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During their life, most citizens of developed countries use banking services, with the quality of these services being the most important feature for them. Therefore, this article will consider the concept and measurement of the quality of banking services. It will present results of the explorative research conducted for the purpose of determining customers’ perception of the quality of banking services in the Split-Dalmatia County. The “importance-performance” grid will be used in order to identify which of “the five basic dimensions” of quality are important for banking customers and to show the usefulness and relative simplicity of this model’s application for measuring service quality in the banking sector. The article also gives guidelines which will show not only how customers perceive the quality of services provided but also what dimensions of quality they find more or less important.
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Insurance companies in Croatia feel the need to find new sources of competitive advantage on the Croatian life insurance market amid increasing competition and a poorly profiled offer of life insurance services. Lately, both marketing literature and practice seem to point to the shaping of a relationship between service quality and price as a possible solution to improving the position of insurance companies on the Croatian market. In providing life insurance services, the insurance companies should focus on the quality elements that offer certain benefits a client is willing to pay for. Changes in individual quality features have been evaluated differently by clients. Such differences in their evaluation of changes in the individual elements of service quality also reflect the willingness of clients to pay a suitable increase on their insurance premium. Improvements in the service quality features that are subjectively evaluated as important should lead to the client’s acceptance of a higher life insurance premium. The paper considers the interdependence between the quality of life insurance services and the premium from the aspect of the client’s willingness to pay a higher life insurance premium for a higher service quality.
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In this paper we begin with McGuire’s concept of influenceability, according to which individuals differ based on their susceptibility to social influence. The theoretical part explains three types of influence by reference groups and presents previous results relevant to the issue of this paper. The second part of the paper presents the methodology and research results. The aim of this research is to identify different types of reference group influence by using multivariance techniques, and determine whether they can serve as a basis for consumer market segmentation. The research was conducted on a sample of 250 respondents in the Split-Dalmatia County. Keeping in mind the issues and goals of the research, two hypotheses were set. Five factors – influence types were identified by using the factor analysis (normative influence, value-expressive or identificational influence, environment informative influence, salesperson’s informative influence, and comparison to environment and clothing conformity), and were then been used as basic segmentation variables. Cluster analysis singled out three segments: subject to identification or value-expressive influence, subject to information influence and non-subject to influence. To describe them better, demographic variables were employed, i.e. “relation-comparison and interaction with others” variables as well as personal indicators. The research results confirmed both starting hypotheses. The results attained suggest that consumers from particular segments require different communication strategies, based on which, each segment was supported by corresponding recommendations.
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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze and compare the attitude of managers to the market position of independent companies in comparison to the companies that are members of groups of companies in Croatia. In addition, research included an analysis of their attitudes toward current and future internal market trends with respect to the number and the value of transactions conducted within Croatian groups of companies. Methodology: Relevant secondary and primary data was used in the research. In secondary research, relevant scientific and professional literature was analyzed. Primary research was done by using a questionnaire on an intentional sample of experts, including 127 managers working for groups of companies in Croatia. Findings: Two main hypotheses were tested: H1 – The internal market of Croatian groups of companies, measured by the number of transactions, will grow in the future; H2 – The internal market of Croatian groups of companies, measured by transaction value, will grow in the future. Both hypotheses were accepted. Implications: Research results imply a further strengthening of the financial and economic importance of groups of companies in Croatia, and a weakening of the companies that are not members of such groups. This implies a tendency toward certain monopoly development in some economic sectors. The development and continuous growth of the internal market compels countries to implement control and regulatory practices with regard to the use of transfer pricing, a path Croatia will have to follow.
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Following the establishment of the communist regime in Romania and after the appointment of the Petru Groza government, one of the most significant laws that led to the definite institution of communism throughout the whole country was the Law no.119 of June 11th 1948 referring to the nationalization of the industrial, banking, insurance, mining and transportation units. The imposition of this law represented an impairment for both the owners of these units, who represented an important segment of the romanian postwar society, as well as the main opponents to the communist ideology, and for the economic community. Such was the situation which occured at Rosia Montana (county of Alba), a region where the sole occupation was the exploitation of gold deposits. The material investigates on the basis of reference documents and verbal testimonies of those who experienced and where directly affected by nationalization, the im pact the process had upon the community of Rosia Montana. In this particular case, the process of nationalization led to the disappearance of the group as an entity as well as to the loss of the material means and cultural identity at an individual level.
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The captivity is an immediate consequence of wars as well as death and injuries. Still, no status of war prisoners existed until the end of 19th century. This means that war prisoners and civilians in the occupied territories were at the disposal of the winner. The captivity is an important problem especially for the young generation because it is a part of the history of humanity and it is not an exhausted subject yet. This study deals with the testimonies of the former soldiers imprisoned in the ex Soviet Union. Their stories are related to the beginning of the captivity, first experiences with Russians, ritual of catchments, the way to the prison camp, life during prison, nourishment, medical assistance, work in the camp, escape attempts, propaganda, sexual aspects, literary preoccupations, correspondence, the way back home. Those who survived proved that miracles exist and faith and the strength to resist are more important than body condition. Their stories are incredible but entirely true.
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The paper attempts to outline the large area of research on symbolism, as focused in social sciences, primarily in history and social psychology, as well. It elicits different meanings and features of this field - which has been lately an attractive, though highly demanding object of study-, pointing out some clarifications on the fuzzy concepts it deals with. In what concerns the relevance of this topic for oral history, the implicit assumption of the paper is that collective memories, at the core of the oral history approach, are inextricably mixed with social imaginary. Therefore, a prior comprehension of the vast world of symbols and a peculiar awareness of their complexity and subtleties are needed. The first part of the paper presents a general theory on imaginary, particularly Gilbert Durand’s work on mythodologie. In the meantime, outlining the world of symbols, with their characteristics and social functions, an emphasis is put on their dual nature, as both benign and malign potentiality, which might carry unexpected effects on human personality and cultures. The study considers as well the imaginary in the history, and the historical imaginary. Drawing mainly on the work of Jacques Le Goff, it suggests that the approach on mentalities and imaginary - the fruitful, even though rather ambiguous and vaguely defined concepts of the „new history”- could be usefully focused at the level of social representations, a more concrete and nuanced notion borrowed from social psychology. In the second part of this study, which is to be published in the next issue of the Annual of Oral History, I am going to describe some classic characters of the political mythology, such as the savior or the charismatic leader in history. As a matter of fact, this recurrent and powerful myth of the Romanian social imaginary played a crucial role in the 1989 Romanian revolution, as it is largely analyzed in a previous article that I published, based on my 1996 BA thesis. In conclusion, this paper advocates a comprehensive approach on social imaginary, as a constant dimension of humanity and therefore, an important object of social sciences. Since it warns of the symbols’ mixed benign and malign effects on both individuals and cultures, the paper finally suggests a balanced attitude in approaching the world of symbols, neither enthusiastically overwhelmed by their power, nor reluctantly neglecting them as mere non-rational forces.
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The present study attempts to highlight certain aspects regarding the manner in which the dissolution the Romanian Unitarian Church was perceived by part of the church elite. Consequently we have chosen to consider as an elite the best part of a community, that is those who contribute to the opinion creation, without disregarding also the meaning of organized minority, whose certain superiority and capacity to influence the social setting in which it resides is acknowledged at a social level. The study focused on a relatively small number of people, coming from various regions and backgrounds (bishops, vicars, monks, priests) and which we deemed as representative in order to illustrate the impact of the dissolution the Romanian Unitarian Church in 1948, as well as the sacrifices that were made for preserving the faith, in spite of all the constraints imposed by the repression authorities. Part of the information was retrieved from the field literature, archive sources, but also from oral sources coming from the area of the man who has suffered, who was forced to endure incarcerations, house arrests and a clandestine spiritual life in the “Underground Church” for decades. After 1948, when the Act of 1st of December gained a permanent and irrevocable meaning, the Unitarian Church became a thing of the past. The Romanian Unitarian Church pursued nevertheless its activity clandestinely, a fact which came also to the attention of the State Police leading thus to a more and more suffocating surveillance. The majority of the hierarchs and clerics of the Church United with Rome followed the path of prisons, labor camps and house arrests. Some of the priests managed to maintain their freedom by camouflaging their pasts, religious belonging and by continuing to hold the Greek-catholic religious sermons clandestinely. It was with great sacrifices that the regeneration and enhancement of the group of Greek-catholic priests was achieved, enabling thus the pursuit of their clandestine activity. In spite of all the restrictions against it, the “Underground Church” endured. The communist regime collapsed in 1989, but unfortunately the same cannot be concluded about the relationship it imposed among Christians. The bitter fruits that were sawn among them have led to the perpetuation of the conflict between the adherents of the two denominations (Orthodox and Greek- Catholic).
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The German community of Romania may become an oral history subject quite because the official history has serious lacks on this regard due to the political regime of the 20th century and the unknown less convenient part of the problem, ignored most of the time, could become more of interest. We had in mind for this study the German community of Orăştie, where due to industrialization of the 60s and 70s local Germans from the neighborhood went together, as well as in other towns as Blaj, Arad, Sebeş, Lupeni. Most of them setteled down right where they worked. Although their traditions, told events, even language or religion differ they form a community whose values are respected. They suffered together with the others and the single matter that counted was that they spoke another language than the oficial one for they were local Germans. The aim of the study is to integrate individual memory to a collective one, of the native place. We took 15 interviews with people born between 1917-1954, most of them women who had lived the experience of the Second World War and after that deported, but also people who analyze the German community and the changes in time. Their testimonies can be considered historical sources and also points of view on the events lived and told about because after decades the events are viewed within other experiences receiving new meanings. The refreshing process is integrated to a social framework due to numerous political coercions local Germans were confronted with but also implies the process of almost living again the event as well as justifies, understandings and interpreting.
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The present article focuses on the study and analysis of the rank relations which were established between the Russian soldiers during the Afghanistan war, reflected from both a vertical and a horizontal perspective. The inter human relations between the Russian militaries were established in a tense context and they were enhanced by a series of traditions, regulations as well as by an inherent metamorphosis induced in a new social and cultural environment, and a lifestyle that was most of the times brought about at the very brink of infamy, of the multi national mixture and of the psychological profile of the soviet militaries. The young recruits perceived their military superiors as a leaning point, an idealized image shifted towards a patriarchal one. In spite of this fact, the exhibition of hierarchy was at the same time not ruled out, a fact that is noticeable if one observes the background of divergences which sometimes led to tragic consequences. The hardest mechanism of communication between the soviet militaries was generated by the institution known as Dedovscina (familiar among both soldiers and officers), which instituted an informal, hierarchical structure, which was based on consuetude and presented a specific terminology. At times it was employed more intensively in Afghanistan than in the USSR. Unlike the Dedovscina established in the USSR, the one encountered in Afghanistan was even more excessive due to the war circumstances. Dedovşcina was an embodiment of an unrealistic dimension and it inflicted a system of intense physical and moral sufferings. Moreover, the arbitrary pattern of the relations which were established outside regulations led to suicides and the desertions from the garrisons. But the most extreme form of human degradation and proscription was outlined by the group of subsidiary soldiers.
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La mémoire est celle qui relie le temps et l’espace, les événements qui se succèdent et les événements qui coexistent. Donc, parler d’un événement, se souvenir, témoigner, c’est reconstruire le passé en faisant appel à la mémoire. Car la mémoire est un phénomène qui se conjugue, qui s’emploie au présent et qui se definit comme « la présence ou le présent du passé, une présence reconstruite ou reconstituée qui s'organise dans le psychisme des individus autour d'un écheveau complexe d'images, de mots, de sensations et qui articule des souvenirs, des oublies, des dénis, des refoulements et donc leur éventuel retour ». Le but de notre intervention a été d’offrir une autre perspective sur l’éthique de la mémoire par rapport à celle avec laquelle nous sommes habitués, celle de la morale. Donc, selon nous, l’éthique de la mémoire peut être vue aussi bien comme un désir et un devoir de faire connaître l’histoire personnelle pour pouvoir la réécrire, que comme la condition de fidélité par rapport à un fait passé. Mais, même si nous avons laissé à côté l’approche morale, on peut affirmer que les deux points de vue se présupposent réciproquement, parce que les deux configurent l’éthique : « viser à la vraie avec et pour l’autre dans des institutions justes ».
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The communist regime’s sustained offensive, meant to obtain a total control of the Romanian State and society led to responses. At the end of the 1940s, numerous anticommunist armed resistance groups appeared; one of the most important areas where this phenomenon manifested itself was the Apuseni Mountains. Among the most important organizations of this region there was „Frontul Apărării Naţionale. Corpul de Haiduci” (National Defence Front. Outlaws’ Body), under the direction of Major Nicolae Dabija and engineer Traian Macovei. The organization was founded in 1948, the action area being situated on the Eastern flank of the Apuseni Mountains, in Muntele Mare, near the communes of Bistra and Câmpeni. In the autumn of 1948, a group settled in Muntele Mare, where they built a fortified shelter (a „blockhouse”). At the same time, in the localities down the mountains, supporting groups were made up (for instance „Liga Apuseană a Moţilor”/Moţi’s Western League) and a genuine network providing information about the authorities’ actions. Major Nicolae Dabija was the constructor of one of the most ambitious plans that the Resistance in Romania had made, comparing with Colonel Ion Uţă’s one, the leader of a Resistance group in the region of Banat. The goal was to start an insurrection in 1949, when the war between the Soviets and the Americans was expected to begin; the armed actions were then meant to occupy the State institutions, the armament and ammunition deposits, as well as the strategic points (the defiles of Mureş, Someş, Olt, Prahova and Dorna). The group created and spread anticommunist handbills, for the population’s mobilization. Furthermore, it made up an information network in Bucharest and tried from there to establish connections with the western diplomatic milieus. All these underlined the existence of a strategic, not only a tactic, vision, although the external factor was probably too much relied on. Well informed about the activity of the „National Defence Front. Outlaws’ Body”, the authorities started, at the beginning of March 1949, an ample action against the group. In the fight taking place in Muntele Mare were killed or caught several partisans. At the same time, members and people who had supported the group, from the localities around or from Bucharest, were arrested. A trial taking place in October 1949 at Sibiu had as a result the sentence to death of several members of the group in the mountains, including Major Dabija, as well as numerous and hard imprisonment decisions. Securitate did not execute only the ones who had received the capital punishment, but also many of those sentenced to prison, in which case we can speak of real assassinations. The same thing happened to some of the partisans caught in the mountains, or to their supporters, who were executed on the spot, without mention of a trial...
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The present paper attempts to re-enact the nationalization process which occurred in the villages of Damieni and Calugareni, situated on the bank of the Upper Niraj, settlements which were administratively integrated in the last phase of transformations in the Targu Mures rayon, in the Mures Autonomous Hungarian Region. The conducted research focuses on two main topics: the consequences of the communist legislation, its impact on the investigated settlements and the evolution of the socialist agricultural structures in consonance with the Stalinist pattern. The legislation of the quotas and the suppression under any form of those considered to be „chiaburi” (wealthy people), led to a certain flexibility on behalf of the townsmen, who would first join associations (a mass phenomena at Damieni) throughout the year 1960, until the Collective Agricultural Household was established by the end of 1962 in both settlements and encompassed them both almost entirely. The merger of the „30th December” collective agricultural household from Damieni and that of „Lenin’s Way” in Calugareni, in August 1962, represented the first phase of this process and did not bring about any major changes. To investigate the facts we resorted to an innovative material from the National Romanian Archives, the Mures branch, as well as to a less conventional source of oral history, the testimonies, completing 18 interviews with the persons that were directly involved in the analyzed process. The present study represents to a certain extent a history of the nameless, which means to round out in detail the conventional official history.
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Between 1948-1949 a group of partisans led by aviation captain Ionescu Diamandi operated in the region of the Lower Ariesului Valley and Ierii Valley (the villages Cheia, Moldoveneşti, Ocoliş, Lungeşti, Lunca Largă, Cheile Runcului, Agriş, Maşca, Iare, Băişoara, Muntele Băişorii). According to the written as well as oral sources, the main operations were conducted around the settlement of Mount Băişorii. They ranged from attacking a store and the tourist lodge to capturing the authorities, locking them in a cellar and declaring the township of Mount Băişorii as one that is „liberated from communism and submitted only to the will of the people”. Following the armed confrontations with the repression armies (summer of 1949), the group scattered and, soon after, the adherents together with their followers were arrested and sentenced to hard years of prison. From those that were captured by the State Police, 12 men were executed: 8 were executed in public, in order to set an example, at Mount Baisorii, Cheile Runcului and Maşca, and other 4 men were executed in prison. Following these events, a myth emerged in the region of Mount Baisorii (probably fabricated by the State Police), according to which the leaders of the group of partisans were in fact members of the State Police sent in the area to investigate the peasants’ position towards the communist regime and to determine those hostile to it to act openly so that they could be identified and arrested or eliminated. The idea lacks obviously consistency, taking into account that these leaders were shot and there are no proofs in this respect. That is why we have attempted to uncover the birth mechanism of such a myth, its diffusion and endurance throughout time. Another significant matter that we addressed was that of the adhesiveness of the formula of anti communist resistance to the population of the investigated villages. It seems that, in the context of the soviet reality that had reached the Transylvanian villages in the form of accounts of the formers combatants on the eastern front, townsmen supported in great numbers the anti communist activities.
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The events that occurred between august and the beginning of September 1940 are renowned and have been comprehensively debated by both the Romanian and the foreign historiography. Facilitated by the development of the international context of that period, they have been the result of the event which took place in Wien on the 30th of August 1940, an incident that has not only had significant consequences for the future unfolding of history, but that has also generated numerous debates and interpretations coming from expert historians in the field of historiography. The study therefore aims to accomplish a reconstitution from the perspective of oral history of the manner in which the Hungarian occupation (September 1940-october 1944) has conducted itself in some areas from the basin of the Valley of Agrijului. The topic under discussion can be deemed as justified if we bear in mind the painful reality of the Hungarian occupation (Treznea), reported from man to man, region to region, together with the tradition of the common man’s spiritual universe, whose aspirations, dreams and beliefs, as an embodiment of his respect for the departed loved ones, who died for freedom and peace, have always represented essential traits that have ultimately gained an aura of myth or legend. Since then, the tragic tale of the events that took place in some parts of the Valley of Agrijului during the Hungarian occupation has been passed on from man to man, generation to generation. The starting point of this research, carried out by means of oral investigation, are these genuine but nevertheless not entirely unravelled historical facts, as well as the already born and spreading legends. These testimonies are essential primarily because they convey another kind of history, one that is explained through examples. On the other hand, I consider that the frankness of the witnesses can not be questioned even though in some cases their partiality is obvious, in the sense that they blame only the other part. Nevertheless the majority subscribes to the principle stated by Puşcaş Ioan from Treznea: „I tell you, I ain’t joking’ cause I’m accountable for what I say”. (roughly translated) Another noticeable aspect is the fact that in most cases the typology of the situations portrayed by the people who were interviewed can be traced down in archive documents and in the published bibliographical references on the subject. Regarding the contribution of the study, two things are worth mentioning. To start with, it illustrates for the first time a reconstruction of the general aspects of the hungarian occupation, from various spheres, in some of the parts of the Agrijului Valley, portrayed by the accounts of the local folk. Subsequently it advocates for a more reflective and detailed research on the causes that have led to the tragic events that took place in the settlement of Treznea, the county of Salaj during its occupation by the Hungarian troops, since a certain biased...
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There are not many collective revolts during the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceauşescu. Unfortunately, the uprisings which took place are not thoroughly known. Romanian scholars wrote about the strike of Lupeni (August 1977), about the revolt of the workers of Braşov (November 1987). But no word was spoken about the events that had taken place in Motru. A short length in time of this political and social revolt could be a reason of the silence. The revolt of the miners took place in Motru in October 19, 1981. From the beginning, we must underline the anticommunist nature of this uprising. On the other hand, this movement had a social nature, but the political nature is more important. This nature of the revolt is preponderant. The favorite slogans of the miners express undoubtedly this reality. Among the most meaningful slogans were: „Down Ceauşescu”, „Down the dictator”, and even “Down the communism”. Other slogans, as “We want bread”, also prove the social nature of the revolt. The “spark” of the uprising was the decree number 313 of 17th October 1981. That decree introduced the ration books of the bread into the miner towns. The communist authorities denied any political nature of the revolt. They judged and condemned the leaders as ordinary prisoners. The leaders were not condemned for their political activity. Some miners were thrown into prison. The revolt of the miners of Motru represents the most important moment of the collective resistance against the late communism. There was a real blow for the communist regime. It also proved the weakness and the incompetence of the regime. It was the consequence of the cold, of the fear, of the hunger of Romanian people. A strong reason of the revolt was the low living standard in the communist Romania.
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Surrounded by a historiography climate, populated with sententious phrases, there is- about the problematic of the Holocaust- a variety of eccentric opinions, from thorough analyses towards interpretations that should be argued by methodical doubts and wise circumspections. Thus, some researchers, historians or philosophers claim that Holocaust should be either entirely history, or memory. From the theoretical point of view the Holocaust may be perceived in the memory plan, from two different perspectives, that express a certain balance between ethics and history, or between history and ethics. The first perspective may be qualified as reprobative - damnatio memoriae, while the second perspective is a historical, reconstituent one - commendatio memoriae. Even though the historiography have brought consistent but not enough contributions to the Holocaust as a historical subject, we state that there should be thought upon the way in which this phenomenon of maximum tragicalness cannot escape memory and get in history, because of the survivors and its singularity and uniqueness that hugely marked the collective memory. Memory and rememorize (not memoralize) of Holocaust individualize themselves in a series of myths that persists in the psychological and historical dimension of the witnesses. Among these we may mention: the passivity, the self-imposed silence, the so-called “syndrome of survivors” (transferring to pathological dimension), the guilt, the defense of the survivor. These myths organize the identity of the victims and induce certain aloofness of those who weren’t in the Holocaust towards the victims of it. Another feature of the Holocaust may be the impossibility of having a global memory, in terms of already being a Jewish memory, a Christian one, so, implicitly a Romanian, a Hungarian, German, Polish one, etc. Holocaust appertaining to memory is induced by the unsaid tendency (theoretically and historiographically) to consecrate the uniqueness of Shoah. In S. Friedlander’s view (Limitele reprezentării. Nazismul şi Soluţia Finală- Limits of Representations. The Nazism and Final Solution), the Shoah cannot be historiographically represented, because there are language limits for reconstituting this kind of tragicalness, limits for representations (the impossibility of reunifying the points of view of the victims, executors and spectators of the Holocaust in a “super-history”), and the past events belong to some limit-situations, so, out of the historical continuum represented by language. As a consequence, the Holocaust must be abandoned to memory and disfavoring history as historiography, because memory is able to establish an authentic relationship to the past, without “completely shutting down historical novel” (Kervin Lee Klein). Opposing to the memory thesis about Holocaust there was established the opinion according to which this phenomenon must “become historic” (M. Foucault considered it to be a building-up of the Nazism...
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Imposing the Organic Regulations in the Romanian Principalities would constitute an obvious progress in relation with the chaotic state from the previous period. In fact, they were the first Romanian constitutions, which introduced fixed and stable laws, instead of then and there decisions and arbitrary dispositions. Moreover, these Regulations rejected arbitration, replacing it with clear norms, which introduced legal responsibility instead of irresponsibility. All this was taking place in the context in which tsarist Russia continued to be interested in the famous matter of the Orient, which summed up to the desire of knowing on which authority the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits depend.
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