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Housing is one of the basic needs of every person. Most people usually encounter the problems of the availability of financial resources and real construction costs. The objective of this paper is to present customer preferences for the construction of family houses in Slovakia with the assessment of possible perception disproportions regarding economic characteristics in the context of interest and reality. A specific part of this paper includes the presentation of interest in the construction of woodbased houses. The questionnaire survey show that, in the target group (respondents aged 26 to 50 years), significant dependencies were found between the monitored traits and the amount of planned investment. For each dependence, possible disproportions were also revealed, which could lead to an overall threat of the plans for the construction of a family house. The disproportions, which were associated with 25 to 30% of respondents, depended on the amount of investment and net household income as well the outlay and usable floor area. This is an original survey in the field, the benefit of which should be its use for a comparison of similar research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of the global economy on the forestbased sector in Slovakia in the early years of the 21st century. Indicators such as gross domestic product, production value of forestry-wood sectors, net exports, foreign direct investments, and the ratio indices of foreign direct investment to GDP in industrial production and foreign direct investment to production value were used to analyze this sector in the context of globalization. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the factors that significantly affect the development of the forest-based sector and to shed light on how globalization impacts the analyzed sector. The results showed that the forest-based sector had a minor impact of the Slovak economy with less than 5% share on the whole GDP. Using multiple regression analysis it was found that globalization factors such as foreign direct investment and net export did not have a significant influence (p > 0.44175) on the forest-based sector during the investigated period. Nevertheless, the highest globalization indicators were detected by the pulp and paper industry (x = 2.72; 29.14) and the furniture manufacturing (x = 1.60; 27.57). The highest variability of FDI was identified in the forest sector (vx = 72.38%; 67.32%) by influence of zero FDI in the last three years and in the wood industry (vx = 38.90%; 38.51%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the financial aspects of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Slovak wood-processing industry. The aim of the survey was to determine the level of understanding and implementation of financial controlling, and to identify its potential for future implementation. The survey revealed a low level of understanding and implementation of this tool in Slovak wood-processing SMEs, because the use of all analyzed instruments of financial controlling was in small enterprises in a range of 15% and in medium-sized enterprises up to 40%. However, medium-sized enterprises were substantially more equipped than small enterprises at applying and recognizing the benefits of financial controlling. Based on the results of this research, the framework for a standardized model of financial controlling for Slovak wood-processing SMEs was proposed, as a practical way of improving company performance models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyzed the motivating and demotivating factors amongst employees in a wood processing and furniture manufacturing company. Research was conducted over the year 2010, during the time of a full economic crisis and before the restructuring of the company was done. Analysis also was conducted in 2014, during the beginning of the economic recovery and after the restructuring of the company. Research was conducted with a survey using a questionnaire containing six questions with multiple choice statements. The questions were closed-ended, and respondents used the Likert four-level scale of importance for each statement. A total of 180 employees were surveyed, and results were statistically processed by using the x²-test and cluster analysis. This study established that the motivation factors most important to employees in a company are significantly different during the time of an economic crisis, and in the period of economic recovery, i.e. before and after restructuring of the company. Employees were most concerned about physiological needs in the time of a crisis, whereas in the time of an economic recovery, employees consider social needs to be of more importance. Also, employees consider psychological circumstances of work to be more important in the year 2014 than in the year 2010. Employees' overall motivation can be linked to higher efficiency and higher quality production and business results, and such research should be conducted more often. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]