The paper examines the power of corporate social responsibility to reduce information asymmetry and to act as a marketing instrument in the banking sector. Trust is the most important asset of a bank. Therefore, banks are motivated to use the most effective instruments to diminish information asymmetry with their stakeholders. The fact that cash disbursements in CSR actions are not directed towards shareholders makes them more valuable signals to other stakeholders regarding the financial soundness of the bank. The empirical study conducted based on limited dependent variable models supports the effectiveness of the CSR as marketing instrument in banking. It reveals the circumstances associated to a higher probability of an active CSR policy conducted by a banking institution. The results support the hypothesis that in the banking sector CSR is perceived as an instrument which helps stakeholders reduce information asymmetry. As marketing instrument, CSR contributes to increasing the tangibility of the banking products, decreasing their perceived variability and thus making them more attractive for the clients and allowing for differentiation between competitors.

The investment policy is an important vehicle of growth for a company. Therefore, it should be one of the most important signals for investors on the capital market. We use the statistical analysis of the investors’ reactions to different patterns of investment policy to highlight their preference for an active investment policy and the changes induced by the financial crisis. By a comparative analysis of investors’ preferences with the information on the accounting-based performance recorded simultaneously and in the future economic exercise, we focus on the extent and limits of the investors’ rationality around the financial crisis.

Consumer behaviour in the energy field is playing a more important role in the new approach dominated by the proliferation of renewable energy sources. In this new context, the grid has to balance the intermittent and uncertain renewable energy generated, and find solutions, also, on the consumer side for increasing the stability and reliability of the energy system. The main de-mand response solutions are price and incentive based, but there is a need to identify the main factors which can influence their efficiency due to the fact that there is a lack of knowledge about the preferences of consumers. The main goal of this article is to identify the main demand response solutions and the related key factors which influence the participation of consumers in demand response programs and may contribute to the spread of renewable energy sources. For this research, semi-structured interviews were organised with experts in energy from Romania, Hungary and Serbia, as well as workshops with experts in energy, and an online survey with customers for electricity. This article reduces the gap between the results of technical studies, related in demand response programs, and their practical implementations, where the consumer behaviour and its social dimensions are neglected even though, in reality, they are playing the main role. The results suggest that the consumer’s participation in demand response programs is highly influenced by different aspects related to the promotion of the renewable energy and the reduction of CO2 emissions and the global warming impact.

The paper investigates the relationship between companies and their investors in the capital market as part of relationship marketing. It focuses on investors’ preference for a certain capital budgeting policy employed by listed companies. By using statistical analysis, we study whether investors’ reactions can be linked to different patterns of capital budgeting decisions. Our database includes a high number of countries, both developed and emerging, which leads us to focus our analysis on the differences that might occur in investors’ preferences due to specific traits of these markets. Additionally, we include a comparison between investors’ preferences and the information given by the accounting-based performance recorded both in the year of the investment policy and in the next fiscal year. Thus, we observe the extent and limits of the investors’ preference for an active capital budgeting decision, as well as the investors’ rationality around financial crisis.

This chapter focuses on how to correctly assess the financial feasibility of a retrofitting project using different indicators and methods. It also emphasizes the advantages and limits of each method offering the reader the ability to choose the most appropriate method(s) for each retrofitting project. In its last part, the chapter explains how the financial feasibility can be integrated in a broader set of criteria considered for retrofitting the capital budgeting decision-making process. The chapter also includes examples of computing the financial indicators for green retrofitting evaluation. It thus provides the readers with the opportunity to understand how the capital budgeting evaluation methods can be used in practice and correctly interpret their results.