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The objective of the paper is to analyse and compare the consequences of the coronacrisis on the entrepreneurship of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Slovakia and the Czech Republic with the aim of identifying the determinants of changes in entrepreneurship. The secondary empirical research was carried out based on the analysis of secondary and primary data. The analysis used economic indicators of SMEs, governmental measures and surveys of the views of entrepreneurs. The analysis used data from statistical databases and official reports from government institutions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), as well as data from primary surveys conducted by NGOs. Descriptive statistics, financial analysis and cross-comparison methods were used to process the data. The results revealed changes in the business of SMEs in the Czech Republic and Slovakia during the crisis, such as the adaptation of business strategies, improvement of flexibility and acceleration of digitalisation processes. These changes highlighted the importance of building business agility. The summary of the main changes in SME business based on both secondary data and primary surveys and the perception of state anti-pandemic aid by managers as feedback to governments represent the main contributions of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Serbian Journal of Management is the property of Serbian Journal of Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of this paper is to review the impact of entrepreneurs' attitudes toward the defined business risks on the perception of the future of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). 454 SMEs from the Czech Republic (CR) participated in the research and completed an online questionnaire. Structural equation modelling and factor analysis were used to identify the causal relationships between the examined variables. Entrepreneurs' attitudes toward business failure also have a positive effect on the future of the SME. The perception of financial risk in positive indicators of financial performance and the perception of financial risk as part of the company's everyday life have the most significant impact on future business. Operational risk is reflected in the utilisation of corporate resources, reducing customer complaints about the quality of the company's products and the company's independence of a limited number of suppliers. The company's sales volume adequacy provides a source of market risk. It has the third strongest positive impact on the future business in the SME segment. The research results provide a valuable platform for the authors of national and regional development strategic plans looking for SME support and development as well as the authors of the relevant policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research of personality characteristics of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs in relation to EO constructs is an important part of the research of the whole entrepreneurial environment of small and medium-sized enterprises. The aim of this paper is to search for a relationship between personality traits and the attitude toward innovativeness as a construct of EO of SME entrepreneurs in the Czech Republic based on their sociodemographic factors (gender, education, and age). Results from a questionnaire-based survey of the entrepreneurial environment of SME in the Czech Republic showed that the attitude toward innovativeness differed for entrepreneurs considering perseverance and responsibility to be important for entrepreneurship based on their education level. Entrepreneurs with secondary education or secondary educated with graduation were more confident about the reputation of their business as an innovator than university educated entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personnel risk significantly affects the operation of small and medium-sized enterprises. The aim of the paper is to define and present significant factors affecting the perception of personnel risk in the SME segment, and compare the current status and development in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The empirical research was conducted in 2020 in the SME segment in the Czech Republic and Slovakia via an online questionnaire, using a sample of 822 respondents. The obtained data were evaluated using the Chí square and Z score. Personnel risk significantly affects the SME segment and its business activities. This risk is perceived as the most significant business risk in both countries, even though its intensity is moderate and does not have a heavy negative impact on SMEs' activities. The overall evaluation of personnel risk's impact on SMEs' activities is similar in both countries. The evaluation of employee turnover was relatively positive, as a considerable part of entrepreneurs stated that turnover is low and does not have a negative impact on their business. The evaluation of turnover was similar in both countries. Based on entrepreneurs' statements, there are certain gaps in employee error rate, which affects their business. Slovak entrepreneurs provided a worse evaluation of the quality of their employees than the Czech entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs in both countries are dissatisfied with the way their employees strive to improve their performance or how they compete among each other. The comparison based on business size and age did not yield significant differences, nor did it provide a clear trend despite the general belief presented in literature that larger enterprises have a better access to important fields of business management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to present significant factors of strategic management in the sector of small and medium-sized companies. Within the set goal, we quantify the weight of selected strategic management factors and compare trends in the Czech and Slovak Republics. An empirical research was carried out in 2020. In the Czech Republic, we obtained data from 454 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and in Slovakia from 368 enterprises belonging to the segment of small and medium-sized enterprises. We used chi-square and Z-score to process the data. The basic conclusion of the research is that even though SMEs perceive the importance of strategic management in the enterprise very strongly, strategic management is not adequately implemented in the everyday life of the enterprise. Entrepreneurs in both countries are not too convinced that quality strategic management enhances the competitive ability of the enterprise. About half of the companies are involved in regular strategic management. There are statistically significant differences according to the size and age of the enterprise, or according to the education of entrepreneurs. Larger companies and more educated entrepreneurs better understand the importance of strategic aspects and the need for their application in corporate governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper's objective is to define significant technological factors in the areas of human capital availability and research and development affecting the quality of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their business environment, and to quantify differences between the Czech Republic (CR) and the Slovak Republic (SR). Based on the objective, empirical research was conducted including data from 312 SMEs in the CR and 329 SMEs in the SR processed with the use of Chi-squared tests and Z-scores. The research showed differences in assessing defined technological factors between the CR and the SR, and also confirmed a low level of the assessed factors in both countries. Furthermore, overall satisfaction with the quality of secondary schools and universities is relatively low despite the fact that the research showed a higher level of satisfaction with the quality of university education in both countries. In the Czech Republic, entrepreneurs largely experience a shortage of skilled workforce, with this factor achieving the highest negative rating. The Slovak entrepreneurs most negatively assessed the level of state support of research and development. Moreover, the entrepreneurs' overall level of satisfaction with the research and development infrastructure is relatively low, since only 23.08% of the Czech and 13.68% of the Slovak entrepreneurs agreed that the infrastructure is well built in their respective country. Similar results were also obtained in assessing state support of research and development. At the same time, it was found that research and development results help the entrepreneurs only to a limited extent, and the entrepreneurs in both countries are not very optimistic about future development of their business activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of the paper is to research the differences in perception and evaluation impact of the country on macroeconomic business environment on the basis of a sector in which the entrepreneur is running a business. Differences in perception and evaluation of entrepreneurial support from the state on the basis of a sector, in which the company is established, are analyzed using the cases of the Slovak and Czech Republic. Correspondence analysis is applied, while exploratory technique has been designed to examine the data with the aim to reduce dimensionality. Correspondence analysis provides a measure of correspondence between the explored dimensions - the categorical variables. This technique is widely applied incases when graphical output is clearer than numeric output. The outcome of correspondence analysis is presented in a form of a two-dimensional diagram. Out of 641 collected questionnaires, 329 were from the Slovak Republic and 312 were from the Czech Republic. The dataset consists of 492 micro companies, 114 small companies and 35 medium-sized companies. The Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic are compared in relation to four statements that form entrepreneurial support from the state's view. The first correspondence map looks for the relation between these dimensions. Generally, the respondents from the Czech Republic demonstrate more agreement than the respondents from the Slovak Republic. The share of total inertia described by individual correspondence maps oscillates about 80%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is obvious that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in economic development and many of them consider qualified and experienced people to be the most important source for achieving expected goals. To apply and develop knowledge, skills and abilities of different people, SMEs should apply strategies, policies and practices on diversity management to create appropriate and attractive job opportunities and working conditions for different generations of people and ensure effective use and development of their potential. Based on the authors' scientific cooperation and research results the goal of the paper is to explore and compare some approaches to people and diversity management in six Czech profit SMEs. The paper summarizes the results of the authors' questionnaire survey on managing people and diversity management in six Czech profit SMEs. The survey was conducted from March to April 2018. The relevant data were obtained from 258 respondents. The respondents were characterized by the type of business, the gender, the age, and nationality. The data analysis was based on the calculation of relative frequencies (as a share from the total number of respondents) and the evaluation of the dependence of responses on gender (male and female respondents) using contingency tables and chi-square tests of independence. Based on the results, the paper aims to answer what the current problems in diversity management in Czech SMEs are and how Czech SMEs do prevent gender and age discrimination of employees. The analysis of people and diversity management policies and practices is focused on employee selection, employee compensation, and discrimination in the workplace. The results show that surveyed SMEs are able to effectively and efficiently prevent gender and age discrimination of employees, however, they should focus more on creating and maintaining employment opportunities and working conditions with regard to the natural diversity of people. Diversity management policies and practices in SMEs should be focused on diverse employee selection, evaluation, compensation, and development. These activities may enable SMEs to attract, employ and develop gender and age diverse groups of people with different knowledge, skills and abilities that may help SMEs to achieve expected organizational results through achieving desired employee results. The results are worth attention from managers of SMEs who are responsible for managing and leading other employees. The results open up new possibilities for further research in the field of diversity management and dealing with gender and age discrimination of employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Transformations in Business & Economics is the property of Vilnius University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are an essential part of every country's economic system. The quality of the business environment plays an important role in this regard. The aim of the paper was to define and quantify important public sector factors influencing the quality of the business environment in the SME segment and to compare the intensity of the defined factors between the Czech Republic (CR) and the Slovak Republic (SR). In regards to the defined aim, a survey-based research was conducted with enterprises operating in the SME segment. 312 enterprises in CR and 329 enterprises in SR were approached during this research. The scientific hypotheses were verified using the methods of Pearson statistics. The evaluation of political factors is quite negative in both countries. Only 15% of Czech and 20% of Slovak entrepreneurs positively evaluated the level of legislation in business. Both Czech and Slovak entrepreneurs see state's support of export quite positively. Only 12% of Czech and 22% of Slovak entrepreneurs positively evaluated the administrative burden on enterprises. Entrepreneurs in both countries claim that the state is unable to provide qualified workforce for businesses. Most significant differences between the two countries were found in the evaluation of state bureaucracy which the Slovak entrepreneurs evaluated more positively than their Czech counterparts. The results of the research show the need to deal with urgent issues, or create a better system of public factors influencing the business environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose of the article: The purpose of the present paper is to determine the attitudes of owners of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Czech and Slovak Republic relating to insolvency issues in both countries. Insolvency of enterprises is for most involved a negative situation in the first moment. This negative view often means loss of business, causing a loss of income, wages and employment for workers, loss of business partners, as well as a reduction in public revenue and an increase in public spending. Of the positive view the insolvency means "clean up" the market from economically weak, possibly through certain steps starting a new and renewed business. Methodology/methods: Research is focused on the area of small and medium-sized enterprises. In this paper, the method of questionnaire survey among participants of the given segment is used, supplemented by statistical methods. The research results are evaluated and presented through a graphical representation. Scientific aim: The aim of the article is to present the attitudes of owners of small and medium-sized enterprises on the issue of insolvency of the small and medium-sized enterprises in the Czech and Slovak Republic. The main output is the interpretation of the obtained results and thus new knowledge in this area. Findings: From the research there, it was found that in the insolvency proceedings were participated more respondents from the Czech Republic, especially in the position of the creditor and the entity that gave an insolvency proposal. In the other areas, the results are from the answers of the respondents in both countries practically comparable. Conclusions: In both countries there is possible to observe a significant tendency for respondents actively solve their own problems in the area of insolvency, only less than 10% of owners will be waiting for the steps of creditors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents results of the research conducted in the area of CSR in the Czech Republic in 2013/2014. We focussed on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Correlation between the size of the enterprise, awareness, commitment and the number of used CSR activities is evaluated. The paper follows the involvement of SMEs in specific activities within the social, economic and environmental pillars and suggests possibilities for further development of the National Action Plan (NAP) for SMEs. The results of the statistical analysis show that engagement of organizations in the CSR activities growths with the size of the organization. Only 30% of micro and small enterprises in the Czech Republic know and make use of the CSR concept comprehensively and are active in all three pillars of CSR. Approximately 30% are involved in only one pillar - mostly in the economic one. 30% do not apply the CSR concept within their business at all. SMEs are not sufficiently engaged in activities primarily in the environmental pillar and activities aiming towards outside the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Transformations in Business & Economics is the property of Vilnius University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The current pandemic, that has wider economic and social impacts, will put to the test all enterprises, which will be forced to search for new survival strategies and to create existential prognoses of business operations during great economic and social uncertainty and new crises whose impacts are hard to predict. This fact motivated the team of authors to realise the study that aims at researching and quantifying the impacts of the pandemic COVID-19 on selected areas of management in SMEs in the Czech Republic (CR) and the Slovak Republic (SR). The research sample consisted of 1502 SMEs, 822 SMEs before the pandemic, 680 SMEs during the pandemic, 814 from CR, and 688 from SR. Attitudes between SMEs according to nationality and period of research were verified with a chi-squared test and Kruskal-Wallis tests. The results of both countries confirmed that the pandemic has a negative impact on the financial performance of SMEs. The government economic measures may help the enterprises to recover, said 40.0% of Czech entrepreneurs, but only 30% of Slovak entrepreneurs. However, the entrepreneurs in SMEs equally perceive other aspects of corporate governance and business risk management during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to identify the perception of issues related to the use of social media in the business environment of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. The authors chose the concept of comparing entrepreneurs who implement corporate social responsibility with other interviewed entrepreneurs. An interesting comparison was made from the collected data. The article is based on a questionnaire survey of 1217 respondents. The study was conducted from September 2019 to January 2020. The chi-quadrat test and z-score were used to evaluate statistical hypotheses. The results showed that Czech entrepreneurs implementing corporate social responsibility have more negative answers than the surveyed entrepreneurs in other countries. Thus, less than 28% of Czech corporate social responsibility entrepreneurs agree that social media helps increase corporate growth, while in Poland -- up to 49%. As many as 53% of corporate social responsibility entrepreneurs in Hungary and Poland agreed that social media could respond more flexibly to market developments. Czech entrepreneurs were lagging behind 35% of them. The results showed no statistically significant differences in all research questions regarding entrepreneurs without the implemented CSR concept. The article results suggested that Czech CSR entrepreneurs did not see the potential benefits of social media use. Although the study focuses only on 3 central European countries, the results are not generalizable. However, they are useful for those who promote positive impacts on companies through the social networks and organizations that promote corporate social responsibility. One of the tools for transparent communication with customers/suppliers could be by communication via social media. The study's findings could further help other entrepreneurs consider the benefits of social media in doing socially responsible business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research background: SMEs represent an integral part of the economy environment in a majority of the countries all over the world. They signify the most efficient, progressive, and important part of the advanced economies. The long-term effort of the EU countries, as well as other advanced economies is to create quality and stable conditions for their development in order to be able to respond to all the possible changes in the business environment that is being changed to more and more comprehensive in the recent time. Purpose of the article: The objective of the contribution is to examine administrative and legislative obstacles to SMEs business in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and the quantification of the differences in perceiving legislative and administrative obstacles to business by entrepreneurs in both countries. Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted within SMEs in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 2019. The research sample included 641 SMEs, 312 from the Czech Republic and 329 from Slovakia. We focused on 5 dimensions related to legislative and administrative obstacles to SMEs business within which selected statements were examined. Contingency tables were used to analyze the ratios of the examined variables. Findings & Value added: The differences detected in both countries in the respondents´ perception and assessment are evidence of the changes in the business environment of both countries, giving rise to the questions about the extent to which the legislative and administrative obstacles, as well as the obstacles related to law enforcement and bureaucracy are acceptable and by which groups of entrepreneurs. The results of the research provide valuable findings for the creators of regional and national policies, and represent a valuable basis for the creation of the concepts focused on the SMEs´ development in both countries. The results of the study also support the implementation of follow-up research in this area that will reveal other determinants affecting the development of SMEs. They also create a valuable platform for the construction of national and international benchmarking indicators in this area and the implementation of comparative analyses. This will also support the methodological area necessary for a creation of high-quality concepts and strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study is to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on entrepreneurs' attitudes towards the selected business risks in the SME segment. 1502 SMEs took part in the research, while 822 of them provided their responses regarding business risks before the COVID-19 crisis and 680 during the COVID- 19 crisis in Czech and Slovak business environment. Market, financial, and personnel risks were considered by Czech SMEs as the three most significant business risks, both before and after the COVID-19 crisis. The statistically confirmed differences in SMEs' attitudes based on the time of providing responses are most apparent in the perception of financial and personnel risks. 35.7% SMEs in Czech Republic and 35.3% in Slovakia considered financial risk as one of the three most significant business risks before the COVID-19 crisis. During the crisis, it changed to 53.6% SMEs in Czech Republic and 59.7% in Slovakia. Before the crisis, up to 67.8% SMEs in Czech Republic and 62.8% in Slovakia considered personnel risk as one of the three most significant business risks. During the crisis, it was only 27.2% in Czech Republic and 29.4% in Slovakia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to identify and quantify significant social factors that determine the quality of the business environment (QBE) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The case study was carried out through a questionnaire that was completed by 641 SMEs. To evaluate the questionnaire multiple linear regression models (MLRs) were applied. The results of the case study showed that the social factor, such as the family environment, has the greatest impact on the QBE in Slovakia. In the Czech Republic, the most important social factors are society, politicians, entrepreneurs and role models. Also, the influence of the media and communication environment is perceived by entrepreneurs as an important determining factor of QBE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategic analysis of business environment influences the growing efficiency, stability, and sustainability of enterprises. The entry is aimed at analyzing internal and external strategic methods between profit-making and non-profit-making enterprises from the perspective of their sector differentiation and size categorization focusing on small and medium-sized enterprises. The entry highlights the managers' knowledge of the individual methods and their usability in business practice. The research was conducted based on a sample of 456 enterprises from the entire Czech Republic using a Student's T-test of the differences of two percentages and the Fisher's exact test. The conclusion of the entry is dedicated to the results of the tests, as well as new trends that are used in the area of strategic analysis and which have been indicated as a part of the set of tested enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article defines and quantifies important factors of the quality of the business environment for small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) in the Czech Republic. To do so, itcompares the attitudes of entrepreneurs categorized by gender, education, age and firm size. A study of the business environment was conducted in 2015 from a sample of 1,141 respondents (the owners of companies), and the results were analyzed. It was found that only 10% of the entrepreneurs positively evaluated the applicable forms of state financial support. The study also demonstrated no statistically-significant response differences among the designated social groups. 64% of Czech entrepreneurs feel the support of their surroundings while doing business,45% think that SMEs have restricted access to external sources of financing, and over half note the intensive influence of market risk. It was also determined that there are statistically-significant differences in the pattern of responses between men and women and between micro-enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human resource management is a crucial factor that determines the success of small and medium-sized enterprises in the market and its competitiveness. Small and medium-sized enterprises in the Czech Republic form a significant group of employers in the Czech Republic since they employ two thirds of employees out of the total number of the work force and represent over 99% of the overall number of active business entities. The main objective of the article is to evaluate the level of human resource management in small and medium-sized enterprises in the Czech Republic. Partial objectives of the article are to define a human resource management profile of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Czech Republic and to test dependencies between selected qualitative features. The data (n = 499) was collected by means of a questionnaire technique. The results of the survey confirmed important human resource management internal factors (the size of the enterprise, the position of the HR manager in top management and the existence of the HR department) and helped to define the human resource management profile of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Czech Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state plays a very important role within its business environment. Through its legislative environment, the state can be helpful to entrepreneurs in their activities or it can burden them. This article aims to find out how entrepreneurs of small and medium enterprises (SME) in the Czech Republic perceive the role of the state and its influence on business. The basis for the article were results of a project conducted at Tomas Bata University in Zlín in 2015. The project addressed 1,141 respondents from all regions of the Czech Republic to answer questions about the business environment. The research also considered the period during which the questioned entrepreneur was active in the market. Companies active in the market from 1st to 5th year represented 21%, companies active from the beginning of the 5th to the beginning of the 10th year represented 17%, and companies active for more than 10 years represented 62% of the researched sample. The structure of the researched sample according to the size of companies was as follows: 65% were micro enterprises (<10 employees), 27% were small enterprises (10-50 employees), and 8% were medium-sized enterprises (50-250 employees). This structure reflects the distribution of enterprises in the economy. Three areas of the state's influence on the business environment were selected: the state's help with entrepreneurship, administrative burdens related to entrepreneurship, and corruption and clientelism. These areas were moreover examined in terms of the length of business and company size. It was found out that SMEs perceive the help of the state more than micro businesses. More than 53% of entrepreneurs encountered clientelism. Furthermore, the results confirm that the problem of corruption increases with company size. Encountering corruption and clientelism may be significantly more influenced by the length of entrepreneurship than by company size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to evaluate the differences in the attitude of microenterprises'entrepreneurs to the selected constructs of entrepreneurial orientation (EO), specifically to innovativeness and competitive aggressiveness according to the selected socio-demographic factors (gender, education and duration of doing business by the firm).The research was conducted in the Czech Republic in 2015. On the sample of 740 micro-enterprises, we attempt to find out differences in owners' approaches to innovation and competitive aggressiveness between men and women, entrepreneurs, university educated and other education (secondary school with and without graduation) and "older" (active in the market for more than 10 years) and younger micro-enterprises. More than 50% of the micro-enterprises surveyed regularly develop new products and services in their companies, but only 30% of them support their activities also with sufficient amount of finances. 66% of micro-enterprises try to exploit anticipated changes in their target market and 58% take the initiative to get ahead of competition. We found out, that the factor that caused statistically significant differences between the determined groups was the time of operating in the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]