Cluster analysis, discriminant analysis and classification tree analysis. The scientific novelty of the conducted research consists in: 1. Disclosure of the particularities of substantiating marketing decisions in some organizations based on conducting some marketing researches both at the level of adult natural persons of Cluj-Napoca, as well at the level of some legal persons (advertising agencies, tourism agencies, real estate agencies, events organizing firms, firms that commercialize brand sports articles); 2. Scientific argumentation of the opportunity of adapting and using statistical analyses with the support of some software programs, with the aim of improving the organization s marketing decisional process; 3. The results obtained from the research serve as a basis for the cost-benefit analysis for the establishment of the investigated investment objectives; 1 Srinivasan, R., Rangaswamy, A., Lilien, L.,G., 2007, Turning adversity into advantage: Does proactive marketing during a recession pay off?, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Volume 22, Issue 2, pp Abrudan, I., 1999, Premise şi repere ale culturii managerial româneşti, Editura Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, p. 19 2

3 4. The finality of the conducted researches supported the intended organizations to formulate strategies and plans of activities for the investment objectives under study. Approval and implementation of the results of the research. The results of the marketing researches described in this thesis were presented, discussed and accepted by County Council of Cluj, partner of the TUCN in investment projects and provided useful information for the costbenefit analysis concerning the A, B and C investment objectives. Moreover, the investment objective A is currently almost completed, while investment objective B is being prefigured. The mission of the present work has conditioned its structure. Therefore in the first two chapters I described and synthesized the theoretical aspects found in the literature regarding marketing research and marketing decision. In this context, I identified both the theoretical specific aspects of marketing research and those aspects which are attributed to marketing decision. I presented the stages of the marketing research process and of the marketing decisional process, presenting at the same time the methods and instruments which marketing research implies. As a practical demonstration of the previously mentioned aspects regarding the role of marketing research and of decision in managerial activity, I presented three practical sections: 1. An analysis 3 of the sales maximization activity, in which can be identified the values of sub-promotional mix variables which maximize sales. Therefore, based on these I highlighted the fact that a manager can choose the best option in the action of achieving this objective. I developed a sales maximization model in the conditions of a system of restrictions imposed by the firm, concerning the variables of the sub-promotional mix. Using the method of least squares, the elasticity and the proportionality constant of the Visnev function were determined. I wanted to determine the values of the promotional sub-mix variables that maximize sales, as a way of improving entrepreneurial performance in a firm from Cluj-Napoca (S.C. Sinterom S.A.). Therefore, given the obtained results, I was able to choose that combination of the promotional sub-mix elements for which the sales reach a maximum level, taking into account certain circumstances or conditions that represent a system of restrictions imposed by the firm. 2. A research developed from the need of determining the perception of Romanian entrepreneurs regarding the role of marketing research. I developed a questionnaire which was applied on a sample of thirty firms from Cluj business environment. The research method used was the survey method. In this context, Romanian organizations showed a notable trend for conducting a research of this type. 3. In a similar manner to the chapter dedicated to marketing research, I analyzed some Romanian entrepreneurs perceptions from the perspective of the role of marketing research for deciders. Successful Romanian managers decision requires the development of some marketing researches, for its correct substantiation. In other words, success is considered to be in a strong correlation with the modality of substantiating decisions. Chapters 3, 4, 5 had as object some applicative researches used as decisional support for specific investment objectives, objectives A, B and C respectively. These marketing researches, in a similar way, were conducted among both adult natural persons, living in Cluj-Napoca, in generally, as well as among legal persons whose main object of activity determines them to be interested in the establishment of this objective. Therefore, in parallel with the examination of natural persons, five exploratory researches were conducted among some samples of firms, real estate agencies, tourism agencies, events organizing firms, firms that commercialize sports articles and advertising agencies, from Cluj-Napoca, in order to offer the required information in the decisional process for the organizations interested in the establishment of the studied investment objectives, to which the TUCN was a project partner. 3 Avasilcăi, Silvia, Bacali Laura, Trif, Carmen, 2009, Antreprenoriat. Cercetări aplicative. Editura Todesco, Cluj- Napoca, pp

4 In the descriptive research that grouped natural persons, the survey method was used, while a questionnaire was used as a working instrument. The questionnaire was pretested, the modifications that were highlighted as being necessary were made, then the questionnaire was developed in its final form and then it was subject of approval of local public authorities, before being administered. For the selection of the subjects included in the sample a random research method was used, (the method used being the multistage one) in order to be able to extrapolate the results to the level of the entire studied collectivity. It was desired to obtain a probability of minimum 95% and a limit error of ±5% at most, which correspond to a sample of 385 subjects. The selected sample consists of 401 adult natural persons from Cluj-Napoca. This was done by draw at the level of neighbourhood and streets of Cluj-Napoca, based on a database of the voting sections and the streets attributed to them. As a practical methodology of selecting the concerned housings, a set of rules was established according to which from all the available individuals from each house, the adult individual having its birthday date the nearest to the date of the research was investigated. In what concerns the natural persons opinions, I was able to observe the opportunity of establishing the investment objective A by drawing the most significant objectives of the applicative research: Obtaining information regarding the opportunity of building and locating the investment objective A; Identifying different sports competitions, types of events, shows that would be organized and the subjects frequency of potential participation to these events; Obtaining information regarding the utility of arranging commercial areas, with alimentary profile, for commercialization of specialized, professional sports articles, of brands enjoying a high awareness and a very good image at global level, and non-alimentary at investment objective A. Completion of this research enabled the determination of the following conclusions: 1. 68% of individuals from Cluj consider that building the investment objective A is opportune % of city residents declare that the location of the investment objective A should be on its former location % of the subjects would definitely be interested in participating to football games held at the investment objective A and would pay between lei for an entrance ticket. 4. Almost half of the subjects would certainly participate to the organized shows and would pay between lei for an entrance ticket. 5. More than one third of the investigated subjects would be willing to pay between lei / per month for a subscription to different courses. The five exploratory researches that were previously mentioned were conducted on samples of legal persons, advertising agencies, tourism agencies, real estate agencies, events organizing firms, firms that commercialize sports articles, from the city, in order to offer the required information as decisional support for the authorities regarding the sports complex. I used the survey method and as a working instrument a questionnaire was administered through operator. In order to set the sample of advertising agencies, tourism agencies and real estate agencies, the quasi-random method (step method) was used from the 2008 edition of Yellow Pages database. 19 advertising agencies, 20 tourism agencies and 21 real estate agencies from Cluj-Napoca were investigated, not being able to entirely respect the selection guide that was set, as some of the agencies could not be found. For firms that organize events total investigation was set, which proved to be only at an intention level, because some of the firms were not active anymore or could not be found. Nine events organizing firms were investigated, their effective number being reduced. In the case of the 4

5 firms that commercialize quality sports articles, we can state the fact that 10 firms were investigated, the method being non-random based on reasoning. The coordinates of the research in chapter 3 having legal persons as the target market,, for the investment object A, aimed to obtain information regarding the following: Building and location of the investment objective A; Interest of both advertising agencies and real estate agencies in managing and having advertisements at this objective; Real estate agencies interest in renting commercial areas at investment objective A; Types of events that could be organized at investment objective A. The research of investment objective A from the perspective of legal persons allowed me to draw the following appreciations, which I will state as it follows, specifying the results obtained for each group of legal persons: Therefore, advertising agencies consider that: 1. 89% of the investigated advertising agencies consider that is opportune to build the investment objective A; 2. 69% of the investigated advertising agencies claim that the location of the investment objective A should be on its former location; 3. All the agencies agree, unreservedly or with small reserves, to arrange advertising areas for being rented; 4. Almost half of the advertising agencies want to manage a part of the advertising areas that will exist. From the tourism agencies point of view I can state that: 1. All the investigated tourism agencies consider that building investment object A is opportune; 2. 75% of the investigated tourism agencies believe that the location of the investment objective A should be on its former location; 3. Half of the tourism agencies consider that the best financing source for building the objective A is from public money. The data highlighted at the level of the investigated real estate agencies with respect to the opportunity of establishing investment objective A are: 1. 95% of the investigated real estate agencies consider that is opportune to build objective A % of the investigated agencies want the objective to be built on its former location % of the real estate agencies, unreservedly, totally agree with the arrangement of some commercial areas inside the objective % of the investigated firms believe that the most useful destination of the commercial areas is that of commerce with sports articles, but not necessarily of known brands % of the investigated firms would definitely want to take over the rental of commercial areas inside the objective. In the case of events organizing firms the situation is as it follows: 1. 89% of the investigated firms consider the building of objective A as being opportune % of the investigated events organizing firms consider that the location of the objective should be on its former location % of the investigated firms consider that the market would allow organizing large events, cultural, religious and not only, at objective A. The results of the firms that commercialize brand articles allowed me to drag the attention upon the fact that: 1. 90% of the firms consider that is opportune to build the investment objective A % of the firms want the location of the investment objective A to be on its former location. 5

6 3. 40% of the firms that commercialize sports articles totally agree, unreservedly, with the arrangement of commercial areas inside objective A. 4. Almost all of the investigated firms consider that the most useful destination of commercial areas is the one of sports articles of known brands, produced by prestigious firms at global level. Relative to the fourth chapter included in the thesis, which represents the second large research included in this thesis, I examined the opportunity of investment objective B. It also represented a real support for authorities in decision making for supporting the establishment of this objective. At the level of the natural persons subjects information regarding the following aspects were obtained: Building the investment objective B in the complex; Different sports competitions, types of events, shows intended to be organized at investment objective B; The psychological price of an entrance ticket for the sports competitions held at investment objective B; Mode of procuring entrance tickets for the events held at investment objective B. The conclusions of this analysis enabled me to notice the following aspects: 1. Most of the investigated subjects consider that is opportune to build investment objective B. 2. Most of the investigated subjects would participate to handball games. 3. Almost one third of the subjects would be willing to pay between lei for an entrance ticket to the sports competitions held at objective B % of the investigated subjects consider that the entrance tickets for the organized events should be bought from the ticket counter. 5. The majority of the investigated subjects consider that the most efficient ways of informing are TV announcements. In parallel with the marketing research that had natural persons as target market, the four exploratory researches represented by legal persons for the investment objective B were conducted. At the level of the legal persons I proposed the following elements as research objectives: Obtaining information about the opportunity of building investment objective B in the complex; Obtaining information regarding the opportunity of arranging some advertising areas at investment objective B; Obtaining information concerning the surface that tourism agencies, real estate agencies and events organizing firms would be willing to have for advertising themselves at investment objective B; Obtaining information about the maximum and minimum rate for rental, in order to organize an event at investment objective B; Obtaining information regarding the psychological tariff for renting investment objective B in order to organize some events. Completion of these researches enabled the underlining of the following conclusions, specifying the results obtained for each group of legal persons: The advertising agencies consider that: 1. Most of the advertising agencies consider that building the investment objective B in the complex is opportune % of the advertising agencies totally agree, unreservedly, with the arrangement of some advertising areas inside objective B % of the advertising agencies would like to manage some of the advertising areas that will exist. From the tourism agencies point of view I can state that: 6

7 1. 35% of the tourism agencies definitely consider that building objective B is opportune % of the tourism agencies totally agree, unreservedly, with the arrangement of some advertising areas inside objective B. The data highlighted at the level of the investigated real estate agencies regarding the opportunity of establishing the investment objective B are: 1. 71% of the real estate agencies consider that building objective B is definitely opportune % of the real estate agencies totally agree, unreservedly, with the arrangement of some advertising areas inside objective B. In case of the event organizing firms, the following situation is presented: 1. 56% of the investigated event firms definitely consider that building objective B is opportune. 2. Almost half of the investigated firms (45%) would definitely or probably want to rent objective B for organizing large events. At the level of natural persons for the investment objective C I intended to highlight information about the most significant objectives of the applicative research regarding: The opportunity of building an objective C near objective A; The most adequate destination of objective C; The subjects interest in establishing a restaurant inside objective C; The interest for organizing specific events at the restaurant inside objective C. Following this information, I was able to determine the extent to which these subjects are interested in the establishment of investment objective C. Therefore I underlined that: 1. The majority of the subjects (65%) definitely or probably consider that it would be opportune to build objective C near objective A % of the subjects declare that the most adequate destination for the objective C would be an excellence centre for sports % of the investigated subjects prefer classical dishes with Romanian specific % of the subjects would attend the restaurant with a monthly periodicity % of the subjects would be willing to pay less than 50 lei for a meal served at this restaurant. At the same time, in parallel with the marketing research that had natural persons as target market, similarly with the case of the other two large researches, some conclusions were drawn regarding the perspectives that some samples of legal persons (advertising agencies, tourism agencies, real estate agencies, event organizing firms) have regarding the establishment of investment objective C in order to offer the required information as decisional support for the authorities, relative to the sports complex. The most significant objectives of the research for legal persons that I pursued are: Obtaining information regarding the opportunity of building an objective C near objective A and its proper destination; Obtaining information regarding the maximum rate/day and minimum rate/day that tourism agencies could obtain for an apartment or room at business apart-hotel; Obtaining information about the maximum rate that real estate agencies could obtain for one square meter rented for class A offices; Obtaining information regarding the minimum rate per square meter below which the clients would doubt the quality and functionality of the area for class A offices; The minimum and maximum rates that could be paid for renting one square meter / day in order for organizing an event. 7

8 The edifying conclusions to be used in the decisional process of the organizations interested in establishing this investment objective are: Advertising agencies consider that: 1. 68% of the advertising agencies admit, definitely or probably, that would be opportune to build objective C near objective A. 2. Almost half chose as destination for objective C a mixed version, for sports and for business as well % of the investigated advertising agencies would probably be interested in having advertisements for their own firm at objective C. From the tourism agencies point of view I can assert that: 1. Most of the subjects consider that building objective C near objective A would be opportune. 2. A quarter of the investigated agencies state that the most adequate destination of objective C would be the establishment of a business excellence centre, with renting areas for class A offices, restaurant, and in addition, some floors for a four stars hotel % of the tourism agencies state the fact that the objective C should be divided as it follows: fewer floors for the hotel and more floors for offices areas. 4. Tourism agencies, in a proportion of 30%, are definitely interested in offering apart-hotel to their clients, if this type of areas would exist inside the hotel % of the agencies consider that the maximum rate / day they could obtain for a business apartment is of 120 euro. 6. A quarter of the investigated tourism agencies consider that the minimum rate / day below which the clients would doubt the comfort of such a business apartment would be of 100 euro % of the investigated tourism agencies consider that the maximum rate / day they could obtain for a hotel room is of 120 euro. 8. Only 15% of the investigated tourism agencies appreciate that the minimum rate / day below which the clients would doubt the comfort of a hotel room is of 80 euro. The data highlighted at the level of the investigated real estate agencies regarding the opportunity of establishing the investment objective C are: 1. Most of the real estate agencies state that building objective C near objective A would definitely be opportune. 2. Almost half of the real estate agencies consider that the most adequate destination of objective C would be a sports excellence centre. 3. Most of the real estate agencies state the fact that objective C should be 60% offices and 40% hotel rooms. 4. Over half of the investigated agencies would definitely want to take over the rental of areas for offices within objective C. 5. Almost 30% of the investigated agencies consider that the surface they would agree to intermediate rent of class A offices is over square metres. In the case of event organizing firms the situation is the following: 1. Most of the investigated firms (56%) consider that it would definitely be opportune to build objective C near objective A % of the subjects included in the study prefer the establishment of centre for sports excellence, while most of them, a third, prefer a mixed version, both for sports and business. 3. Less than half of the investigated firms (45%) would definitely want to organize events if there were conference rooms properly equipped according to standards. 4. Most of the firms definitely want to organize events at the restaurant inside objective C. Chapter 6 aims to underline once again the importance which the use of marketing research can have, being a real support for deciders by performing some statistical analyses. The role of 8

9 mathematical modelling in the analysis of nominal, ordinal, scale and proportional variables, depending on the case, and the relationship between these were studied. Statistical analyses such as correspondence analysis, cluster analysis, discriminant analysis, factor analysis, classification tree analysis were performed. For these analyses the SPSS program was used on the data obtained from the selective primary random marketing researches. At the level of the investigated samples, after performing the bi-variant analysis, it can be emphasized that: 1) Men are more interested in some types of concerts: rock, because 33.7>32.5, house music 26.9>24. The majority consider the existence inside objective A of some areas designed for commercializing sports articles of known brands as being necessary and opportune. 2) Women are more interested in pop music concerts because 54.5>43.2. In what concerns the participation to electronic music, Romanian traditional music or other types of concerts, it could not be determined the extent to which the individuals of a specific gender are more interested or not. Women are not particularly interested in the possibility of commercializing branded sports articles but they want the commercial areas to be designed as centres where they can place orders for customized sports articles or repair some sports articles. Analysis of correspondence was used with the purpose of underlining the relationship between variables on as few dimensions as possible. This determined the fact that from the total number of the subjects that want objective A to be placed on its former location, most of them consider that it is opportune to build the investment objective. Another important aspect obtained through this analysis shows that from the total number of subjects that want to participate to organized events, most of them will participate monthly, while a quite high score is attributed to bimonthly or weekly frequency. It is known that football games represent the main attraction compared to any other activities held at objective A. The research allowed the determination of the price of an entrance ticket that would be necessary in order for the number of spectators to be as high as possible. Therefore, the interval of lei was identified as being the sum they would be willing to pay. Another analysis used in this chapter is the factor analysis, which sums a set of multivariate data trying to simultaneously reduce data complexity with minimum loss of information. This type of analysis was used in order to reduce the dimension from 8 types of sports activities to 2 components: one that divides the respondents between those who are interested in practicing hard sports: box, fights, fencing, bodybuilding and the second component that separates the subjects interested in practicing softer sports: fitness, gymnastics, tennis and athletics. Based on the answers provided by the respondents, a profile of the persons participating to this study was done. Using Cluster analysis three clusters were determined, which allowed the characterization of these persons. The subjects of cluster 1 are men, over 40 years, more concentrated in the 60+ age group, having high school as the last graduated school. They want to participate to hard sports activities box, fights, bodybuilding, fencing, but they do not want or do not know exactly if they will participate to sports activities held at objective A. Cluster 1 respondents do not consider opportune or are not interested in building objective A, they cannot express an opinion regarding the location of this investment objective. From the perspective of their availability of participating to shows, they are attracted by rock music and by house music as well, and they are willing to pay up to 10 lei or between lei for the entrance ticket, depending on the concert type. In the situation in which commercial areas would be arranged inside the objective, although they do not consider it to be opportune, they want to find products of known brands, for which they would pay, in average, either over 500 lei or up to 200 lei, depending on the type of bought products. Cluster 2 represents women, with age between years, having university or postuniversity education and they show interest towards soft activities: fitness, gymnastics, tennis, 9

10 athletics. They do not consider that building the objective is opportune and among those who consider opportune the construction of the building, they want it to be located either in another part of the city, or outside the city. Some of the subjects will probably participate to football games or to athletics competitions, depending on the type of activity held at investment objective A. There are individuals attracted by pop, electronic and Romanian traditional music concerts. Depending on the type of show, the subjects of this class are willing to pay between lei or between lei for a ticket. These persons want to buy any type of sports product, and as a destination for the areas inside the objective they are interested in online ordering for service and for sports articles, but not necessarily of known brands. The average value of an acquisition is under 200 lei. The last cluster is characterized by those respondents that prefer activities like tennis, bodybuilding, fitness, athletics, men, with ages between years, generally having secondary education, as well as university education. In a proportion of 100%, they consider that is opportune to build the objective on its former location and will definitely participate to both activities (athletics competitions and football games) in case these will be organized. It was also identified the fact that there are individuals that want to participate to concerts, less to pop or Romanian traditional music concerts, and the sum they would pay for the entrance ticket is between lei or between lei, depending on the concert. The respondents included in this cluster are interested in sports products of the brands: Reebok, Puma, Arena. Another step of the research in this thesis was represented by the classification tree analysis. I used this type of analysis because, as the literature states, it can help to perform a market segmentation starting from the types of concerts that subjects prefer depending on the demographic variables: Gender, Age, Education, Occupation, Monthly net income. Starting from the entire sample, the classification tree analysis identifies the first variable, the most discriminating one. This succeeds to divide the categories in groups as homogeneous as possible in the inside and as heterogeneous as possible in the outside. For each final node a set of characteristics that enables the characterization of the respective groups was identified. Through the classification tree analysis it was underlined that only 39 subjects from the entire sample prefer electronic music concerts. Thus the volume of the category is not large enough to generate an independent class. Moreover, the demographic characteristics of these respondents are quite heterogeneous. In what concerns the other categories of concerts, there exists at least one final node that adequately identifies the profile of the consumers that prefer them. Summarizing all the aspects mentioned in this chapter, I can state that computer technology comes to support even more the role of marketing research in decision making. Thus to a large extent marketing research starts being oriented from products to systems, for providing the adequate information. This trend highlights the support that statistical software programs advance to marketing research, which in this circumstance can provide in time the information in the absence of which no decision maker could not progress towards the achievement of the intended goal. In chapter 7 are presented the main contributions, conclusions and recommendations regarding marketing decision making for organizations interested in investment objectives A, B and C. At the same time, in this chapter I draw possible paths for future research, which could deepen the theme approached in this thesis: Development of a mathematical model that connects the existence and the reliability of the results of the marketing research and financial performance of an investment objective, evaluating including the investment risk attached according to the context. Development of a model of relative optimization of the marketing mix, overall. Panel of consumer type of investigation, as a premise for performance decisions making. Publications. The content and results of the researches included in this thesis were published in ten articles and three books, which are shown in the bibliographical list. 10

11 References [1]. Abrudan, I., 1999, Premise şi repere ale culturii manageriale româneşti, Editura Dacia, Cluj-Napoca [2]. Avasilcăi, Silvia, Bacali, Laura, Trif, Carmen Maria, 2009, Antreprenoriat. Cercetări aplicative, Editura Todesco, Cluj-Napoca [3]. Bacali, Laura, coord., 2002, Manual de Inginerie Economică: Marketing, Editura Dacia, Cluj-Napoca [4]. Bacali, Laura, Trif, Carmen Maria, ş.a., 2010, Manualul calificării. Antreprenoriat, Editura U.T.PRESS, Cluj-Napoca [5]. Borzan, Cristina Ştefana, Bacali, Laura, Trif, Carmen Maria, 2009, The determination of the psychological price, KSI Transactions on Knowledge Society, II International science conference Knowledge Society, Nessebar, Bulgaria, 4, pp [6]. Chelcea, S., 2004, Metodologia cercetării sociologice. Metode cantitative şi calitative, Ediţia a II-a, Editura Economică, Bucureşti [7]. Chelcea, S., 2004, Iniţiere în cercetarea sociologică, Editura Comunicare.ro, Bucureşti [8]. Javalgi, R., White, S.D., 2002, Strategic challenges for the marketing of services internationally, International Marketing Review, 19(6), pp [9]. Kotler, Ph., Amstrong, G., Saunders, J., Wong, Veronica, 1999, Principles of Marketing, 2 nd European Edition, Publisher Prentice Hall, N.J., USA [10]. Kotler, Ph., 2003, Marketing Insights from A to Z, Publisher John Wiley & Sons, USA [11]. Kotler, Ph., Keller, K.L., 2006, Marketing Management, Pearson Education, N.J., USA [12]. Leeflang, S.H.P., Wittink, R.D., 2000, Building models for marketing decisions: Past, present and future, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 17(2-3), pp [13]. Lefter, C., 2004, Cercetarea de marketing, Editura Informarket, Braşov [14]. Lilien, G.H., 2011, Bridging the academic-practitioner divide in marketing decision models, Journal of Marketing, 75, pp [15]. Malhotra, N.K., 2006, Questionnaire design and scale development, în Grover, R., Vriens, M., ed. The Handbook of Marketing Research: uses, misuses and future advances, Sage Publications, USA, pp [16]. Paina -Racolţa, Nicoleta-Dorina, 2006, Marketing, Curs Universitar, Cluj-Napoca [17]. Spircu, Liliana, Calciu, M., Spircu, T., 1994, Analiza datelor de marketing, Editura ALL, Bucureşti [18]. Trif, Carmen Maria, Bacali, Laura, 2009, Preţul Psihologic, Revista de Management şi Inginerie Economică, 8(4), Editura Todesco, Cluj-Napoca, pp [19]. Trif, Carmen Maria, Bacali, Laura ş.a., 2010, Eşantionarea, între teorie şi practică, Revista de Management şi Inginerie Economică, 9(2), Editura Todesco, Cluj-Napoca, pp [20]. Trif, Carmen Maria, Bacali, Laura, 2011, Utilizarea cercetării de marketing ca suport în realizarea unor analize statistice cu ajutorul SPSS-ului, Revista de Management şi Inginerie Economică, 10(2), Editura Todesco, Cluj-Napoca, pp [21]. Trif, Carmen Maria, Bacali, Laura, 2011, II. Utilizarea cercetării de marketing ca suport în realizarea unor analize statistice cu ajutorul SPSS-ului, Revista de Management şi Inginerie Economică, 10(3), Editura Todesco, Cluj-Napoca, pp

12 [22]. Ucenic, Camelia Ioana, Bacali, Laura, Trif, Carmen Maria, Fuzzy Model Applied to Forecast the Promotional Expenses, The XIII International Conference APPLIED STOCHASTIC MODELS AND DATA ANALYSIS, June 30-July 3, 2009, Vilnius, Lithuania [23]. Van Bruggen, H., Wierenga, B., 2010, Marketing Decision Making and Decision Support Systems, Foundations and Trends in Marketing, 4(4), MA: now Publishers Inc. [24]. Van der Lans, R. ş.a., 2008, A viral Branching model for predicting the spreaf of electronicword-of-mouth in viral marketing campaings, Working paper RSM Erasmus University [25]. Wedel, M., ş.a, 2000, Marketing data, models and decisions, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 17, pp [26]. Wierenga, B., 2011, Managerial decision making in marketing: The next research frontier, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 28(2), pp [27]. Yaprak, A., 2002, Globalization: Strategies to build a great global firm in the new economy, Thunderbird International Business Review, 44(2), pp [28]. Yavuz, U., ş.a, 2005, Developing a marketing decision model using a knowledge based system, Knowledge-Based Systems, 18, pp