Ec. Roxana Mirela GĂZDAC SUMMARY. PhD THESIS

Transcription

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 și postdoctorale în sprijinul cercetării Titlul proiectului: Proiect de dezvoltare a studiilor de doctorat în tehnologii avansate- PRODOC Numarul de identificare al contractului: POSDRU 6/1.5/S/5 Beneficiar: Universitatea Tehnică din Cluj-Napoca Ec. Roxana Mirela GĂZDAC SUMMARY PhD THESIS Studies and Research on Management of European Funded Projects with Application in Development of Sustainable Tourism Scientific coordinator PhD Eng.,Ec. Prof. Ioan ABRUDAN TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF CLUJ-NAPOCA FACULTY OF MACHINE BUILDING Date of the thesis: September 23, 2011 Content

2 Introduction This chapter represents approximately 3% of the thesis. A first element developed in the introduction, is focusing on the importance and the actuality of the theme developed. As the title of the paper underlines, the thesis aims to talk about about project management and tourism and their evolution both as concepts and fields of research. Here are data on Romania's EU integration and the value of structural funds that our country receives for the period The second element presented in this chapter, develops the purpose and objectives, of the research which means a list of three main objectives, each of which is supported by several secondary objectives, ie, a total of 10 secondary objectives. Each main objective overlaps with part of the thesis. The third element of the Introduction discusses the research methodology, where there are information about how each step was done in order to complete the work: documentation, research and finally achieving the guide. The last item discussed here is the Structure of the paper, formed of 8 chapters. The first part of the thesis, The current status of project management and tourism sector and includes the first three chapters. It sought to capture, along with basic concepts of research problems, theoretical aspects, needed to understand the context in which we will operate in the paper, (project management, the issue of sustainable tourism and the problem of technological implications that support this concept). In Chapter 1, Defining projects. Project Management, presents concepts that have to help the reader in familiarizing with the problems developed in this paper. After defining the concept of the project, I highlighted some characteristics of projects and different classifications. There are discussed some historical landmarks in the evolution of project management, presented with the help of graphic. Another aspect of this chapter is the fact that I presented different life cycles of a project, detailing the stages of a project. There is also a review of planning and control methods for activities and resources within a project: Critical Path Method, PERT method, and a series of modern project management methods. At the end of this chapter I talked about international development projects, definition, characteristics and type of projects. There were also some information about development projects in the tourism sector, regarding the sums of money available through Structural Funds in tourism sector. In addition to financial information, I introduced concepts related to spatial planning and how to carry out tourism activities. Chapter 2, Tourism. Sustainable Tourism, talks about basic theoretical elements of the definition of tourism, being reviewed important names in this field, foreign researchers like E. Guyer Freuler or W. Hunziker, and Romanian researchers: Pompei Cocean. I presented a brief 1

3 history of this sector, first at international level and then the evolution of tourism in Romania, dotted events in Roman times until today. After presenting the concept of sustainable tourism, there are outlined the premises of the concept of sustainability, the Brunt land Report, and the steps up to the proposal of defining sustainable development. Tourism is defined partly, as self-dependent on natural resources and cultural heritage of each society. Although this sector provides important benefits in the areas were developed, one has to be aware that this sector can develop negative impacts. With the help of a table I highlighted negative and positive impacts of tourism. In order to reinforce the previous statements, that tourism can leave a negative impression on an area, there where it is not managed properly, I captured two such regions: Guilin region, China and the Island of Mallorca, Spain, serving as models from which to learn, how not to do. Chapter 3 is called "Tourism and technology." The structure of this chapter is similar to the two above. It discusses the term of technology and presents a series of definitions of this concept and how it influenced the development of various sectors of industry, and not only. Technology is an important factor when talking about the issue of sustainable development. How it influences the sustainability is represented by a graphic image. An essential thing for the theme is the parallel concerning the development of tourism with respect to the technological innovation. An important role in developing the tourism sector has played the development of transport. In this chapter, the PhD student proposes the introduction of a term, tourism technology, a term created by the convergence of industries. This term encompasses all social, cultural, managerial or that add value to the tourism industry. More specifically, incorporates both technological and IT elements that support sustainable tourism practice - solutions for reducing water consumption, to reduce energy consumption and waste recycling. Tourism Technology innovation includes all elements related, directly or indirectly with tourism. The author presented the ideas used by different hotels, and not only, with respect to the use of technological innovations to reduce water consumption or energy consumption. Important aspects when we want to develop sustainable forms of tourism. The second part of the thesis is called "practical research on project management through structural funds", contains Chapter 4 and Chapters 5 and 6. Each entity develops a research conducted by the student. Chapter 4 considers a case study on a project on structural funds, and Chapters 5 and 6 present the quantitative research, conducted by questionnaire. Chapter 4 is called "Case Study: Creating a thermal energy cluster in Central Europe (CLUSTHERM)". It is one of the chapters that incorporate a rich graphical content, with a total 2

4 of 16 tables and 6 figures. PhD student chose as a subject, the CLUSTHERM project, a strategic project on structural funds, with partners from Romania and from abroad. It is interesting that this project has been selected, a choice justified by the fact that the main issue concerned here is directly connected to those outlined in the previous chapter, namely to reduce non-renewable energy, specifically supporting the use of clean energy sources - geothermal energy. Another important aspect in selecting this project as a case study is that the partners wanted to come up with a series of solutions for the development of rural areas, through tourism. The objectives of this chapter were achieved using concepts presented in Chapter 1, namely the life cycle of a project, and it is presented how they fit in the project structure of CLUSTHERM. The objectives of this project were followed and the extent to which these objectives were achieved. Another important aspect noticed from the survey is that the sustainability of this project is questionable. Following the interview that the author conducted with representative ADR North-West, one of the main partners of the Romanian side, he came with a series of solutions for "resuscitation" project. The solutions were highlighted at the last entity of the chapter, specifically in the conclusions. Chapter 5 is called "Project Management Research", in which quantitative research is developed. The results are presented with graphs, 30 figures and 8 tables. One problem that is presented is the poor absorption of the Structural Funds. Another issue that motivated the realization of this research is that currently the number of papers published by experts in project management with structural funds is low. A questionnaire with 30 questions was developed and was applied to various project managers in many institutions and organizations, such as ADR North West, Pos Mediu or different IBs. First are highlighted aspects of how the questionnaire was developed and used for data processing programs. Subsequently it presents the responses obtained, out of which it is outlined the funding sources these people worked with, or the involvement of the donors in various problems, how to make personnel selection. The objective of the questionnaire was to know the problems that people encounter with these projects with Structural Funds, the stages in which face most problems and solutions proposed by them, of course, to prevent these problems. It should be mentioned also the proposals that these people suggest for accelerating and improving project implementation. In the research were introduced also a series of questions aimed at those involved in tourism projects. An important question is one concerning the role of project manager, where responses were varied. Finally PhD student asked respondents to come up with proposals for increasing the acceleration and the successful implementation of tourism projects, among others. 3

5 Chapter 6 is called "Research on the management of structural funds projects within the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca". Within this are the findings of the second quantitative research. This research was conducted in the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, the target group is made out of staff of institutions involved in the development of 42 projects with structural funds, won by the aforementioned institution. The basis of this research is the question why Romania is unable to absorb a higher percentage of European funds available to our country. Another aspect to be considered in making this research is that regardless of the axis on which the project are submitted, structural funds are accessed, it requires the management team to follow the same structure of the project. The study had the same goal, as the study conducted and presented in Chapter 5, namely discovering of the issues that all those involved in the above mentioned projects are facing. A questionnaire with 24 questions was developed, which was applied to the target group, carefully constructed. When building this group all persons involved in these projects were taken into consideration, the faculties of the Technical University were divided into 3 groups, within each group these were entered alphabetically, and within each faculty, departments have been introduced all alphabetically. Teacher staff, participating in the project was first introduced based on academic rank and then alphabetically. The target group was completed with auxiliary staff introduced in alphabetical order. The total number of people involved in these projects is 206, a doctoral student questionnaire applied to a representative number of 103 persons. The third part of the paper is called "Practical implementation of the research on project management" in which PhD student introduced Chapter 7 of the thesis. Chapter 7 is called "Guidance on development projects in the tourism sector," accounting for 22% of the work. This chapter is the largest chapter of the thesis. The need to develop this guide is presented in the beginning of the chapter. For an easier understanding of the structure of the guide, a scheme was made, that helps to understand the stages and steps developed therein. The guide is complex, developing a number of five stages, each of which is assisted by a series of steps. In these steps is shown how to complete certain documents, or how these documents are presented, e. g. contextual statement. It drew attention to certain problems which must be given special attention. There has been developed a classification of the tourists and the natural resources on housing units and types of travelers. An attempt to structure all tourism organizations in Romania is made. A series of questions have been suggested for those involved in the development of projects, in order to achieve favorable results. Stakeholders were presented possible ways of involving people, how to resolve conflicts and how partnerships can be developed. Also methods of 4

6 analysis that can be addressed were review: market analysis, SWOT analysis, situation analysis, or cost-benefit analysis. Chapter 8 is called "General conclusions, personal contributions and future research directions" in which are gathered, 11 general conclusion, 10 individual theoretical contributions and 7 practical personal contributions. I want to emphasize that this work may be developed in three directions for future research: developing a system of indicators on the issue of sustainable tourism, which is attached to the guide, further research in structural funds projects through UTCN tourism development problem - technology. 3. Conclusions Making the thesis required a complex scientific approach, dominant inductive, which covers a well defined theme, following the development of project management problem and identify practical solutions to major problems faced at present, tourism sustainable. Documentation bibliographic allowed us to contribute to theory development by: provide an overview on the issue of project management We presented concepts related to project management; We presented methods of analysis and control of project resources; They discussed aspects of project management in the tourism sector. Making a general framework on the issue of tourism - sustainable tourism We presented the origin and evolution of tourism; We deepened the concept of tourism and the characteristics of this sector; He discussed the concept of sustainability and sustainable tourism; were analyzed two regions where tourism was found to be faulty management: Guilin region - China and the island Mallorca - Spain; Highlighting the relationship between tourism Technology Discuss the concept of technology and how it has helped develop the tourism sector; Introduce the concept of tourism technology, relatively new concept in the literature, taken from the English; Introducing a new vision for defining tourism - by highlighting the importance of technological innovations in sustainable tourism development; Highlighting the IT industry and its relationship with tourism; Personal Contributions Following the objectives and analyzing the results obtained during the preparation of the thesis, the author believes that the personal contributions made following: 5

7 Personal contributions in the theoretical have been analyzed and discussed concepts on projects and project management, using national and international literature. We have analyzed methods of planning and control of project activities and resources They discussed the various life cycles of the project life cycle concluding that fits best for structural funds projects have been defined and analyzed the concepts of tourism, presenting the main features of the industry Review the concept of sustainability, the emergence and development premises concept of sustainability, the issue of sustainable tourism Drawing a perspective on the evolution of the tourism sector, both internationally and nationally Study on two tourist areas, poorly managed in terms of management, the issue of sustainable tourism: the region of Guilin, China and the island Mallorca Spain, to understand errors Define the concept of technology, identifying the importance of location technology, namely the means of transport in tourism development Propose the concept of tourism technology, defining this concept, its characteristics, we proposed redefinition of sustainable tourism, now influenced by the economic environment, community, environment and technology (see Figure 8.87). summarize the technological innovations that may influence the practical implementation of the concept of sustainable tourism Personal contributions in a practical Conduct a case study of the structural funds CLUSTHERM project to understand the concepts outlined in the first chapter of the work, and to understand that the life cycles of the project fits best on this project Develop a questionnaire with 30 questions was designed to be applied to project managers and not only structural funds. We wanted to know their opinion on the reasons for the poor absorption of structural funds, namely the problems they have encountered projects Data from the questionnaire were processed with statistical program and web service esurveypro, graphs were drawn using Microsoft Excel Develop a questionnaire with 24 questions, which was applied to persons from the Technical University in order to know the problems they encountered in the implementation of 42 projects in structural funds, won by the institution 6

8 Analysis of responses and their processing using the program SPSS synthesis problems that can provide viable solutions, they were considered in the implementation guide Set guidelines for tourism development projects, having regard to the issue of sustainable tourism 7