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Although companies in Slovakia achieve value in the use of design at the level of the European Union average, the lack of knowledge and information about the possibilities and potential benefits of design hinders the effective use of design as a key factor in successful innovation. Good design does not just happen by chance. It is usually the result of a well-managed process. Design management is becoming necessary because it allows the company to reflect the market's needs better and adapt to customers. When design management is part of a company's management processes, the design would significantly impact the company's economic performance and help ensure a competitive advantage in the market. Lack of design management skills is a major obstacle to the wider deployment and integration of design into companies. The paper aims to verify the impact of the achieved level of design management skills on the use of design in product innovation. Through a survey of Slovak companies in selected industries, the authors identified the attitude of companies to the use of design in product innovation. The authors used statistical methods to analyse the level of skills achieved in individual areas of design management. They identified the impact of the level of skills on the design use rate in innovation. This study includes factor and regression analysis methods. The design management skills assessment survey confirms the relationship and correlation between the level of design management skills and the intensity of the use of design in product innovation. The ability to engage others has emerged as the weakest in the design management skills assessment survey. Involving customers and suppliers and creating interdisciplinary teams could bring the company effective use of design in product innovation and thus achieve a significant and sustainable competitive advantage. According to the confirmed results, companies' training to gain the necessary skills in individual areas of design management should increase the level of mastery of these skills and consequently support the use of design in product innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current global sanitary crisis determined consumers to use e-commerce in all its forms. It has led to an expansion of e-commerce activity and increased associated risk, as companies must adapt quickly to new market conditions and cope with all the risks that arise in such context. This paper aims to identify and assess the relevant risks specific to e-commerce activity and prevent unethical behavior that is often associated with entities operating in this sector by consumers. The review of a significant part of the literature confirms that e-commerce business directly impacts performance and sustainability, being positively associated with organizational innovation. However, investigating the nature and intensity of the risks associated with the operational activity is difficult to assess. It is the main reason for mistrust increasing among many consumers and stakeholders. This research also derives from the fact that it provides real tools to prevent, reduce and even eliminate risks specific to e-commerce activities. Therefore, it could directly contribute to increasing the sustainability of businesses and gaining the trust of consumers regarding online shopping activities. An investigation was conducted in the following logical sequence: identifying the main risk categories and triggers; establishing the link between working hypotheses and the minimum threshold argumentation associated with them. According to the above, it is possible to establish a specific risk function for each risk category. To determine the minimum threshold of risk influence, the unitary risk assessment methodology was applied using a scale of values from 1 to 5, depending on the impact on the operational activity, performance, and sustainability of the e-commerce business. The research methods are specific to quantitative research, the object of the research being a sample of 208 economic entities operating in the e-commerce sector. The statistical analysis regarding the behavior of the most relevant financial indicators was achieved by collecting data from financial reporting and other internal sources. The results serve as an empirical confirmation regarding the specific difficulties encountered in e-commerce activity that need to be solved. Therefore, a dashboard was developed to monitor triggers by risk segments. The designed dashboard is intended to support management in the decision-making process to ensure business sustainability and improve the business model in line with the adopted business strategies. At the same time, with the help of the risk functions developed by risk segments, management could monitor and control the threats to which the operational activity in the online environment is exposed, which will lead to business consolidation and penetration of new online markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]