Search

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 paper summarised arguments and counterarguments on analysis of economic resilience. The bibliometric analysis on economic resilience using the software VOSviewer allowed identifying the four core scientific schools: R. Martin (University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom); A. Rose University of Southern California, Los Angeles, United States; C.S. Holling; H. Wolman (The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., United States); I. Briguglio (L-Università ta' Malta, Msida, Malta). The generalisation of the scientific papers and approaches on solving issues mentioned above proved that the core indicators of economic resilience assessment were macroeconomic stability; microeconomic market efficiency; good governance; social development. The paper aimed at the analysis of the marketing determinants impact on the economic vulnerability of the country. The hypothesis of the paper was no statistically significant difference in the level of economic vulnerability for countries that implement effective branding policies and do not take appropriate actions. The study checked hypothesis using the methods and instruments as follows: for the normal distribution of the statistical data - the Shapiro-Wilk test; verification of the equality of dispersion in the statistical data using the Levine's test; parametric (One-way ANOVA: F-test) or nonparametric test (Kruskal-Wallis rank test). The object of the investigation was European Union countries which were classified on the six groups by the experts of the FutureBrand rating. The empirical data confirmed the hypothesis mentioned above. Thus, the findings proved no statistically significant difference between the leading indicators of the level of economic vulnerability according to the essential component - macroeconomic stability, which was estimated using indicators: General government deficit (-) and surplus (+) - annual data; unemployment rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper summarizes the arguments for a scientific discussion on solving the problem of improving the efficiency of the enterprise in the context of social and economic security of the state. The main purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the enterprise and on its basis to identify innovative measures and methods, effective marketing tools to improve it. The systematization of literary sources and scientific approaches showed that, based on a comprehensive assessment of the activity of the enterprise, there remained several unsolved problems regarding the improvement of the social and economic security of the state. The urgency of solving this scientific problem lies in ensuring social and economic security that is an extremely important problem in the current conditions of the country’s development. Methodical tools of the study are such methods as a logical generalization, systematic, comparison, mathematical calculations, graphical, method of expert assessments. The study period is 2014-2018. The object of the study is the sanatorium and resort enterprise since the social and economic security of the state on the micro-level is formed based on the activity of such enterprises. The research of the identified problem in the paper is carried out in the following logical sequence. The significance of the activity of enterprises as an integral part in shaping the country's economy in market conditions is outlined. The important role of domestic enterprises in ensuring the employment of the country's population, the formation of social relations and support of social stability, the social and economic security of the state at the micro-level is noted. The problems of provision of enterprises economic development as a component of socioeconomic security of the state in need of research are highlighted. The list of risks, which domestic enterprises are subjected to in daily activity, is described. It is noted that the economic development of enterprises is one of the components of securing social and economic security of the country at the micro-level. In this context, the theoretical basis for the formation of economic security of enterprises is investigated based on the evaluation of the efficiency of the activity on the example of sanatorium and resort institutions. An evaluation of the efficiency of activity of sanatorium-resort enterprises from the standpoint of the economic entity efficiency based on the calculation of integral index and directly by consumers with the help of an expert method is conducted. Based on the estimation of the integral coefficient of efficiency of the sanatorium and resort services provision on the example of the past five years, the unevenness of the fluctuations of the main economic indicators of activity, reduction of the coefficient of financial and economic activity efficiency has been proved. Based on surveys of consumers, the average mark of the effectiveness for the provided sanatorium services was set at 3.7 points, which at the five-point scale proves the need for improving the activity of sanatorium and resort facilities under present conditions and developing special events using effective instruments stimulating the development of such enterprises. To significantly improve the efficiency of sanatorium and resort enterprises and the impact on the improvement of social and economic security in the country, a set of actions and marketing tools based on the innovative technologies at the enterprise, regional and state level. The results of the conducted research can be used by sanatorium and resort establishments in practical activity and public authorities, local self-government bodies at the level of regions and territorial communities in developing projects of development of territories and taking measures to ensure social and economic security in the country. [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]

In recent years, human capital has become increasingly emphasized as a factor of economic growth. Managing human capital could stimulate the whole economy to better performance in competitiveness. Although these indicators include several variables, there is no precise determination of which indicator mostly affects the country's economic growth. This paper summarizes the knowledge and approaches of several authors in the field of economic growth, knowledge economy, competitiveness, innovations and individual elements affecting these areas. It outlines the findings and provides some insight into the impact of individual factors on economic growth across recent studies. The main goal is to obtain information about the impact of education, its support, and its influence on economic performance on the example of empirical data documenting the qualitative parameters of the workforce. The use of selected indicators indicated their impact on the change in economic performance. The partial objective is to identify an indicator or set of indicators that could express the impact of human capital on economic growth. The study involved research methods such as analyzes, statistical methods such as correlation and p-value, and prediction for the next period based on past developments. The research object is the V4 countries – the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland. The findings pointed to the strong impact of the analyzed factors on economic growth. Besides, they showed which of the known ways to increase the efficiency of the labor factor were actually or little used in the sample countries. Undoubtedly, there is also an indicative and interesting comparison within a group or with other economies at a comparable economic and social development level. Finally, improvements to the current situation were proposed. The systematization of literary sources and approaches to economic growth helps identify possible proposals for improving competitiveness in the future, using innovative approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small and medium-sized enterprises are facing many types of business risks, almost unknown or unimportant for the large companies, where the funding risk plays an essential role due to the importance of the need of the external financial sources for their growth. This paper investigates the impact of a size of the company and an age of the owner on the perception of the funding risk in the segment of small and medium-sized enterprises in Slovakia in response to the restraints in their access to credit finance. The results of the research specify the importance of these factors in determining the scope of the funding risk exposure on Slovak SMEs. The paper is based on the data from the scientific research carried out in 2016 in Slovakia among 438 companies. The data were analyzed by Pearson's chi-square statistics, which allowed to confirm the existence of the statistically significant dependencies between the chosen factors and the perception of the funding risk. The presented statistical evidence confirms that the size of the company and the age of the owner are significant in relation to the funding risk of a company from the segment of SMEs. Smaller companies do perceive the funding risk more intensively than larger ones. The statistically significant impact of the selected factors on the frequency of bank loans rejection was confirmed only in case of the age of the owner, but not in case of the size of the company, when the entrepreneurs of the age between 36 and 45 declared the highest rejection rate of the loan applications. A surprising finding is that younger entrepreneurs are significantly more self-confident in case of the potentially negative influence of the funding risk on their companies than their older colleagues. The results of the research also confirm the existence of the statistically significant dependence between the selected factors and the reasons for the rejection of bank loans applications. We can declare that a credit rejection is most common in case of younger business owners but is not typical for the smaller companies. In the group of entrepreneurs aged between 36 and 45 years the most frequent reason was related to the negative values of the financial indicators, and in case of the oldest entrepreneurs the most often reasons of the rejection of the loan application were the lack of collateral, poor business plan and negative values of the financial indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The business sector is directly linked to many other social and economic indicators of the settlement, region and the state. Especially the retail trade is influenced by the consumption of households that directly affects the regional development. This present paper deals with the essence of the understanding of the retail industry as well as its impact on regional development in the Slovak Republic on the basis of the presented analyses of selected macroeconomic indicators in the SR. Addressing the issue was preceded by the systematic collection of the scientific literature of the studied issue in order to comprehensively assess the individual variables. The main purpose of the research is to verify statistical significance between the registered number of employees in the retail sector and its impact on the regional development with an accent on the chosen macroeconomic indicator, as well as evaluate the results gained by verification of the model. The focus of the survey is on the Slovak retail sector. The retail sector of Slovakia is analysed on the basis of macroeconomic data. Setting hypotheses were essential to conduct the analysis. We suggest verifying the hypotheses I and II, which concern according to two variables. To verify the hypotheses, annual data from the time interval of 2000 - 2010 was used. Based on the indicators of hypotheses evaluation, a recorded number of employees in retail trade and the ratio of employed in retail business as a part of the total employment in the region had been applied. Methodological tools of the research methods were standard deviations (t-statistics, p-values) have been estimated by Driscoll-Krayy estimator and Ordinary Least Squares Method. This paper presents the results of an empirical analysis and the statistical findings are expressed by statistical software - Stata. The analysis of macroeconomic correlation detected the direct relationship between the number of employees in the retail sector and the regional GDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The negative effect of income inequality on economic growth represents a topic that constitutes a broad topic of research in the standard economic theory. One of the immediate consequences of income inequality is diminished consumption. Many «poor» customers cannot provide sufficient demand for the producers, causing overproduction that might lead to an economic crisis. It constitutes a problem because sustainable economic performance needs to be achieved under the conditions of income inequality. Reducing social and economic inequality in countries is an essential step towards ensuring that no one is left behind. It is also part of the 10th Sustainable Development Goal aimed to reduce it by 2030. Inequality is based on the income distribution between the top 1% and the bottom 99% of households in any given country. The degree of inequality could play a beneficial role if it is driven by market forces and is associated with incentives to increase growth. In developing and emerging countries, greater equality and improvements in living standards are needed to enable populations to flourish. Inequality reduction is one of the most critical steps a government could take to improve the well-being of its population. The income inequality growth increases human capital in poor countries and reduces it in high and middle-income countries. In poorer countries, it increases them, but in higher -- and middle-income countries, it reduces them. Income inequality could be reduced by improving human capital and general skill levels, correcting labor-market policies, and making better use of financial services. In turn, sustainable economic growth could reverse the negative effects of inequality, reducing the need for high-wage and higher-earning households. Thus, it provides higher economic growth. This paper discusses three ways to circumvent the impact of decreasing consumption on economic growth adopted in developing economies over the last fifty years, such as increasing exports, providing loans for consumption, and printing new money. The findings showed that none of these methods seem to be sustainable in the long run. Thus novel and innovative mechanisms that would allow our economy to reduce inequality are necessary and need to be put into place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern world transformational transitions occur under the influence of exogenous and endogenous factors, which, on the one hand, serve as stimulators of these processes, and, on the other hand, deepen imbalances in the country. One of the most influential factors for low- and middle-income countries is the economy shadowing. These are illegal financial transactions that hold back the investment and innovation development of the country, decreasing the pace of its social and economic development. Building an effective policy of neutralization and minimization of the influence of these factors is possible only if there is evidence-based research of all channels of income concealment and determination of the volume of each of them. Taking into account the low effectiveness of traditional approaches to managing the economy shadowing, the application of innovative evaluation methods based on the determination of the volume of tax gaps in the economy can serve as a ground for increasing the efficiency of the existing tools of public administration in this area. This article summarizes the arguments and counter-arguments within the framework of scientific discussion on the estimation of the volume of tax gaps in the economy in the context of the foreign economic activity of the country as one of the tools for minimizing tax liabilities. Systematizing these scientific developments on the definite problem has shown that among scientists there is no consensus on the role of tax gaps in the economy and their interrelation with foreign economic activity of the country, which significantly updates the need for further empirical research in this area, aimed at determining the volume of tax gaps by the export-import activity and their influence on indicators of economic development of the country. The research is based on the use of the modified Grubel-Lloyd formula (which allows determining the index of asynchronous export-import activity in the retrospective dynamics) and indicators of the level of asynchronous export-import activity by the partner countries. The study subject is the countries with the highest (Georgia), medium (Turkey, Cyprus, Solomon Islands) and the lowest (Japan, Austria, United States) levels of economy shadowing, which allows taking a more thorough and objective decision on the effect of asynchronous export and import activity on the volume of tax gaps in the economy, and its dependence on the level of shadowing in the country for 2013- 2017. The paper presents the results of the empirical analysis of the volume gap of foreign economic activity on the example of Ukraine and its trading partners, which has shown that the highest index of asynchrony is peculiar to countries with average levels of shadowing - Cyprus, Solomon Islands, and the lowest - with the participation of countries with low level of shadowing. At the same time, it has been determined that one of the highest asynchronous indexes is observed with the participation of offshore countries. The study empirically confirms and theoretically proves that the foreign economic component plays a significant role in the processes of economic development of the country, and the number of hidden tax payments, due to these transactions, occupy about 1% of the country's GDP (gross domestic product). The results of the research may be useful for the relevant executive authorities in developing measures to prevent income shadowing in the context of export-import operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The innovation of wood-processing technology significantly improves the material conversion of wood into primary processing products. However, the total value of the processed wood in the outputs of the primary processing depends on both the total volume and the wood flow structure in the cascade of manufacturing. The paper is focused on modelling and comparison of different scenarios by identifying the current flow of timber and links in the cascade of processing in the Czech Republic to the development of selected social and economic indicators. In the analysis, three different scenarios were used. The first scenario took into account only the potential for export absorption to current processing capacities. The second scenario was based on the first, adding parameters for the increase of technological efficiency, and the third scenario beyond the first took account of the capacity increase by investing in the sawn wood and pulp production segment. The results showed that to achieve a balanced value creation and societal effects in the form of high or qualified employment and maximize contributions to the social system, it is necessary to create conditions for the allocation of timber for export. At the same time, it is necessary to optimize the structure of production so that the flow has been as large as possible in the cascade and at the same time it has been able to absorb the impacts from the temporary or changing conditions of the available raw wood volume and structure. Appropriate option, therefore, appears to be a compromise between scenarios number 2 and 3. Thus, to strengthen the (technologically or logistically) stability of the existing capacities and to supplement them with the appropriate structure of several new investments in the production of timber and wood-based panels' production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article devoted to analysis of sustainable development indicators (SDI) evolution and peculiarities of designing the set of SDI for Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and other countries. The paper provides an overview of evolution and application experience of sustainability measuring practice. Researchers analyze the directions of measurement approach progress. Modern trends of indicators' using are explored. Ways of overcoming the lack of harmonization in variety of conceptual and organizational frameworks which are used by different countries are viewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article. The object of the article is the specification of some approaches concerning enterprise's economic security management according to the provisions of its rational level; development of methodological approaches to the solution taking in acount enterprise reaction priority within the scope of economic security management. The results of the analysis. In the article the structural components of mechanism of enterprise's economic security management have been analyzed. The methodological approach that makes it possible to increase the level of economic substantiation in managerial decision making has been suggested. In order to identify the importance of main threats for a certain engineering plant it is suggested to use matrix «threat-losses», determining the position (zone of critical, high, middle, low and minimum threat level) on the basis of two guidelines - the possibility of threat initiation and opportunity for loss of the achieved economic security level. The evaluation is carried out in two blocks. The first period, the possibility of threat initiation is proposed to define with expert method using the point scale. The expert evaluation (obtained according to the survey conducted among managers and experts of the enterprises under study) makes it possible to divide threats of economic security into five groups according to the criterion of possibility and taking into consideration the peculiarities and retrospective data of an industrial enterprise activity. At the second stage on the basis of correlation-regressive analysis data, the position of the particular threats according to the criterion of level effect on the dynamics of enterprises' economic security level has been defined. The possible threats to the economic security of an enterprise have been divided into the basic subsystems: technic-technological subsystem, resource subsystem, communication subsystem. It has been defined that the divergence of economic security depends not only on factors of influence but also on internal capability to counteract their influence. In general, the more open is the system for external influence, the quicker and with lower losses it will adapt to the surrounding changes. In the paper the system of economic security management has been considered as a special variety and relatively independent and local subsystem of enterprise management. The suggested conception of management for enterprise's economic security system makes it possible to solve the problem of managerial processes perfection using some new universal formalized qualitative characteristics of the mentioned system: communicativeness, flexibility, stability and adaptability. In order to make the decision it is suggested using method of hierarchy analysis. It should be taken into account the base for priorities criterions identification of the regressive analysis results concerning influence of qualitative indicators of economic security on the net profit dynamics. The separate element of the designed system is the use of suggested methodological approach that makes it possible to increase the level of economic substantiation of decision-making in regard to the priority of an enterprise reaction concerning self-preservation, stabilization, formation of the competitive, innovative positions or a position of long-term potential provision within the scope of enterprise's economic security management. Conclusions and directions of further researches. As a result it has been determined that the peculiarities of the formed systems of economic security provision for a specific enterprise cause their specific approaches to the determination of economic security's rational level. Since, the consequences of local criterion hierarchy calculations illustrate the importance of a particular qualitative indicator for the economic security system concerning to a particular enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]