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Copyright of Media4u Magazine is the property of Ing. Jan Chromy, Ph.D. 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 process of rapid IT development affects the world of business and management. In recent years, businesses have applied new technologies to their management. One of the modern technologies is Enterprise Social Network. The primary aim of the paper is to identify the use of Enterprise Social Network at present and to compare the data with the results of 2014. Secondary research is to find out how many businesses use information systems in internal communication, and then determine if these systems are sufficient. The methodology of the paper is based on a controlled interview with representatives of companies at the University of Pardubice meeting, called Contact. The paper publishes summary information of entrepreneurs about the interest and experience with Enterprise Social Networks, and about the tools used for internal communication. The discussion of the paper addresses the current concerns and wishes of entrepreneurs. The paper seeks to highlight the rapid development of information technologies and the adaptability of entrepreneurs to gain greater competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graduates of study fields focused on business and marketing face intense competition on the labor market, which is becoming more and more international. Hence, it is important to cultivate the ability of students to apply acquired knowledge and skills in key areas in the global context in order to know how to effectively analyze, justify and solve problems in different situations. The paper introduces the concept of global business literacy and evaluates it on a sample of students of the Corporate Business and Marketing master's degree study program at the Faculty of Business Economy of the University of Economics in Bratislava, with seat in Košice, who completed the course International Business. The aim of the paper is to identify, whether the completion of this classroom-based course contributed to cultivation of global business literacy of the affected students. For the purpose of the analysis, descriptive analysis as well as paired t-test are used. The results show positive shift toward higher level of global business literacy of the students after completing the course, especially in the dimension of international business competence. Implications for development of pedagogical activities in the global context are further discussed.

Long-term experience, surveys, and statistics show that family businesses mostly lack strategies of protecting their intellectual property. Tradition, experience, family recipes, the name, and the brand of a family business are the basic prerequisite for its sustainability in future generations. The objective of this paper is to evaluate whether the existence of patents, trademarks, and other forms of intellectual property is dependent on the length of time family businesses have been active on the market. The paper also addresses the question of whether there is a relationship between the existence of different forms of intellectual property and the amount of government support drawn down. The uniqueness of this paper lies in the compilation and statistical evaluation of a unique intellectual property database of 740 registered family businesses in the Czech Republic and is the first academic paper on this topic in the country.

Industry 4.0, digitization and digital transformation are undoubtedly some of the main trends of a transforming economy, society and business. They represent a fundamental topic that is currently resounding in both the real business world and the academic sphere. New modern digital technologies and their use have a crucial impact on the existing operation of entrepreneurial entities. These technologies require them to make radical changes in the management of business processes and particular activities. The presented paper reflects the need to focus research activities on the digitalization of various business areas; specifically, it focuses on the field of human resource (HR) management. The goal of this paper is to contribute to the existing literature on HR digitalization, specifically by exploring the current state of the art in this area. For this purpose, a systematic literature review in the Scopus database was carried out. This study summarizes and presents existing knowledge in a structured manner and also identifies possible directions for future research activities. Selected papers were analyzed and classified according to area of interest into two main categories of human resource digitalization. The first includes papers that deal with HR digitalization as such, i.e. the digitalization of the discipline of HR management. The second area deals with HR as a support for digitalization, i.e. fields in which HR can help with the digital transformation of other business activities or processes. Digitalized human capital has become the primary common denominator of the majority of articles across both categories.

The tax regime and the subsequent funding of non-governmental non-profit organizations through the institution of tax assignations in the Visegrad countries is the main topic of this paper. The issue of taxation is discussed with the aim of proposing changes and recommendations and reducing administrative costs of non-profit organizations in the Czech Republic. In the area of financing, the issue of tax assignations as one of the options of state financial support for the non-profit sector is explored. They are not introduced in the Czech Republic, however, in the other countries of the Visegrad countries this institution is already incorporated into their tax systems. The aim of the paper is to confirm or possibly refute the benefits of the concept of tax assignations for the current Czech tax system. The impacts of the introduction of tax assignations are identified on the basis of comparison of tax models. Analysis of statistical data was used to explore whether tax assignations affected the amount of transfers to non-governmental organizations and whether tax assignations could be an additional source of funding for non-profit organizations in the Czech Republic.

The paper deals with the comparison of approaches to the real estate management in selected municipalities of the Czech Republic. Individual municipalities can choose different ways of property management from ad hoc management by the mayor to outsourcing of administration to an external organization, depending on the size of the municipality, the size of the property or the habits in the state. The aim of the paper is to compare the similarities and the differences of property management in selected municipalities. In the next part, the paper focuses on the method of strategic planning and implementation of municipal strategies in the real estate use. The authors base the paper on the analysis of strategic documents of municipalities or higher self-governing units, which contain a plan for the use and the development of real estate in municipal ownership.

This paper examines the influence of gender factors and stereotypes in the toy industry by investigating the opinions of parents on Creatable World’s gender-neutral doll. It aims to explore the factors influencing the decisions parents make when choosing toys for their children. The paper uses a mixed research method, combining individual semi-structured in-depth interviews as a qualitative method, and a structured questionnaire as a quantitative method. The qualitative study serves as preliminary research for the quantitative method. It helps to outline the main aspects and factors influencing parents’ purchasing decisions and children’s toy preferences. The quantitative element of the study examines the connection between aspects and factors discovered and is aimed to investigate existing patterns. The results indicate that gender impacts both parents’ purchasing decisions and their perception of children’s toys.

It is not only the coronavirus crisis that has caused shortages on the labour market. The lack of workers has affected the Czech market across industries. Companies in the Czech Republic were already struggling with labour shortages before Covid-19. Companies are looking abroad for the employees they need, and are forced to use innovative approaches to attract them. The paper presents the results of quantitative research among expatriates conducted at one of the SKODA AUTO's plants that is a pillar of the Czech automotive industry. The aim of the research was to identify the degree of application of internal personnel marketing through a questionnaire survey. It further investigated why expatriate employees chose SKODA AUTO as their employer, what the source of information about a particular job there is, whether they perceive cultural differences in the workplace that may influence them, and other. Based on the research findings, the paper formulates recommendations, in theform of the 4Ps in personnel marketing, leading to the attraction and stabilization of foreign employees.

This paper reacts on one of the main issues the family businesses are facing with – handling the business succession process. The aim of the paper is to analyze the process of family business handover and its support from a side of the regional authorities in the South Bohemia Region (Czech Republic), the Presov Region (Slovakia) and the Mazowiecke Region (Poland). The research framework combines face-to-face interviews and impersonal questionnaire survey to obtain data. It applies standard management data analyzing methods to identify the key strategic objectives and tasks for facilitating and sustaining the family businesses and the business succession process. The objectives and tasks are structured in the following areas: (I) Information Gathering & Monitoring, (II) Planning & Implementation, (III) Support & Facilitation, (IV) Cooperation & Coordination. In addition, the tasks are enriched of various good practices from analyzed regions to enhance their impact in practice.

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the capital structure and its determinants in consumer co-operatives in the Czech Republic. Consumer co-operatives are associated in the COOP Group, which is the largest retail network of food stores in the country. This analysis uses quantitative data from the financial statements for the years 2014 to 2018 from the database of information on Czech economic entities Albertina. Financial indicators, regression as well as correlation analysis are all used to analyse the data. This paper reveals that the leverage of the entire group is low, as more than two-thirds of the assets are financed by equity. Internal financing from retained profits is prevalent. From the results of multiple linear regression analysis is apparent that tangibility and total assets turnover both have a positive effect on leverage while liquidity and retained profits negative.

The paper describes the responses of national economics to the spread of pandemic COVID-19 in year 2020. As a result of economic and social interconnectedness and dependency of countries, the actions are mutually influential in a great extend. The economic impacts are analysed from macroeconomic perspective, demonstrating the effects on important economic indicators. Due to the crucial role of investment, the paper focuses on disruptions of foreign direct investment flows and consequent changes, especially in the European Union. Based on analysis of data from UNCTAD, OECD, Czech Statistical Office and Czech National Bank, the aim is to provide prognosis of future development of foreign direct investment in case of Czech economy. Three scenarios are constructed with forecasting 15%, 37% and 60% drop in foreign direct investment inflow. The paper highlights the significant relevance of investment incentives in attracting the investors and investment promotion agencies in general in terms of avoiding divestment. The main factor that determines the final fluctuation of the variable (the state of foreign direct investment in individual years) is the health situation and the related restrictions on business activities. The presented results lead to a discussion of recommendations for economic policy concerning the support of business activities.

Copyright of Media4u Magazine is the property of Ing. Jan Chromy, Ph.D. 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.)

Copyright of Insurance Discourses / Pojistne Rozpravy is the property of Czech Insurance Association 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 question of business performance assessment has been discussed by many researchers. Some resulting indicators of business performance can be applied in all enterprises (e.g. ROE, ROA), some have limited use (e.g. Tobin´s Q). This paper focuses on finding the aspects (indicators), that could affect business performance itself, rather than to propose new indicators of business performance. The results of this analysis could help the management of enterprise to focus on the right objectives in the future. The research adopted quantitative approach. It is based on analysis of fourteen indicators (i.e. their values) processed in order to prove or disprove their statistical interrelationship with chosen performance indicators (ROE, ROS). The dataset, describing 784 large enterprises in the Czech Republic, was downloaded from Albertina – Gold edition. Data were statistically tested using Spearman´s correlation coefficient. Findings of this research indicate that in the case of few indicators (such as Equity or Total debt in the case of ROS) the relationship can be proven. These indicators are presented, and results are discussed in the paper, together with the possible future research.

The financial sustainability of pension systems is one of the crucial topics in the context of population aging. The issue of financial sustainability is primarily associated with public unfunded pension schemes, where there is an increase in future expenditures and a reduction in income due to the demographic structure. A possible solution to this problem is represented by the introduction of fund schemes into the design of the pension system which is recommended by the World Bank. But it brings certain risks for pension systems. An example of the implementation is Denmark, where the public fund scheme ATP exists in the first pillar and the second pillar is funded and managed by private companies. The aim of this paper is to present the Danish pension system with a focus on fund schemes and their differences with emphasis on management. This paper uses a literature review and analysis of quantitative data in the form of a time series. Data are used from Stat Bank and Forsikring & Pension. Next, the synthesis method is used to summarize the findings. The conclusions of the paper provide a basic overview of Danish pension fund schemes and can be an inspiration for possible reforms of pension systems in other countries.

The paper is focused on the area of introducing new technologies and the consequent impact on a more efficient functioning of a company, with an emphasis on reducing labour costs. A case study has been created for a company that replaced its employees with technology to reduce the dependence of its performance on the staff. Our aim was to quantify the impact of this managerial decision on the company, as well as to quantify the negative impact on the state budget. With this decision, the company will not only reduce its dependence on its staff, but also its labour costs by 88.14% while the performance will remain the same. It can be assumed that this will also have a significant impact on the sustainability of public finances, as the state will suffer a loss of income in the case of personal income tax as well as social/health insurance; the mandatory expenditure may also increase, such as in the case of paying social benefits to the unemployed. In view of the sustainability of public finances, the paper proposes recommendations that could address this negative impact.

Social media provide many benefits to its users, but with their use, people also face many risks. In this paper, the authors focus on these risks and, using two methods, a questionnaire survey and a focus group, research of the target group is conducted. The aim of this research is to learn whether the research participants feel safe on social media and whether they know the risks that may affect them or their close ones. At the end of the paper, there are recommendations and preventive measures that could help to minimize the exposure of users to these risks.

Copyright of Listy Cukrovarnicke a Reparske is the property of VUC Praha a.s. 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 technological changes are one of the major factors affecting the labour force demand. The computerization, cybernetization and digitalization will undoubtedly cause changes in the certain professions, the disappearance of certain professions or expanding and the establish of new professions. This paper presents an overview of the possibilities impact on the labour force demand in the context of technological changes in connection with Industry 4.0 and Society 4.0 and the necessary response to expected changes. The paper first introduces job positions and population groups that will be in the endangered category due to technological changes. In connection with the above, there are presented job positions and population groups that will need to be formed into potential new jobs or existing jobs with new requirements for work positions. In this part of the paper are presented strategic documents for the current period with their recommendations. The following part of the paper focuses on new forms of employment, new jobs and new forms of work that can be expected in connection with Industry 4.0 and Society 4.0 and outlines how the company will have to approach the issue. The conclusion summarizes this issue. The paper presents an overview of the research on the impact of technological changes on the labour market.

Digitization, automation and robotization, i.e. aspects of Industry 4.0, are changing the labor market. New jobs are being created, but some of the existing jobs are disappearing. It is necessary to prepare and prove these changes and secure the labor market. The aim of this paper is to analyze the current state of the labor market in the Czech Republic, which is influenced by the fourth industrial revolution. The data come from the public database of the Czech Statistical Office. These are the official results of the Labor Force Survey in the Czech Republic in Q2 2019. The paper analyzes data and information on the structure of employment, unemployment rate, sector employment, age and educational structure of the population. Developments of individual indicators are then analyzed by expert evaluators - economists. In particular, basic logical scientific methods such as analysis and generalization are used. At present, the Czech Republic has the lowest value of unemployed persons for the whole surveyed period. The distribution of employees roughly corresponds to the contributions of the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors to gross domestic product. The most important industry in the Czech Republic is the manufacturing industry. Furthermore, a significant proportion of the population of 65+ in the total population in the Czech Republic can be seen. Incoming changes have a significant impact on the required qualifications and the labor market in general. The primary objective of the Czech Republic should be to adapt the education system to the future needs of the labor market.

The concepts of Industry 4.0 and then Company 4.0 have been not only discussed for a long time, but have demonstrated their growing role in the development of smart businesses. The aim of the paper was to describe the approaches to the classification of knowledge intensive services of the two largest studies - Eurostat, OECD and on the basis of theoretical theses to select the codes of activity that can be considered as knowledge intensive services. By this procedure, companies with codes J and M were selected. In the last step, a description of the profitability of assets, capital and sales of defined knowledge-intensive enterprises was made with using data from the Bach database. For comparison purposes, profitability indicators were found not only for small and medium-sized enterprises in the Czech Republic, but also for neighboring countries (ie. Germany, Poland, Slovak, Austria). This comparison revealed that small enterprises in the Czech Republic in categories J and M occupy a very good position in comparison with four countries - the first place was recorded in the ROA and ROS indicators, Czech companies rank second place in the ROE indicator. The situation of medium-sized enterprises is significantly worse, especially the indicator of return on sales is at the lowest level in Czech enterprises. Furthermore, the paper graphically depicts the development of profitability indicators in an 11-year time series, where an above-average development of all profitability indicators was found with the exception of ROS in small enterprises.

The paper focuses on outplacement as a concrete form (demonstration) of social responsibility and industrial enterprises sustainable management. The practice shows that businesses often face various problems regarding the lack of professional staff, lack of skills or skills in a particular area, or a surplus of necessary staff. With every situation, the company management needs to cope to ensure the sustainability, competitiveness or the business survival. The research study presented in the paper focused on the current state of need for redundancies, awareness of outplacement options and interest in these programs in case of redundancies. In addressing the issue, age diversity was also taken into consideration with regard to individual generations of employees on the labour market. The outplacement programs provide the enterprise management which has to make redundancies such services or support to redundant employees to enable them to actively seek work. However, the low use of such a form of support for outgoing employees causes low awareness of this possibility, whether by employers or employees themselves. The provision of outplacement services enables the enterprise to demonstrate a sustainable commitment to employee care even in the difficult situations in which the enterprise is set and to maintain the morale of the remaining employees, preserve goodwill and, if necessary, re-engage with former employees. The solved research problem presented in the paper was defined by setting the main research goal and defining research questions. The research results are interpreted through descriptive statistics quantitative methods.

There is a crucial change in the German financial system and listed corporations: The influence of the financial markets has grown in both fields. Subsequently, shareholders can enforce their interests more efficiently than other stakeholders (e.g. affiliates, NGOs, political communities, and employees). In the paper, diverse explanations for this development are presented and evaluated: disintermediation, financial market capitalism and 'financialization'. Afterward, the topic is discussed in the perspective of theological ethics. Catholic Social Teaching features no financial ethics, but it includes some thoughts that offer an orientation for economic policy, the concept of an economy in service of the common good, the idea of a cooperation between state, market and civil society and socially anchored entrepreneurship as well as the conception of a serving financial economy. In conclusion, action perspectives are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the results of empirical research focused on customer satisfaction, processes and practices leading to customer satisfaction and approaches that companies use to minimize reverse flows, especially in the form of product returns. The aim of this paper is to find out the differences in the use of the practices and processes focused on backflows under examination in financially performing and financially non-performing companies. Findings show that especially the level of customer satisfaction, intensive cooperation with customers with the aim to gain knowledge about their needs and wants and intensive information sharing with the distributors about customer satisfaction as well as the intensive effort for high quality and continuous improvement not only of products but also of the relevant production, distribution and other processes represent the main differentiator between the two groups of companies. Empirical research was carried out within the framework of a project funded by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic GA16-16260S "Management's approach to reducing reverse flows in relation to customer satisfaction and continuous improvement".

Financial distress and bankruptcy modeling represents large and important field of economic research topics. This paper concerns with general structure of score oriented models in form of linear or affine forms built upon data available from standard accounting reports. For illustration purposes, we present well-known models, i.e. Altman, Neumaier, Ohlson, and Zmijewski one. However, the paper is focused mainly to probabilistic framework, which is getting more actual attention in practice for company financial health quantitative analysis, now. At first, the logit and probit transformations used for Ohlson, and Zmijewski model, respectively, are presented, as well as one model for calculation of probability of company default based upon Z-score values. Our contribution to this field is presented in the central part of the paper. We assume the score value to be an outcome of a random variable, which is introduced by its cumulative distribution function. This function is constructed systematically as a piecewise smooth function collected from three branches. Two of them, there are tail functions, belong to exponencial family. Whereas the central branch is specified as a linear function. At each joint, which is related to model grey zone bound, point smoothness of two adjacent branches is maintained by specific boundary conditions applied. Several cumulative distribution functions are presented,together with their probability density functions. Next, we select a SME ranked company, and apply the proposed technique to company survival analysis, as well as an analysis of company default probabilities. All calculations were performed by sw Mathematica.

This paper aims to propose a conceptual model of impacts of stakeholders to destination management of which destination management is seen as a mediator for sustainable tourism development. Various databases including Google Scholar, Scopus, Science Direct, etc. for peer reviewed journals, books, and other relevant publications are searched and collected on the subject. As the result, the conceptual model is built up with the purpose to provide directions for researchers exanimating relationships of variables of internal stakeholders, external stakeholders, and destination management leading to sustainable tourism development. Besides, testing of this model provides deep understanding of the factors, their impacting levels and their importance. The study is done with an empirical case of Vietnam of which can use to demonstrate some concept for business behavior in other areas. Therefore, proposed model of further research or analysis is perfect opportunity to discuss paper in connection of business/company/public sector impact on destination/sustainable tourism and useful to literature of sustainable tourism development and stakeholder theory.

The paper deals with the issue of support of research and development in the Czech Republic and abroad. Support for research and development is generally divided into direct support and indirect support, where we will focus on the practical implications of indirect R & D support. Indirect support for research and development is implemented through tax instruments leading to a reduction of the tax base of income tax in the conditions of the Czech Republic. Within the chapters of the paper, an evaluation of the use of this instrument by entrepreneurial subjects is carried out according to the legal framework of Section 34 of Act No. 586/1992 Coll., On Income Taxes, as amended, where this instrument is designated as a deductible item for research and development. The contribution also solves what must be done by the entrepreneur who uses this form of tax support and what are the merits and risks of the R & D projects that are the basis for determining the specific amount of the deductible item of research and development. It also includes a look at the international situation in other countries, and the specific forms and tools of R & D support that countries use under their tax jurisdictions.

The paper is focused on research of price sensitivity with the use of Van Westendorp Price Sensivitity test. Researched product is coffee latte flavored with marshmallow cafe networks like CrossCafe and the target group are college students in Pilsen. The aim of this paper is to apply theoretical background of market research issues with the focus on price research and to conduct own research with Van Westendorp Price Sensivitity test. Results of the research are presented in a graph that is typical for this test including the designation of all important points. In conclusion of this work, there is a information, where are the results of research compared with additional price survey in similar companies in Pilsen.

Creative accounting has remained a contentious issue, raising series of arguments in the accounting literature. These arguments are premised on twofold: positive creative accounting (ethical) and negative creative accounting (unethical). Positive creative accounting is grounded on ‘fair’ accounting practices while negative creative accounting is built on ‘inappropriate’ accounting practices that may be mendacious to users of accounting numbers. Creative accounting is a way of ethically assisting firms out of the compass of crashing out of business but rather it has been seen as an instrument of destruction. However, this paper examined international financial reporting standards (IFRSs) as a way of taming creative accounting as well as factors that trigger unethical accounting practices in Nigeria. The paper utilized structured questionnaires administered to 120 professionals (auditors, investors, stockbrokers). The Pearson Product Moment Correlation statistical tool was used in analyzing the field data. Based on the analysis, we found that IFRSs can be used to tame creative accounting. This implies that IFRSs moderate excessive unethical accounting practices. We found that one of the most significant factors triggering negative creative accounting is ‘conflict of interest’. On the basis of the findings, we recommended that ethical standards by the accounting profession should be properly aligned to suit the present business environment and sustained so as to checkmate excessive use of creative accounting. Also, IFRSs should be fully implemented by all corporate firms as well as more ethical standards that may guide management on creative accounting should be made available by regulatory framework of accounting so as to guide its use without it being detrimental to stakeholders.

The aim of this paper was to propose a system model that will lead to an efficient participation of a destination management organization (DMO) on the management of a tourism destination and will help to reach a consensus among stakeholders. It means a high efficiency of the Hospitality & Tourism industry, as well as a high level of visitors̕ satisfaction, low level of residents̕ irritation and a preservation of a cultural and natural potential of a tourism destination. The computer simulation model, which enables policy testing and the scenario analyses of the future development based on various policies and decisions, are presented in this paper. The main methodological approach used in this paper was system dynamics. This method helped to reveal the complexity of a tourism system and to identify connections among a number of stakeholders in a tourism destination. This method, which is based on the computer simulations, enabled not only the economic impacts evaluation, but also to reveal the sociocultural and environmental relations in a complex organism such as tourism destination. The system dynamics model was developed for the Region of South Bohemia, which is one of the leading tourism destinations in the Czech Republic. The model has also allowed an application of conditions for tourism development from neighbour Region of Upper Austria for a comparison of various tourism policies.

This paper focuses on family business topic. The aim of this paper is to discuss situation of family businesses in the Czech Republic in details. The topic of family business has gained tremendous attention in recent years and is especially concentrating on the task of family business succession. First, there is a theoretical part that concentrates attention on definition of family business in general. Finding the right match of family business definition is one of the most obvious challenges that are researchers facing. Furthermore, the theoretical part discusses advantages and limitations of such kind of doing business. In the next part, a practical view on family businesses in the Czech environment is provided. The analysis is conducted on basis of survey among a sample of family enterprises. The results of the practical part indicate current reality of this specific segment of entrepreneurial subjects and discuss future issues they should deal with. The paper contributes to research stream in the family business area and proposes several questions for further research observation.

This paper considers a decentralized two-echelon supply chain: a single retailer holds finished goods inventory to meet customer demand and a single manufacturer produces the retailer’s replenishment orders for a single item on a make-to-order basis. Finite production capacity in each period and backordering of excessive demand is considered. The manufacturer operates close to his production capacity. In this setting the retailer’s order decision has direct impact on the manufacturer’s production utilization. Most inventory-focused literature research control inventory levels and allow production levels to vary substantially each period. The manufacturer, however, prefers stable level of production, i.e. smooth order pattern from the retailer. In this paper we explore the effects of production smoothing on total system per-unit costs while considering inventory related costs as well as production related costs.

The aim of this paper is implementation of indoor advertising research in shopping centres in the city of Pilsen with suggesting measures to optimize researched situation. There are a summarization of available knowledge in the field of marketing communication focoused on indoor advertising in shopping centres, other short summarization of available knowledge in the field of marketing research and the final proposal of research project which are ensued the implementation and imaging of partical goals. The methods used in the research are secondary sources analyze, observation (in the first phase of research) and personal interview (the second phase of research). There are two main parts of the paper – theoretical and practical. The terms advertising and indoor advertising (mainly focused on the typology, present trends, its admeasurement, advantages and disadvantages and legislative restrictions) are described in the theoretical part. The realized research which recognizes the suitability of indoor advertising media in selected shopping centres in Pilsen is the content of a practical part of this paper. The summary of this research and measures suggested for optimalization are described in the conclusion.

Costing represents the basic tool for the determination and management of costs. Its aim is to provide information on costs for products, works or services through that the entity establishes itself in the market. The oldest and still the most frequently used costing method is absorption costing. It is the only costing method that provides information on total costs consumed in connection with the production of the relevant output. The individual cost items are organized in a costing model that can be modified depending on specific conditions of entity's activities. Even though this costing method has certain restrictions, for most entities it is simply irreplaceable. Various costing techniques are used for the allocation of overhead costs. Specialized literature see surcharge calculation as the most frequently used costing method for overhead costs. To validate theoretical assumptions associated with the absorption costing technique, a questionnaire survey has been carried out amongst production companies belonging to (according to CZ-NACE) manufacturing industry. These enterprises are probably the ones that use the surcharge calculation method, the key topic of this paper, most frequently. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the level of use of the surcharge calculation and various cost-allocation bases in the Czech enterprises' practice as well as to examine the influence of various factors on the selection of particular cost-allocation bases.

This paper focuse on CSR reporting. The aim of this paper is to discuss several aspects influencing the CSR reporting in details and get more precisely information regarding CSR reporting topic in general. Firstly, there is a theoretical part aimed at general explanation of CSR issues such as definition, arguments for and against CSR and CSR reporting. In the next part, particular aspects which influence CSR reporting are discussed. The analysis is conducted on basis of important research papers, studies and standards available in the discussed research area. The results of the analysis indicate not only past and current level of knowledge in CSR reporting, but also the future trends. The paper contributes to research stream in the CSR communication, more precisely reporting, and indicate future steps for authors ‘further research.

In the system concept of the enterprise, organization and management and their structures are its functional, spatial integrating elements that create relations and links of corporate architecture. The paper focuses on organizational and management structures in the current market economy conditions of the Czech Republic. The theoretical basis of the issue is defined as the theory of organizing with organizational behaviour. It contains important definitions of the terms, including the basic configuration of organizational structures. Based on a large sample of mostly South Bohemian enterprises, the current level of organizational and management structures is analysed, basic comparisons according to the size categories of enterprises with sectoral differentiation is carried out. The outputs of the analysis revealed that there is a decline of classical management structures such as the divisional and combined structure at the expense of unit structures with the trend being the most intense in the largest enterprises. Such transformation provably relates to business orientation, and the industrial sector is more pronounced. In terms of the number of management levels, there was no causal relation to the focus of the enterprise, unlike its size. At the same time, the results revealed a significant lack of knowledge of organizational and managerial skills of business managers, particularly in micro and small enterprises. The overriding opinion of all the executives in the sample should be a requirement for the gradual reorganization of the existing organizational and management structures with an individual approach for each enterprise. The conclusion of the paper summarizes the results achieved and indicates the expected trend of the corporate architecture.

We all are aware of the organizational omnipresence. Projects within the organizations are ubiquitous too. Projects achieve their goals successfully if they are planned, scheduled, controlled and implemented well. The project lifecycle of initiating, planning, scheduling, controlling and implementing are very well-planned by project managers and the organizations. Successful projects have well-developed risk management plans to deal with situations impacting projects. Like any other organisation, a university does try to access funds for different purposes too. For such organisations, running a project is not the issue, rather getting a project proposal approved to fund a project is the key. Project proposal processing is done by the nodal office in every organisation. Usually, these nodal offices help in administration and submission of a project proposal for accessing funds. Seldom are these nodal project offices within the organizations facilitate a project proposal approval by proactively reaching out to the project managers. And as project managers prepare project proposals, little or no attention is made to prepare a project proposal risk plan so as to maximise project acquisition. Risk plans are submitted while preparing proposals but these risk plans cater to a requirement to address actual projects upon approval. Hence, a risk management plan for project proposal is either missing or very little effort is made to treat the risks inherent in project acquisition. This paper is an integral attempt to highlight the importance of risk treatment for project proposal stage as an extremely important step to preparing the risk management plan made for projects corresponding to their lifecycle phases. Several tools and techniques have been proposed in the paper to help and guide either the project owner (proposer) or the main organisational unit responsible for project management. Development of tools and techniques to further enhance project acquisition will be the scope for future research in this area.

Copyright of Media4u Magazine is the property of Ing. Jan Chromy, Ph.D. 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.)

Entrepreneurial ecosystem is recently in increasing focus of scholars. There are several members of the entrepreneurial ecosystem shifting towards an entrepreneurial society. This paper explores how various regional members inside of the ecosystem are helping in spreading the entrepreneurial thoughts and shifting individuals and the general opinion from managed economy towards an entrepreneurial society. To unpack these activities inside of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, first the understanding of ecosystem and its dimensions is conceptualized. Then a case study is provided. The case study examines regional activities of several ecosystem players. The findings highlight several aspects regarding the entrepreneurial ecosystem and activities fostering its flourishing. Rather than focus on a comprehensive study about effectiveness of public policy makers, the paper concentrate on examining and mainly understanding some representatives of the ecosystem. These individuals are understood as a means to promote and support entrepreneurial society, ecosystem.

QR codes are frequently used technology in various industries worldwide including retailing. Lately QR codes have become one of the key innovations in various tools of marketing communication of large amount of companies. For the purpose of this paper QR codes are viewed through the scope of retail companies’ marketing communication tools especially sales promotion. The aim of the paper given is to analyse QR codes usage in retail industry in the Czech Republic as well as to find out what attitude Czech consumers have towards active use of QR codes. Paper presents results of three researches out of which two are focused on supply side of a market and one on demand side of the market. Mystery shopping was used in order to obtain data from supply side of the market meanwhile the questionnaire survey was held to get data from demand side. During the research held in 2013, 1010 store units were visited to collect data and in continuous research in 2015 527 store units were included in the research focused on supply side of the market. In total 612 Czech customers participated in the research focused on demand side of the market. Results of researches focused on supply side of the market suggest that the usage of QR codes in marketing communication of retailers as well as producers of goods is increasing. The usage is becoming more effective and informative for customers and more often QR codes contain a value added for customer. On the other hand, Czech customers do not pay much attention to the QR code scanning. There are also suggestions for sales promotion of retailers included at the end of the paper.

This paper presents partial outcomes of the research conducted under the cover of the project “V4 Scientific Centers for the Enhancement of Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship Education“, International Visegrad Fund, Standard Grant No. 21410134. In this paper we focus on dissolving current gaps in entrepreneurship education and its impact on business development in Slovakia (one of participating countries). We do so by using the whole variety of research methods, including structured survey, direct observation, decomposition, implication, etc. We are dealing with the identification of the university education attributes important for the entrepreneurial competences development, followed by further insights into the specific area - university support of individual initiative and entrepreneurial thinking. To avoid the subjective dimension of research outcome, we look at it from two different points of view – students and teachers perceptions. We also use a cross-cultural approach and different cultural dimensions to identify the general perception of normal state of this attribute in the society. The last part of this paper summarizes our recommendations intending to improve the current state of university education system in the field of entrepreneurial competences development.

The paper aims to highlight the important role of financial literacy as one of the factors that ensures sustainable development in society. First, the paper deals with the definition of financial literacy and the importance of financial literacy for society. It analyses various symptoms associated with the level of financial literacy in the form of household debt and the number of ordered property repossessions. Furthermore, the paper focuses on the measurement of financial literacy and, in this context, presents selected results of the survey of financial literacy from a selected group of respondents (university students) in the Czech Republic that were acquired as part of the "V4 Scientific Centers for the Enhancement of Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship Education" project focused on research in the field of entrepreneurship education and financial literacy in Visegrad Group countries. Financial literacy is seen as one of the most important characteristics that can determine the behaviour of individuals in the world of finance, their approaches to payment discipline, debt and thinking for the future. In this regard, it is important to put emphasis on financial education as a tool for heightening and developing practical financial literacy.

In the paper there are presented the results obtained in the qualitative research in the area of banking with a specific focus on the history, present and development tendencies of banking in the Czech lands. The main target of the paper is to identify, analyze and evaluate the milestones and development tendencies in the banking system area (central banks and commercial banks) in the Czech territory since the formation of the independent Czechoslovak state in 1918 until the present, i.e. 2015. The historical development is divided into seven stages when each stage is bordered by important events of a political and economical character which had a significant influence on the form of the banking system. The stages are dated in the years 1918 – 1939, 1939 – 1945, 1945 – 1989, 1989 – 1993, 1993 – 2004, 2004 – 2008 and 2008 – 2015. In the paper important milestones regarding the banking development are described and prediction of the expected banking system development future periods is performed. For each historical stage of banking development the key events which influenced the character of the banking system and the portfolio of offered services on banking market are identified in the paper. Also the main changes in the first stage of the banking system, namely in the central bank, are documented and analyzed.

The paper is focused on a new approach of internet marketing called inbound marketing. Its importance has increased with the enormous changes in the field of search engine optimisation. Inbound marketing deals with the techniques that are needed to get found by buyers. It is based on free (non-paid) sources like organic search and social media. While the principle of outbound marketing is buying attention through various media, inbound marketing aims to deserve attention through its tools and activities and reach the relevant target group of customers. The aim of this paper is to assess the relevance and suitability of inbound marketing as a new trend of internet marketing for selected industries in the Czech market. Based on the web analysis of 69 web sites the importance of unpaid traffic sources is evaluated. The importance is assessed both in terms of the share of total traffic to the website, and in terms of business value, i.e. share of completed website objectives (conversion goals). Findings of the analysis show that the importance of unpaid traffic sources and their efficiency is high across most of researched categories of websites. Therefore, inbound marketing can be considered as a useful tool for building website traffic and increasing website effectiveness.