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A review on E. T. Gombrich's A Preference for the Primitive. Episodes in the History of Western Taste and Art.
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A comprehensive review on Gábor Forrai's Reference, Truth and Conceptual Schemes: a Defense of Internal Realism.
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The purpose of research was the development of a scale to be used in measuring perceived intensity of sponsorship activities. Psychometric adequacy of the initial set of items is analyzed by assessing reliability, convergent validity and dimensionality of the initial set of items. The Cronbach alpha coefficient, explorative and confirmative factor analysis are applied. Results indicate that the measurement scale developed in such a way has satisfactory psychometric characteristics. The developed measurement scale possesses very good reliability, convergent validity while it dimensionality fits the conceptualized dimensionality.
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Increasing revenue per user is very important for mobile operators because of shrinking growth from mobile voice services on a number of markets. At the same time, a more powerful platform enabling advanced mobile data services has emerged. Therefore, mobile data services offer great possibilities to operators in the future. Marketing plays the key role in offering new and existing data services. Experiences in launching various services, primarily a comparison of Japanese and other experiences, shows that different strategies and marketing mix employed in launching data services can lead to different business results in this area. The needs and preferences of Croatian mobile users are explored in this paper, especially in the following areas: the most used and potentially most interesting data services, a preferred way of paying for these services, the importance of transaction security in mobile payments and a comparison of the use of and interest in such services by users with more advanced mobile terminals and those with older mobile phones. Results imply that a strong and attractive presence of these services in the media is crucial to success. It is also important to communicate clearly the benefits of these services, along with lower prices (or promotional periods) as well as easy activation and use. Last but not least: the existence of attractive content and applications (where fair arrangements among all providers of these services is the main prerequisite) is essential for a faster adoption and use of these services.
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Marketing aspects of the Internet can be examined through a great number of researches on marketing practices conducted via the Internet. A number of authors consider the Internet as new marketplace (marketspace), where the exchange of both traditional and new values (i.e. digital products and services) takes place. The Internet supports almost all aspects of a company’s business activities and can be applied with respect to all the elements of marketing mix.The subject of this paper is the role of adoption and use of the Internet as a new communication, retail and distribution channel for young consumers. The research was conducted in January 2006 and included 869 students from nine faculties at the University of Zagreb. Students represent an important marketing segment for Internet marketing activities since they are considered to be advanced users of the Internet. The relevance of students’ Internet adoption and use is determined by the following reasons: students are consumers; senior students will soon become young employed professionals with their own income (their spending will increase rapidly); in the near future, senior students will, to some extent, be decision makers on the implementation of business activities via the Internet. Research results show that students actively use the Internet, primarily as a communication channel. The student use of the Internet for purchasing tangible products is rare but their use of services via the Internet is considerable. Students find using the Internet to be a non-complex activity. There is no significant difference in the perception of complexity of the Internet usage among respondents with different computer and English language skills or with respect to their majoring fields (Arts, Biomedicine, Biotechnology, Engineering, Humanities, Natural and Social Sciences). A perception of the complexity of product purchase and service usage via the Internet is influenced by the experience that respondents have with those activities. It seems that the potential of the Internet as a new channel for selling tangible products is low. On the other hand, students consider the Internet to be important as a new channel for selling and distributing services.
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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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The „white stains” of the „bizarre transnistrian war” represent a less transparent aspect for both the press of that period and for reference documents. It is even more controversial and difficult to comprehend for anyone who wants to gain an insight into the essence of the events that took place in the spring and summer of 1992, as well as a significant challenge for resolute researchers that aim to get to the bottom of the investigated issues, to the very core of the entire transnistrian conflict, a conflict that spans a decade without having been clarified in spite of the international dimension it took. The illustrated material questions the statements made by the leaders of the separatist nistrian enclave and as well as those made by the heads of state of the Moldavian Republic, who are sometimes involuntarily portrayed as string-puppets in the hands of a third party, a party whose implication during the entire conflict has become more and more obvious. Due to the valour, commitment, patriotism and bravery demonstrated during the military actions, the moldavian police officers and combatants have triumphed in the war of positions that took place on the banks of the Nistru River, but the interference of the military incompetent politicians has had an ill-fated effect on the final outcome. Even the so called common diplomacy has often had a more feasible and efficient impact than the actions undertook by the platoon commanders. The crimes committed during the war call for an ample investigation on behalf of the international organizations, and those guilty of acts of genocide against the people of the Moldavian Republic must be handed over to justice and convicted according to the legislation in effect. The author would therefore like to express his appreciation to all those who have contributed to the publication of the material and especially to those who have had the fortitude to acknowledge some „peculiar” features related to the transnistrian war.
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In order to resist within the communist Inferno, the female prisoners were forced to elaborate strategies of psychological resistance. The survival and escape from detention Inferno take into account the following meanings: resistance to the consequences of re-education and depersonalization, a high level of elation, intransigency, and in a general way the idea, even dreamlike, of a certain liberty. Two major types of escape, depending on backgrounds, could be possible: the soundless escape (look on Lena Constante’ memories) and the social escape, full of acts. This study deals with “language escape”, understanding the resistance against re-education with stories, chats and faith inside the women prison of communist Romania. Of the most used forms of escape experimented by women, narration and faith were the most genuine and successful. The stories unburden in an evident way the stress of detention. They were based on memories and oral teaching. In prisons the intellectuals were respected and admired by the others. All along the detention famous or less known novels or even questionable literary products were told, as well as fairy tales, poems, proverbs, some of them fabricated right away. The most important virtue of the stories and talks was a temporary forgot of repression and a building of another universe: they (the oppressors) having the ideologically paltry world, us (the imprisoned) with an entire fictional, above time universe, antidote to lies, beating and abuse.
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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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